life: acoustic & amplified

glow

Eruptions of light

fighting their way into the night

Brighter than the sun

shining on this long term run

the rain falls gently to bring in cooler weather

I am worthy

I am loved

the answers are always ‘yes and amen’

Red roped promises tied onto places where the light shines through

waiting for fortress walls within to fall into crumbles

trust’s face turning from ruthless to adventurous

I stand tall, rooted like a mighty oak

leaving the graves behind

the cracks between life and death now bridged by joy

sun’s coming up on the street where I will live

morning glories singing all the verses of, ‘You are my sunshine’

I hold the beat a full measure longer

as I kiss the sky between us

and hold your heart in pure gold love

❤️

Amy Lloyd

You lack one thing;

go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor,

and you will have treasure in heaven;

then come, follow me.

—Mark 10.21

You lack one thing.

What is that one thing

Jesus knows you need

to lay your hands on

and set out to the curb?

What impedes your headlong rush into God’s arms?

What treasure weighs in your pocket,

what railing do you cling to

even as you long to leap

over the tiny abyss between you?

Surely your riches, but more.

Your expertise? Your approval rating?

The despair that enfolds you

when you face the fright of the deep unknown?

The familiar failure that nestles you,

hides you from the risk, the ask, the new?

You won’t find it reading this.

Go sit in silence and listen for the beckoning.

See what arises to stop you.

Then lay your hands on it, my friend,

tie it down and walk away.

The one thing you lack

is your freedom.

__________________

Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
http://www.unfoldinglight.net

momma said

this is not your momma’s beatnik

this is not your dad’s beret

this is not your sisters pothead

not your brothers crazy wife

this is not the inquisition 

this is not the third degree

this is not just sit and listen

this is not another way

this is not your bad boy rocker

this is not green eggs and ham

this is not your high school locker

not a cry to ‘give a damn’

this is life in all its glory

this is life to have to hold

this is life step up and claim it

this is life speak up be bold

this is time to tell your story

this is how it’s said and done

this is time to stand and tell it

this is time to have some fun

👨🏻‍🎨

Amy Lloyd

somethings lost. somethings gained.

miracles. everyday.

I receive them. I give them away.

all around and inside of me

I ask. I receive.

I seek. I am given.

I knock. and gain entrance to the kingdom.

I begin to write on blank paper. Poems appear.

I take a step. My way opens and I find a path prepared.

I open my mouth. Songs and melodies erupt in time snd space.

I open my heart and love comes to live inside.

I breathe and the perfume of fresh air and flowers fill my being.

My way is effortless. Life flows easily with great abundance.

These miracles go on and on. Every minute. Every day.

I am in awe. I smile.

I am here. I am full.

I am beautiful. I am blessed.

❤️

Amy Lloyd

Let the little children come to me; do not stop them;
for it is to such as these that the realm of God belongs.

—Mark 10.14

The realm of God does not belong to those who earn it,

only to those who receive it as a gift,

who are willing for it to be given away,

who know it exceeds their grasp,

who have seen others enter ahead of them,

and have not complained,

those who have no title to it,

who have no status, no standing.

Not the cute innocent ones we have in mind,

but the ones we have overlooked and excluded.

God has given God’s own dominion away

with the most love to those we have forgotten.

The Reign of God is the everyone-ness of life.

It will not happen by thinking of yourself.

To enter the Realm of God

give it away.

__________________

Steve Garnaas-Holmes

Unfolding Light

http://www.unfoldinglight.net

awaken

Look to the future, because that is where you’ll spend the rest of your life.

— George Burns

There is a brokenness out of which comes the unbroken,

a shatteredness out of which blooms the unshatterable.

There is a sorrow beyond all grief, which leads to joy,

and a fragility out of whose depths emerges strength.

There is a hollow space too vast for words, through which we pass with each loss,

out of whose darkness we are sanctioned into being.

There is a cry deeper than all sound whose serrated edges cut the heart as we break open to the place inside which is unbreakable and whole…

while learning to sing.

–Rashani–

In the universe, there are things that are known, and things that are unknown. And in between, there are doors. ― William Blake

Those who wish to enter this path must accept that they can never explain either to themselves or to others the mysterious inner unfolding that is taking them home.”

― Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, Catching the Thread: Sufism, Dreamwork, and Jungian Psychology

Fear resists. Resistance thickens. Allow your veils to thin. Love glows through Autumn rind. Get hollow.

Wake up, let go of dream. Wake down, let go of mind. Be, through brittle leaves, sunlight. The grace of death will hold you almost weightless in your fall.

On the far side of your face is radiance. Don’t name it. On the far side of radiance, the un-created dark. Polish it with breathing.

And what is on the other side of emptiness? Your barefoot kiss upon the earth, a round green mallet in the gong of silence.

Penetrate each opposite until you touch the other’s axis, arriving at the tremor of genesis, shattering the Imperishable into purer fragments of itself.

A nipple of purple chanterelle, shivering upward in the mist. The vulva of a broken apple, bubbling in a sunbeam. Ferns remembering to bow.

Presence solidifies, for there is nothing else….

but this mud moment where it all began, which is where you stand, the stinging grass, the wetness.

🐳

Fred LaMotte

And the things you know before you hear them; these are you and the reason you are in the world.

💞

William Stafford

come

just as you are

rusty and dusty

a bit ragged

with that nagging cough

edges frayed and worn

a bit of dust is the stuff of life

dry bones beginning to breathe

be alert, that’s not chocolate under your fingernails…

check the room, don’t let the bedbugs bite…

but do let your out-dated arrogance go up in smoke

easily, so easily, let go your striving

remember life is but a dream within a dream

kiss me with the mouth with which you just voraciously ate rare meat –

that mouth you drank copious amounts of wine, with –

just kiss me thoroughly

let your carnal juices run and mingle with mine

don’t stop to wipe your sweat dripping onto my waiting skin

let me trust you

with my darkest secrets

and yes, please, do the same for me

let’s tell the stuff that make us squirm

let’s be completely uncomfortable together

leave the light on so I see all of your naked body

while you trace my stretch marks I will gently kiss your souls’ scars

we’ll lay all night in pools of our wetness

square in the middle of the circle of us

arms and legs intertwined and hearts entwined

until I am paralyzed with the beauty

I am learning everything I need to know in this world

the song of the whales as they ride the green and blue star filled waves

into the night sky of eternity

🌎

Amy Lloyd