life: acoustic & amplified

poetry, quotes & thoughts about life

Archive for the category “Beginning”

12 May 2016

going on  



You have burned your bridges.

You have passed through the gate

marked “no return”

And for you there is no going back

No going back to the security of

the known, familiar house,

To the well-worn dispensations

and the threadbare coverings.

Now you are out there in uncharted

territory

heavy with threat and shadows not

yet entered.

The risks are high, and yet you

strike out boldly,

Guided only by unwavering conviction

And the longing for the true centre

of the land.

This is what it means to do a new

thing.

So, you travel lightly.

You are abandoned, given up in all

things

To the task that lies ahead.

Therefore, you may be exactly who

you are.

You have inhabited yourself,

You are at home,

And home is where you are,

Even if it is the desert.

No one can dispossess you of your own in-dwelling.

This is what it means to be free.

We stand, one foot upon the bridge,

Wondering if we too have the courage to go over

And strike the match behind us.

🔥

The Dream of Learning our True Name by Kathy Galloway 


Trees not yet leafed out,

the woods aren’t green,

just tiny flakes of green
in their childish little hands,

soft and small.

Something larger than them
from deep down stirs,

exceeds itself in them.

Among those who dare
a new thing

God grant me

such ancient courage.
__________________ 
Steve Garnaas-Holmes

Unfolding Light

http://www.unfoldinglight.net




photo sources found at http://www.pinterest.com

Posted in action, Adventure, attitude, awareness, beauty, Becoming Yourself, Beginning, Burnign Bridges, Change, Choice, commitment, connection, determination, find art at pinterest, forgiveness, healing, home, Letting Go, Life, Love, Miracles, moment | Leave a comment
11 May 2016

God didn’t promise days without pain, laughter without sorrow, or sun without rain, but He did promise strength for the day, comfort for the tears, and light for the way. –Anonymous


19 years ago today

I stood at the edge

of a great abyss 

in life

a part of me,

not known until that time,

had awakened

now I had a choice to make,

to accept –

or deny –

this part of myself,

which was revealed 

in such a wild, 

drastic,

unexpected

and overwhelming manner

I knew this would be

what, ultimately,

saved,

or

destroyed,

my life.

as I stood,

still in innocence,

not really knowing –

yet, somehow,

knowing in every way –

the costs,

the benefits,

the responsibility,

the awareness.

the long dark road ahead,

the excruciating valley years to come,

the sharp, rugged climb up the mountain. 

19 years ago,

on this day,

I struggled 

with all of this.

I made certain vows 

concerning the choices 

I would make through 

my time of learning:

I would only follow love. 

No matter how I failed, I would remember it is not about how good I am. I would try to live the words of Jesus in The Sermon on the Mount. 

I would never make a choice 

simply to benefit myself 

or to get money. 

I would learn to be truthful and fair and be the person I wanted to be. 

I would be honest with myself – always – especially when I was wrong, or made a mistake. 

I would stay aware and learn – so I would not make the same mistake twice. 

I would make the best choice I could any given moment, and then move forward the best I could with no regret. 

I would do my best and give my best. 

I would look for good things every day. 

That day I said ‘yes!’ to life

I jumped off the cliff

and began…

for good…

for bad…

to make my choices 

from a new place of radical trust. 

the rest is my history…

🍎

AL


All of my life I searched for truth and wanted to be beautiful

All my life I kept on moving looking for my home

All my life I played the part that someone else said was beautiful

All my life I lived afraid I couldn’t play that part

now I knock upon your door hear what my heart’s been longing for

welcome home

you belong

you are here 

where I love you, 

I want you

welcome home

won’t you stay

in my arms

I will hold you, 

I need you

I won’t ever leave you

you are home

you are never alone

welcome home

I will sing you a song

I will build you an alter

I will shout to the hills

I will rise to the sky

I will bake you some bread

I will drink to your honor

I will dance in the rain

I will celebrate always

🏡

AL


 
Character. Strength. Intelligence. Style. That makes beauty.

💞

— Diane Von Furstenberg 

A man looked for meaning.

For his very place in life.
He searched high and low.
He’d often hear a whisper, calling

his name from the other side

of what seemed like a door.
A door that remained hidden

from his ability to see.
Frustrated, he’d knock on

everything that resembled

a door. Turning here,

and there. Turning

just about anywhere.
Then one day,

unannounced,

it opened.
And he realised that he’d been

knocking from the inside.

And that the whisper

had been an echo.
The echo of his own soul

reminding him that

he was already home.

💞

The Whisper and the Echo by Nic Askew

Posted in action, Adventure, attitude, awareness, Becoming Yourself, Beginning, beloved, Burnign Bridges, Change, Choice, find art at pinterest, Freedom, healing, Letting Go, Life, Love, mystery, risk, soul and spirit, transformation, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment
10 May 2016

preparation = always ready 


WAITING TO GO ON
…It must be 

we are waiting 

for the perfect moment. 
It must be

under all the struggle

we want to go on.
It must be, 

that deep down,

we are creatures

getting ready

for when we are needed.
It must be that waiting 

for the listening ear

or the appreciative word, 

for the right

woman or the right man 

or the right moment 

just to ourselves,
we are getting ready 

just to be ready
and nothing else.
Like this moment

just before the guests arrive 

working

alone in the kitchen 

sensing a deep

down symmetry

in every blessed thing.
The way

that everything 

unbeknownst

to us

is preparing 

to meet us too.
Just on the other 

side of the door 

someone

is about to knock

and our life

is just

about to change
and finally

after all these 

years rehearsing, 

behind

the curtain,
we might 

just be 

ready

to go on.
…

From ‘Waiting to Go On’ by David Whyte


The piano, 

not played,

is still a piano – 

patiently waiting 

the music lies quietly

still inside

ready 

not going anywhere else

not making itself heard

not anxious 

or demanding 

all it takes is the right hand

to touch the keys

to fall in love

and the song begins

the strings within

warm to life

always ready to play

💞

AL


Posted in action, attitude, awareness, Becoming Yourself, Beginning, Choice, connection, courage, Encouragement, Faith, find art at pinterest, Gratitude, Letting Go, Life, Love, music, mystery, soul and spirit, transformation, Trust, truth, Uncategorized, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment
06 May 2016

make the most of it


Setting priorities is a difficult process…
No, it’s not!

That’s just what I keep saying. 

But, it’s really very simple –

Just this…
What is the most important thing(s) in my life?
How do I reorganize my life around 

the most important thing(s)?
Am I willing to do the work focused on that/those?
Those questions are on me. 

The answers are very clear,

very simple. 
YES! 
Ok, then…

Get busy

make your music happen 

Focus 

Work

Do it!

This is it!

Set your sites…

Now…

Go…

💃🏻

AL





Posted in action, Adventure, attitude, awareness, beauty, Becoming Yourself, Beginning, Career, Choice, confidence, connection, courage, create, Encouragement, find art at pinterest, focus, fun, grace, Happiness, inspiration, Joy, laugh, Letting Go, Life, Love, Miracles, music | Leave a comment
08 Apr 2016
1 Comment

My motto was always to keep swinging. Whether I was in a slump or feeling badly or having trouble off the field, the only thing to do was keep swinging.   – Hank Aaron 

 

Blessed be the longing that brought you here

 And quickens your soul with wonder.
May you have the courage to listen to the voice of desire

 That disturbs you when you have settled for something safe. 
May you have the wisdom to enter generously into

 your own unease

 To discover the new direction your longing wants

 you to take. 
May the forms of your belonging — in love, creativity 

 and friendship —

 Be equal to the grandeur and the call of your soul. 

⚾️

  – John O’Donohue

 

there’s so much more to me 😊
than the color of my eyes 👁👁
the curve of my lips 👄
I am full of wild:
flowers 🌸
and 
fires 🔥
/
desire 😈
and 
laughter😄
/
passion 💃🏻
and
purpose 📚
the natural cravings of life:
love ❤️
and 
touch 🖐🏼
/
home 🏡
and 
protection 💪
/
to be fully known 
and
accepted
I carry in my bones:
music 🎼
and
poems ✏️
/
pain 🙁
and 
sorrow 😢
/
healing 💝
and 
hope 💓
I ache with the need to share:
darkness 🌓
and 
light 🌗
/
work 👷🏼
and 
play 💑
/
faith 🙏🏻
and
friendship 👫
I think about you all the time 😍
today I wonder…
what happens next? ⁉️
only time will tell 🕰

❣

AL

   

Posted in Becoming Yourself, Beginning, beloved, Letting Go, Life, Love
02 Apr 2016

reborned

 

The days are cold and brown,

Brown fields,  no sign of green,
Brown twigs,  not even swelling,
And dirty snow in the woods.
But as the dark flows in

The tree frogs begin

Their shrill sweet singing,

And we lie on our beds

Through the ecstatic night,

Wide awake,  cracked open. 

There will be no going back.

✨

April in Maine by May Sarton

 

 Though I know better
the trees look dead.

Here and there a little prison 

of ice is forgiven.

Little green hands reach up through leafmold

and I can’t let go.

A door opens inside me
I didn’t know was there.

________________________

Weather Report
Possibility,

which only recently 

seems to have become possible

though it has been riding upper currents

from the other side of the world.

A clear front develops

as everything emerges from within.

Expect variable conditions,

and completely predictable

intermittent surprises.
__________________  

Steve Garnaas-Holmes

Unfolding Light

http://www.unfoldinglight.net

  
 It seems we have made pain 

some kind of mistake, 

like having it 

is somehow wrong. 
Don’t let them fool you— 

pain is a part of things. 
But remember, dear Ellie, 

the compost down in the field: 

if the rank and dank and dark 

are handled well, not merely discarded, 

but turned and known and honored, 

they one day come to beds of rich earth 

home even to the most delicate rose. 

🌹

selected from A Poem for My Daughter by Teddy Macker

 

 I am ready
when a voice has spoken,

a path opened its arms,

ready to resolve and to follow.

And if not I am ready to be still,

and more still yet, 

to wait,

to shed my wants and fears,

my wishes and words, and even 

the words I have for the silence

and for you, 

until not I but you speak

and I follow.

And when I have resolved,

and I am sure of myself, 

and my wishes reappear 

in the costume of devotion,

help me to return 

to be still and listen again.

Another Eve. Another Day. 

I yield to you fully,

and ask you only 

to help me to return

and to return

and to return,

to be still and ready

each day. 

__________________ 

Steve Garnaas-Holmes

Unfolding Light

http://www.unfoldinglight.net

Posted in attitude, awareness, beauty, Becoming Yourself, Beginning, Change, Choice, Encouragement, find art at pinterest, Growth, Happiness, mystery, nature, Patience, Poetry | Leave a comment
31 Mar 2016

doors, windows, bridges, kite’s flying high

It is big sky and its changes,

the sea all round and the waters within.

It is the way sea and sky

work off each other constantly,

like people meeting in Alfred Street,

each face coming away with a hint

of the other’s face pressed in it.

It is the way a week-long gale

ends and folk emerge to hear

a single bird cry way high up.
It is the way you lean to me

and the way I lean to you, as if

we are each other’s prevailing;

how we connect along our shores,

the way we are tidal islands

joined for hours then inaccessible,

I’ll go for that,

and smile when I

pick sand off myself in the shower.

The way I am an inland loch to you

when a clatter of white whoops and rises…
It is the way Scotland looks to the South,

the way we enter friends’ houses

to leave what we came with, or flick

the kettle’s switch and wait.

This is where I want to live,

close to where the heart gives out,

ruined, perfected,

an empty arch against the sky

where birds fly through

instead of prayers

while in Hoy Sound

the ferry’s engines thrum

this life this life this life.
⛴

Orkney / This Life
Andrew Greig

For Catherine and Jamie


this birth of awaiting changes

this for that

tit for tat

tuxedo memories

pinstripe debonair

glamour hangs

like confetti in the air

life goes

round and round

flinging dreams

synthetic roads

leading nowhere

screams and laugher

hardest when not fair

up one side now

down the other there

we hang on

we stomp our feet

and swear

this ain’t right

this we cannot bear

life goes forward

ever on and on

wanting only

to change our point of view

we are loved

no matter what we lose

love will win

love’s always

life’s sweet muse

sight or blind

the vision ours to choose

❤️

AL

I’ll be the wild that keeps your heart in the clouds and you’ll be the anchor that keeps my feet on the ground.

⚓️

by Victoria Erickson


Hey, wait a minute…(pause…..)
Living artfully with time might only require something as simple as pausing.

—Thomas Moore

Let Me Tell You About Beginnings..

Posted in attitude, awareness, balance, Becoming Yourself, Beginning, Choice, connection, laugh, Letting Go, Life, Love | Leave a comment
28 Mar 2016

meanwhile, back at the reservation…

  


 

 

 The World Is in Pencil
—not pen. 

It’s got

that same silken
dust about it, 

doesn’t it,

that same sense 

of
having been roughed

onto paper 

even as it was planned.

It had to be a labor
of love. 

It must’ve taken its author

some time, some shove.

I’ll bet it felt good
in the hand—

the o

of the ocean, 

and
the and 

of the land.

✏️

The World Is in Pencil by Todd Boss

  
Easter God,

roll away the stone 

from the tomb of my heart.
Let the morning light 

of your love

shine in.
As light forgives darkness,

fills it, 

transforms it,
your love forgives me,

fills me, 

transforms me.
I am not among the dead—

my guilt, my shame, my fear.

You have brought me to life. 
The light of your love raises me,

sets me free,

leads me out into this new day,
beloved,

living, 

new.
__________________  

Steve Garnaas-Holmes

Unfolding Light

http://www.unfoldinglight.net

  
   
 This is why we survive the winter

The world shows off

Flowers are bursting color

Flaming forsythia frames the river

Fuzzy trees and bushes make me squirmy happy 

The sky beams blue

The water waves joyfully

The sand gladly greets, 

us with our winter legs

(except for the hardcore tanning bed crowd – already too brown for the rest of us)

little girls and their tattooed fathers pick up shells and rocks

to fill purple buckets of heartwarming, serious cuteness

coconut oil floats deliciously on the warm breeze 

I can’t stop smiling

Spring has sprung

Let love begin

🐰

AL

  

Posted in attitude, awareness, beauty, Becoming Yourself, Beginning, beloved, Happy Holiday!, Letting Go, Life, light, Love | Leave a comment
25 Mar 2016

Good Friday 

 

 Copperleaf Lane is dancing in white,
like a row of brides,

as ready, 

as they possibly could be 

to say, I do. 

I drive through the flower strewn pathway

feeling special,

like life is unfolding,

just for the love of me.  

I am beloved, 

a daughter of graces,

twirling within this beauty,

this bounty,

the world’s abundance falling freely around me. 

I sing,

la dee da dee da

You keep filling my senses,

you keep walking towards me,

smiling,

that beautiful heart of yours,

held gently, 

tenderly,

within your hands –

the perfect gift

for a girl like me. 

Heaven is holding its breath…

counting intensely…

1…

2..
❤️

AL

  
  
TURNING TOWARD HOME 
The moment you have spoken the exact words that describe your distance from where you want to be, the moment you have uttered the exact aching dimensionality of your own exile, you have already turned around, faced the other way and taken the first steps on the long awaited journey home… 

🌳

David Whyte

THE THREE MARRIAGES

Re-imagining Work, Self and Relationship

   yesterday I was born a leaf

a small fragile tender wisp

trembling as I hung on the vine

yesterday I was a gust of air

short lived, but not insignificant 

full of bone rattling cold and hat disturbing bravado

yesterday I was a large, slow, snow flake

plopping down like a wet goose feather

making the world a magical place

yesterday I was a world made of glass

lying shattered on the floor

hoping to be recycled into a new and useful object

yesterday I was various people

a student, a host, a friend, a lover

feeling my way into the next moment hoping to find a way home

yesterday I stood tall as a tree

proud yet with humble confidence 

accepting what winter brought, gently weeping, 

embracing this brand new life bringing

spring

🌿

AL
 

here’s the thing…

what’s a girl to do with all this happiness?

what sort of containers can hold this amount of wild joy?

will howling at the moon help disperse it into the world?

or dancing in a beautiful fountain, with you, bring sanity?

what if I shout it proud to everyone I pass on street? 

will they clap to hear my good news? 

will you wish me happy for every morning and evening? 

will you take a train, plane or automobile to see me? 

will you hold me & tell me that I’m the most beautiful girl you’ve ever seen?

will you love me with all you are for everything I am right now,

and ever will be becoming?

living well is my best revenge

won’t it would be nice to share this happiness? 

do wild and crazy things?

come on, everybody,

let’s let joy flow in big puddles all around us,

till we jump like children,

till we swim in the ocean of all this blessed grace

🌫

AL

Posted in attitude, awareness, beauty, Becoming Yourself, Beginning, beloved, Blessing, connection, Faith, find art at pinterest, giving, Glory, grace, Gratitude, Happiness, Happy Holiday!, healing, Letting Go, Life, Love, Miracles, mystery, Passion, Patience, power, Prayer | Leave a comment
07 Mar 2016

progress 

 

 In this long dark, logic and plain sight are useless. You navigate by the diffuse and reflective attention of the moon and stars. Bringing a deep, penetrating silence to the knowing that lives in your bones, stirs in your womb and emanates from your dreams, you recognize that you are no longer who you used to be and not yet still who you will become. You are both, you are neither, you are perfectly between things.

Even if distantly and dimly at first, abilities you never had during the day are coming alive. Where you used to seek leadership outside yourself, now yours is the deciding voice. Fear is becoming your strange ally, as you learn to honour and cradle its soft underbelly. Instinct and the mystical pull of your feeling leads the way. You can sense the density of objects around you, hear the songs of stones and know things are coming even before they’ve left.
For you, brave pilgrim, I hold this lantern at the crossroads. While others are anxious to see you arrive, I praise your vast withstanding of the uncertainty from which all meaning is born. 

❤️

– Love, Toko-pa 

http://www.toko-pa.com

 

And then there comes a moment

when all you have suffered

all you have learned

all you have lost and found

rise up and become 

and suddenly you are 

here

you are 

who you dreamed of being 

so many years ago

suddenly you have arrived

at what you caught glimpses of

for so many years 

and the search,

the free fall of broken dreams,

broken hearts

broken everything

tumbling down rabbit holes

stumbling over the feet 

of your own lack of knowledge

is over 

you find yourself on solid ground

stable

steady

raising your Ebenezer 

those tributes to God 

for all the mighty stones of help

building this foundation on the solid rocks 

you know so well 

and though the pilgrimage may continue

though the journey is definitely not over

though life is fragile

and security an illusion

there is a new sureness to your step

a trusting unshakable

a calm in it all 

a new assurance of provision

a new traveling song to be sung as you walk forward

always forward

always pilgrim ready for new adventures

forgetting the names of what lay behind

you press on to your calling

the prize set before

reveling in the mercies ever new

for each new day

there is no stopping now

you have found something

which cannot be taken

you have arrived here by your own determination

reached a place 

both spiritual and physical

a place of such magnitude 

the light shines from every angle

it has sealed up the oldest sores

bound up the deepest wounds

satisfied the deepest longings

changed everything 

settled old scores with finality 

no longer will you settle for less than you deserve

no more will you tolerate anything less than your best and highest offerings 

you must be all you can be 

gratitude fills you for this place 

a place so lovely 

it can bear up 

even under the weight 

of our hearts wildest desires 

with just this simple name

it resounds inside our souls like a bell –

    home

yes, beloved,

     you are home. 

right where you belong. 

🏡

AL

   

photo sources at http://www.pinterest.com 

Posted in action, Adventure, attitude, awareness, beauty, Becoming Yourself, Beginning, Beliefs, beloved, Change, Choice, compassion, confidence, connection, find art at pinterest, Freedom, healing, inspiration, Losing, Love | Leave a comment

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