watch and listen to Sir Ken Robinson on the Power of Imagination! If you haven’t seen his TED talk about education…it’s a very worthwhile watch!! http://youtu.be/ywtLnd3xOVU
Listen to Maroon 5 sing Pure Imagination http://youtu.be/cWGeCqszY8s
🙇🏻🙇🏻🙇🏻🙇🏽🙇🏾🙇🏿🙇🙇🏻
photo sources at www.pinterest.com/al513
Listen to Sara Barelleis sing Vegas http://youtu.be/HOHK2sXoIVw
🎼🎼🎼🎼🎼🎼🎼🎼🎼🎼🎼
photo sources found at www.pinterest.com/al513
All we want is a path
just visible
in the new growth
of the forest floor.
We do not require
a thread of cairns
to mark the route.
Leave it to us
to find our way across
the swollen stream
to get our feet wet
if we must, to
blow past the bend
in the switchback
misread the map
become aware
too late that we
are lost, to move
this way and that
kneel in the dirt
to sit at last cross-
legged in the dusk
while the stars emerge
one by one each one
a blessing, to sleep
beneath those stars
and in the first light
find our way back
or forward it won’t
matter because we
will have found it
and can call it ours
🌅🌅🌅🌅🌅🌅🌅🌅🌅🌅
Call It Ours by Rick Kempa
Listen to Journey sing Don’t Stop Believin’ http://youtu.be/KCy7lLQwToI
🌾🌾🌾🌾🌾🌾🌾🌾🌾
photo sources found at www.pinterest.com/al513
Inspiration from
my son, Brandon (he’s made my mamma-heart very happy this morning)…LISTEN to Paul Baribeau sing Ten Things! http://youtu.be/9X_o_BAUJ-c
When Laurens van der Post one night
In the Kalihari Desert told the Bushmen
He couldn’t hear the stars
Singing, they didn’t believe him. They looked at him,
Half-smiling. They examined his face
To see whether he was joking
Or deceiving them. Then two of those small men
Who plant nothing, who have almost
Nothing to hunt, who live
On almost nothing, and with no one
But themselves, led him away
From the crackling thorn-scrub fire
And stood with him under the night sky
And listened. One of them whispered,
Do you not hear them now?
And van der Post listened, not wanting
To disbelieve, but had to answer,
No. They walked him slowly
Like a sick man to the small dim
Circle of firelight and told him
They were terribly sorry,
And he felt even sorrier
For himself and blamed his ancestors
For their strange loss of hearing,
Which was his loss now. On some clear nights
When nearby houses have turned off their televisions,
When the traffic dwindles, when through streets
Are between sirens and the jets overhead
Are between crossings, when the wind
Is hanging fire in the fir trees,
And the long-eared owl in the neighboring grove
Between calls is regarding his own darkness,
I look at the stars again as I first did
To school myself in the names of constellations
And remember my first sense of their terrible distance,
I can still hear what I thought
At the edge of silence where the inside jokes
Of my heartbeat, my arterial traffic,
The C above high C of my inner ear, myself
Tunelessly humming, but now I know what they are:
My fair share of the music of the spheres
And clusters of ripening stars,
Of the songs from the throats of the old gods
Still tending even tone-deaf creatures
Through their exiles in the desert.
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌙🌟
The Silence of the Stars by David Wagoner
Listen to Ella Fitzgerald sing Stella by Starlight http://youtu.be/xDQ-Erg3KlQ
🌟🌙🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
photo sources found at www.pinterest.com/al513
#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
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.
🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈
Listen to Eva Cassidy sing Over the Rainbow http://youtu.be/AGaVQN-en2A
🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈
photo sources found at www.pinterest.com/al513
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
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.
Because no one could ever praise me enough,
because I don’t mean these poems only
but the unseen
unbelievable effort it takes to live
the life that goes on between them,
I think all the time about invisible work.
About the young mother on Welfare
I interviewed years ago,
who said, “It’s hard.
You bring him to the park,
run rings around yourself keeping him safe,
cut hot dogs into bite-sized pieces for dinner,
and there’s no one
to say what a good job you’re doing,
how you were patient and loving
for the thousandth time even though you had a headache.”
And I, who am used to feeling sorry for myself
because I am lonely,
when all the while,
as the Chippewa poem says, I am being carried
by great winds across the sky,
thought of the invisible work that stitches up the world day and night,
the slow, unglamorous work of healing,
the way worms in the garden
tunnel ceaselessly so the earth can breathe
and bees ransack this world into being,
while owls and poets stalk shadows,
our loneliest labors under the moon.
There are mothers
for everything, and the sea
is a mother too,
whispering and whispering to us
long after we have stopped listening.
I stopped and let myself lean
a moment, against the blue
shoulder of the air. The work
of my heart
is the work of the world’s heart.
There is no other art.
That may not even noticed
by the one praying –
The eyes lifted in awe to a sunset.
The beach comber picking up rocks as she grieves huge losses.
The deep breath before entering the office of the abusive, power-hungry boss.
The smell of your first cup of coffee.
The watery laughter through brimming tears of the overwhelmed new mother.
The patience of the store clerk doing his best with the impatient standing in line.
The smiles of the people who know the secret of choosing to live life well.
The accomplished weariness at the end of a good days work.
The ride to home after 17 years of waiting.
The beautiful silence of a couple sitting together holding hands.
Candles burning in the darkness their shadows dancing on the walls.
The smell of an old library.
The many tastes of freedom.
Sharing gifts with others because you know there is ALWAYS enough.
Finding something special on the sidewalk.
My soul, wait silently for God alone, for my expectation is from him. Psalm 62:5
Our prayers lay the track down on which God’s power can come.
life: acoustic & amplified 