life: acoustic & amplified

poetry, quotes & thoughts about life

Archive for the category “Blessing”

12 Sep 2013
1 Comment

my hero

I went to visit my sister, Nancy, yesterday evening at her home. On Tuesday she went through a 10 1/2 hour heart procedure. Much of the time she was awake. She was strapped down during this, and for 8 long hours afterward, as it was imperative that she didn’t move due to them going into her heart through both sides of her groin in both of her main arteries. Can you imagine?

My sister is a rock star! Not only does she look fantastic (you would truly never know she was one bit sick) but she has a huge sense of humor about it and the best attitude ever. I am so grateful for her example and, I know, if I ever experience anything like this, and as an aging human I probably will, I will make every effort to follow the example my sister has shown me. What an amazing and beautiful person she is. I am so grateful for her. So grateful for life and love and sisters.

6Big thanks to all my readers for all the prayer, for the Doctors and staff who worked so long and hard, for her amazing husband, Richard, for loving her so much, and for family. I am truly blessed and so grateful to God for peace and rest during this time.

Having God in my life does not mean I will never have a problem, it does not mean that my life won’t be messy or that bad things won’t happen to me. My faith means that I have help during these times, that I can trust there is more going on than my small slice of the picture, that I don’t have to worry or be anxious, because I am able to trust that this life unfolds just as it should and there is always love enough to get me through the dark. That’s what makes all the difference to me. Peace in the storm – it’s the most amazing way to live and anyone can have this gift. Where ever I am, Jesus will still be there. Best thing ever? Love such as this is free to all who choose it. Good stuff, my friends, very good stuff.

Posted in attitude, beloved, Blessing, Choice, courage, find art at pinterest, Glory, grace, Gratitude, healing, inspiration, Love, Miracles, Prayer, Relationships, thankfulness
07 Sep 2013

words are life…or death…use with care

5To bless means to say good things.  We have to bless one another constantly.  Parents need to bless their children, children their parents, husbands their wives, wives their husbands, friends their friends.  In our society, so full of curses, we must fill each place we enter with our blessings.  We forget so quickly that we are God’s beloved children and allow the many curses of our world to darken our hearts.  Therefore we have to be reminded of our belovedness and remind others of theirs.  Whether the blessing is given in words or with gestures, in a solemn or an informal way, our lives need to be blessed lives.
– Henri Nouwen
www.henrinouwen.org

Posted in action, attitude, awareness, beloved, Blessing, Change, Choice, find art at pinterest, giving, grace, healing, words | Leave a comment
01 Sep 2013

time to fall in love

6

Aimless Love
by Billy Collins

This morning as I walked along the lakeshore,
I fell in love with a wren
and later in the day with a mouse
the cat had dropped under the dining room table.

 In the shadows of an autumn evening,
I fell for a seamstress
still at her machine in the tailor’s window,
and later for a bowl of broth,
steam rising like smoke from a naval battle.

 This is the best kind of love, I thought,
without recompense, without gifts,
or unkind words, without suspicion,
or silence on the telephone.

 The love of the chestnut,
the jazz cap and one hand on the wheel.
No lust, no slam of the door—
the love of the miniature orange tree,
the clean white shirt, the hot evening shower,
the highway that cuts across Florida.

 No waiting, no huffiness, or rancor—
just a twinge every now and then

 for the wren who had built her nest
on a low branch overhanging the water
and for the dead mouse,
still dressed in its light brown suit.

 But my heart is always propped up
in a field on its tripod,
ready for the next arrow.

 After I carried the mouse by the tail
to a pile of leaves in the woods,
I found myself standing at the bathroom sink
gazing down affectionately at the soap,

 so patient and soluble,
so at home in its pale green soap dish.
I could feel myself falling again
as I felt its turning in my wet hands
and caught the scent of lavender and stone.

The Writer’s Almanac
http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/

Posted in attitude, awareness, beauty, Becoming Yourself, Blessing, Choice, find art at pinterest, inspiration, Life, Love, Miracles, nature, Poetry | Leave a comment
27 Aug 2013

The real essence of the universe is endless grace – which is the theological term for surprises. – Ann Voskamp

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Yeah – there are weeds and disappointments and seeming failures. There are days that tear out still-beating chunks of your bare heart, whole seasons that feel like every breath is through burning smoke. There is always hope. The real essence of the universe is endless grace – which is the theological term for surprises. As long as there is still time –there will be surprises.

Apparent failures can be the way your Father births a successful faith.

Shalom and I fill vases with wildflowers.

“See? Doesn’t matter if you didn’t get to plant sunflowers this year, Mama. God was growing something else to fill things up.”

And I swallow hard and nod. God is always growing something to fill the empty places up. And it’s always possible – joy is always surprisingly possible. You can have joy any moment you turn hidden greed for more into honest gratitude for now.

No matter the prison, you can be Freed by Gratitude.

Joy isn’t about how much our lives have, but how much we enjoy our lives.

Joy is never made by Having More. Joy is always made by EnJoying More.

– Ann Voskamp
http://www.aholyexperience.com/

Posted in action, attitude, awareness, beauty, Blessing, Choice, Encouragement, Faith, find art at pinterest, Happiness, Letting Go, Life, Love | Leave a comment
26 Aug 2013

the highest purpose of art is to inspire. What else can you do for anyone but inspire them? – Bob Dylan

aliveI realized a long time ago you can’t force anyone to do, or see, anything. The old sayin’ ‘you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink.” is very true. I learned the hard way, you can’t ‘help’ anyone else, you can’t choose for anyone else, you can’t make someone love you, you can’t give someone something they don’t want – even if it’s the best gift ever. Force never works, only grace can change our hearts and lives. Falling in love with unconditional love is the only process to real change.

The only thing we CAN do is create an atmosphere for that to happen. Create an open space to inspire. Starting with myself – I seek to inspire people to think about these things. To think about life and to realize we are continually making choices and those choices matter for the short term and the long term. Our choices determine who we become, how we create, and how we inspire.

I’m beginning my week thinking about new ways to inspire, about how to make choices to be the best I can be, about how to love more and better, how to let go of the things that hold me prisoner and soar into the freedom of unconditional love, how to create good in the middle of difficult circumstances, how to better reflect light into my own darkness.

I am not sure where these thoughts, prayers and meditations are leading me this morning, but they feel good, as my friend, Jana, described yesterday, they are leading me to a feeling of triumph. Good stuff for a Monday morning in August!

Posted in action, Adventure, attitude, awareness, Becoming Yourself, Beginning, Blessing, create, dark, find art at pinterest, force | Leave a comment
23 Aug 2013
3 Comments

thank you, Mary Oliver

10

Mary Oliver reminds me
to let go of any need, that might linger within,
to, even try, to impress anyone,
least of all,
myself.
LET GO…
just stay alert to the extravagant impressiveness around me,
puddling at my feet,
drowning my life with goodness.
To be easily astonished,
easily filled with wonder,
to allow life to boggle my mind.
To stay a child of joy and nature,
a collector of abundant miracles,
never taking one of them for granted.
To stay in awe of sunsets
and dandelions,
coffee shops
and grasshoppers.
Bears and ants.
To gasp every time I get a view of the ocean,
to be breathless at the view from a mountaintop road at sunset.
To thrill when I see a  leaf change color.
To crane my neck, every single time, to catch a glimpse of sunlight on water,
and the curve of a babies cheek.
To get a chill of macabre delight
at gnarly, old toenails,
and bats hanging upside down
in a dark damp cave,
or flying around a street light as darkness falls slowly through the air.
Such things keep me alive.
These are the true riches of our living.
Extreme miracles everywhere around us.
We are here to witness,
here to share descriptions of such beauty,
even our feeble attempts are so amazing
they boggle the mind.
Thank you, Mary Oliver, for this reminder,
with your lovely vision
and every beautiful, glorious word.
We are each here to do our part,
to record our miracles
in our own way.
With our
lives,
voices,
pens,
paints,
dances,
lyrics,
artistry,
we make up this tapestry,
record the blazing glory,
of this masterpiece we live in.
We each add notes to the grand symphony of life,
no accidents,
or accidental people.
Only I can tell you the grandeur of my living space,
it is mine alone,
until I share it.
As I share,
I allow the singing of the rocks to be heard,
but also to stay a silent mystery
–
at least for those
who don’t choose to hear
this exquisite, out-of-this-world music,
playing with such brilliance, light and passion,
everywhere we go.

AL 8/23/13

Posted in Adventure, attitude, awareness, beauty, Becoming Yourself, Blessing, Choice, create, Dancing, find art at pinterest, Glory, inspiration, Letting Go, Life, light, Love, Miracles, music, mystery, nature, Passion, perceptions, Poetry
21 Aug 2013

I believe…help my unbelief

20130821-103320.jpg

Posted in attitude, awareness, Beliefs, beloved, Blessing, Choice, commitment, confidence, courage, determination, Faith, find art at pinterest, Letting Go, Life, Love, Miracles, soul and spirit, strength, success, thankfulness, Trust | Leave a comment
16 Aug 2013

the catch varies :)

5

Catch of the Day
by Lucy Shaw

It leaps, breaking the skin of the lake
of possibility, this thing that flashes steel –
this trout of a poem, wild with life, rainbow scales
and spiny fins. Now, for patience, the pull of the catch:

I cast, wait for the jerk – the tug of the hook in bony jaw –
feel the line go taut. The ballet begins, a wrestle
to land this flailing, feral thing – all thrash and edge –
and tame it into telling its own muscular story.

I heave it over the edge of its arrival, glorious,
fighting the whole way, slippery as language.
Its beauty twitches on the floor boards, its glisten
spilling over the bottom on my notebook page.
http://www.lucishaw.com/
7

Posted in action, Blessing, find art at pinterest, inspiration, Miracles, mystery, Poetry, Smile, soul and spirit, success, words, Writing | Leave a comment
12 Aug 2013
2 Comments

life changing words

there are words strung together6
in such beauty
in such a way
they touch secret places
of pain so deep
they have had no words
they almost don’t exist
they are so deep
so shadowy scarred and twisted
so nameless I can’t acknowledge them
because they might possibly be ghosts, or demons
and why would I disturb alien creatures,
when there is quite enough pain
right here in plain sight
to try to heal and deal with?

until these thoughts appear,
shadows become real,
in these words of another
because the other
has felt
has written
has sung
has wrestled and wrangled with
this too
and the words they have mined
from these dark, broken quarries
touch that wispy, pain-filled place
inside of me
with delicate fingers
and declare they are so,
and make them alright,
binding and healing
my broken bones
my hidden stab wounds
my almost too pain-filled to be real
merely by sharing them
and my soul says, aha!
and the roses in my heart
turn from blush to deepest crimson
and birds come and rest in these trees,
which declare every moment that
Yahweh is always gracious,
and the morning wakes up
new and alive
and love burns seven times hotter
than I ever thought possible
and I count gift after gift
of never-before-seen riches at my fingertips
as I step into a life
that matters
because I am beloved
because I understand myself better
and the meaning of,
It is what it is,
and,
the truth shall set you free
become my praise songs
because I am
with every word
and I grin and say,
You aren’t much,
and I belly laugh
because it is true
and I laugh even harder because,
truth is also,
I am everything I need to be
hallelujah
glory be!

AL 8/12/13

a special thank you to my favorite writers today! So very grateful for words written and shared!
Steve Garnaas-Holmes, Mary Oliver, Oriah Mountain Dreamer, Kathy Galloway, Wendell Berry, Walt Whitman, Paulo Coelho, Ann Voskamp, Mark Buchanan, Kyle Idleman, Henri Nouwen, Brennan Manning, John O’Donohue, Audrey Assad, Janet Paschal, and so many, many others who have touched and inspired me over the years…these are exceptional amazing, inspiring people of words! Thank you for your gifts to me!

Posted in awareness, beauty, Becoming Yourself, beloved, Blessing, find art at pinterest, Glory, Gospel, grace, Gratitude, healing, inspiration, laugh, Letting Go, Life, Love, Miracles, Poetry, Smile, soul and spirit, thankfulness, Writing
03 Aug 2013

The Quiet Power

I walked backwards, against time
and that’s where I caught the moon,
singing at me.

I stepped downwards, into my seat
and that’s where I caught freedom,
waiting for me, like a lilac.

I ended thought, and I ended story.
I stopped designing, and arguing, and
sculpting a happy life.7

I didn’t die. I didn’t turn to dust.

Instead I chopped vegetables,
and made a calm lake in me
where the water was clear and sourced and still.

And when the ones I loved came to it,
I had something to give them, and
it offered them a soft road out of pain.

I became beloved.

And I came to know that this was it.
The quiet power.
I could give something mighty, lasting,
that stopped the wheel of chaos,

by tending to the river inside,
keeping the water rich and deep,
keeping a bench for you to visit.

Tara Mohr
www.taramohr.com
twitter: @tarasophia
Read Tara’s latest blog post

Posted in awareness, Becoming Yourself, Beliefs, beloved, Blessing, Choice, commitment, compassion, courage, create, find art at pinterest, intimacy, Love, Mother, Patience, Peace, People, Poetry, Prayer, soul and spirit | Leave a comment

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