I’m not asking for permission
tho I thank you for your good intentions in the giving
I surrender to
life
voice
purpose
passion
healing
love
music
breath
spirit
joy
peace
you do what you want
with, or without, permission,
I won’t mind
just remember:
I won’t go down without a fight
da da da dada
da da da dada
da da da dada da da da da…
just play your funky music
and keep on dancing
💞
AL
(with a little inspiration from my friends)
Listen to Serenity Fisher sing Rose Red
Hanging on by the proverbial thread
heart hungry for more
feeling ready
to break
properly
crash and burn to ashes
Am I the only one
on the edge of sideways
trying to walk a straight line
as that slight right turn
ends up being a hard right circle
where I end up facing myself
in an old west gun-slinger shoot the lights out,
death of my dreams
duel?
Am I the only one?
I hold my heart in my hands tenderly
hoping my repairs hold
that it won’t give way
and slide through my fingers
like sand on a summer day
which can never hold a shape
longer than when the next high tide
washes it away
AL
photos found on http://www.pinterest.com
how can you call it a sacrifice when you do it willingly because you believe in it? – Aung San Suu Kyi
I am this morning meadow
into which you pour yourself.
I am the still air
in which you rise, a mountain, huge.
I am this city street
which you walk, a crowd
with your stories, your nations.
I am this bird
and you are flight, and song.
I am the ocean
and you are my water.
I am the desert
and you are my stillness.
I am this heart
and you are my beating.
You are this day
into which you pour me,
breath by breath.
Together,
we are this life.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
there is no cage
love must be stepped into
freely.
there is no withholding
love gives it all away.
there is no have to’s
love must be given and received willingly.
there is no selfish motive
love always wants the highest and best for the other person.
there are no ‘no’s’
love always says yes.
love takes commitment.
it is not an easy job,
both parties –
equal and
100 percent in it.
you must choose what you want,
along with the consequences of those choices.
Just know, for sure,
love will always set you free
there is no fear in love
AL
Again I resume the long
lesson: how small a thing
can be pleasing, how little
in this hard world it takes
to satisfy the mind
and bring it to its rest.
With the ongoing havoc
the woods this morning is
almost unnaturally still.
Through stalled air, unshadowed
light, a few leaves fall
of their own weight.
The sky
is gray. It begins in mist
almost at the ground
and rises forever. The trees
rise in silence almost
natural, but not quite,
almost eternal, but
not quite.
What more did I
think I wanted? Here is
what has always been.
Here is what will always
be. Even in me,
the Maker of all this
returns in rest, even
to the slightest of His works,
a yellow leaf slowly
falling, and is pleased.
💜
Sabbaths 1999, VII by Wendell Berry
The sky in my rearview
is a huge bowl of rainbow sherbet
the beautiful kind
with raspberry, orange-n-lime
swatches of lemon, indigo and periwinkle
float like barges –
in, out
&
around.
Framing.
Dancing.
Living.
At one point tangerine fills the top of the hilly crest
and head light stars
blaze brilliant against the backdrop
indigo stretched above framing the masterpiece.
At times I find it hard to keep moving forward
into the matte gray of the sky just ahead.
so much loveliness is going on
right behind me
how can I keep heading away from it?
How can I not be a part of this splendor?
Eventually midnight blue seizes its moment of glory,
then night falls over all
and I am left
aching with the beauty,
the majesty,
the extravagant display,
of this wonderful world.
I go to wondering
if this longing for your kiss
will ever be answered?
if my whole life I will wait
for a moment which has already passed,
never to be again under this piece of sky.
always a whisper.
The magic of love,
a thing with wings
hovering over my heart
for years
echoing on into eternity.
💞
AL
Anger is the deepest form of compassion, for another, for the world, for the self, for a life, for the body, for the family and for all our ideals, all vulnerable and all, possibly about to be hurt. Stripped of all physical imprisonment and violent reaction, anger is the purest form of care, the internal living flame of anger always illuminates what we belong to, what we wish to protect and what we are willing to hazard ourselves for. What we usually call anger is only what is left of its essence when we are overwhelmed by is accompanying vulnerability, when it reaches the lost surface of our mind or our body’s incapacity to hold it, or when it touches the limits of our understanding. What we name as anger is actually only the incoherent physical incapacity to sustain this deep form of care in our outer daily life; the unwillingness to be large enough and generous enough to hold what we love helplessly in our bodies or mind with the clarity and breadth of our whole being.
What we have named as anger on the surface is the violent outer response to our inner powerlessness, a powerlessness connected to such a profound sense of rawness and care that it can find no proper outer body, or identity, or voice, or way of life to hold it. What we call anger is often simply the unwillingness to live the full measure of our fears or of our not knowing, in the face of our love for a wife, in the depth of caring for a son, in our wanting the best, in the face of simply being alive and loving those with whom we live.
Our anger breaks to the surface most often through our feeling something is profoundly wrong with this powerlessness and vulnerability; anger too often finds its voice strangely, through our incoherence and through our inability to speak, but anger in its pure state is the measure of the way we are implicated in the world and made vulnerable through love in all its specifics: a daughter, a house, a family, an enterprise, a land or a colleague. Anger turns to violence and violent speech when the mind refuses to countenance the vulnerability of the body in its love for these outer things – we are often abused or have been abused by those who love us but have no vehicle to carry its understanding, or who have no outer emblems of their inner care of even their own wanting to be wanted. Lacking any other vehicle for the expression of this inner rawness they are simply overwhelmed by the elemental nature of love’s vulnerability. In their helplessness they turn to violence on the very people who are the outer representation of this inner lack of control.
But anger truly felt at its center is the essential living flame of being fully alive and fully here; it is a quality to be followed to its source, to be prized, to be tended, and an invitation to finding a way to bring that source fully into the world through making the mind clearer and more generous, the heart more compassionate and the body larger and strong enough to hold it. What we call anger on the surface only serves to define its true underlying quality by being a complete but absolute mirror-opposite of its internal source.
🔥
– David Whyte
Our experiences color everything. The events of the past can have a profound effect on how we see our lives now and what we choose to believe about our world. Our past experiences can also influence our emotional reactions and responses to present events. Each of us reacts to stimulus based on what we have learned in life. There is no right or wrong to it; it is simply the result of past experience. Later, when our strong feelings have passed, we may be surprised at our reactions. Yet when we face a similar situation, again our reactions may be the same. When we understand those experiences, we can come that much closer to understanding our reactions and consciously change them.
Between stimulus and reaction exists a fleeting moment of thought. Often, that thought is based on something that has happened to you in the past. When presented with a similar situation later on, your natural impulse is to unconsciously regard it in a similar light. For example, if you survived a traumatic automobile accident as a youngster, the first thing you might feel upon witnessing even a minor collision between vehicles may be intense panic. If you harbor unpleasant associations with death from a past experience, you may find yourself unable to think about death as a gentle release or the next step toward a new kind of existence. You can, however, minimize the intensity of your reactions by identifying the momentary thought that inspires your reaction. Then, next time, replace that thought with a more positive one.
Modifying your reaction by modifying your thoughts is difficult, but it can help you to see and experience formerly unpleasant situations in a whole new light. It allows you to stop reacting unconsciously. Learning the reason of your reactions may also help you put aside a negative reaction long enough to respond in more positive and empowered ways. Your reactions and responses then become about what’s happening in the present moment rather than about the past. As time passes, your negative thoughts may lose strength, leaving only your positive thoughts to inform your healthy reactions.
Daily Om by Madisyn Taylor/Reaction to Life Events
Healthy aggression has been given a bad name for far too long. I remember the day when it was acceptable to stand down those who behaved unjustly. Not in a way that was disproportionate to the crime, but in a way that met it right where it lived. This seems to have been lost in the last decades, both because of the softee toffee premature forgiveness movement and because of our growing awareness of the horrifying effects of unhealthy aggression. As a man, I have found this entirely confusing. Often I have stood down injustice with appropriate ferocity and been judged for it, as though I was the unjust one. I have some compassion for this interpretation, as I do recognize that it is difficult for many trauma survivors to not be triggered by aggression of any kind. But something is lost when we don’t make the distinction between the kinds of aggression that rectify wrongs, and those that perpetuate them. It is time to again raise healthy aggression to the rafters of acceptability. Sometimes its the truest path of all.
💪
– Jeff Brown
Change and growth are painful
not because we’re gaining,
but because we’re losing.
We lose old ideas.
Old habits. Old stories.
Old comforts.
We shed all that’s become
too heavy to carry onward,
wrapped too tight around skin
that needed to finally breathe.
A body that had to break loose
from the once present chapter.
Blank pages had been begging.
Ink aching to write
a new road and world.
A soul that could no longer deny
the taste of something else.
Something that felt true.
Something not yet seen.
We don’t have to see something
in order to believe.
💪
– an excerpt from Victoria Erickson’s fantastic new book- Edge of Wonder, available on Amazon
It is time to go deeper, to find your rudder
The unswerving truth of who you are
To keep you on track to your destiny.
Some tacking and jibing – yes
But with minor adjustments
On your way once more
Wind at your back to carry you
To ease your way
for a time.
The storms will come, for oceans will be oceans
Fear appears
Fear of being tossed about in the waves
Fear of not surviving rough seas
Fear is to be your teacher
Fear is to be your guide
Fear is to hold your hand as you look beyond the horizon
Of what you have always known
To the truth you can only know
Once you face fear
And see the love in its eyes.
💪
The Truth of You by Brenda Newberry
Hokusai says Look carefully.
He says pay attention, notice.
He says keep looking, stay curious.
He says there is no end to seeing.
He says Look Forward to getting old.
He says keep changing,
you just get more who you really are.
He says get stuck, accept it, repeat yourself
as long as it’s interesting.
He says keep doing what you love.
He says keep praying.
He says every one of us is a child,
every one of us is ancient,
every one of us has a body.
He says every one of us is frightened.
He says every one of us has to find a way to live with fear.
He says everything is alive—
shells, buildings, people, fish, mountains, trees.
Wood is alive.
Water is alive.
Everything has its own life.
Everything lives inside us.
He says live with the world inside you.
He says it doesn’t matter if you draw, or write books.
It doesn’t matter if you saw wood, or catch fish.
It doesn’t matter if you sit at home
and stare at the ants on your verandah or the shadows of the trees
and grasses in your garden.
It matters that you care.
It matters that you feel.
It matters that you notice.
It matters that life lives through you.
Contentment is life living through you.
Joy is life living through you.
Satisfaction and strength
are life living through you.
Peace is life living through you.
He says don’t be afraid.
Don’t be afraid.
Look, feel, let life take you by the hand.
Let life live through you.
🌳
by, Roger Keyes is an American professor of East Asian studies. This poem is apparently his cross-media translation of the art of Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) into poetry.
the stones are alive
the stones speak
tell stories of my life
sing me love songs
respond to my touch
grow warm when I’m near
glow with my compliments
smile with my encouraging words
blush as they rest against my skin
absorb my secrets
reveal my favorite colors
are perfectly comfortable with themselves –
hot or cold
polished or raw
the stones never argue
always tell the truth
give with no demand
accept themselves as beautiful
never question that they are
amazing,
valuable,
beloved
just the way they are
just the way we are
AL
My life was the size of my life.
Its rooms were room-sized,
its soul was the size of a soul.
In its background, mitochondria hummed,
above it sun, clouds, snow,
the transit of stars and planets.
It rode elevators, bullet trains,
various airplanes, a donkey.
It wore socks, shirts, its own ears and nose.
It ate, it slept, it opened
and closed its hands, its windows.
Others, I know, had lives larger.
Others, I know, had lives shorter.
The depth of lives, too, is different.
There were times my life and I made jokes together.
There were times we made bread.
Once, I grew moody and distant.
I told my life I would like some time,
I would like to try seeing others.
In a week, my empty suitcase and I returned.
I was hungry, then, and my life,
my life, too, was hungry, we could not keep
our hands off our clothes on
our tongues from
💃🏻
My Life Was the Size of My Life by Jane Hirshfield
… and if what I desperately think I want doesn’t happen…God, and life, are still good…
😘
Maybe when you open the sacred book
the little bits of truth come flying out
like birds and if you’re lucky
one of them lands in the tree of you.
It doesn’t have much to do with
penetrating the world with your wisdom,
just being there waiting.
Maybe when you open the book
they all hold very very still
like frogs in the pond
and you have to be as still as they
to see one of them move.
They are not hiding, just waiting.
Maybe you are the book
and none of the birds in you are caged
and none of them ever fly away.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
photos found on facebook
I will sit here with you, you know. You don’t have to feel guilty about doing anything. You don’t have to get up now. You don’t have to figure out how to make this day special, how to make it worth something.
You don’t have to have a plan or an answer. You don’t have to feel confident or put together or beautiful. I know who you are. I know what you’re worth.
I know where you’re going and where you’ve been and what it takes for you to breathe. Yes, breathe. I know your inner working, the intricacies of your makeup. And you don’t need to prove anything to Me. I’ve got you. And that is enough.
There are days when I’ve given you something to do, an invitation to go forward, to go deeper in. And you will know when I ask you whether or not you’d like to join Me there. But what about here? What about right now, here, with Me, child? My daughter, do you see this moment? Do you see how I hold it? Do you see how you take my breath away?
I am with you, and I ask you to stay. I am for you, and I ask you to listen. I am before you, and I ask you to see. I care for you. It is okay to rest. I made you. Nothing you do can make Me regret it.
So stay with Me, and I will equip you for more. Stay with Me, and I will pour into you vision and wisdom and the steps, one by one, as you watch where my feet fall. You cannot go anywhere until you know where I am with you and how, with Me, it is always best for you to stay. For then we can go . . . and you won’t have to have a bit of it figured out.
life: acoustic & amplified 