life: acoustic & amplified
poetry, quotes & thoughts about life
Archive for the category “Becoming Yourself”
that feeling
Yesterday we obeyed kings and bent our necks before emperors. But today we kneel only to truth, follow only beauty, and obey only love.
❤️
~ 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.
❤️
– Henri Nouwen
‘In all the languages in the world, there is the same proverb: “What the eyes don’t see, the heart doesn’t grieve over.”
Well, I say that there isn’t 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 we’re in exile, we want to store away every tiny memory of our roots.
If we’re far from the person we love, everyone we pass in the street reminds us of them.
‘The gospels and all the sacred texts of all religions were written in exile, in search of God’s 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 – and it is out of that doubt that books are written, pictures painted, because we don’t want to forget who we are – nor can we.’
______________________________
(in “Eleven Minutes”, by Paulo Coelho)
photo sources found at http://www.pinterest.com
no thanks, I’ve got a new partner
And then this boring meeting to become a circus,
this flabby body to become a work of art,
this life to become something else.
You can spend your life (oh, how we do)
inside a bubble of judgments and desires,
and never know even a simple stone.
No, stay here.
Let the stone be a stone,
the traffic be traffic.
Even this broken life,
this troubled soul,
this difficult time.
Otherwise how can a joy be joy,
a wonder a wonder?
Life is this, not something else.
This is the mystery of the fast,
the hungry day that is a hungry day,
free from the dictates of desire.
Nothing needs to be what it isn’t.
There is glory enough in the stone.
And in you, already a child of God.
You can’t command the transformation,
but only present yourself to God,
who can.
Just smile at Satan and say,
“No thanks.
I’m good.”
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
what if feeling bad is an ok part of being human?
I wish I had a nickel for every stranger who has ever told me, I’ve lost all hope. This happens to me regularly and what surprises me most is my instant reaction which is always something along the lines of “I know that feeling so well” or “Me too.” It seems this is one of the most common, most human feelings we can have and one we aren’t “supposed” to have if we’re evolved, rational creatures. It seems it’s a pitiable feeling to have, requiring an intervention or precipitating an emergency, but what if it just is something we feel sometimes, that’s very painful, made more painful by the feeling we are not supposed to feel it and that we should never ever say it out loud. What if our long days, months, years even with this feeling are hollowing out necessary places in our hearts where we can feel, really feel, what we long for? Like respect? Tenderness? Acceptance? Love?
– Jen Lemen / facebook
doxology and dreams in the dark
When I looked for good, then evil came unto me: and when I waited for light, there came darkness.
– Job 30:26
Smack dab in the middle of the fight
While I waited for right
my day turned to night
I thought I was fine
the good I would find
then early one morning I found I was blind
I lay on the ground
this dark hell I found
fluttering wings the only sound
I drank this dark brew
no way out but through
this darkness just grew and grew
Overtaking me, Helpless I turned
My hope was all burned
I could not choose what I thought I had earned
I lay in Your hand
in Your arc I did land
trusting the truth I had already found
Watching life pass
going ever so fast
oh how long will this dark, dark night last?
In spite of the fear
I am still here
I give thanks even through tears
I trust in Your plan
My life is just sand
I am a follower and not a just fan
and if I should die
The truth does not lie
The sun will still be here when I say goodbye
I trust in the way
I open and say
Come open the door today
So light come and hold me
Love come, grow boldly
Till every bush, and bud, flames holy
🌙
AL
do or do not….there is no try – Yoda
I want to be the song, a poem
I don’t want to play the record
Perch behind the lens
Hold the pen.
I want to be the song
Live the photo
Experience the novel.
Enough interpreting my existence.
Enough searching for the symbol, the reflection, the meaning.
I am resonant, alive, pulsing
One.
Treble and bass.
Light and shadows.
Beginnings and endings.
All of it.
I want to be the song.
Beating, polyrhythmic, harmonious.
The lyrics my prayers.
I want to live the photo.
Still, present, vibrant.
The image my essence.
I want to experience the novel.
Aching, poignant, truth.
The plot my story.
I want to be alive.
Color, beauty, heart-break.
Engaged, awake, heart-felt.
In awe.
Longing.
Loving.
💞
Spread the Love
Eloiza Jorge
💞
click on the photo below to go to Eloiza’s blog Deepening Wisdom
https://deepeningwisdom.wordpress.com/2012/07/08/i-want-to-be-alive/img_1833/
There comes a time when nothing is meaningful except surrendering to Love. Do It!
💞
– Rumi
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
…
EVERYTHING IS WAITING FOR YOU by David Whyte
Excuse me while I kiss the sky.
Pardon me while I hug the moon.
Forgive me while I dance with the ocean.
Give me a minute while I laugh with the stars.
Hold your horses while I sing to the angels.
Patience, my old friend, while I make love to the world.
Get some rest while I fly the skies with the eagles.
Count some sheep while I paint a masterpiece with Mother Nature.
Then…
Come lay down beside me and hold me.
caress my skin with lovers hands.
whisper secrets my soul longs to hear.
sing to me softly.
kiss me like the butterflies.
while I love you forever
and ever,
we fall asleep together
every night,
and I wake to see the face I love every morning.
Sweet dreams, my love.
good night.
🌙
AL
photos found at http://www.pinterest.com
all that’s left
If you have seen the snow
somewhere slowly fall
on a bicycle,
then you understand
all beauty will be lost
and how even that loss
can be beautiful.
And if you have looked
at a winter garden
and seen not a winter garden
but a meditation on shape,
then you know why
this season is not
known for its words,
the cold too much
about the slowing of matter,
not enough about the making of it.
So you are blessed
to forget this way:
a jump rope in the ice melt,
a mitten that has lost its hand,
a sun that shines
as if it doesn’t mean it.
And if in another season
you see a beautiful woman
use her bare hands
to smooth wrinkles
from her expensive dress
for the sake of dignity,
but in so doing trace
the outlines of her thighs,
then you will remember
surprise assumes a space
that has first been forgotten,
especially here, where we
rarely speak of it,
where we walk out onto the roofs
of frozen lakes
simply because we’re stunned
we really can.
⚜
Upon Discovering My Entire Solution to the Attainment of Immortality Erased from the Blackboard Except the Word `Save'” by Dobby Gibson
I woke up thinking,
how can I make this day different?
how can I live in inspiration within these circumstances?
how can I improve myself today?
Within this day I can make new choices.
Better decisions towards my health.
Towards my future.
Towards my goals.
Within this day I can eat and drink the things I know are health-full
I can read and write the words I know will inspire beauty and love.
I can think about each moment and choice as a precious gift.
I can allow the people in this house grace to choose for themselves without judgement.
I can exercise my body and make it better and stronger.
I can pray, fellowship and meditate growing in love and intimacy with God and the world.
I can open my mind and awareness to all the beauty and miracles surrounding me and say thank you.
I can find home within my heart and bless this dwelling place.
I can and I will live this way today,
I can and will commit to this way of living from this day forward.
Each choice matters.
I will live this moment well.
⚜
AL
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
💞
AL
life: acoustic & amplified 