Beginning | life: acoustic & amplified

Archive for the category “Beginning”

23 Oct 2015

be brave

Most of the greatest achievements on the planet are unknown to others – private overcomings, silent attempts at belief, re-opening a shattered heart. The real path of champions truly lies within – the transforming of suffering into expansion, the clearing of horrifying debris, the building of a healthy self-concept without tools. The greatest achievers have found a way to believe in something good despite being traumatized and fractured on life’s battlefields. No matter what else they accomplish in their lives, they are already champions. One day the world will realize that it is much harder to heal a shattered heart than excel at athletics. Go(l)d medals all around…
– Jeff Brown

They have told you to be quiet

since your crib,

when your needs, your cry for the divine

disturbed them.

You too have learned the command,

to silence your soul, to silence others.

Stand still and listen:

what is the voice within, crying out, silenced?
Rise; take heart.

The Beloved is calling you,

wants to hear your plea,

to honor your word,

to hear what has not been spoken,

wants you to come,

to ask for what must be asked for

and must be given.
Now, you have been called

and you have been heard.

Whom have we silenced?

Whom are you called to call

to reveal

the miracle of God?

Rise, take heart.

The Beloved is calling you.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes

Unfolding Light

http://www.unfoldinglight.net

In the space between breaths

It can be gone

A months worth of words

Erased with a fingertip

A 12, 30 even 60 year marriage over

With 4 words spoken:

I want a divorce

A home with all it’s possessions

Destroyed in a matter of minutes in the fury of nature –

Fire or storm

Life

So fragile

With no guarantees

Of longevity

Or comfort

Begs to be lived

Now

To be counted for the sake of goodness

This is the only moment that counts

Don’t wait

Take a deep

deep breath

of the spirit that is giving it all

There is only one thing eternal

Say thank you

For that one thing that will always remain

All else can be destroyed

But not this.

What is this eternal gift?

this one and only gift that remains, that matters?

You already know…

say it together now…

Love

💞

Listen to Gavin Rossdale sing Love Remains the Same

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

Posted in attitude, awareness, be, beauty, Becoming Yourself, Beginning, Beliefs, beloved, Blessing, Change, Choice, commitment, courage, Encouragement, healing, Imagine, Letting Go, Life, Love | Leave a comment

19 Oct 2015

you get to choose

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees

for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.

You only have to let the soft animal of your body

love what it loves.

Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.

Meanwhile the world goes on.

Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain

are moving across the landscapes,

over the prairies and the deep trees,

the mountains and the rivers.

Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,

are heading home again.

Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,

the world offers itself to your imagination,

calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting—

over and over announcing your place

in the family of things.

🌎

Wild Geese by Mary Oliver

It’s all connected

All the love

All the loss

All the joy

All the pain

The world is made of God

We live in the ocean of his breath

Life is love is truth is love is Life

All connected

Everything I really needed to know

I learned from the ocean

and the trees.

The mountains

Introduced me to the angels.

Acorns were my very first teachers and the finest flock of seagulls

were my most recent.

We are the temple

‘We’ includes the universe

we find ourselves in

brothers and sisters

to stars and starships

🌎

Posted in attitude, awareness, be, Becoming Yourself, Beginning, beloved, commitment, community, connection, Encouragement, find art at pinterest, grace, Gratitude, healing, Letting Go, Life, Love, mystery, People | Leave a comment

09 Oct 2015

2 Comments

letting go is a practice…keep practicing…

I very keenly realise the dangers of hanging on too long for what might not come in the end.

– C. S. Lewis
Put Your Records On by Corrine Bailey Rae

Three little birds sat on my window.

And they told me I don’t need to worry.

Summer came like cinnamon

So sweet,

Little girls double-dutch on the concrete.

Maybe sometimes we’ve got it wrong, but it’s alright

The more things seem to change, the more they stay the same

Oh, don’t you hesitate.

Go put your records on, tell me your favourite song

You go ahead, let your hair down

Sapphire and faded jeans, I hope you get your dreams,

Just go ahead, let your hair down.

You’re gonna find yourself somewhere, somehow.

Blue as the sky, sunburnt and lonely,

Sipping tea in a bar by the roadside,

(just relax, just relax)

Don’t you let those other ones fool you,

Got to love that afro hair do.

Maybe sometimes we feel afraid, but it’s alright

The more you stay the same, the more things seem to change.

Don’t you think it’s strange?

Go put your records on, tell me your favourite song

You go ahead, let your hair down

Sapphire and faded jeans, I hope you get your dreams,

Just go ahead, let your hair down.

You’re gonna find yourself somewhere, somehow.

‘Twas more than I could take, pity for pity’s sake

Some nights kept me awake, I thought that I was stronger

When you gonna realise, that you don’t even have to try any longer?

Do what you want to.

Go put your records on, tell me your favourite song

You go ahead, let your hair down

Sapphire and faded jeans, I hope you get your dreams,

Just go ahead, let your hair down.

Go put your records on, tell me your favourite song

You go ahead, let your hair down

Sapphire and faded jeans, I hope you get your dreams,

Just go ahead, let your hair down.
Oh, you’re gonna find yourself somewhere, somehow

Photos found at www.pinterest.com

Listen to Amos Lee sing Keep it Loose, Keep it Tight

Posted in attitude, awareness, beauty, Becoming Yourself, Beginning, Choice, Letting Go, Life, Love, Patience, Relationships, Seasons

04 Oct 2015

you can do this

truth pursues me
through the cracks in the sidewalk

refusing to die

or lie

or be denied

like a lazy

hazy

crazy

day

truth

sometimes

dances with the breeze

tickling my face with feathers

at other times

hurricane winds blow me down

sucker punching me in the gut

like an invisible boxer

intent on one thing

opening my eyes

expanding my humanity

never leaving me to my own devices

stretching my souls edges

challenging my comfort zones

while making me ever-more-comfortable in my own skin

allowing me to step, by baby step,

another inch or two into the mystery of grace

one day I know I’ll fit

into the sparkly shoes

I’m here to fill…

don’t worry…

you will too

🔹

Photos found at www.pinterest.com

Posted in attitude, awareness, beauty, Becoming Yourself, Beginning, Beliefs, beloved, Change, Choice, commitment, confidence, connection, courage, create, determination, find art at pinterest, grace, healing, Life, perceptions, Reality, Reflection, Relationships, Respect, Seasons | Leave a comment

01 Oct 2015

inward journey

Courage is a word that tempts us to think outwardly, to run bravely against opposing fire, to do something under besieging circumstance, and perhaps, above all, to be seen to do it in public, to show courage; to be celebrated in story, rewarded with medals, given the accolade, but a look at its linguistic origins leads us in a more interior direction and toward its original template, the old Norman French, Coeur, or heart.

Courage is the measure of our heartfelt participation with life, with another, with a community, a work, a future. To be courageous, is not necessarily to go anywhere or do anything except to make conscious those things we already feel deeply and then to live through the unending vulnerabilities of those consequences. To be courageous is to seat our feelings deeply in the body and in the world: to live up to and into the necessities of relationships that often already exist, with things we find we already care deeply about: with a person, a future, a possibility in society, or with an unknown that begs us on and always has begged us on. Whether we stay or whether we go – to be courageous is to stay close to the way we are made.

– David Whyte

trees, in general; oaks, especially;

burr oaks that survive fire, in particular;

and the generosity of apples
seeds, all of them: carrots like dust,

winged maple, doubled beet, peach kernel;

the inevitability of change
frogsong in spring; cattle

lowing on the farm across the hill;

the melodies of sad old songs
comfort of savory soup;

sweet iced fruit; the aroma of yeast;

a friend’s voice; hard work
seasons; bedrock; lilacs;

moonshadows under the ash grove;

something breaking through

🔹

– Patricia Monaghan: Things to Believe In

Posted in action, Adventure, attitude, awareness, Becoming Yourself, Beginning, Beliefs, Change, Choice, courage, create, find art at pinterest, perceptions, soul and spirit, strength, Trust, truth, Vulnerability, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment

15 Sep 2015

as in poetry, so in life

Poetry’s favourite moment is when one loses one’s footing because of a landslide or seismic shaking of thought — Michel Leiris

Night Owl Poetry

poem found on facebook/parker palmer
Nature is our greatest teacher. Storms are part of life. Change is good…

Posted in attitude, awareness, beauty, Becoming Yourself, Beginning, Blessing, Change, Choice, determination, healing, Letting Go, Life, mystery, nature, Seasons | Leave a comment

08 Sep 2015

hello, again!

A few weeks ago I took a break. I truly had no idea if I would return here. I was ok with that – it’s a lovely body of work.

I enjoyed my break, a few times I thought about it…mainly I didn’t….

Over the past three or four days I keep getting a recurring message, ‘speak to the dry bones’. (Haven’t totally worked that out yet…in fact, I’m at sea on it – I welcome any thoughts on it…)

Then, yesterday, I got the message in my soul…time to start again – return and build – and so, here I am. Not really sure where it’s going to go…feels a lot different from my first post 4+ years ago. There are lots of new things going on in my life. Lots of things being moved and removed. Interesting times for me, hard things, as always, still, there is the same, consistent hand of faith holding me, guiding me, urging me on, keeping me on the path of love, joy and peace. The world is a hard, broken place to live in, but deep inside each of us lives the key to overcome the world. I believe that completely.

Thank you for reading my words. Thank you for being a part of my life. Thank you for understanding, or even mis-understanding my thoughts. It’s all good stuff!

Welcome to my adventure!

Love and kisses,

Amy

Wisdom cries out in the street;

at the busiest corner she raises her voice:

“I will pour out my thoughts to you.”

—Proverbs 1.20, 21, 23

I listen.

Amid the clatter and chatter

of my fears and fantasies,

the rattle and traffic of this world

the trip wire pitch, the push,

the drive for the deal

to buy me and sell me—
I listen to your soft voice

humming beneath worry and duty,

steady, its ocean of silence,

its moon of light,
the nearest murmur,

no argument, no decree,

no foreign words, no hard words,

no words,

but wind in grass,

saying all I need to know,
flowing water,

a river poured out in me

to drink, to bathe,

to lie in and float

to your sea.

__________________

Steve Garnaas-Holmes

Unfolding Light

http://www.unfoldinglight.net

listen to Neil Diamond sing Hello Again http://youtu.be/ZnbMHkiIGwk
Photo sources found at www.pinterest.com

Posted in Adventure, attitude, awareness, Becoming Yourself, Beginning, beloved, Change, Choice, community, Encouragement, find art at pinterest, Joy, Life, Love, Peace, voice | Leave a comment

05 Aug 2015

beauty in all she is

It’s true, what all our heroes say. There is a way

in this world for beauty,

for good. It may

be a crooked path

in a tanglewood, but

stay the course and,

when the way grows rocky,

walk your horse,
and who knows, you may yet

come upon the wild rose,

as I have done, and,

paying close attention,

keep from crushing her into

the grime, and then,

with any luck, in time

remember how you found her

and how to find her again

when the way gets wilder.

🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

To a Wild Rose by Todd Boss

In the Celtic tradition, there is a beautiful understanding of love and friendship. One of the fascinating ideas here is the idea of soul-love; the old Gaelic term for this is anam ċara. Anam is the Gaelic word for soul and ċara is the word for friend. … In the early Celtic church, a person who acted as a teacher, companion, or spiritual guide was called an anam Ċara. It originally referred to someone to whom you confessed revealing the hidden intimacies of your life. With the anam ċara you could share your innermost self, your mind, and your heart. This friendship was an act of recognition and belonging. … In everyone’s life there is great need for an anam ċara, a soul friend, in this love you are understood as you are without mask or pretension. Where you are understood, you are at home.

– John O’Donohue

Listen to Christina Perri sing A Thousand Years http://youtu.be/q9ayN39xmsI

Photo sources at www.pinterest.com/al513

Posted in attitude, awareness, Becoming Yourself, Beginning, beloved, Blessing, connection, find art at pinterest, friendship, home, Life, Love, mystery, Relationships, soul and spirit, touch, Trust, truth, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment

19 Jul 2015

mediocrity…never…the battle is on!

Feeling empty and unstrung
I wake from my dream

warnings of being unwilling to change

of being stuck in one place

unwilling to do things different

I sit at my desk

afraid

because this dream was not about you

it was about me

and it scares the hell outta me

that it is what I will allow.
I know

the tractor beam of mediocrity is on –

will my shields hold?

Will I stay out of the pig pen,

or just give up and wallow in the stinky mud?

The comfortable parking space calls me..
All this,

and the glaring monotony,

the forced prison,

of my day

stares at me.

how will I break this day open?

how will I know I have

reached beyond my need for security?

how will I battle my own resistance?

how will I stay focused on my own need,

and not distract myself with yours?

I open poems by Mary Oliver

The Moths is all it takes!

I feel the door of freedom swing open wide.

I write

I post

I say ‘thank you’

for these, and all the other words.

Within the hour I get a comment from Oriah, whose poem,

The Invitation,

was a life changer

and I know life

has answered my need to know

that I am connected to the whole

I feast

on bacon

with a side of strawberries n cream & passion fruit Godiva truffles

knowing there is always

more goodness

than I could ever eat up

my cup is overfull and sticky

from all that honey

from all those

beauti-ous bees.

🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝

AL (Oct 2013)

Listen to Willie Nelson sing This Face http://youtu.be/_79LW9_OIUA
😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍

Find photo sources at www.pinterest.com/al513

The mind must

set itself up

wherever it goes

and it would be

most convenient

to impose its

old rooms—just

tack them up

like an interior

tent. Oh but

the new holes

aren’t where

the windows

went.

🏡🏠🏠🏡🏠🏡🏠🏡

New Rooms by Kay Ryan

Posted in action, attitude, awareness, beauty, Becoming Yourself, Beginning, beloved, Change, Choice, commitment, community, connection, courage, determination, Encouragement, Faith, find art at pinterest, Freedom, Gratitude, Letting Go, Life, Love, Passion, Poetry, Reflection, soul and spirit, strength, truth, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment

09 Jul 2015

dancing…

Music is playing,
music with an aim, produced,

music of collusion and desire,

insistent and sexual.

Hard not to move with the music.

Hard not to fall into the rhythm,

seduce and be seduced.

But don’t slip on the blood

on the floor.
Other music plays,

silent, within.

Different feel, different band.

Music of a beating heart,

melody of tumbling water,

lullaby whispered for a lifetime,

song of hearts set free.

The Beloved cuts in.

“May I have this one?”
No one to impress, only to offend.

No one to dance for, only with.

Dance.

Let joy move you,

even in the face of evil,

let love move you.

Before the guns,

behind the prison bars,

on the gallows, dance.

Dance on your own grave.

When they threaten you, dance

the other dance that at last

will consume them as well.
Unseen, though you know within,

the Beloved takes you in steady arms.

Dance.
__________________

Steve Garnaas-Holmes

Unfolding Light

http://www.unfoldinglight.net

💃🏻💃🏻💃🏻💃🏻💃🏻💃🏻💃🏻💃🏻💃🏻💃🏻💃🏻💃🏻

the story of your name is written in my book, your beginning, the moment where you felt you ended and I begin. That is your beginning, child.

You begin where you end and I begin.

And the story keeps writing, child. After beginning there is adventure. After beginning there is trust and falling and catching and believing and choosing and waiting. There is much waiting and beginning again.

Your story running right off the page with Me. – Loop Devotional from Gather Ministries

💃🏻💃🏻💃🏻💃🏻💃🏻💃🏻💃🏻💃🏻💃🏻💃🏻💃🏻

Listen to Lee Ann Womack sing I Hppe You Dance http://youtu.be/RV-Z1YwaOiw
💃🏻💃🏻💃🏻💃🏻💃🏻💃🏻

photo sources found at www.pinterest.com/al513

Posted in attitude, awareness, beauty, Becoming Yourself, Beginning, beloved, Change, Choice, Dancing, Dreams, find art at pinterest, Freedom, fun, Letting Go, Life, Love, music, Passion, soul and spirit, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment

life: acoustic & amplified

poetry, quotes & thoughts about life

Archive for the category “Beginning”

be brave

you get to choose

letting go is a practice…keep practicing…

you can do this

inward journey

as in poetry, so in life

hello, again!

beauty in all she is

mediocrity…never…the battle is on!

dancing…

Recent Posts

Archives

Categories

Meta

poetry, quotes & thoughts about life

Archive for the category “Beginning”

Post Navigation

Recent Posts

Archives

Categories

Meta