life: acoustic & amplified
poetry, quotes & thoughts about life
Archive for the category “Adventure”
thank you, Mary Oliver
Mary Oliver reminds me
to let go of any need, that might linger within,
to, even try, to impress anyone,
least of all,
myself.
LET GO…
just stay alert to the extravagant impressiveness around me,
puddling at my feet,
drowning my life with goodness.
To be easily astonished,
easily filled with wonder,
to allow life to boggle my mind.
To stay a child of joy and nature,
a collector of abundant miracles,
never taking one of them for granted.
To stay in awe of sunsets
and dandelions,
coffee shops
and grasshoppers.
Bears and ants.
To gasp every time I get a view of the ocean,
to be breathless at the view from a mountaintop road at sunset.
To thrill when I see a leaf change color.
To crane my neck, every single time, to catch a glimpse of sunlight on water,
and the curve of a babies cheek.
To get a chill of macabre delight
at gnarly, old toenails,
and bats hanging upside down
in a dark damp cave,
or flying around a street light as darkness falls slowly through the air.
Such things keep me alive.
These are the true riches of our living.
Extreme miracles everywhere around us.
We are here to witness,
here to share descriptions of such beauty,
even our feeble attempts are so amazing
they boggle the mind.
Thank you, Mary Oliver, for this reminder,
with your lovely vision
and every beautiful, glorious word.
We are each here to do our part,
to record our miracles
in our own way.
With our
lives,
voices,
pens,
paints,
dances,
lyrics,
artistry,
we make up this tapestry,
record the blazing glory,
of this masterpiece we live in.
We each add notes to the grand symphony of life,
no accidents,
or accidental people.
Only I can tell you the grandeur of my living space,
it is mine alone,
until I share it.
As I share,
I allow the singing of the rocks to be heard,
but also to stay a silent mystery
–
at least for those
who don’t choose to hear
this exquisite, out-of-this-world music,
playing with such brilliance, light and passion,
everywhere we go.
AL 8/23/13
glad you’re home…i’ve missed you, my friend
After one month, 4718 miles, 12 states, 11 beds, and visits with 19 family members, we are home. And what did the bear see on the other side of the mountain?
The world goes on. And on and on. Beyond every road, every ten-lane turnpike and two-strand wagon trail, runs another road. Every place you go, and beyond, there is another place, another town, or space between towns, a teeming metropolis or an isolated farmhouse, and people live there. Or something else lives there. For someone, that is home. From where I live to the desert and the tundra, from mountain top to dark sea bottom, there is life living its life, in all its uncatalogable variety. And there are people being beautiful in a million different ways. And there is God’s grace, in all its even greater variety, doing its thing. Whatever is, is in God. And as I look up into a night sky far from cities where I can actually see the stars, they, too, in their silent, mysterious distances, are still in God.
Whatever your day brings, whatever new or familiar experiences come your way, whether you find yourself in a great throng or all alone (or both), know that the One is with you, that Blessing upholds you, that the Presence includes you. No matter where you are, in space or in mind, you are not far away. You are at home in God. Welcome.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
http://www.unfoldinglight.net
Life is not about good answers, it is about interesting questions. – Paulo Coelho
How to discover if something is important
The master was strolling through a field of wheat when a disciple came up to him: “I can’t tell which is the true path. What’s the secret? What does that ring on your right hand mean?” asked the master.
“My father gave it to me before dying.”
“Well, give it to me.”
The disciple obeyed, and the master tossed the ring into the middle of the field of wheat.
“Now what?” shouted the disciple.
“Now I have to stop doing everything I was doing to look for the ring! It’s important to me!”
“When you find it, remember this: you yourself answered the question you asked me. That is how you tell the true path: it is more important than all the rest.”
http://paulocoelhoblog.com/2013/07/24/how-to-discover-if-something-is-important/
“Proceed as the way opens…”
is a Quaker axiom which is defined as: “To undertake a service or course of action without prior clarity about all the details but with confidence that divine guidance will make these apparent, and assure an appropriate outcome.”
abandoned to divine guidance
living with this confidence…
the way will open
God will provide!
This is a difficult saying,
even more difficult to fall into the arms
of mystery
and begin every day
new
in this way of living.
It is not a natural way to live.
it is a radical way to live.
doesn’t make sense,
least of all to me,
the most stubborn and selfish of girls,
the one who is known to love shoes
even more than chocolate.
it is only with the spirit that I can choose this path.
true love is its only source,
true love is radical,
it takes me to the cross,
and asks me to lay down willingly…
and because I have experienced this grace amazing,
because I know how good this love is,
because I know how much I have been forgiven,
I DO!
I peacefully give up.
I joyfully lay down.
I patiently learn to wait.
I step out into the valley
and then
I gladly learn to die.
Not my will,
Thine be done.
In earth.
In heaven.
In me.
To me.
For me.
Through me.
In spite of me.
The past year
I have walked this way
it is the only way I find
I want to live,
can now live at all;
waiting for grace
to illuminate my next step.
counting miracles every minute,
letting go of my wants,
reveals love beyond imagination.
provision at every turn,
Every bush is blazing holy.
Shoes can only be discarded.
To God be the Glory
Forever and ever
Amen
AL 8/15/13
joy dare
She whispers it, “God does loves us, doesn’t He, Mama?”
And I nod and this is always the question and maybe this is all our faith really is — Faith is this unwavering trust in the heart of God in the hurt of here. Unwavering trust all the time though I don’t understand all the time.
God is always good and we are always loved.
Loved enough to be shaped into goodness of Christ Himself.
– Ann Voskamp
A Holy Experience
http://www.aholyexperience.com
Follow this link to find out more about Ann Voskamp and take the Joy Dare! Free monthly printables available. http://www.aholyexperience.com/joy-dares/
I am God. I don’t make mistakes. – God speaking to/through Katherine Wolf
Sunday I spent most of the day reading a really wonderful blog called thought gently whispers by Kate Robertson. http://stoneriverstudio.blogspot.com/ – it was very encouraging. Music speaks to Kate like it does to me and so I was in a very good place reading her words and listening to her music. Good, good stuff.
One of her posts took me to a blog and a short film by Jay and Katherine Wolf, called Hope Heals http://hopeheals.com/. I hope you will take the time to watch. Such beautiful grace. No, God does not make mistakes. God does not cause our brokenness, but even our most broken places can be redeemed by God. Love always means ALL things for good. 
life: acoustic & amplified 