Blessing | life: acoustic & amplified

Archive for the category “Blessing”

13 May 2016

(slowly) happy birthday to Me…

Midnight poem

The clock has crossed the finish line

of yesterday

and begun this beautiful new day

This very minute everything begins new

I start this day soft,

in the darkness,

adjusting to the new date,

this particular date,

the date of my birth –

51 years ago now –

this year is passing quickly

I am living in this now,

in this wow!

It’s all happening!

No more filling time

No more empty spaces

No more waiting for…

I breathe my gratitude,

float away on a smiling cloud

as I drift back to sleep

🎂

I am a recovering addict- addicted to artifice, disguise, misidentification, distraction, substitute gratifications, materialism, being right, winning every silly battle. Now I want to be a re-uncovering addict- addicted to baring my naked soul for all to see, particularly me. I want to see straight through my armor to the essential being quivering below. Nothing to hide, no place to hide it.

💞

– Jeff Brown

I hereby break all contracts I made unconsciously & consciously before I knew the depth of my own Spirit; the silent ones, the ones I inherited, passed down & accepted as my own from generation to generation.
I hereby severe all ties with that which holds me down & back, unable to see the glimmer of what I know to be true, whether by my own creation or by expectations tied like weights around my ankles by others lost in the sea of their own confused hearts.
I hereby reclaim my right to choose how my story unfolds, armed with creativity, a heart made of gold & reverent humility.
I hereby fully accept all of this living & what-is-yet-to-come with brash integrity & loving determination.
I hereby swear to use my superpowers for the love of all beings & I return anything that no longer serves my Higher & Lower Self (& the ones Caught-in-Between) with gratitude & consciousness.
I do this all with love, from the great source of it found in my very own beating heart.

❤️

– Bryonie Wise

Posted in attitude, awareness, beauty, Becoming Yourself, beloved, Blessing, courage, determination, Encouragement, find art at pinterest, forgiveness, Freedom, Gratitude, Poetry, soul and spirit, transformation, Trust, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment

05 May 2016

spring slowly but surely

The trees here are still mostly bare,

their infinite fingers of resolute patience.

They are in no hurry. What will come,

will.
South of here it’s different, and farther north.

But this is here.
On some twigs the tenderest green

emerges, a different green, and fragile

as new things are.
Without yet the singing, buzzing and sweetness

they gather life in near-freezing wind, bare,

or nearly so.
Sap runs. You can’t see it.

Small things underground shift,

and something larger than all this.

Tomorrow is more open than the western sky,

moving.

__________________

Steve Garnaas-Holmes

Unfolding Light

http://www.unfoldinglight.net

photos above by Fisherman Dan @ Branford, CT

🌾

If you have become ash,

Then wait you become a rose again.

And do not remember how often you have become ash

But how often you were reborn in ashes to a new rose.

🌹

~ Rumi

I’ve been paying attention this spring

my current obsession is

the dogwoods birthing

it’s been a patient process

over the past couple of weeks

it all started with tiny beads on the end of bare branches

every day they appear a bit more

they’re almost fully blooming now

my favorite tree is early in my walk

it’s mainly white with pink centers

but three large branches are pink with white centers

it’s simply beautiful

the magnolias came

and went quickly this year

the weeping cherries

are currently bawling their pink tears

falling in puddles on the ground

I find them on my shoulders

in my hair

This slow spring is reminding me

not to rush

just allow

beauty in all she is

knows herself

everything we love

is always

right on time

🌳

Posted in attitude, awareness, beauty, Becoming Yourself, Blessing, Change, confidence, Glory, Growth, Letting Go, Life, Love, Miracles, mystery, nature, Passion, Patience, soul and spirit, strength, transformation, Trust | Leave a comment

01 May 2016

what if?

May this be a morning of innocent beginning,

When the gift within you slips clear

Of the sticky web of the personal

With its hurt and hauntings,

And fixed fortress corners,
A morning when you become a pure vessel

For what wants to ascend from silence,
May your imagination know

The grace of perfect danger,
To reach beyond imitation,

And the wheel of repetition,
Deep into the call of all

The unfinished and unsolved
Until the veil of the unknown yields

And something original begins

To stir toward your senses

And grow stronger in your heart…

💞

John O’Donohue
Excerpt from, ‘For the Artist at the Start of Day’

BENEDICTUS (Europe) / TO BLESS THE SPACE BETWEEN US (US)

…quietly just now, just one word:

Believe.

Believe the best.

Believe the hard is being worked out for good.

Believe the best is still to come.

Believe in the One who is Best.

Believe. [Mark9:23]

💞

Ann Voskamp @ aholyexperience.com

Posted in Adventure, art, attitude, beauty, Becoming Yourself, Beliefs, beloved, Blessing, Choice, confidence, connection, courage, create, Faith, find art at pinterest, Imagine, inspiration, Life, Love, mystery, Poetry | Leave a comment

20 Apr 2016

goodness runs wild everywhere

Too bad you weren’t here six months ago,

was a lament I heard on my visit to Nebraska.

You could have seen the astonishing spectacle

of the sandhill cranes,

thousands of them

feeding and even dancing

on the shores of the Platte River.

There was no point in pointing out

the impossibility of my being there then

because I happened to be somewhere else,

so I nodded and put on a look of mild disappointment

if only to be part of the commiseration.

It was the same look I remember wearing

about six months ago in Georgia

when I was told that I had just missed

the spectacular annual outburst of azaleas,

brilliant against the green backdrop of spring

and the same in Vermont six months before that

when I arrived shortly after

the magnificent foliage had gloriously peaked,

Mother Nature,

as she is called,

having touched the hills with her many-colored brush,

a phenomenon that occurs,

like the others,

around the same time every year when I am apparently off

in another state,

stuck in a motel lobby

with the local paper and a styrofoam cup of coffee,

busily missing God knows what.

☕️
The Sandhill Cranes of Nebraska by Billy Collins

On vacation I witnessed
birds and whales

that had traveled farther than I.
They take with them

their memories, their songs

and the sacred longing
that guides their migrations,

that leads me

in all my rambling,
the silent knowing

that seems like hunger,

seems like not knowing,
the sure desultory path

that is life, the way

that is the blessing,
the holy wandering

to life that awaits,

always toward you.
__________________

Steve Garnaas-Holmes

Unfolding Light

http://www.unfoldinglight.net

Posted in action, Adventure, attitude, awareness, Becoming Yourself, beloved, Blessing, Choice, connection, courage, find art at pinterest, Freedom, Gratitude, Habits, Happiness, Love, Miracles, mystery, nature, Poetry, Reality | 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..
❤️

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

🌿

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

🌫

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

13 Mar 2016

look no further

But all your losses brought you here to walk
under one name and to walk under one name only,

and to find the guise under which all loss can live;

remember, you were given that name every day

along the way, remember, you were greeted as such,

and treated as such, and you needed no other name,

other people seemed to know you even before you gave up

being a shadow on the road and came into the light,

even before you sat down,

broke bread and drank wine,

wiped the wind-tears from your eyes:

pilgrim they called you again and again. Pilgrim.

🚶🏻

Excerpt from the poem ‘CAMINO’

From ‘PILGRIM’: Poems by David Whyte

I ᖇEᔕOᒪᐯE
TO ᗷE ᗩᗯᗩᖇE

TO ᔕEE ᗩᑎᗪ ᔕEEK

ᗪIᗩᗰOᑎᗪᔕ ᗩᑎᗪ EᗰEᖇᗩᒪᗪᔕ

TO ᗯᖇITE about

ᗩᑎᗪ

ᗪOᑕᑌᗰEᑎT TᕼEᗰ

EᐯEᖇY way

EᐯEᖇY day

I ᖇEᔕOᒪᐯE

TO ᔕᗩY

‘I ᔕᗯᗩᖇE’

To ᑕᗩᖇE and CARRY

ᗰIᖇᗩᑕᒪEᔕ ᗩᑎᗪ ᒍEᗯEᒪᔕ

TO ᔕᕼᗩᖇE

ᗯITᕼ TᕼOᔕE I ᗰEET ᗩᒪOᑎG TᕼE ᗯᗩY

EᐯEᖇY ᗯᕼEᖇE

I WILL BEAR

THE TALES OF THE PILGRIM

💃🏻

The road seen, then not seen, the hillside hiding

then revealing the way you should take,

the road dropping away from you as if leaving you

to walk on thin air, then catching you, holding you up,

when you thought you would fall, and the way forward

always in the end the way that you came,

the way that you followed, the way that carried

you into your future, that brought you

to this place, no matter that it sometimes took

your promise from you, no matter that it always had to break

your heart along the way, the sense of having walked

from far inside yourself out into the revelation,

to have risked yourself for something that seemed

to stand both inside you and far beyond you,

that called you back in the end to the only road

you could follow, walking as you did, in your

rags of love and speaking in the voice

that by night, became a prayer for safe arrival…

👫

Excerpt from “SANTIAGO”

From PILGRIM: Poems by David Whyte

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

Posted in action, Adventure, attitude, awareness, Becoming Yourself, beloved, Blessing, commitment, connection, determination, find art at pinterest, Glory, healing, light, Love, mystery, People | Leave a comment

09 Mar 2016

uphold the integrity of the quest – spoken @ Infusion Cincinnati

A GLIMPSE

The beauty of the imagination is that it can discover such magnificent vastness inside a tiny space. Our culture is dominated by quantity. Even those who have plenty hunger for more and more. Everywhere around us, the reign of quantity extends and multiplies. Sadly the voyage of greed has all the urgency but no sense of destination. Desire becomes inflated and loses all sense of vision and proportion. When beauty becomes an acquisition it brings no delight. When time seemed longer and slower, the eye of the beholder had more space and distance to glimpse the beautiful. There was a respect for the worlds that could be suggested by a glimpse.

☄

John O’Donohue

Excerpt from BEAUTY

I steal glimpses of beauty,

in all she is –

this moment,

sky in my rearview.

A huge bowl of rainbow sherbet

my favorite-color-kind

with raspberry, orange & lime

swatches of lemon, indigo & periwinkle

float like barges –

in, out

around.

Framing.

Dancing.

Living.

At one point tangerine fills the top of the hilly crest,

headlight stars

blaze brilliant against the backdrop.

Indigo stretched above, framing this momentary masterpiece.

At times I find it hard to keep moving forward

into the matt gray of drudgery ahead.

With so much loveliness going on

right behind me…

how can I keep heading away from it?

How can I not be a part of this splendor?

Eventually, midnight blue seizes its moment of glory,

then night falls over all,

and I am left,

aching with the beauty,

the majesty,

the extravagant display,

of this wonderful world.

I go to wondering

if this longing in my heart

will ever be answered?

If my whole life I will wait

for a moment which will never come?

Will it never be realized under this piece of sky?

Will it always be this whisper?

The magic of hope,

this thing with wings,

hovering over my heart

for another 50 years,

echoing on into eternity.

🌄

Posted in action, Adventure, attitude, awareness, beauty, Becoming Yourself, beloved, big, Blessing, Choice, connection, courage, find art at pinterest, Habits, healing, Hope, Imagine, inspiration, Letting Go, Life, light, Love, Miracles, mystery, nature, Passion | Leave a comment

20 Feb 2016

morning blessing

photos by Fisherman Dan @ Branford, CT

I place on the alter of dawn:

The quiet loyalty of breath,

The tent of thought where I shelter,

Waves of desire I am shore to

And all beauty drawn to the eye.
May my mind come alive today

To the invisible geography

That invites me to new frontiers,

To break the dead shell of yesterdays,

To risk being disturbed and changed.
May I have the courage today

To live the life that I would love,

To postpone my dream no longer

But do at last what I came here for

And waste my heart on fear no more.

🌀

– John O’Donohue
Excerpt from, ‘A Morning Offering’

TO BLESS THE SPACE BETWEEN US (US) / BENEDICTUS (Europe)

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

Love

So fragile

With no guarantees

Of longevity

Or comfort

Begs to be felt

Now

To be counted for the sake of goodness

This is the only moment that counts

The only thing eternal

Don’t wait

Take a deep deep breath

Of the spirit that is giving it all

Say thank you

For the only gift that matters

The only thing that remains

All else can be destroyed

When nothing else remains

What is this eternal gift,

given new every morning?

Love

💖

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

Posted in action, Adventure, attitude, awareness, beauty, Becoming Yourself, Beginning, beloved, Blessing, connection, courage, Faith, find art at pinterest, Glory, Gratitude, Happiness, inspiration, Letting Go, Life, light, Love, nature, Patience, Peace | Leave a comment

17 Feb 2016

am i?

Quiet friend who has come so far,
feel how your breathing makes more space around you.

Let this darkness be a bell tower

and you the bell. As you ring,
what batters you becomes your strength.

Move back and forth into the change.

What is it like, such intensity of pain?

If the drink is bitter, turn yourself to wine.
In this uncontainable night,

be the mystery at the crossroads of your senses,

the meaning discovered there.
And if the world has ceased to hear you,

say to the silent earth: I flow.

To the rushing water, speak: I am

🛤

qII, 29 [Let This Darkness Be a Bell Tower] by Rainer Maria Rilke

Crossroads and choices, now is the time to decide which path will lead to the garden and more healthy life choices. One just doesn’t wait until Midsummer and think about growing fresh produce for a salad.

– Old Moss Woman’s Secret Garden/facebook

When an open heart meets an open hand, the result is more feast and more love, enough for a small village to be nurtured from this drawer alone. I see this and recognize him instantly: a soul brother, a lover of life, a father, a friend, a ringleader, a listener, a creative co-conspirator, a holder…of space, of hearts, of possibilities. A man with much to give and more to say, to a yearning, hopeful world.