life: acoustic & amplified

poetry, quotes & thoughts about life

Archive for the category “beloved”

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 

💞

AL

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
22 Oct 2015

fall. falling. fallen.   

  
Fall, falling, fallen. That’s the way the season 

Changes its tense in the long-haired maples 

That dot the road; the veiny hand-shaped leaves 

Redden on their branches (in a fiery competition 

With the final remaining cardinals) and then 

Begin to sidle and float through the air, at last 

Settling into colorful layers carpeting the ground. 

At twilight the light, too, is layered in the trees 

In a season of odd, dusky congruences—a scarlet tanager 

And the odor of burning leaves, a golden retriever 

Loping down the center of a wide street and the sun 

Setting behind smoke-filled trees in the distance, 

A gap opening up in the treetops and a bruised cloud 

Blamelessly filling the space with purples. Everything 

Changes and moves in the split second between summer’s 

Sprawling past and winter’s hard revision, one moment 

Pulling out of the station according to schedule, 

Another moment arriving on the next platform. It 

Happens almost like clockwork: the leaves drift away 

From their branches and gather slowly at our feet, 

Sliding over our ankles, and the season begins moving 

Around us even as its colorful weather moves us, 

Even as it pulls us into its dusty, twilit pockets. 

And every year there is a brief, startling moment 

When we pause in the middle of a long walk home and 

Suddenly feel something invisible and weightless 

Touching our shoulders, sweeping down from the air: 

It is the autumn wind pressing against our bodies; 

It is the changing light of fall falling on us. 

🍂

Fall by Edward Hirsch

   
    
    
    
 In Fall I saw 

a skyline of tree roofs 

blowing off in 

natural disasters 

of Biblical proportions. 

Every treehouse laid bare 

roofs to be mended in April 

when surplus roofing supplies arrive 

from Mother Nature 

painted bright shades of spring green 

with all the colors of the rainbow 

adorning the mended windows 

as the birds move into their summer homes. 

All in the right time 

not before 

I have known days of the extreme

Both hot and cold 

Pain and joy 

Full and empty 

I have wsited for spring 

I have been healed 

like the trees 

Now I wait for the time 

when the lovebirds come build their nest 

in my heart 

🍁

AL

   

Nature Photos by Fisherman Dan @ Branford, CT

Word art found on facebook

Posted in attitude, awareness, beauty, beloved, connection, find art at pinterest, healing, home, Hope, Letting Go, Life, Love, mystery, nature, Patience | Leave a comment
20 Oct 2015

one step 

 

 The wasps outside

the kitchen window

are making that
 

thick, unraveling sound
 again, 

floating in
 and out 

of the bald head
 of their nest,

seeming not to move

while moving,
 

and it has just occurred
 to me, 

standing,
 washing the coffeepot,

watching them hang
 

loosely in the air—

thin
 wings; 

thick, elongated 
abdomens; 

sad, down-
pointing antennae—

that this 
is the heart’s constant
project: 

this simple
 learning; 

learning
 how to hold 

hopelessness 
and hope together;

to see on the unharmed 
surface of one

the great scar 
of the other;

 to recognize 
both 

and to make 
something of both;

to desire everything 
and nothing

at once 

and to desire it
 all the time;

and to contain that desire
 fleshly, 

in a body;
 to wash it and rest it

and feed it; 

to learn
 its name and from whence
 it came; 

and to speak 
to it—oh, 

most of all
 to speak to it—

every day, every day,
 

saying to one part,

“Well, maybe this is all
 you get,” 

while saying 
to the other, 

“Go on, 
break it open, let it go.”
💞

Want by Carrie Fountain 

 

   Have you sat with grief? 

Have you let it wring you dry? 

Leave you swollen and exhausted

in it’s wake? 

Allowed the pain from the inner depths of hell, 

deeper than you knew existed, 

to ooze out, 

bubble up into your heart, 

so that your tears could begin 

to wash you clean? 

Have you asked yourself 

the questions with no answers? 

then allow them to just co-exist with you, 

allowing that life is good, 

finding space for gratitude 

even in the unanswerable? 

Have you walked, and talked, 

with death and your losses? 

The innocence murdered 

by anger and hate? 

Precious time stolen 

by monsters and ogres? 

Hearts trampled 

by words of violence and sarcasm? 

Are you familiar with vulnerability? 

With allowing your deepest feelings, 

painful feelings, 

raw feeling, 

real feelings, 

to come out of the grave 

where you try to hide them? 

Exposing your wounds, 

old and new? 

I know how hard it is, 

I know. 

I try to avoid it too. 

I also know the truth. 

It must be done. 

It is the broken road to healing. 

To life! 

The more we feel, 

the more we can feel. 

Go deep, my friend 

Open up wide. 

Sit a spell and let it bubble. 

Feel it all. 

It will feel rotten for a while, 

then comes the morning 

you wake up good as new! 

New and improved. 

I promise you won’t regret it. 

Just trust me on this one. 

I am intimately familiar 

with this process. 

💔

AL

 

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

Posted in attitude, awareness, Becoming Yourself, beloved, Blessing, Change, Choice, compassion, connection, courage, force, grace, Grieving, healing, Letting Go, Life, Love, mystery, soul and spirit, strength, touch, Trust, truth, www.pinterest.com | 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 

🌎

AL

  

 

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
17 Oct 2015

now

 

 
Now is the time to know
That all that you do is sacred.
Now, why not consider 

A lasting truce with yourself and God.
Now is the time to understand 

That all your ideas of right and wrong 

Were just a child’s training wheels 

To be laid aside 

When you finally live 

With veracity 

And love.
We are each* a divine envoy 

Whom the Beloved 

Has written a holy message upon.
My dear, please tell me, 

Why do you still 

Throw sticks at your heart 

And God?
What is it in that sweet voice inside 

That incites you to fear?
Now is the time for the world to know 

That every thought and action is sacred.
This is the time 

For you to compute the impossibility 

That there is anything 

But Grace.
Now is the season to know 

That everything you do 

Is sacred.

🔹

Today by Hafiz *edit by me…original words ‘Hafiz is’

 

 It’s there 
balled up in the corner of your mind 

covered over with cobwebs 

under the heaviest lock and key 

booby trapped 

even Indian Jones couldn’t get to this 

arc of your self-covenant 

anger slowly poisoning you over the years

toxic rivers seeping out 

flowing through your veins 

as you refuse to touch it 

or to acknowledge it can be conquered

the shadowy ghost of events so painful 

you have avoided them your whole life 

refused to allow 

the crumpled, tangled, horrible 

nightmare of these memories 

to be straightened out 

come into the sunlight 

to begin waste removal 

and cleanup of the mountain of trash

so deep 

it’s eaten you from the inside out 

destroying your peace  

and your chances for building the life you deserve

you’ve tolerated much 

to gain nothing 

will you ever

reach for higher ground?

I pray you will 

some fine day

I feel wonder

for how valued we each truly are,

how beloved. 

I am amazed at how far, and willing, 

God is to go,

to seek just one. 

Love is everything

we are all God’s children,

no matter what we choose to do.  

💞

AL

 

  

photos found at facebook 

Posted in attitude, awareness, Becoming Yourself, beloved, courage, grace, healing, Letting Go, Life, Love, Peace, Relationships, soul and spirit, Trust, truth | Leave a comment
15 Oct 2015

grace upon grace

  
Fall colors flash and burn

with yellows and reds,
 orange

 like flags,

their dead or dying leaves

spark pleasure in our eyes,

pour their colors out
like cash

unmeasured into

yards and eaves and flower beds,

drop their gold 
into the thirsty sky,

fling wide their treasures.

Why don’t I?

What would it be 
to live with this 

wild,
 brilliant generosity,

this free release,

this warmth, 

this 
depth of color, 

joy,
 and loss?

🍁🍁🍁🍁

_____________________
Weather Report

Beauty,
 

with the precipitation of things

falling out of our lives, 

and in,

as the season’s bright allure,

once accumulated and condensed,

now dissipates,

leaving us the gentle loveliness

of letting go.

🍁🍁🍁🍁

__________________

 
Steve Garnaas-Holmes

Unfolding Light

http://www.unfoldinglight.net

🍁

  
   
    
    
    
    
    
 top photo found at facebook/wayne dyer

bottom photos by fisherman Dan @ Branford, CT

🍁

 the law of abundanceis everywhere

we think we need to tap into 

the law of attraction

…think again…

the fruit falls off the trees for us

all we have to do is keep our hands open

🍁

AL

Posted in awareness, beauty, beloved, Blessing, Change, Choice, connection | Leave a comment
14 Oct 2015

at the river  

  
The mouth of the river may be beautiful. 

It doesn’t remember the womb of its beginning. 

It doesn’t look back to where it’s been 

or wonder who ahead of it polished the rough stones. 
It is following the way 

in its fullness, 

now like satin, 

now cresting, 

waters meeting, kindred 

to travel gathered together, 

all knowing it flows 

one way, shining or in shadows. 

And me, the animal 

I ride wants to drive forward, 

its longing not always my own, 

overrunning its banks and bounds, 

edgeless, spilling along the way 
because, as I forget, 

it knows everything 

is before it. 

🔹

Journey by Linda Hogan

   

It’s a beautiful, perfect day 

Warm, with a shadow of cool 

makes me know fall is coming 

I do love me some October 

I drove to Rocky Hill

to sing

spent way too much money 

on not much of anything 

coffee

filling up with gas 

ordered a book for 46$ 

from Chenè in Africa, 

Re-Authoring the World:

story narrative 

changing our perceptions 

changing our world 

things are changing for me 

it is time for me to begin again 

time for readjusting the flow 

time to take another step 

time to make my choices 

from a place of strength 

from a place of determination 

Freedom belongs to those who use it 

🔹

AL

🔹

you think you have time…

🔹

listen to Amy Grant & Vince Gill sing House of Love

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

🔹

Nothing has to happen immediately, this minute, or right now. It’s okay to pause for just a moment. Just take a breath. Then go quietly inside. Ask Life Itself to lead you to your best outcome. There’s nothing you have to do, really, except get out of your own way. — Neale Donald Walsch

Posted in action, Adventure, attitude, awareness, beloved, Choice, connection, Faith, home, Letting Go, Life, Love, mystery, nature, Passion, Patience | Leave a comment
12 Oct 2015

do or do not

 

Death is not the biggest fear we have; our biggest fear is taking the risk to be alive and express what we really are. 

– Miguel Angel Ruiz

   Being present lets us experience each moment in our lives in a way that cannot be fully lived through memory or fantasy.

It can be easy for us to walk through the world and our lives without really being present. While dwelling on the past and living for the future are common pastimes, it is physically impossible to live anywhere but the present moment. We cannot step out our front door and take a left turn to May of last year, any more than we can take a right turn to December 2010. Nevertheless, we can easily miss the future we are waiting for as it becomes the now we are too busy to pay attention to. We then spend the rest of our time playing “catch up” to the moment that we just let pass by. During moments like these, it is important to remember that there is only Now. 

In order to feel more at home in the present moment, it is important to try to stay aware, open, and receptive. Being in the present moment requires our full attention so that we are fully awake to experience it. When we are fully present, our minds do not wander. We are focused on what is going on right now, rather than thinking about what just happened or worrying about what is going to happen next. Being present lets us experience each moment in our lives in a way that cannot be fully lived through memory or fantasy. 

When we begin to corral our attention into the present moment, it can be almost overwhelming to be here. There is a state of stillness that has to happen that can take some getting used to, and the mind chatter that so often gets us into our heads and out of the present moment doesn’t have as much to do. We may feel a lack of control because we aren’t busy planning our next move, assessing our current situation, or anticipating the future. Instead, being present requires that we be flexible, creative, attentive, and spontaneous. Each present moment is completely new, and nothing like it has happened or will ever happen again. As you move through your day, remember to stay present in each moment. In doing so, you will live your life without having to wait for the future or yearn for the past. Life happens to us when we happen to life in the Now. 

🔹

Daily Om

There is Only Now

Fresh and Unfixed

by Madisyn Taylor

   
THE SAFE PATH IS NOT ACTUALLY SAFE. Because what you might lose on the safe path is quite simply: everything. Everything that matters. Your individual essence, your treasure, your vitality, your purpose, your SELF. And that’s the most dangerous thing that can happen to you.

🔹

From Elizabeth Gilbert

🔹

photos found on facebook

Posted in action, Adventure, attitude, awareness, be, beloved, Change, Choice, commitment, connection, courage, create, determination, do, healing, Letting Go, Life, Love, Passion, Purpose | Leave a comment
10 Oct 2015

how do we ever ‘win’ in this world?

  
Do not hesitate to love and to love deeply. You might be afraid of the pain that deep love can cause. When those you love deeply reject you, leave you, or die, your heart will be broken. But that should not hold you back from loving deeply. The pain that comes from deep love makes your love even more fruitful. It is like a plow that breaks the ground to allow the seed to take root and grow into a strong plant.

   #HenriNouwen THE INNER VOICE OF LOVE

http://wp.henrinouwen.org/rgroup_blog/

  HEARTBREAK is unpreventable; the natural outcome of caring for people and things over which we have no control, of holding in our affections those who inevitably move beyond our line of sight. Heartbreak begins the moment we are asked to let go but cannot, in other words, it colors and inhabits and magnifies each and every day; heartbreak is not a visitation, but a path that human beings follow through even the most average life. Heartbreak is our indication of sincerity: in a love relationship, in a work, in trying to learn a musical instrument, in the attempt to shape a better more generous self. Heartbreak is the beautifully helpless side of love and affection and is just as much an essence and emblem of care as the spiritual athlete’s quick but abstract ability to let go. Heartbreak has its own way of inhabiting time and its own beautiful and trying patience in coming and going.

Heartbreak is inescapable; yet we use the word as if it only occurs when things have gone wrong: an unrequited love, a shattered dream, a child lost before their time. Heartbreak, we hope, is something we hope we can avoid; something to guard against, a chasm to be carefully looked for and then walked around; the hope is to find a way to place our feet where the elemental forces of life will keep us in the manner to which we want to be accustomed and which will also keep us from the losses that all other human beings have experienced without exception since the beginning of conscious time. But heartbreak may be the very essence of being human, of being on the journey from here to there, and of coming to care deeply for what we find along the way…
David Whyte

 

 Live today. Remove all blame from your vocabulary. Catch yourself when you find yourself using your past history as a reason for your failure to act today, and instead say, “I am free now to detach myself from what used to be”. – Dr Wayne Dyer

what is being responsible, truly?

what horrors do we shackle ourselves to in the name of responsibility?

how do we break the chains of control

of manipulation

of tradition

of condition

of religion?

and follow the the truth of our hearts 

of being in control 

of only our own lives

of our own destinies

of our souls true callings?

this is not about shirking our responsibility 

or being selfish

or leaving people in the lurch  

this is about coming from a place within

of being

of awareness

of beloved

of freedom

of disciplined action

seeing below the lying distractions so ready to keep us deluded

then allowing all things to flow from us 

to the ones we love

it’s the only way to truly live responsibly

in fact, it’s the only way to truly live

🔹

AL

  
photos found on facebook

Posted in attitude, awareness, Becoming Yourself, beloved, Change, Choice, commitment, compassion, connection, courage, determination, Faith, find art at pinterest, Freedom, healing, intimacy, Joy, Letting Go, Life, Love, People, power, Reflection, Relationships, Respect | Leave a comment
08 Oct 2015

love just is…there is no understanding why 

  
A man asked him, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments…” He said to him, “Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.” Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, “You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions. 

Then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the realm of God!” And the disciples were perplexed at these words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the realm of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” They were greatly astounded and said to one another, “Then who can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.”

                  —Mark 10.17-27

💞

We continually have to resist the belief that there’s something we have to do to “be saved.” We think there are “good” people (the man thought Jesus was one) and others who are less so. We believe our salvation is up to us. Clearly the disciples think so. Were that true, of course it would be impossible. But it’s up to God. And God has already “saved” us.

Take note that Jesus looks at the man and loves him. The man does not need to do anything for Jesus to love him; he already does. He responds to the man not with requirements but with love. Because that’s his point. There is no requirement. God already loves us. We are already saved. There is no salvation beyond God’s love; God’s love is not insufficient for our eternal joy. All we need to be “saved” from is our own distrust. The man seems to have great possessions but “lacks one thing.” Jesus looks on him in his poverty and sets him free: let go of what you can measure and what you can lose—either riches or goodness—and grasp only what is infinite, what is already yours. 

Meditate on this infinite love of God. It is yours, now. It surrounds you, fills you, gives you every breath. You can’t deserve it more or less. It is simply here. Even as you ask and wonder, maybe even doubt, God looks at you with love. God’s delight is not up to you. Let this light break in, and become you.

__________________ 

Steve Garnaas-Holmes

Unfolding Light

http://www.unfoldinglight.net

  

As you start to walk on the way, the way appears.

~ Rumi

 

Photos found at www.pinterest.com 

Posted in attitude, awareness, Becoming Yourself, beloved, Choice, courage, determination, find art at pinterest, healing, inspiration, Letting Go, Life, Love, Miracles, People, Prayer, Relationships | Leave a comment

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