life: acoustic & amplified

poetry, quotes & thoughts about life

Archive for the category “beauty”

brothers and sisters 

 

 My soul sings praise to God, 
                  who has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. 

         God has brought down the powerful from their thrones, 

                  and lifted up the lowly; 

         God has filled the hungry with good things, 

                  and sent the rich away empty. 

                           —Luke 1.46, 51-53

 

  

This dance is not the wrecking ball it sounds like.

It’s only that we’re startled that it’s love not might.
The blossom bursts the stone we live in. 

The Almighty naked and small, always, always.
In our vacancies the overwhelming Presence,

granting what we so firmly withhold,
saving what is beyond hope,

undoing our undoing,
lifting up what you despaired of,

putting to rest your own despotic king.
The righting of our upended minds.

Evil we can’t stop, stopped.
The mending of our grasp, and our failure to grasp.

Looking for love in all the right places.
In darkness thick as stone let there be life.

The truth of what is made of dust, or light.
Tyrants spew nightmares,

throw heavy shadows, heavy sounds,
but the poorest child defeats them.

A woman alive in her body shifts mountains.
She sings,

earth trembles.

__________________ 

Steve Garnaas-Holmes

Unfolding Light

http://www.unfoldinglight.net

   

  

  

  

  

  

 there are kings in this world
and relatives of those who claim the title ‘king’

distant and weak

who still claim they are special

some call them ‘blue bloods’ 

some pretend that’s important 

that being of supposedly royal linage

is to be desired. 

Thing is, it’s an illusion,

a fake. 

Mean and ruthless men,

brutal thugs,

willing to kill and subject others for their own gain,

grasp power,

name themselves kings,

and we gladly make them into celebrities. 

Truth is each soul weighs the same. 

Truth is, the only king is Christ,

and he came to set us free from such brutal horror –

because love is the true royalty,

and love always sets us free. 

Truth is, we are each the 

Beloved, special unique creations of God. 

Truth is, many times we delight in bondage,

power is an interesting thing. 

we love our idols 

especially when we can claim to call 

ourselves,

our children,

princesses and princes –

no matter how diluted the shade of ‘blue’ we want claim as our own,

no matter how delusional we are,

how vain and arrogant.

how we have been tricked.

we have traded our true royal birthright

for a small bowl of beans –

which is sure to make us gassy. 

when will we realize the truly triumphant need no slaves?

love comes simply through our helpless infant self

and rides on donkeys 

through the streets of our world

God simply wants to be with us

Jesus loves all the little children

our hearts tell us so

if we will just look past the golden tiaras 

and listen 

we will hear the angels singing

The Hallelujah Chorus!

we all bleed from the same source

we are all true nobility 

we are all children of God

😇

AL

   

  

 
 

simply still

 

   


   

     
 

   

   
   
 In the sixth month already

of the impossible

Gabriel, 

so usually unseeable—

startling, 

though you thought him so foreign,

how nearer than you

to the seed of your life—

fills the room with his wings,

wraps with his words

this world 

beside God’s so small,

sets it in the greater one

among stars 

and you 

lit by the same light,

and calls forth your trust in heaven’s actual, 
—

for with God nothing is impossible—

the divine within, 

inviting your invitation

from even deeper in,

a Word, 

a world entrusted to you,

your being 

that by gift and labor blesses,

brought with singing

through the portal of this blood of birth

and that crucial other,

calling to life

in your drab littleness

the body of your holiness,

the flesh that God without you cannot have.

Even God waits 

to see the miracle,

the birth that only you can birth.

 

There is no test for paradise,

only paradise.

Say yes.

 

😇

_________________

Steve Garnaas-Holmes

Unfolding Light

http://www.unfoldinglight.net

 

  

http://www.designlovefest.com/2012/12/holiday-centerpiece/

 

 

time to get quiet

  
some years ask questions 

some shake the foundations of our worlds

in a year of answers

be as quiet as possible

practice solitude

acquaintance yourself with silence

open your inner ears

listen for voices from other dimensions 

care for your soul

allow deep mystery to bloom

sit in nature

find spots of beauty to fill you up

take time

go slow

so you can hear everything 

waiting to be revealed

for such a time as this

🌪

AL

  

  

 

addictions of poetry   

  

 

 Slowly coming to acknowledge out loud that poetry is everything to me. I cannot live without it the way that others need love or religion or purpose or cause. Nothing, except the softness of the body, ignites me more. Nothing fills, feeds or illuminates me like this. To find a new poet is like being returned to an old love. To discover a lover of poetry is like being returned to someone from my original tribe. Completely thrilled this morning to be lying in my bed silently reading Nariyyah Waheed. Thrilled. Here are a few sweet lines. https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/7145613.Nayyirah_Waheed
   – Jen Lemen

  
I read poetry 

And it’s so familiar 

I like this way of words.  

I slip into the passion, 

the broken hearts,

so like my own. 

The depth of loving, 

it is my own. 

The beauty,

these words caught inside 

someplace within myself, 

suddenly breaking free from this other angle. 

Broken love, 

twisting in the wind of unequal relationships. 

The parables, 

the simple narrative, 

the stark condensed truth, 

the healing, 

the beauty of nature, home, love, life, laughter…

Anything can become a poem. 

Words strung,

so like my own way, 

yet not,

new, 

fresh,

sometimes not quite understandable, yet. 

I am in love with poems. 

I learn from their awareness 

I may get tired of my own heart wringing words,

I may get bored with my own platitudes, 

but, everyday,

I find the words in poems of another

to inspire me,

to allow me to see,

to teach me,

to make me laugh,

to get me through my day. 

Everyday I realize how much poetry means to me

I am so blessed to be a small part of this magic. 

I love poems. 

I need poems. 

I am a poet. 

That settles in a good spot within me,

as I settle in, 

with the perfect shade of coffee, 

to read my morning dose. 

🤗

AL

 

  

 Photos found at http://www.pinterest.com

what if we knew? 

 

This world doesn’t improve by demanding perfection. It improves when we reach through our armor and touch another with tenderness. It improves when we bust through the walls of our conditioning, and try a new way of being on for size. It improves when we work through our unresolved shadow and share what little light we can find. It is the small, positive steps that we take when we are at war with ourselves that change the world. 

🌀

   – Jeff Brown 

  awe…

examination…

it keeps appearing 

again…

I delete…

again…

I delete…

haven’t I already written my poem?

haven’t I already done that one?

What is left that I haven’t taken out…

haven’t examined properly?

There are always layers

As Shrek reminded me,

I am an onion…

layers…

illusions

shadows

truth left to excavate

healing to be hard won

motivations to uncover

mystery to be discovered

always more

God keeps getting bigger

as I examine,

reduce,

open. 

help me to stay in this mode of self realization…

growth…

humble me…

my best self emerges within this process

send it again…

remind me again…

🌀

AL

 

Approaching Wholeness
The time that my journey takes is long and the way of it is long. It is the most distant course that comes nearest to thyself, and that training is the most intricate which leads to utter simplicity. The traveler has to knock at every alien door to come to his own, and one has to wander through all the outer worlds to reach the innermost shrine at the end.

🌀

– Rabindranath Tagore

  

photos found at http://www.pinterest.com 
 

when will it get better? 

 

 The expense of spirit in a waste of shame
Is lust in action: and till action, lust

Is perjured, murderous, bloody, full of blame,

Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust;

Enjoyed no sooner but despised straight;

Past reason hunted; and no sooner had,

Past reason hated, as a swallowed bait,

On purpose laid to make the taker mad.

Mad in pursuit and in possession so;

Had, having, and in quest to have extreme;

A bliss in proof, and proved, a very woe;

Before, a joy proposed; behind a dream.

   All this the world well knows; yet none knows well

   To shun the heaven that leads men to this hell.

🔥

 – Sonnet CXXIX, William Shakespeare 

 

 I believe it is no ones intention to live as a perpetual victim. 
No one ever said they wanted that as a career,

wanted to spend their valuable life having no personal power –

yet how many are there

trapped by the belief that life, 

God, 

some ‘other’ 

has taken something from them

which they should have?

they deserve(d) it

they didn’t want to lose what’s gone

      (I understand that)

but now it’s gone

and they’ve been wronged

they spin in the agony of not controlling 

someone,

deity,

something, anything

else. 
They can’t see what they’re doing,

they can’t hear what they’re saying,

they can’t see how they’re living,

because they are sure

sure they are right,

sure they deserve to be this grand victim,

sure the very best of life,

their very happiest,

is behind them now. 

They may say ‘they are not special’,

but in reality they believe they are SO special

life should only, always, give them what they want…

no matter what. 
I used to try to convince them otherwise,

spend massive energy,

years invested in living with people determined not to see,

not to let go,

not to find happiness and peace. 

People refusing to do the work to gain truth and freedom. 

now I take it case by case,

I trust God enough to allow them to come,

allow them to go. 

I do my own hard work 

of letting go

of letting go

of letting go…

of loving with no expectations of return…

of finding out new insights about my own heart…

of standing in my own healing,

sight,

strength,

without being distracted by the manipulation 

of people living as victims. 

I remind myself (over and over) everyone has a right to live as they choose, 

truth is never an argument to be won. 

Then I give thanks that I chose something new for myself. 

I pray for each person in the world to live with peace and joy…

I grieve my own, very personal losses, 

and, eventually,

life goes on…

🌀

AL

  
 Amidst ten thousand losses and swirling joys. 

At this very instant on the sacred Earth I wait. 

Come to us Beauty, Wisdom, Goodness, Peace, Solace, Grace, Counsel, Love. 

See the open archway this cold night 

Air, rich as gold flows.

Fine snow, glistens our faces. Each flake, 

every exquisite crystal blossom is the covenant of your love 

told a thousand, thousand times. 

   – Patricia Van Ness

 

  

 Listen to Serenity Fisher sing So Far From Oh Well

peace places 

A sense of place results gradually and unconsciously from inhabiting a landscape over time, becoming familiar with its physical properties, accruing history within its confines.- Kent Rydon

   
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
Photos by Fisherman Dan @ Branford, CT

 🌀

I have abandoned the dream kitchens for a low fire 

and a prescriptive literature of the spirit; 

a storm snores on the desolate sea.

The nearest shop is four miles away— 

when I walk there through the shambles 

of the morning for tea and firelighters 

the mountain paces me in a snow-lit silence. 

My days are spent in conversation 

with deer and blackbirds; 

at night fox and badger gather at my door. 

I have stood for hours 

watching a salmon doze in the tea-gold dark, 

for months listening to the sob story 

of a stone in the road, the best, 

most monotonous sob story I have ever heard. 
I am an expert on frost crystals 

and the silence of crickets, a confidant 

of the stinking shore, the stars in the mud— 

there is an immanence in these things 

which drives me, despite my scepticism, 

almost to the point of speech, 

like sunlight cleaving the lake mist at morning 

or when tepid water 

runs cold at last from the tap. 
I have been working for years 

on a four-line poem 

about the life of a leaf; 

I think it might come out right this winter. 

🌀
The Mayo Tao by Derek Mahon
Curator’s note: “Mayo” refers to the County Mayo, in western Ireland. 

It’s hard to beat a person who never gives up.           ― Babe Ruth 

 

  

 

   

Never. Never. Never Quit. 

    – Winston Churchill 

  
 

decisions determine destiny 

 

Today I want to feel my way 

into a familiar name 

for the One who holds us all:

a name of endearment,

like the names lovers use in the tangled sheets

a name that ripples through sunlight and tears.

I will listen for that name today, 

Knowing it is the name the Beloved uses to call me.

😍

~Oriah House (c) 2015   My child, don’t be afraid. I am here. I know how hard it is to feel, sometimes. This moment, I know, is difficult to let yourself feel. Don’t hold back. Don’t protect yourself from feeling, your emotions this way and that. This is a gift from Me, the way your heart swings from high to low. I am the constant one. I keep you still. 

 

There are things you will have to face now. I know you want to bury your head, and I let you do that, your head buried on my chest. But know when you lift your head, I will be there to help you to rise. And you will rise, and your feet will find firm footing, and you will square your shoulders and take one step forward, and then another, and you will find you know your way.

 

There is much ahead, and the path does not always seem clear. But I help you to rise. I go ahead, and I help you to rise. And when you stumble, I will help you to stand again. And when you are scared, I will firm your trembling lip and I will navigate you through the storm of emotions and I will quiet your quivering heart.

 

You are fierce and gentle. You are beautiful and strong. You are chosen and delighted in. You are all I’ve made you to be. I took everything from you that has kept you from rising. I have taken everything that makes you feel small and unsure and hesitant. 

 

You can go forward, to the places I lead you. And you will know who you are. My child, the one who knows your Father, the one who knows your own name.

😍

loop

http://www.gatherministries.com/loop/?utm_source=Loop+Devotional&utm_campaign=8f1130a969-Loop_69_Time_For_You_To_Rise10_5_2015&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_a7b9cec9e0-8f1130a969-100590649

  
    
    
   
You are loved. Always and forever. 

the very most grand adventurous  perspectives 

  
But for my hand, as unattempted yet,

Like a poor beggar, raileth on the rich.

Well, whiles I am a beggar, I will rail

And say there is no sin but to be rich;

And being rich, my virtue then shall be

To say there is no vice but beggary.

Since kings break faith upon commodity,

Gain, be my lord, for I will worship thee.

        – Philip the Bastard from “King John” (2.1.592)

 

People don’t like love, they like that flittery flirty feeling. They don’t love love – love is sacrificial, love is ferocious, it’s not emotive. Our culture doesn’t love love, it loves the idea of love. It wants the emotion without paying anything for it.  

      – Matt Chandler

  
 time wears down 

as life takes its anguished toll 

of strained shoulders and weary back 

from the unyielding pressure of anger’s mighty weight

lash of black eyed look,

the demon,

lying in wait, 

blame unleashed

words stripping tender heart skin 

of the vulnerable 

innocence unprepared for attack

leaving hope in shreds,

shame cocks its hat sideways 

flames of passion freeze in place

ice, brittle, cutting

fills veins,

painful, 

slicing to ribbons

destroying all goodness in its path

wounds with nothing to hide

nowhere to hide 

Only you can change this –

you CAN change this!

I know for sure…

you can…

if you choose to…

God only knows 

if you will 

🔹

AL

  

  3 spectacular wishes on this day…for every day
love

home

music

AL 5/13/15
Real riches are the riches possessed inside.

– B. C. Forbes 

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