life: acoustic & amplified

poetry, quotes & thoughts about life

Archive for the category “beauty”

07 Aug 2016

wicked surprises of the call 


God goes out for whiskey Friday night,

Staggers back Monday morning

Empty-handed, no explanation.
After three nights of not sleeping,

Three nights of listening for

His footsteps, His mules sliding
Deftly under my bed, I stand

At the stove, giving him my back,

Wearing the same tight, tacky dress, same slip,
Same seamed stockings I’d put on before He left.

He leans on the kitchen table, waiting

For me to make him His coffee.  
I watch the water boil,  

Refuse to turn around,

Wonder how to leave Him. 
Woman, He slurs, when have I ever done

What you wanted me to do?

❓❓❓❓

Reason by Robin Coste Lewis


Get off my back, God.

Take your claws out of my shoulder.

I’d like to throw you off

like I would brush off some particularly repellent insect!

Sometimes I get the feeling that if I could turn round

quick enough

I would see you

grinning at me,

full of glee, plotting, scheming, devious, challenging

The hell with all this stuff about fire and storm

and still, quiet waters.

I’ve got your number.

I’ve unmasked you.

I’d like to throw you off

like I would brush off some

particularly repellent insect.

You’re a daemon!

Unfortunately, you seem to have this great attachment

to me.

Actually, being honest, I know in my heart

I’d miss you if you weren’t there,

leering at me, reminding me of
death and dread and destiny,

winding me up and puncturing

my pretensions.

I know, with a sinking feeling in my gut

that all the best of me 

–
the fire and storm, 

and even, now and then, still waters,

are born out of the death-defying struggle

that we wage,

my dearest daemon.

💪🏻

Wresting With God by Kathy Galloway


I didn’t ask for this,

did I?

in fact, I believe I tried to block it, 

avoid it at all costs. 

But here I am feeling 

outta sorts,

facing my bittersweet days. 

Wondering where the hell

this is gonna take me?

What is my purpose here?

here, 

where I lived my experiment for 5 years?

here,

what was taken 

now returns,

and I am not sure what to do with it…

light it up

or 

burn it down?

all I know is this is the place

I have been called to 

at this moment 

for only God knows what,

and He’s not talking,

hasn’t shown his face in weeks. 

I must rely on this silly sliver of a promise,

that it is meant for my good 

– somehow,

someway. 

Any-hoo,

Trust is a ruthless business,

an extreme proposition to live. 

I am not leaning to my own understanding, 

or natural desires,

even a bitty-bit, 

or I definitely wouldn’t be right here

 – right now

or anytime in the future. 

Yet here I am,

standing on this holiest of my profane grounds,

way out in the back forty

of thecomfort zone,

knowing beyond knowing,

I’m in the only place 

I’m supposed to be 

right now.  

This is where the magic happens. 

🌎

Amy Lloyd (AL)


God wants to encounter you with His love, so you can become a light everywhere you go, your life will shout to the world, ‘I’ve seen Him, I’ve felt Him. I’ve heard His voice. He is alive. He is here with us. In us. For us.’



Posted in action, Adventure, Alone, attitude, awareness, be, beauty, Becoming Yourself, beloved, Change, confidence, connection, courage, Death, determination, Faith, find art at pinterest, Glory, Gospel, grace, Impossible, inspiration, intimacy, Letting Go, Love, Miracles, mystery, Reflection, soul and spirit, strength, transformation, Trust, truth, Vulnerability, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment
04 Aug 2016

A faith to live by, a self to live with, and a purpose to live for. –Bob Harrington  


When you are loved, you can do anything in creation. 

When you are loved, there’s no need at all to understand what’s happening, because everything happens within you.
 ― Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist


Love is not a fluffy thing, it’s got edges and teeth. Love refuses to play small or sell out. 

     – Julia Butterfly Hill



http://www.rachellemeechapman.com/flock/

Posted in attitude, awareness, beauty, Becoming Yourself, beloved, determination, Letting Go, Life, Love, Relationships, risk, soul and spirit, Trust, truth, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment
02 Aug 2016

o love


The Lover said to the Beloved,

“I am in love with You.”

The Beloved replied with laughter

and twinkling eyes,

“You have no choice!”

Who comprehends this conversation?

I love because I have free will.

But when I surrender completely,

the will is annihilated in love,

and this is perfect freedom.

I know this because I became

a fool.

🎉

Alfred K. LaMotte







Posted in attitude, awareness, be, beauty, Becoming Yourself, beloved, commitment, find art at pinterest, Freedom, intimacy, Joy, Letting Go, Life, Love, mystery, Passion, Patience, Relationships, soul and spirit, transformation, Trust, truth, Vulnerability, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment
01 Aug 2016

seasonal


I am the land upon which Winters snow falls,

Unnoticed and trodden, numb, unaffected,

Pain laid unsheathed as the spring starts to thaw,

This heart’s ever hopeful to wear a new skin.
I am the land upon which Autumn leaves become rotten,

Which once had life, now ended, now dead,

But nourishment lives with all that’s forgotten,

This heart’s always faithful to beat once again.
I am the land upon which the Summer sun scorches,

Whose once swollen rivers run dry and to dust,

Existence in stasis, be still with the forces,

This heart wills the moment to beat its own drum.
I am the land through which spring will awaken,

The beginning of life full of beauty and newness,

Quicken the pressure all barriers forsaken,

This quickening heart has forever to live.

❤️

Constancy by Paula Doran
Facebook/Women’s Spiritual Poetry


As I approach, 

it comes to me quickly – 

all four seasons are flowing,

visible residents  

of this mornings beach. 
Here are bands of snow 

from this spell 

we call Winter. 
Here, layers of leaf-surf to shuffle through the memories, 

we called Fall. 

Which, seems to me, 

was just yesterday? 
The sands dna carries the Summer sun,

still warm, 

within its restless, shifting soul. 

It whispers promises of returning warmth and sunshine as I stand, here and now, in cold, driving rain, 

working through markers of time,

arriving at my favorite season, 
Spring!

Grief, death and hope are front and center,

as Vinnie’s beautiful, driftwood cross 

still stands as a memorial to his mother’s recent passing, 

as well as, the hope of springs sure arrival! 

Easter carries the sharp winds of death,

alive with the eternal mystery of resurrection. 

I realize there are many symbols of spring, 

on this mixed media stretch of grainy life. 
The all-weather gulls floating, trusting, 

eternally free. 

The rhythm of the waves forever dancing with, 

continually kissing,

the shore. 
Then there’s me,

aware and alive, 

with possibilities 

of love, 

music,

even that slippery word, 

happiness,

surrounding my steps!

It doesn’t matter

that I don’t know what that looks like…yet. 

Knowing I am worthy of all this is enough. 
Hopes awaken,

rising strong on mended wings,

trusting the healing path taken, 

the work continues. 

Allowing the

shy, twinkling lights 

to glow and illuminate 

the most fearful, secret corners 

of the darkest rooms 

of my heart. 
I smile and silently shout, Yes! 

Yay!

I promise to love and be loved!

Can you hear me, wherever you are?

Will your heart shout out as well?

I can’t stop smiling. 

Courage,

that fearless lion,

who will lead us all home

right where we belong. 

🦁

AL

.

i dreamed my body the size of colorado

mountains ranges and free open spaces

thirsty arroyos and slippery canyon walls

my lungs the wild breezes over the plains

reincarnation nothing more than fresh flowers this spring

and death the blaze of falling leaves

.

yes i will live here a thousand years

barefoot and hungry 

wild and free

roaming a wild country in my buffalo self

in a pathless land

.

somethings will not change and remain fact always 

we are ashes of stellar death

particles of infinity 

flowers on the range

.

.

.

.

.

wild plains by Adam DeFranco (C) 2016

We are waves of One.

Our purer self has no name.

Even our hollow places are full of light.

Don’t take a breath, receive it.

Know everything before you have a thought.

Be what ripens on a jagged branch,

still hard and bitter.

As soon as you are soft and sweet

a doe will nuzzle you, and you will fall.

Her little fawn will crush you on its tongue.

Exist as purple food

so that the least furry creature might

leap and play on a Sunday morning.

Be the burgundy pulp of a glistening heart.

Now fall even deeper into green meditation.

Agree to become the radiance

in the atoms of a plum.

🍈

Alfred K. LaMotte


I was dead, and I became alive; I was tears, and I became laughter. Overcome by the power of love, I turned into that eternal power.

             ~ Rumi


Posted in attitude, awareness, beauty, Becoming Yourself, Change, determination, find art at pinterest, Letting Go, Life, Love, soul and spirit, transformation, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment
29 Jul 2016

rest in the miracle that has always already happened!    – Fred LaMotte


When the world does not conform

to the story in my head

I get a feeling that

“something’s not right.”

Why is the story in my head

not down-loading properly?
Why do I sense that the world

needs to be fixed

and I must repair what is “wrong”

by imposing my story

onto the mystery

of the ineluctable?
Yet the world is not a problem.

The problem is

there’s a story in my head
but it’s not quite the same

as your story, is it?
And so there is conflict,

there is suffering,

even if our stories are about

salvation, about justice

and equality, the perfect

marriage, the cleanest

environment, or gaining

enlightenment…
Happiness cannot arise

if we slather the world in the thin

veneer of our narration.

Happiness is the dance

of atoms ordered by

the dynamics of chaos

in the heart of the now

when we let both story

and teller disperse

like a fine mist,
when we let things clarify

all by themselves

the way silt filters and falls

through a mountain brook

in liquid transparency.
Now rest in the miracle

that has always

already happened.

Just shut up and see.

A rain cloud vanishes.

There are crystal drops on

blades of grass, each containing

the sun.
💫

SOMETHING’S NOT QUITE RIGHT by Alfred LaMotte

Let us go forward quietly, forever making for the light…

   Vincent Van Gogh 

these anniversaries 

the marking of dates

building Ebenezer memorials 

from the stones of help

bringing me to this place

tasting again

the bitter herbs

the roasted lamb

the flat bread

the milk and honey flowing over everything 

the fresh dates and figs 

of now

sitting with this

bitter-sweet

sweet-bitter

this life

this love

this past

this practice 

this present 

this grateful 

that gratitude 

that changing

this constant

this birth

this death

this resurrection 

always this love

ah this love

just. 

this. 

love. 

always the path of thanks

always the gifts presenting 

along the diamond road

this is my tradition

my version of holiday 

each one

my best of days

my worst of days

feeling it wrapping around my senses

these memories clouds 

wrapping around me

enveloped from behind me

me always facing forward

always facing toward the rising moment just ahead

the path before me the most important 

always remembering,

along with that other Southern Belle…

tomorrow is another day…

the best is always yet to be! 

🗓

AL 7/23/16 gratitude/tradition


Life

                                    truly             

                            is beauty                

                    beauty                                     

           salted                                                     

        by rare moments                                           

of exquisite suffering.    
 Life

  truly             

    is suffering               

              suffering                                    

  peppered                                              

           by rare moments                                           

of exquisite beauty.    

         

🌹                   

https://www.claudiuskeepsakes.com/collections/frontpage/products/duality-of-life-mug


there’s this summer song

of cool wind on my skin, 

playing sweet percussion through the tall, lush marsh grass

gentle water

invisible birds singing in surround sound

my heart resonates with the language we have spoken

the songs we have sung

the rich vibrations of our connection

over the past few days

the new sun warms my back

my shadow sits large

writing poems

this silence my gratitude

this morning my pleasure

this day my gift

this moment my life

thank you for reaching out 

for breaking through the darkness

for holding my hand
💞

AL


The worst isn’t the last thing about the world. It’s the next to the last thing. The last thing is the best. It’s the power from on high that comes down into the world, that wells up from the rock-bottom worst of the world like a hidden spring. Can you believe it? The last, best thing is the laughing deep in the hearts of the saints, sometimes our hearts even. Yes. You are terribly loved and forgiven. Yes. You are healed. All is well. 

     – Frederick Buechner 

      The Final Beast


Then I walked 

straight forward

out of the gate,

through the wood,

along the river,

toward the mountain
and I thought of the future

I could make in the world

if I walked toward it

like this,

with my face toward the hills

and my eyes full of light

and the earth sure

and solid beneath me,

walking

with a fierce anticipation,

and a faithful expectation,

with the sun and the rain

and the wind on my skin

and that old sense…

of many paths

breaking from one path.
So learning to walk

in morning light

like this again,

we’ll take our first 

light step

toward mortality,

walking

out of the garden,

through the woods,

along the river,

toward the mountain,

its simple,

that’s what we’ll do,

practicing as we go

and

we’ll be glimpsed, 

traveling westward, 

no longer familiar,

a following wave,

greeted, as we were at our birth,

as probable 

and slightly 

dangerous strangers,

someone

coming into view,

someone about

to find out.
Some wild 

and improbable risk 

about to break 

on the world again.
..
David Whyte

Adapted from LEARNING TO WALK

From RIVER FLOW: 

New and Selected Poems


Posted in action, Adventure, art, attitude, awareness, beauty, Becoming Yourself, beloved, Change, Choice, connection, determination, Encouragement, Faith, find art at pinterest, giving, Glory, grace, Gratitude, healing, inspiration, Letting Go, Life, Love, moment, mystery, perceptions, Poetry | Leave a comment
28 Jul 2016

Let us go forward quietly, forever making for the light…   Vincent van Gogh 


Let us go forward quietly, forever making for the light, and lifting up our hearts in the knowledge that we are as others are (and that others are as we are), and that it is right to love one another in the best possible way – believing all things, hoping for all things, and enduring all things.…And let us not be too troubled by our weaknesses, for even he who has none, has one weakness, namely that he thinks he has none, and anyone who believes himself to be so perfect or wise would do well to become foolish all over again.

✍🏻

Vincent van Gogh


There is always that edge of doubt.

Trust it, that’s where the new things come from.

If you can’t live with it, get out,

Because when it’s gone, you’re on Automatic,

Repeating something you’ve learned.

Let your prayer be:

Save me from that tempting certainty that

Leads me back from the Edge,

That dark edge where the first light breaks.

✨

The Edge of Doubt by Albert Huffstickler


Thing on my art table…

Chopsticks from Korea House – Jana

Seed from ASG Intensive – Patti

Tea light from Retreat 2012 – Robin

Blue twistie light from Andy n Brandi’s wedding

Paint brushes from Kacie’s old art box 

Small souvenir dish from Italy and a pumpkin Anni gifts

along side Faith-Trumps-Fear dogtag

tiny flower pots that just make me happy

One of Pearl’s rocks with a natural cross 

Big Purple stone from Bernice’s apartment

Inspirational box I bought in Connecticut

Small leather journal part of art supply shopping trip Chris bought me 

Pens, paints, markers, pencils

Books – as many as possible

Journals, Bible, sketch pads 

Tweezers – always tweezers

Computer 

My framed arts-ing

Other things as well

each small thing connected to someone, 

some place. 

I am surrounded by what I love,

Who I love,

What I live.

I keep pieces of myself

of moments, 

the people, I love. 

and I build my days 

with bricks, blocks, shells and sparkly rocks

layers of a life 

built on grace and gratitude

a firm foundation 

which will not be shaken. 

🐚

AL


21 different ways to do art therapy and put your thoughts in order

Posted by The Minds Journal EditoriaL| A Better Living, Interesting, The Journal | 16 |     

Sometimes, the solution to your problem just won’t come into your head, yet your thoughts are spinning at a 100 kilometers an hour, and you feel like your brain is going to explode.

It’s times like this that you could do with trying some ’art therapy’. At its most basic, the only preparation you need to carry out for this is to grab a pencil and a sheet of paper. Then, just start drawing. It doesn’t even matter what you draw. Within a certain amount of time, your thoughts will become more harmonious and you’ll calm down.

To help you get started, here’s what to do if you’re feeling…

* Tired: draw flowers

* Angry: draw lines

* In pain: build a model

* Bored: color in a sheet of paper in various colors

* Sad: paint a rainbow

* Scared: knit something

* Worried: make a doll

* Indignant: tear a piece of paper into small pieces and arrange it into a pattern

* Anxious: do some origami

* Tense: draw patterns

* Nostalgic: draw a maze

* Disappointed: copy a portrait or painting

* In despair: draw your way out

* Confused: draw an Indian mandala

* That you need to restore your strength: make a landscape painting

* That you can’t make sense of your feelings: paint a self-portrait

* That you need to remember this moment: draw some colored patterns

* That you need to put your thoughts in order: draw honeycombs or squares

* That you need to take the time to make the right choice: draw waves and circles

* That you’re stuck in a rut: draw spirals

* That you need to make sense of your most important goal: draw target symbols.

21 Different Art Therapy Exercises For Different Emotions


All my feelings have the colors you desire to paint. – Rumi

💥

I feel the blues and greens today

I experiment with running colors together

I love the oranges and yellows

They make me happy

My words are few today

Faith

Love 

Life

Fly

A few more I repeat

I experiment with brushes

I play with squares of paper

These colors are poured out definitely sharing my emotions

I design things in my head

At the end of this day 

I have created something good

for my soul

doesn’t matter how great it is…

I am an artist 

I must create

🌟

AL



photo sources found at pinterest.com

Posted in art, attitude, awareness, beauty, Becoming Yourself, Choice, connection, create, Encouragement, Faith, find art at pinterest, Life, Miracles, Passion, soul and spirit, Trust, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment
27 Jul 2016

quest for that shade of blue


When the light lessens,

Causing colors to lose their courage,

And your eyes fix on the empty distance

That can open on either side

Of the surest line

To make all that is

Familiar and near

Seem suddenly foreign,
When the music of talk

Breaks apart into noise

And you hear your heart louden

While the voices around you

Slow down to leaden echoes

Turning the silence Into something stony and cold,
When the old ghosts come back

To feed on everywhere you felt sure,

Do not strengthen their hunger

By choosing to fear;

Rather, decide to call on your heart

That it may grow clear and free

To welcome home your emptiness 

That it may cleanse you

Like the clearest air

You could ever breathe. 
Allow your loneliness time

To dissolve the shell of dross

That had closed around you;

Choose in this severe silence

To hear the one true voice

Your rushed life fears;

Cradle yourself like a child

Learning to trust what emerges,

So that gradually 

You may come to know
That deep in that black hole 

You will find the blue flower

That holds the mystical light 

Which will illuminate in you

The glimmer of springtime. 

💙

A Blessing for Loneliness by John O’Donohue  


Alone and lost

    at the edge

    of an ocean

    of memories,
    a heart of the deepest blue

        beats

    to the slow monotony

    of a swaying metronome;
found in the crashing waves

    of a dark desolate shore.

 
The weeping wind,

    with its hidden whispers,

    murmurs her name;
as nights they walked

    hand in hand
        flashback into view.
Haunting the torn fabric of his soul.

💔

Shipwrecked heart by AllPoetry member, Halosonthemoon

read the rest here: http://ow.ly/eO4E302oGFH


when I ride the nights ragged hours

when my loneliness rages with ruthless, restless, too warm turning 

when heaven is that smudge of light

seen beside the farthest star

when sleep is torn from my hungry grasp

and I am left without an inch of satisfaction 

from the feathers beneath my head

when I open my eyes to the same shade of black

I see with them closed

then I feel the disappearance of my desire to conform

my self is borderless at 3 am

my pretensions dissolve into this dark

I surrender to my grief

as well as to my hope

I swim to the other end of the bed

to cooler pastures

I visit the sheep 

living among the stuff 

down there

I listen as they recited the 23rd Psalm 

to reassure my nervous entering

in that strange world

I hear all the sounds from this new dimension 

my mind takes on the shape of new perspective 

alert to this unusual adventure 

I cry a little

laugh a little

think about the glory of love

the world turns on its axis

I breath free

I fly home

💞

AL


I am a sheep

and I like it

because the grass

I lie down in

feels good and the still

waters are restful and right

there if I’m thirsty

and though some valleys

are very chilly there is a long

rod that prods me so I

direct my hooves

the right way

though today

I’m trying hard

to sit at a table

because it’s expected

required really

and my enemies—

it turns out I have enemies—

are watching me eat and

spill my drink

but I don’t worry because

all my enemies do

is watch and I know

I’m safe if I will

just do my best

as I sit on this chair

that wobbles a bit

in the grass

on the side of a hill.

🐏

Here In The Psalm by Sally Fisher


Your great mistake is to act the drama

as if you were alone. As if life

were a progressive and cunning crime

with no witness to the tiny hidden

transgressions. To feel abandoned is to deny

the intimacy of your surroundings. Surely,

even you, at times, have felt the grand array;

the swelling presence, and the chorus, crowding

out your solo voice You must note

the way the soap dish enables you,

or the window latch grants you freedom.

Alertness is the hidden discipline of familiarity.

The stairs are your mentor of things

to come, the doors have always been there

to frighten you and invite you,

and the tiny speaker in the phone

is your dream-ladder to divinity.
Put down the weight of your aloneness and ease into

the conversation. The kettle is singing

even as it pours you a drink, the cooking pots

have left their arrogant aloofness and

seen the good in you at last. All the birds

and creatures of the world are unutterably

themselves. Everything is waiting for you.

🌎

Everything is Waiting for You by David Whyte

from Everything is Waiting for You

©2003 Many Rivers Press


photo sources found at pinterest.com


Posted in Adventure, Alone, attitude, awareness, beauty, Becoming Yourself, Beginning, beloved, Change, Choice, connection, courage, dark, Encouragement, Faith, find art at pinterest, grace, Gratitude, healing, laugh, Letting Go, Life, Lonely, Love, Relationships, soul and spirit, Trust, Vulnerability, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment
27 Jul 2016

when I touch your face I touch the face of God   


our identity actually depends on the attention we give to things outside of ourselves 

          (David Whyte via On Being)


It is so difficult to see this face * 

because the countless others 

we’ve seen before 

cloud the view, 

along with how we expect it to look 

and how it might be improved.
Even the faces of the ones we love deeply 

hide like buried treasure 

behind histories of expression.
In order to see 

what is right in front of our eyes, 

we first have to recognize 

we have gradually 

become blind, 

and then begin 

the slow work of forgetting.

* Substitute with any noun: flower, beach, stone, bird, soap bubble, house, grandmother, beef stew, homeless person, celebrity, potato, dollar bill, construction worker, politician, drug addict, child, teacher, report card, mail order catalogue, boss, swimming pool, dog, towel, onion, computer, neighbor, planet, pine cone, cigarette, airplane, spam subject, fork, mountain, etc.

🍴

Recognition by Daron Larson


You are the sum total of everything you’ve ever seen, heard, eaten, smelled, been told, forgot — it’s all there. Everything influences each of us, and because of that I try to make sure that my experiences are positive.

☺️

           – Maya Angelou 


Me myself

Trippers and askers surround me, People I meet, the effect upon me of my early life or the ward and city I live in, or the nation.

The latest dates, discoveries, inventions, societies, authors old and new…

These come to me days and nights and go from me again. But they are not the Me myself.

– Walt Whitman from Song of Myself


I long to see your face

to touch the hills of your nose

your cheeks

the valleys where your eyes live

your forehead, I don’t know well enough 

the crease of your chin 

under your lips

your face is the place 

where your soul

meets the world,

met mine

your breath

allows us to mingle

melting into each other’s dna

I miss your conversation 

I miss our laughter

I miss your company 

I miss your hands

mostly I miss seeing your face

with these eyes of mine

😍

AL


I think your whole life shows in your face and we should be proud of that. 

     – Lauren Bacall


                look at your hands

    your beautiful useful hands

                you’re not an ape

            you’re not a parrot

    you’re not a slow loris

        or a smart missile

            you’re human
            not british

        not american

            not israeli

    not palestinian

        you’re human
            not catholic

    not protestant

        not muslim

            not hindu

    you’re human
    we all start human

        we end up human

            human first

                human last

            we’re human

        or we’re nothing
    nothing but bombs

        and poison gas

    nothing but guns

        and torturers

    nothing but slaves

    of Greed and War

    if we’re not human
                    look at your body

    with its amazing systems

    of nerve-wires and blood canals

        think about your mind

    which can think about itself

        and the whole universe

            look at your face

    which can freeze into horror

            or melt into love

        look at all that life

            all that beauty

            you’re human

        they are human

        we are human

    let’s try to be human
            dance!

💃🏻

Human Beings by Adrian Mitchell

Posted in art, attitude, awareness, beauty, beloved, Choice, connection, find art at pinterest, friendship, Grieving, Letting Go, Life, Love, Miracles, mystery, Passion, People, Relationships, soul and spirit, Vulnerability, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment
26 Jul 2016

so thug 


A bold and sustained outbreak of gentleness


We believe in the God of grace.

We follow the Teacher of Love.

We live by the Spirit of mercy.

We trust God’s healing of the world.
When people spread fear and division,

when evil, injustice and oppression thrive,

no political revolution, program or platform will save us,

but only a people transformed by grace and light,

and a bold and sustained outbreak of gentleness.
We will stand up to cynicism, hate and indifference,

and blanket this world with compassion, calm and mercy.

We will proclaim the truth against all resistance.

We will meet fear and hate with healing.

We will obstruct the progress of injustice 

with our prayers, our words and our bodies.

We will infest the world with grace and love.
We pray for open hearts and a spirit of deep listening.

We pray for courage to enter the wounds of the world;

for a spirit of peace to face violence with nonviolence;

for patience to answer darkness with light.

We pray for humility to offer ourselves 

as the first to be changed.

We pray for one another, for we are one Body.

We devote ourselves to sacrifice and discipline.
Giving thanks for the great spirit of grace

already breathing in us, already rising,

in hope and love, as the gentle people of God,

we go forth.          
        

__________________  

Steve Garnaas-Holmes

Unfolding Light

http://www.unfoldinglight.net



with wings
 rough hands
 feet on bare earth
I want to become a continent of angels
 some common rarity so unexplored
unadmissable 
that even I cannot find where I begin or end
.
let this body become a borderless land
full of immigrants
artist and poets
whose only claim to fame is that 
they rushed to join this conflagration of 
unbound unexplored unknowable art
to enter full existence
.
who is to say what is real
in a universe so wide
and blasted unpretentious  
let us join this revolution
 wild eyes full hearted
as if this day 
is the only day the universe will ever exist
and yes you matter 
.
come with me 
join asunder
this world is fully ablaze
and yet none of us burn
like a kernel in the heart of the sun 
.
now I have come to understand 
the language of infinity
it is in the way you dress and speak 
and hurry along caressing the earth 
and me with it
some vision of your standard uranium golden globe reeking sun 
the perfect curve with no edge

———–
Adam A DeFranco (c) 2016



I am always amazed at the layers,

the levels, of the human experience. 

The never ending,

ever-evolving, devolving,

shifting, opening,

illumination, illusion-revealing,

conviction shattering, my gospel truth challenging, 

deep calling to deep, border breaking, 

darkness, light and color discovering, re-discovering.
This way of living I have stumbled onto – into – 

not because I’m so smart –

but because I asked,

I was given this priceless gift. 

This surprising path 

of a pilgrim,

of spiritual growth,

baby stepping my way to

healing, learning,

opening, Mystery,

more always reveals more. 

Always re-defining the definitions

of love, abundance,

grace, healing,

truth, error,

good, evil,

joy, suffering,

prosperity, poverty,

spirit, spirituality,

life itself becoming more with each step. 

My self righteousness becoming less important

with every glimpse of my Creator, my own Belovedness. 

Sometimes I understand how Peter must have felt when he saw the great sheet of unclean animals come down before him,

which God asked him to kill and eat,

He challenged with those same words I have heard from heaven –

“What I have named clean do not proclaim unclean.”

Challenging, very challenging, stuff. 

The stuff of humility and opening, 

the stuff of learning. 

Life changing/giving stuff. 

We want to think we know, that we are right. 

We want approval, to be able to judge. 

We want to earn our way, be worthy. 

It will never work. Thankfully. 

Then we catch the tiniest of glimpses of the Lover

and we fall on our knees,

breathless, undone,

aware of our need, our misplaced vanity,

stripped of our pride, our shoes,

amazed by what we have encountered, changed forever. 

full but ever thirsty for more – 
LOVE

💞

AL


I’m convinced of this: Good done anywhere is good done everywhere. For a change, start by speaking to people rather than walking by them like they’re stones that don’t matter. As long as you’re breathing, it’s never too late to do some good.

💞

— Maya Angelou 


Posted in action, Adventure, attitude, awareness, beauty, Becoming Yourself, Change, Choice, commitment, community, connection, courage, Encouragement, Faith, find art at pinterest, Leadership, Letting Go, Life, Love, Passion, politics | Leave a comment
25 Jul 2016

growing wild 


Dark and early in your story someone fearful

of your inborn glory took it 

and buried it behind your house,

and you, innocently, and wise to save yourself

from their greater wrath, 

believed its absence. 

It’s not a pompous glory, 

insistent on regard, but sure and quiet 

as a wildflower’s, asking nothing.

And so you’ve lived—so have we all— 

without it, your heart shoveled over

with self-doubt and apology, as if 

you have no place or voice here

among angels. 

We see you in the cripples who flocked

to Jesus, the mute, the paralyzed,

bent over, shut out, gone mad. 

And all he meant to say was this: 

you shine. You bring a gift 

as no one else, and you belong. 

Your Word deserves a hearing,

and this world needs your beauty 

and your grace. There is no rank

you fall below, no worth you fail to match.

Your shuttering was evil, and God 

wants it undone, and wants you whole.

And so she takes you by the hand

and raises you to stand, to walk, to speak.

She listens to your song with joy. 

She rains upon the earth

until you are unafraid of your radiance

and all our houses are surrounded by wildflowers.

______________________

Steve Garnaas-Holmes

Unfolding Light

http://www.unfoldinglight.net


Wildflowers grow without

discipline,

rooted in the secret order

of quietness.

Edges get rounded down.

Nature offers no straight lines 

or right angles.

Wouldn’t you rather run your

fingers through black loam

than scroll through golden rules?

What you really seek

is the fragrance of chaos,

like a moth on a purple aster,

the intimate fragility

of mountain meadows.

Surrender first.

Strip off the armor

of Should.

Then fight your valiant battle

for beauty.

___________
Alfred K. LaMotte


…

Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow:

they do not toil or spin. 

~Matthew 6:28



Do you suppose she’s a wild flower?

Dancing light and free

Do you suppose she’s a wildflower? 

As we all wish to be 

Let yourself go 

be drawn to what you love

   – Rumi


God made black sheep and dandelions 

God said they were good

God made your heart sweet

He sees you cryin’

Oh now can’t you see

God made you and me

just like every star

to shine just as we are
 there’s a garden many know

pretty maids all in a row

looking all they same are they

mother, may I? they do say
some folks see wishes

some folks see weeds

some folks see diamonds

whiles stones others see

some folks don’t get me

as I need to be

I am a wildflower

dancing so free
God made black sheep and dandelions 

God said they were good

God made your heart sweet

He sees you cryin’

Oh now can’t you see

God made you and me

just like every star

to shine just as we are
there’s a sky above we see

stars come out to play at night

they don’t ask what they can be

they shine their light for all to see
some folks see storms clouds

some folks see rains

some folks see nightmares

whiles dreams others see

some folks don’t get me

as I need to be

I am a star child

twinkling so free
God made black sheep and dandelions 

God said they were good

God made your heart sweet

He sees you cryin’

Oh now can’t you see

God made you and me

just like every star

to shine just as we are

💫

AL






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Posted in attitude, awareness, beauty, Becoming Yourself, Change, Choice, Dancing, Encouragement, Faith, find art at pinterest, Freedom, fun, Growth, healing, Impossible, inspiration, intimacy, Joy, Letting Go, Life, Love, nature | Leave a comment

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