life: acoustic & amplified
poetry, quotes & thoughts about life
Archive for the category “Adventure”
And my God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. – Philippians 4:19
God always knows the true needs of His covenant people. At one point the Hebrews in the wilderness thought they needed the onions, leeks and garlic of Egypt, but God knew they needed manna. They fretted over new shoes for the rugged Sinai, but God knew they needed their old ones to stay new.
The people murmured that they needed water when all they could see was rocks, but God knew they needed the water in the rock. We can trust God to supply our needs, not our preferences or the misguided wishes we bring with us from the land that enslaved us.
the missionaries prayer
God of love,
I Pray for the peace of Christ:
in the face of fear, to trust,
in the face of violence, to be gentle,
in the face of sorrow to be healing,
in all things to offer blessing.
Christ, grant me your peace:
with those who are rejected to stand in unity,
for those who are afraid to offer my hand,
beside the outcast to sojourn in longing,
to those who are cursed to offer blessing.
Spirit of compassion,
be the grace and strength in me
to risk for the sake of justice,
to suffer for the sake of healing,
to give of myself for the sake of love,
to offer blessing, to offer blessing.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
http://www.unfoldinglight.net
yay, it’s Friday!
Success is not a result of spontaneous combustion.
You must set yourself on fire.
– unknown
Find what you love and let it kill you,
fine advice from Bukowski.
Set your soul,
your very life, on fire.
Come alive with your passion.
Then let it loose
all over your world.
Feed it well.
Let it breathe.
Until your songs
rise from the ashes
of what used to be
your broken life.
It now glows beauty –
warms the worn and tired.
Your voice speaks grace to the lonely pilgrims,
the ones with the bleeding feet,
resting. or struggling, along the way.
AL 11/21/13
permission granted by David Allen Sullivan
You do not have to choose the bruised peach
or misshapen pepper others pass over.
You don’t have to bury
your grandmother’s keys underneath
her camellia bush as the will states.
You don’t need to write a poem about
your grandfather coughing up his lung
into that plastic tube—the machine’s wheezing
almost masking the kvetching sisters
in their Brooklyn kitchen.
You can let the crows amaze your son
without your translation of their cries.
You can lie so long under this
summer shower your imprint
will be left when you rise.
You can be stupid and simple as a heifer.
Cook plum and apple turnovers in the nude.
Revel in the flight of birds without
dreaming of flight. Remember the taste of
raw dough in your mouth as you edged a pie.
Feel the skin on things vibrate. Attune
yourself. Close your eyes. Hum.
Each beat of the world’s pulse demands
only that you feel it. No thoughts.
Just the single syllable: Yes …
See the homeless woman following
the tunings of a dead composer?
She closes her eyes and sways
with the subways. Follow her down,
inside, where the singing resides.
worship is simply giving God his breathe back. – Lou Giglio
Prayer,
which is breathing with the Spirit of Jesus,
leads us to this immense knowledge.
– Henri Nouwen
You breathe different in a room
when you know it’s not about the good you can accomplish
but about the grace you can accept.
– Ann Voskamp
I am the cloud of your mercy,
a thunderhead of your grace.
Fields are thirsty,
the river is dry.
Let it go,
let it go.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
I’ll be the one hootin’ over here…
The man who doesn’t relax and hoot a few hoots voluntarily, now and then, is in great danger of hooting hoots and standing on his head for the edification of the pathologist and trained nurse, a little later on. – Elbert Hubbard
Yup, I’m in relax mode for a few days. I am at the end of caregiving – my patients are both safely where they need to be 
to get better. I will be moving forward into a new space very soon. On Friday, when the 83 year old dementia patient was safely on her way to a nursing facility, I was able to take a breath. I knew I needed a distraction so I went to the movies and saw Thor. Very entertaining, but I got rather overwhelmed and ‘dropped’ in the middle of it. I stopped at Carrabba’s, for a take home bowl of lovely sausage lentil soup and a piece of tiramisu, to celebrate.
I ate and went to bed. Not to sleep immediately, just to pray, to allow all the myriad of emotions to come and go, to think abstract thoughts, to allow tears to flow (as needed). As I sink into this release, and let go of the fight, the responsibility and preparation for death that was a very real threat. The people I was caretaking for are not my family, so everything has been more complicated and it has been a boundary line I have had to be very aware of and that has added even more tension.
Yesterday I basically did nothing. I sat and stared at trees for hours. I did a little painting. Laid in bed and did the same ritual as the night before. I ate because I needed to, not because I was hungry. I drank lots of water.
I carry all my tension in my shoulders and have had issues with my sciatica since my last pregnancy, in 1991/92. I am in much pain from those as I begin to decompress and relax from these past months of stress.
Today I’m going to church and then I have no plans, I may end up repeating yesterday. I may actually do some hootin’ and hollarin’ – I’m prepared and ready to do that, when that comes. I remember many years ago getting a traffic ticket that one of the very worst moments in my life and, after the officer had gone, I sat and screamed (yes, as-loud-as-I-could-blood-curdling screams) for at least 30 minutes, maybe more. I felt much better after and I have no problem doing it again when I need to!
I am sharing this, because there are many people carrying these loads and bags of caregiving. In some ways, I believe it is really harder to be a caregiver than to be the patient. The caregiver carries it all, has to handle everything, is also unable to move into a normal role with life. Caregivers watch people they care about devolve and grow weaker and they are pretty much helpless. Many times the patient feels they are better off than they truly are, or they become so depressed they cannot help themselves any longer. The caregiver walks a tightrope between caring and not becoming an enabler. It is very tricky, draining, difficult (to say the least) and takes a rough and rugged toll every day it lasts.
I am so grateful I have experienced this – I pray my time here learning will help others. I pray today that all the amazing caregivers to have moments of respite and be able to relax for life giving moments. Don’t ask for permission!!! You need this! Self care is not about being selfish – know the difference. Do some hootin’ and laugh out loud! Take a deep breath – I know how much you need it and hard that is some days!
Life is a succession of lessons, which must be lived to be understood. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
We all start as beginners.
Age 2: Marc began drawing pictures of his Oma and Opa (grandparents).
See the whole progression – each year at –
http://www.viralnova.com/painting-progress/
MarcAllante.com
life: acoustic & amplified 