life: acoustic & amplified

poetry, quotes & thoughts about life

Archive for the month “January, 2016”

11 Jan 2016

seeing eternity 

 

Let these be your desires: To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night. To know the pain of too much tenderness. To be wounded by your own understanding of love; And to bleed willingly and joyfully. To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving; To rest at the noon hour and meditate love’s ecstasy; To return home at eventide with gratitude; And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips.                    

    – Kahlil Gibran

   

My language the size of a seed, small and frozen for a winters night…the sweet drain of being married to the fire side heat and slippers …

Honey drenched while walking towards the woods …

tender landscape of icicles frozen on glass…

a mirror wiped dry of reflection…

something pierced deep in the breast while creating less, and easing into body’s rhythm 

the howl of the moon, the darkness too bright…

devoured by love…

seeking water but kept thirsty…

fabulous root in the deep of my core…a sigh left for longing…

Beauty,

Donna Knutson

 

 
Under the light of eternity
things,
the daily trivia,
the daily frustrations,
fall away.
It is all a matter of getting to the center of the beam.  
~ May Sarton, Journal of a Solitude

  
photos found at http://www.pinterest.com

Posted in Adventure, attitude, awareness, beauty, Becoming Yourself, big, Choice, find art at pinterest, Life, Love, mystery, nature, perceptions, Prayer | Leave a comment
10 Jan 2016

arriving. departing. 

   

 Above the mountains 
the geese turn into

the light again
painting their

black silhouettes

on an open sky.
Sometimes everything 

has to be

enscribed across

the heavens
so you can find 

the one line

already written 

inside you.
Sometimes it takes 

a great sky

to find that
first, bright

and indescribable

wedge of freedom

in your own heart.
Sometimes with

the bones of the black

sticks left when the fire 

has gone out
someone has written 

something new

in the ashes

of your life.
You are not leaving.

Even as the light 

fades quickly now,

you are arriving.
…

The Journey by David Whyte

 

   
 

photos found at http://www.pinterest.com

  

 

Posted in action, Adventure, attitude, awareness, beauty, Becoming Yourself, Choice, create, Encouragement, Faith, find art at pinterest, healing, home, Life, Love, Miracles, moment, mystery, Poetry | Leave a comment
09 Jan 2016

what do you want?

I keep

learning…

 

 Whatever we learn to do, we learn by actually doing it; men come to be builders, for instance, by building, and harp players by playing the harp. In the same way, by doing just acts we come to be just; by doing self-controlled acts, we come to be self-controlled; and by doing brave acts, we become brave……
🔹

 Aristotle

   

   

   

  

   

   

   

Posted in action, attitude, awareness, Becoming Yourself, confidence, courage, determination, Dreams, focus, Passion, Patience, power, Purpose, strength | Leave a comment
08 Jan 2016

perhaps 

 

 We talk about balance…
as if…

we can actually achieve such a thing

in this, 

the odd numbered trinity-teeter-tottered

kaleidoscope of a heart, soul and mind

living within the human pie crust 

we name skin!
It is our work

our great career –

to keep opening to the liquid mystery 

of living in this very moment. 

Free will choice,

our supreme gift –

our supreme curse. 
Oh, yes, 

we want things fixed. 

We want to know,

to define truth,

to arrive and settle,

to judge others through our personal lens,

to be right, of course. 
How do we live with the reality of ‘seeing in part’,

through a ‘dark veil’,

with just glimpses of the light in the night sky,

we fish in the darkness,

trying to catch one small piece of a star at a time,

just to have it burn out,

leaving us to go back and try again?
This is the life of the seekers, 

the mystics,

the warriors,

who have been seized with the firm belief –

that life matters. 

That love is the way to healing. 

That there is always more of God to be had. 

The mystery gets bigger with each illumination. 

The balance comes from allowing it all. 

Good. Bad. 

Joy. Sorrow. 

Sickness. Pain. 

Poverty. Wealth. 

Even the broken path,

the truth and the lies,

have eternal divine purpose. 

Our task to 

learn,

open,

love,

trust,

forgive,

heal,

move,

sing,

dance,

create,

keep letting go,

keep changing,

be present,

through it all. 
We dream the large dreams of living into our best selves. 

We focus intently on each small task before us. 

We think,

We listen,

We give,

We receive. 

We speak, when necessary. 

We walk daily in vigilance. 

Letting the legacy of each day stand on it’s own. 

We live knowing our next choice is always our most important….

and so it goes

and so it goes

🌀

AL

   


Sometimes you have to leave 

what you think you know

behind.

No one ever really wants to do this.

Knowing things

can be very comforting.

All day, soul whispers

what I need to know.

I don’t hear her

until I lay aside

cherished beliefs and assumptions

until I dare to be with the not-knowing.

And then. . . . 

Well, that’s the risky part, isn’t it?

There is no telling 

what living an ensouled life

might ask of us.
~Oriah “Mountain Dreamer” House
So this is where I am in writing the book, “The Choice,” -on the great plain of not knowing, offering myself- pen in hand- anyway. Each day, the darkness yields to the light, and words hit the page, surprising me. This is what it’s like: the light coming again and again, the darkness making the illumination breath-taking.

  
 

   

  
 

find photos at http://www.pinterest.com
 

Posted in action, Adventure, attitude, awareness, balance, Becoming Yourself, Change, Choice, connection, courage, create, Encouragement, Faith, find art at pinterest, Freedom, Glory, Gospel, grace, Gratitude, healing, Letting Go, Life, Love, Miracles, moment, music, mystery, soul and spirit, strength, Trust, truth, Vulnerability, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment
07 Jan 2016

don’t try too hard

 

 God just likes making things.  
He doesn’t try too hard. Comfortable. 

No particular message in mind –

Bugs, 

Flowers,

Birds, 

Stones,

Trees,

those beauties with leaves and sap.  

Shells of all sorts, 

revealing the sound of the ocean – 

even in the middle of the desert. 

He never runs out of fresh ideas,

new angles, 

dazzling variations of old themes.  

He makes masterpieces, 

out of scavenged and wasted things.  

Beauty within ashes and scars. 

Gardens and vegetables from rotted orange rinds and other scraps.  

Jewels from lumps of coal. 

Our creativity, at least in part, 

comes from resting in,

spending time with,

opening from within. 

Prayer as emptiness. 

Prayer as silence.  

Prayer as stillness.  

Prayer as rest. 

Prayer as opening. 

Prayer without wanting or asking. 

Prayer as presence. 

Then,

sometimes, 

God, 

the muse,

shows up,

hangs out on the sofa,

and our hearts begin to sing,

and we simply just can’t help making things ourselves…

💞

AL

(based on the book: the holy wild by Mark Buchanan) 

 

  

 After the glut of sparkle and sentiment,
all that heavy gold and glory,

it’s kind of a relief to return 

to an orderly house, a clean mantle,

a blue and white shirt, the regular dishes.
The world is plain, snow is crusted, 

trees more bare than in November.

The marsh like the underside of a carpet,

the cattails bland and spent.

The asphalt road has nothing to say,

the gray sky shrugs and says, “Ditto.”
God stands there, 

hands in the pockets of a drab jacket,

gazing at the brook’s blank of ice,

says, “Yeah, I like to hang out here.

It’s relaxing. Clears my head.”
I come home to a quiet house,

refrigerator humming. This too is holy.

I sit on the couch, gaze out at the yard.

“Huh,” I say. “What do you know?

Pockets.” 
__________________ 

Steve Garnaas-Holmes

Unfolding Light

http://www.unfoldinglight.net

 

   

 

Posted in Adventure, art, beauty, Becoming Yourself, Beginning, create, find art at pinterest, Freedom, Glory, Gospel, grace, Gratitude, healing, inspiration, Letting Go, Love, receiving | Leave a comment
06 Jan 2016

find beauty

 

With what stillness at last

you appear in the valley

your first sunlight reaching down

to touch the tips of a few

high leaves that do not stir

as though they had not noticed

and did not know you at all

then the voice of a dove calls

from far away in itself

to the hush of the morning
so this is the sound of you

here and now 

whether or not

anyone hears it 

this is
 where we have come 

with our age

our knowledge 

such as it is

and our hopes 

such as they are

invisible before us

untouched and still possible

⚜

To the New Year by W.S. Merwin 
   
   
above photos by me @ Branford Point

  
I took this picture – no filter – on my iPhone out the window of a flight from San Antonio toward home.
I had just muttered, “Hey Papa, I am exhausted and need something right now, a little touch…something…” I looked out the window and saw the sunset and took this shot…only when I looked at it later did I see the heart. I am especially fond of you!

   – Wm. Paul Young

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment
05 Jan 2016

be with me  

 
God has no doctrine, do you know that?

Only delight.
The Desired One comes to you, 

waits outside your house in the morning cold,

seeks you even in the worst neighborhood,

for no fancier reason than this:

the Beloved likes you,

and wants to be with you,

and hopes you will fall in love.
It is only the lost

for whom that is not enough.
Our Lover comes to us

even in our greed and terror

with no more complicated plot in mind

than to spend the awful hours and years

with us

and make them paradise. 
__________________ 

Steve Garnaas-Holmes

Unfolding Light

http://www.unfoldinglight.net

  

Posted in attitude, awareness, beauty, Becoming Yourself, beloved, courage, Glory, Gospel, grace, Life, Love, Relationships | Leave a comment
04 Jan 2016

just for today

  
It took me some years to understand that many of us are more afraid of happiness than misery. Because misery and martyrdom have an inherent safety about them- one is never particularly vulnerable, nor at risk of disappointment. Unhappiness becomes a security blanket, a way to armor ourselves against deep feeling. On the other hand, happiness has an intrinsically risky quality. When we open our hearts to life, we are always vulnerable to loss, to shattering, to having it all fall away. But it can also expand and deepen, joyfully permeating every element of our life. I can often sense when someone has made unhappiness their shield, their perpetual life stance. And it saddens me. Because locking ourselves into only one way of being is a self-fulfilling prophecy: misery begets misery. Because only through risking something can we arrive at a new perspective. And most significantly, because the rhythms and tides of one’s life can shift in the blink of an eye. All it takes is one sunny day and the whole damn thing can come back to light.

    – Jeff Brown

 

   

  

Posted in anger, attitude, awareness, Becoming Yourself, Beginning, Change, Choice, commitment, determination, do, Encouragement, find art at pinterest, Happiness, inspiration, Love, power, Relationships | Leave a comment
03 Jan 2016

all that and more

 

 Love asks, 
“How open can you become?”

“Will you empty yourself a bit more?”

“I want to enter the recesses of the hidden spaces too,

and fill you with surprises.”
Soul does not ask.

Soul walks in, unannounced with torch in hand

and slides into the easy chair,

Illuminating the room,

Oblivious to whether it is comfortable or not.

Soul is on a mission.
Meanwhile, 

the birds are perched 

on the fragrance of freedom.

⚜

Inspiration by Flora Aube

 

   

Posted in attitude, awareness, find art at pinterest, inspiration, Letting Go, Life, Love, power, Reflection | Leave a comment
02 Jan 2016

pick a peck of poems 

 

 Stop whatever it is you’re doing. 
Come down from the attic. 

Grab a bucket or a basket and head for light. 

That’s where the best poems grow, and in the dappled dark. 
Go slow. Watch out for thorns and bears. 
When you find a good bush, bow to it, or take off your shoes. 

Then pluck. This poem. That poem. Any poem. 

It should come off the stem easy, just a little tickle. 

No need to sniff first, judge the color, test the firmness. 
You’ll only know it’s ripe if you taste. 
So put a poem upon your lips. Chew its pulp. 

Let its juice spill over your tongue. 
Let your reading of it teach you 

what sort of creature you are 

and the nature of the ground you walk upon. 

Bring your whole life out loud to this one poem. 
Eating one poem can save you, if you’re hungry enough. 
When birds and deer beat you to your favorite patch, 

smile at their familiar appetite, and ramble on. 

Somewhere another crop waits for harvest. 
And if your eye should ever light upon a cluster of poems 

hanging on a single stem, cup your hand around them 

and pull, without greed or clinging. 

Some will slip off in your palm. 

None will go to waste. 

Take those you adore poem-picking when you can, 

even to the wild and hidden places. 

Reach into brambles for their sake, 

stain your skin some shade of red or blue, 

mash words against your teeth, for love. 
And always leave some poems within easy reach 

for the next picker, in kinship with the unknown. 

If you ever carry away more than you need, 

go on home to your kitchen, and make good jam. 

No need to rush, the poems will keep. 

Some will even taste better with age, 

a rich batch of preserves. 

Store up jars and jars of jam. Plenty for friends. 

Plenty for the long, howling winter. Plenty for strangers. 

Plenty for all the bread in this broken world. 

⚜

On How to Pick and Eat Poems by Phyllis Cole-Dai

   
    
 
    

photos found at http://www.pinterest.com 

 

Posted in action, Adventure, attitude, awareness, find art at pinterest, giving, mystery, Passion, Poetry, Quotes | Leave a comment

Post Navigation

← Older Entries
Newer Entries →