life: acoustic & amplified

poetry, quotes & thoughts about life

Archive for the category “action”

03 Jun 2015

every choice matters 

 
You could have grown cold, but you grew courageous instead. You could have given up, but you kept on going. You could have seen obstacles, but you called them adventures. You could have called them weeds, but instead you called them wildflowers. You could have died a caterpillar, but you fought on to be a butterfly. You could have denied yourself goodness, but instead you chose to show yourself some self-love. You could have defined yourself by the dark days, but instead through them you realized your light. 

            — S.C Lourie

  

   Listen to Eva Cassidy sing Time is a Healer http://youtu.be/ttl-W-hVDpQ

😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊

photo sources found at www.pinterest.com/al513

         

God, 

sometimes I just want you to hold me.

I’m not asking you to fix me,

though I wish you would.

I’m not asking you to fix my world,

though I really wish you would.

Just hold me. 

The whole earth and all the galaxies

in one arm and me in the other,

held to you close,

where I discover who I really am.

Just for now I don’t need faith or insight,

don’t need to repent, don’t even

need to pray.

I just need you to hold me.

__________________ 

Steve Garnaas-Holmes

Unfolding Light

http://www.unfoldinglight.net

Posted in action, attitude, awareness, Becoming Yourself, Change, Choice, courage, find art at pinterest, Happiness, healing, intimacy, Life, Love | Leave a comment
30 May 2015

who ya gonna be? 

  #363 curiosity 

One day, many years ago, 

I realized how little I knew 

about life

about the world

about God 

about love 

about relationships

about nature

about cultures

about people

about learning

about how things work

about myself

about pretty much everything. 
Yes, one day the full impact hit me 

of how small my understanding

really is, 

and it changed my life. 

I became aware.
I became aware that I could choose,

even though no one gave me permission. 

It hit me – that all the people, 

who had told me they had the complete truth,

and so I should just believe them,

couldn’t possibly ALL be right. 

I also realized, very importantly, most of them were not people I wanted my life to emulate.  
So, maybe, living wasn’t about being right, or perfect. 

Maybe life was about being open, learning about each other,

about helping each other. 

Maybe love really was about unconditional,

whatever that truly meant. 

Maybe life was about trying…

anything…everything

that I found intriguing,

or felt my soul drawn to. 
And so I opened myself to this new way 

of thinking,

of being, 

of seeing. 

I became curious. 

I became open. 

I became dogmatic –

about NOT being dogmatic. 

I removed the words, 

‘I’m right’ and ‘I can’t’ and ‘impossible’ from my vocabulary. 

I fought my automatic judgements….

still one of my biggest daily battles….

I keep making that choice. 

I fought to improve only myself, 

to forgive myself, 

to keep learning the hard way,

it is my choice. 

I sought to tell, and live, my ever-evolving truth,

holding that truth lightly in open, adoring hands,

always allowing myself to be wrong without shame,

allowing for changes without despising the learning, 

I am ever-so-happy when I make that choice!

I battled to take responsibility 

for my thoughts and actions,

Always adjusting, making new choices. 

Staying aware. 

Being honest. 

Making lots of mistakes,

Life is very messy at times. 

I’ve lost a lot. 

I’ve gained more than I lost. 
At some point, along the way,

I became convinced, at least for me,

this was the only way to truly live. 

The mystery keeps getting bigger. 

I continue to do war with my desire to shut down my heart,

in the face of constant hurts and disappointments. 

I keep letting go. 

Opening, always opening. 

Each step has become a miracle moment. 

Each opening leads me to open more. 

I have come to see everything is grace. 

I have come to understand the extreme value,

of each human soul,

of being vulnerable,

of being human,

of just being. 

I have made the commitment to the path of curiosity,

not because I will ever learn it all,

but because I won’t. 

Yet, I am aware, that there is infinite learning at my fingertips, 

and I want as much as I can get,

to go as high as I can go,

to know as much 

of God, 

and Mystery, 

and life itself, 

as I am able. 
One day, not very long ago, I found the words of poet, Mary Oliver. 

She gives these brilliant life instructions,

      pay attention. 

          be astonished. 

             tell about it. 

Yes, that has been my path. 

As Einstein said, 

    I have no special talents –

       I’m just passionately curious. 

I add to that: 

I have completely fallen in love with life!

I’ve grown fabulously addicted to seeing the holy miracles all around me. 

I am so blessed, so full, so grateful! 

I can’t help wanting to share

the path of this glorious adventure,

with others who love it too –

and so,

though I’ve been accused of talking too much, 

more than a few times, in my life,

I’ll just keep on… 

because, I’ve found, 

all voices are beautiful –

in their own way. 

AL

 
 Listen to my friend, Barbara McAfee sing Who Ya Gonna Be? http://youtu.be/Xf5BJgOmBd8

 
 

Posted in action, Adventure, attitude, awareness, beauty, Becoming Yourself, Blessing, Change, Choice, commitment, courage, create, find art at pinterest, Happiness, Impossible, Letting Go, Life, Love, Passion, soul and spirit | Leave a comment
29 May 2015

good stuff! 

 12 steps to fulfillment

Posted by Paulo Coelho

When Joseph Campbell, today’s most famous scholar of mythology (and author of the excellent “The Power of Myth”) created the expression “follow your blessing,” he was reflecting an idea that seems to be very appropriate right now. In “The Alchemist,” this same idea is called “Personal Legend.”
Alan Cohen, a therapist who lives in Hawaii, is also working on this theme. He says that in his lectures he asks those who are dissatisfied with their work and seventy-five percent of the audience raise their hands. Cohen has created a system of twelve steps to help people to rediscover their “blessing” (he is a follower of Campbell):
1] Tell yourself the truth: draw two columns on a sheet of paper and in the left column write down what you would love to do. Then write down on the other side everything you’re doing without any enthusiasm. Write as if nobody were ever going to read what is there, don’t censure or judge your answers.
2] Start slowly, but start: call your travel agent, look for something that fits your budget; go and see the movie that you’ve been putting off; buy the book that you’ve been wanting to buy. Be generous to yourself and you’ll see that even these small steps will make you feel more alive.
3] Stop slowly, but stop: some things use up all your energy. Do you really need to go that committee meeting? Do you need to help those who do not want to be helped? Does your boss have the right to demand that in addition to your work you have to go to all the same parties that he goes to? When you stop doing what you’re not interested in doing, you’ll realize that you were making more demands of yourself than others were really asking.
4] Discover your small talents: what do your friends tell you that you do well? What do you do with relish, even if it’s not perfectly well done? These small talents are hidden messages of your large occult talents.
5] Begin to choose: if something gives you pleasure, don’t hesitate. If you’re in doubt, close your eyes, imagine that you’ve made decision A and see all that it will bring you. Now do the same with decision B. The decision that makes you feel more connected to life is the right one – even if it’s not the easiest to make.
6] Don’t base your decisions on financial gain: the gain will come if you really do it with enthusiasm. The same vase, made by a potter who loves what he does and by a man who hates his job, has a soul. It will be quickly sold (in the first case) or will stay on the shelves (in the second case).
7] Follow your intuition: the most interesting work is the one where you allow yourself to be creative. Einstein said: “I did not reach my understanding of the Universe using just mathematics.” Descartes, the father of logic, developed his method based on a dream he had.
8] Don’t be afraid to change your mind: if you put a decision aside and this bothers you, think again about what you chose. Don’t struggle against what gives you pleasure.
9] Learn how to rest: one day a week without thinking about work lets the subconscious help you, and many problems (but not all) are solved without any help from reason.
10] Let things show you a happier path: if you are struggling too much for something, without any results appearing, be more flexible and follow the paths that life offers. This does not mean giving up the struggle, growing lazy or leaving things in the hands of others – it means understanding that work with love brings us strength, never despair.
11] Read the signs: this is an individual language joined to intuition that appears at the right moments. Even if the signs point in the opposite direction from what you planned, follow them. Sometimes you can go wrong, but this is the best way to learn this new language.
12] Finally, take risks! the men who have changed the world set out on their paths through an act of faith. Believe in the force of your dreams. God is fair, He wouldn’t put in your heart a desire that couldn’t come true.
🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈

12 steps to fulfillment

  

  
Listen to Eva Cassidy sing Over the Rainbow  http://youtu.be/AGaVQN-en2A

🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈

photo sources found at www.pinterest.com/al513

Posted in action, Adventure, attitude, awareness, Becoming Yourself, Change, Choice, find art at pinterest, power, strength, Trust, truth, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment
24 May 2015

The whole world opens when we accept this moment, this very moment.— Deepak Chopra

  Consider a tree for a moment. As beautiful as trees are to look at, we don’t see what goes on underground as they grow roots. Trees must develop deep roots in order to grow strong and produce their beauty. But we don’t see the roots. We just see and enjoy the beauty. In much the same way, what goes on inside of us is like the roots of a tree.       

        – Joyce Meyer

  
 every bridge invites someone to cross it. 

      – Deepak Chopra 
on the shores of my soul 

I invite you to come

cross the bridge of love 

and sit with me a while

under the old banyan tree

and wonder the possibilities of where our love can lead

the river is wide

from shore to shore

yet, there’s always a bridge of love

we must cross once more

always once more

to reach our home on the distant shore

where we’ll both be safe where fear and war and pain will be no more

and joy resides with us 

side by side

🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳

AL

 

  

listen to Serenity Fisher sing Fall in Love Again  http://youtu.be/Zk388D1MaJA

Posted in action, Adventure, attitude, awareness, beauty, Burnign Bridges, Choice, connection, courage, find art at pinterest, intimacy, Love, nature, Relationships, soul and spirit, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment
21 May 2015

come walk with me  

   

You know the brick path in back of the house,

the one you see from the kitchen window,  

the one that bends around the far end of the garden  

where all the yellow primroses are?  

And you know how if you leave the path  

and walk up into the woods you come  

to a heap of rocks, probably pushed  

down during the horrors of the Ice Age,  

and a grove of tall hemlocks, dark green now  

against the light-brown fallen leaves?  

And farther on, you know  

the small footbridge with the broken railing  

and if you go beyond that you arrive  

at the bottom of that sheep’s head hill?  

Well, if you start climbing, and you  

might have to grab hold of a sapling  

when the going gets steep,  

you will eventually come to a long stone  

ridge with a border of pine trees  

which is as high as you can go  

and a good enough place to stop.
The best time is late afternoon  

when the sun strobes through  

the columns of trees as you are hiking up,  

and when you find an agreeable rock  

to sit on, you will be able to see  

the light pouring down into the woods  

and breaking into the shapes and tones  

of things and you will hear nothing  

but a sprig of birdsong or the leafy  

falling of a cone or nut through the trees,  

and if this is your day you might even  

spot a hare or feel the wing-beats of geese  

driving overhead toward some destination.
But it is hard to speak of these things  

how the voices of light enter the body  

and begin to recite their stories  

how the earth holds us painfully against  

its breast made of humus and brambles  

how we who will soon be gone regard  

the entities that continue to return  

greener than ever, spring water flowing  

through a meadow and the shadows of clouds  

passing over the hills and the ground  

where we stand in the tremble of thought  

taking the vast outside into ourselves.
Still, let me know before you set out.  

Come knock on my door  

and I will walk with you as far as the garden  

with one hand on your shoulder.  

I will even watch after you and not turn back  

to the house until you disappear  

into the crowd of maple and ash,  

heading up toward the hill,  

piercing the ground with your stick.

☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️

 Directions by Billy Collins

Listen to Eva Cassidy sing I know You by Heart http://youtu.be/mlx7Pb-LmSQ

☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️

Photo sources found at www.pinterest.com/al513

☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️

David Whyte

JOY is a form of deep intentionality and self forgetting, the bodily alchemy of what lies inside us in communion with what formally seemed outside, but is now neither, but become a living frontier, a voice speaking between us and the world: dance, laughter, affection, skin touching skin, song, music in the kitchen: the sheer beauty of the world inhabited as an edge between what we previously thought was us and what we thought was other than us. 
Joy can be a practiced achievement not just the unlooked for passing act of grace arriving out of nowhere, joy is a measure of our relationship to death and our living with death, joy is the act of giving ourselves away, joy is practiced generosity. If joy is a deep form of love, it is also the raw engagement with the passing seasonality of existence, the fleeting presence of those we love going in and out of our lives, faces, voices, memory, aromas of the first spring day or a wood fire in winter, the last breath of a dying parent as they create that rare, raw, beautiful frontier between loving presence and a new and blossoming absence. 
To feel a full untrammeled joy is to walk through the doorway of fear, the dropping away of the anxious worried self felt itself like a death itself, a disappearance, a giving away, seen in the laughter of friendship, the vulnerability of happiness felt suddenly as a strength, a solace and a source, the claiming of our place in the living conversation, the sheer privilege of being in the presence of a mountain, a sky or a familiar face – I am here and you are here and together we make a world.

Excerpted from JOY From the upcoming book of essays CONSOLATIONS: The Solace, Nourishment and Surprising Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words.

Posted in action, Adventure, Alone, attitude, awareness, beauty, Becoming Yourself, connection, find art at pinterest, Life, Love, nature, Reflection, Relationships, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment
04 May 2015

the answer to how is love

 Everything is made of God.         Love lies waiting in it.

Every darkest mystery
         hides grace.

The most desperate act
         is born of hopeful longing:
though the hope has been withheld
         the longing still burns.

Even the greatest tragedy
         is made of blessed pieces
and drips with the light 
         of grace it has passed through.

In even the most evil despot
         a heart beats and breath is given.

The graver the injustice
         the deeper the listening needed;
the more foul the evil
         the more love is required.

Grieve your sorrows without pretense.
         Protest oppression with courage.
Above all: don’t lose trust in the grace
         already infolded in the knot.
__________________  
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net

   

Listen to Gungor sing Beautiful Things http://youtu.be/1spkhp41ig4

photo sources found at www.pinterest.com/al513 

 

Posted in action, awareness, beauty, Becoming Yourself, Choice, connection, courage, create, Faith, find art at pinterest, healing, Hope, Life, Love, Miracles, mystery, nature, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment
12 Apr 2015

grace never runs from trouble

 

She Surrenders

Completely
She surrenders her pen
She surrenders her sword
To listen
Intently
Trusting the beat of her heart to begin to rise
The warmth in her spirit to be lifted
For her to return to her Golden Center
Where love is in charge

Trusting
She surrenders her time 
She surrenders her thoughts
To be still
In the moment
Guided by the rhythm that life has given her
Supported by the unknown in ways she can never understand
Hearing the beat of the universe return to her Golden Center
Where love is in charge

Grounded
She surrenders her anger
She surrenders her pain
Knowing
Absolutely
Feeling the answers flowing through her like a guided light
Probing her body and touching her nerves like an angels kiss
Aligning her spirit with her body as she returns to her Golden Center
Where love is in charge

Supported
She surrenders her anguish
She surrenders her doubt
Confident
Rebalanced
In time she remembers all that she is and that all is well
The heat of her Golden Center
As molten as the energy within core of the earth
Where love is in charge

Revitalized
She surrenders her indecision
She surrenders her life
To Purpose
Serving from Overflow
Sharing her gifts with the world 
Her heartbeat realigned with that of the universe, the sun, the stars and the moon
As long as she keeps returning to her Golden Center 
Where love is in charge
💃💃💃💃💃💃💃💃💃💃💃💃
http://awomanonpurpose.tv/she-surrenders-2/

Alexandra Gold

💃💃💃💃💃💃💃💃💃💃💃💃

 

 

photo sources found at www.pinterest.com/al513

  

 

Posted in action, Adventure, attitude, awareness, Becoming Yourself, beloved, Choice, find art at pinterest, healing, Letting Go, Life, Love, Miracles, mystery, power, Relationships, Respect, soul and spirit, Trust, truth, Vulnerability, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment
07 Apr 2015

every little things gonna be alright…

 

Spring Blessing

One day you wake up
able to name the weight 
you’ve been carrying.
Realizing it’s not part of your body or your being,
not essential in any way to journeying or joy,
you set it down gently, without fanfare
in the long soft grass at the side of the road
and walk on
surprised to find yourself
smiling in the warm sun
for no particular reason.

~Oriah Mountain Dreamer © 2015

  

Listen to Dinah Washington What A Difference A Day Makes http://youtu.be/OmBxVfQTuvI 

🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈❤️

photo sources found at www.pinterest.com/al513

 

Posted in action, Adventure, awareness, Becoming Yourself, beloved, Change, Choice, courage, Faith, find art at pinterest, Growth, Happiness, healing, Joy, Letting Go, Life, Love, mystery, Patience, Relationships, soul and spirit, Trust, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment
03 Apr 2015

good friday

 

come with Jesus to the lynching tree
we stand aside and nod
good thing it wasn’t you or me
but just some lamb of god

we sing our hymns we know them well
we sing our righteous songs
and so we send that boy to hell
for that will right our wrongs

some people weeping in the street
they cry the lynching tree
but we can’t quit the judgment seat
the way it has to be

the boy is dead lay out the pall
it’s finished move along
but how come he forgives us all
before we know it’s wrong

how come the god we slight and say
that it’s all right to kill
the god who died comes back our way
and loves us loves us still

it looks so dark the lynching tree
so dark for you and me
but here’s the strangest thing I see
a bud upon that tree

__________________  
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light

www.unfoldinglight.net

Listen to Adele sing http://youtu.be/4k-W6cZ2CiY

💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔

photo source found at www.pinterest.com/al513

Posted in action, attitude, awareness, beauty, Becoming Yourself, beloved, compassion, connection, courage, find art at pinterest, Life, Lonely, Love, Passion, Reflection, Relationships, soul and spirit, Trust, Vulnerability, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment
26 Mar 2015

When wilt thou come unto me, Lord? Oh come, my Lord most dear! Come near, come nearer, nearer still, I’m blest when thou art near.     – C. H. Spurgeon

 

 There is a huge difference between learning about truth and experiencing truth. Touch the source. Your mind can take in endless pearls of wisdom and your mouth can repeat them, but until you have essential experience — you only have noise. Talk and even listening are nothing without understanding. We only truly understand what we experience. When people have understanding they tend to be more quiet and seek quietness. Consider the possibility that many of the things you hear and say are utter nonsense and meaningless repetitions of noise. Cut it all out. Quit getting your information second hand. Take any concept, lesson, story, book, quote or conversation and look for a way to touch its source of origin — which is always an experience.

  
“We are uncomfortable with intimacy and connection, which are among the greatest of our unmet needs today. To be truly seen and heard, to be truly known, is a deep human need. Our hunger for it is so omnipresent, so much a part of our life experience, that we no more know what it is missing than a fish knows it is wet. We need more intimacy than nearly anyone considers normal. Always hungry for it, we seek solace and sustenance in the closest available substitutes: television, shopping, pornography, conspicuous consumption — anything to ease the hurt, to feel connected, or to project an image by which we might be seen or known, or at least see and know ourselves.” – Charles Eisenstein
 

 

photo sources found at wwwpinterest.com/al513  

Posted in action, Adventure, attitude, awareness, beauty, Becoming Yourself, beloved, connection, Encouragement, Faith, find art at pinterest, intimacy, Letting Go, Life, Love, Miracles, mystery, Relationships, touch, Trust, truth, Vulnerability, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment

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