life: acoustic & amplified
poetry, quotes & thoughts about life
Archive for the category “balance”
that feelingÂ
Yesterday we obeyed kings and bent our necks before emperors. But today we kneel only to truth, follow only beauty, and obey only love.
â¤ď¸
~ Khalil Gibran
We often confuse unconditional love with unconditional approval. God loves us without conditions but does not approve of every human behavior. God doesn’t approve of betrayal, violence, hatred, suspicion, and all other expressions of evil, because they all contradict the love God wants to instill in the human heart. Evil is the absence of God’s love. Evil does not belong to God.
God’s unconditional love means that God continues to love us even when we say or think evil things. God continues to wait for us as a loving parent waits for the return of a lost child. It is important for us to hold on to the truth that God never gives up loving us even when God is saddened by what we do. That truth will help us to return to God’s ever-present love.
â¤ď¸
– Henri Nouwen
âIn all the languages in the world, there is the same proverb: âWhat the eyes donât see, the heart doesnât grieve over.â
Well, I say that there isnât an ounce of truth in it. The further off they are, the closer to the heart are all those feelings that we try to repress and forget.
If weâre in exile, we want to store away every tiny memory of our roots.
If weâre far from the person we love, everyone we pass in the street reminds us of them.
âThe gospels and all the sacred texts of all religions were written in exile, in search of Godâs understanding, of the faith that moves whole peoples, of the pilgrimage of souls wandering the face of the Earth.
Our ancestors did not know, as we do not know, what the Divinity expects from our lives â and it is out of that doubt that books are written, pictures painted, because we donât want to forget who we are â nor can we.â
______________________________
(in “Eleven Minutes”, by Paulo Coelho)
photo sources found at http://www.pinterest.com
Oh so good!!! xo
releasing all that holds me from
allowing the flow
stepping into what feels so good
love opening in every direction from my center
returning to me from every direction to my center
I fly free
At home in the blue sky
đ
AL
fall down 7 times, get up 8Â
There is a path we all walk in life. All the places we go when the path gets too rocky and exhausting and brutal and beautiful are dead-end detours. If you take these detours you are not bad, but you are wasting your time and energy.
The path looks like this:
Come back to the path.
Thereâs no other way.
You will never find your perfect life âbalanceâ on the path for the same reason you will never find a unicorn on the path â because these things donât exist. Forget unicorns and balance. If you were perfectly balanced, youâd never have to take anyoneâs hand to steady yourself, and that would be a tragedy.
There is no solid ground on the path â so donât hold your breath till you find it. Breathe deeply and keep moving forward awkwardly. You can make it down the whole path imbalanced and flailing. When you fall, give thanks for the opportunity to rest. While youâre down, send love to every other path walker whoâs down with you at that moment.
Then get back up.
Or crawl. Crawling is encouraged and respected. Path running is fine, but crawling is much better. Crawlers travel with their eyes close to the ground â so they never miss an inch of the beautiful, rocky path. Crawlers get less glory but learn the most about the pathâs terrain.
And know your fellow travelers are both your teachers and students. Your relationships with them will be the hardest part of path walking. To avoid humbling oneself into the role of student and having the courage to position oneself into the role of teacher â many try to walk the path alone.
But the path was not designed for solo treks.
The path was designed to teach Love. Whenever you introduce your true self to a fellow path traveler and listen and speak and learn and stay with her for a while â that is called Love. Walking with and staying with messy fellow path travelers for any length of time is Love. Love is the most brutal and beautiful part of path traveling. Participate. Learn from and teach every path traveler you encounter. Exchanging love with fellow path travelers is how we gather the wisdom and strength weâll need to overcome the next obstacle on our path.
Note: You do not teach by teaching â you teach by loving. Be humble and courageous.
You always have enough strength.
And courage and wisdom. You always have exactly what you need for your daily trek. Sometimes you wonât believe this, because you will encounter stretches of the path that are treacherous and terrifying, but if you give up in the middle of those stretches â if you sit down permanently in them â then you have to live there. Donât live in the dark, scary parts. Trust and keep moving. There will be a clearing soon and you will feel the warm sun again.
The One who created your path is outside of time, so your life is an epic movie that has already been scripted. So donât plan or worry â your job is to trust your path and participate fully and notice as much as you possibly can and keep on moving.
But donât become proud or ashamed.
Donât become proud that you are further along than many travelers or ashamed that you are far behind others. Your position on the path relative to other travelers has nothing to do with your strength or stamina or wisdom or cunning. We are all in different places because we all have different entry points to the path.
Where you are and where everyone else is along the path is none of your concern or business.
Let that go.
You are exactly where you are supposed to be, always, and so is everyone else. The portion of the path you wake up to today was written for you.
Everyone is exactly where he or she is supposed to be. You are not your own or anyone elseâs path-planner. You are just a traveler. You just keep moving. Trust the Path. Follow in the footsteps of a billion other mighty travelers who have walked and run and crawled the path before you.
Fear not. And carry on, warrior.
đ¤
you’re on by Glennon Doyle Melton
on Donald Miller StoryLine Blog http://storylineblog.com/2016/01/26/make-the-most-of-the-path-youre-on/?utm_campaign=coschedule&utm_source=facebook_page&utm_medium=Donald%20Miller&utm_content=Make%20the%20Most%20of%20the%20Path%20You’re%20On
photos found at http://www.pinterest.com
perhapsÂ
We talk about balance…
as if…
we can actually achieve such a thing
in this,
the odd numbered trinity-teeter-tottered
kaleidoscope of a heart, soul and mind
living within the human pie crust
we name skin!
It is our work
our great career –
to keep opening to the liquid mystery
of living in this very moment.
Free will choice,
our supreme gift –
our supreme curse.
Oh, yes,
we want things fixed.
We want to know,
to define truth,
to arrive and settle,
to judge others through our personal lens,
to be right, of course.
How do we live with the reality of ‘seeing in part’,
through a ‘dark veil’,
with just glimpses of the light in the night sky,
we fish in the darkness,
trying to catch one small piece of a star at a time,
just to have it burn out,
leaving us to go back and try again?
This is the life of the seekers,
the mystics,
the warriors,
who have been seized with the firm belief –
that life matters.
That love is the way to healing.
That there is always more of God to be had.
The mystery gets bigger with each illumination.
The balance comes from allowing it all.
Good. Bad.
Joy. Sorrow.
Sickness. Pain.
Poverty. Wealth.
Even the broken path,
the truth and the lies,
have eternal divine purpose.
Our task to
learn,
open,
love,
trust,
forgive,
heal,
move,
sing,
dance,
create,
keep letting go,
keep changing,
be present,
through it all.
We dream the large dreams of living into our best selves.
We focus intently on each small task before us.
We think,
We listen,
We give,
We receive.
We speak, when necessary.
We walk daily in vigilance.
Letting the legacy of each day stand on it’s own.
We live knowing our next choice is always our most important….
and so it goes
and so it goes
đ
AL
Sometimes you have to leave
what you think you know
behind.
No one ever really wants to do this.
Knowing things
can be very comforting.
All day, soul whispers
what I need to know.
I donât hear her
until I lay aside
cherished beliefs and assumptions
until I dare to be with the not-knowing.
And then. . . .
Well, thatâs the risky part, isnât it?
There is no telling
what living an ensouled life
might ask of us.
~Oriah “Mountain Dreamer” House
So this is where I am in writing the book, “The Choice,” -on the great plain of not knowing, offering myself- pen in hand- anyway. Each day, the darkness yields to the light, and words hit the page, surprising me. This is what it’s like: the light coming again and again, the darkness making the illumination breath-taking.
find photos at http://www.pinterest.com
life: acoustic & amplified 