Change | life: acoustic & amplified

Archive for the category “Change”

15 Jul 2016

how far will you go?

Better to live your life open rather than exist on borrowed time, waiting for the great unmasking.

– Kate Jacobs

love is the flame
all people yearn for the flame

some people never discover there actually is a flame

some people ignore the flame

some people avoid the flame

some people examine the flame

some people research the flame

some people control the flame

some people fear the flame

some people are fooled by fake flame

some people admire the flame

some people use the flame

some people walk on the flame

some people dance with the flame

some people dance in the flame

some people become the flame

some people are consumed by the flame
your choice…

how will you burn?

🔥

Those who are drawn to the root of love are mystics. Mystics are not satisfied with the surface patterns of love, with the emotional tangles and insecurities of human loving. They seek a purer wine, a more potent passion. They need the essence of love, its divine substance.

~ Irina Tweedie

On the day I died

water ran through pipes,

footsteps identified people in the house and

the dogs nails clicked quickly on the wood floors above my head,

insisting it was time to go out for relief.

I still needed coffee,

light with cream,

2 sugars.

The sun was bright

and I remember the sky was that deep blue,

romantically named, azurite.

There was cockscomb,

half alive in pots near the wooden footbridge I walked over.

I used to love them when I was alive.

I touched their red, velvety, blooms seeking to feel something.

I mistook fluttering angel wings for birds,

battles fought,

just beyond where I lay

on the words of Wendell Berry –

the only thread

keeping me tethered to this world.

I sat on benches beside ghosts

of those who had gone before me.

I could still only feel them beside me,

I was in the world between worlds.

There was darkness, a fire swamp, screaming, clashes of swords,

I could not save myself.

God was everywhere.

I found myself in a boat,

where I stayed for 2 years, until,

in recent weeks,

the call came to step out,

to start walking on water.

Late in the day,

I stood in the bathroom,

accepting the most insulting job offer I have ever received,

then sat on a stool,

trying to act as if I was alive,

pretending to look for puzzle pieces,

slightly aware of the colors and shapes,

singing echoes of songs I used to love,

with my beautiful Robin,

who seemed very much alive.

🔥

In Memoriam of my death, consumed by the flame,

December 3, 2012 –

may I be remembered as

Daniel J O’Connell having the:

Spirit of a warrior

Soul of a poet

Irradiat your mind with the light from within, allow your existence to move along within the unbroken continuity of nature. The ideal of authenticity lies deep in the heart of one’s union to the world not the possession of it. The grandeur of unity holds a definitive place in the infinite. When you calibrate your spirit with that of the world you are left open to respond to your life harmoniously with the universe. Unmask your illusions from those artificial ideas you have build your lives upon with walls and boundaries solidifying your thoughts about a tragic disassociation to nature. It’s up to you to be open now or wait for the great unmasking…the choice is yours but unmasking now allows you to reconcile your existence while you still have the chance to live it.

– Lissette T. Hesmadt

We have known and have believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and those who remain in love remain in God and God remains in them. 1 John ‪4:16‬

No matter the results and outcomes,
the thousand possibilities,

you are here now.
Why even try to trace

what the beggar will do with your money?

Let your giving be the whole horizon.
Be lovingly present

and wars and stars and grief and cats alike

will be unable to trouble you.
At the center of the world and in each breath

this is the holy temple, the birthing moment:

giving and receiving love. That is all.
This is the sacred point,

the love in you

meeting the love in the world.
However broken or weary you are,

bring yourself here, in love,

now.
__________________

Steve Garnaas-Holmes

Unfolding Light

http://www.unfoldinglight.net

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

Posted in attitude, awareness, Becoming Yourself, beloved, Burnign Bridges, Change, Choice, courage, dark, Death, Encouragement, Faith, find art at pinterest, Glory, Gospel, grace, Gratitude, Growth, Habits, healing, home, Letting Go, Life, Love, mystery, Passion, Poetry, power, Purpose | Leave a comment

13 Jul 2016

1 Comment

otters and birthdays and glimpses of the mystery

Yeah, so, the past month has been an intense one for me in every way. A bit emotionally brutal. We can all relate, I’m sure. It’s shown me a lot of new things about myself, also revealed some new glimpses of this mystical mystery named, so simply, “Love,” in our language.

I’ve been a student of the nature of Love for the past 7 years, which doesn’t seem very long, now that I write it down, but, I have to report, just this short time of study, it has changed me in every area of my life.

My studies are always, first and foremost, practical. To me nothing I ‘believe’ is worth anything if it does not actually work in my living to bring me healing, make me a better human, remove my baggage to reveal my highest and best self, lead me into paths of peace and load my arms with fruit to share with fellow pilgrims along the way…and, so, I began by asking God to reveal what love was and how love worked.

My first flash came in 2009, riding on a CT commuter train from New Haven to Branford, looking at the marsh fly by. I had been asking for some days, intensely seeking, when God showed himself to me as ‘LOVE.’ That brief instant changed everything for me. I experienced the Aleph of The Mystery and left that train, completely changed a flash or, in real time less than 30 minutes…

Many wonderful writers have helped me along this open-ended, unlimited path of discovery on this topic. I must give much beautiful credit to Henri Nouwen, who helped me early on in my excavation of this topic. His revelations, and life surrendered to this mystery, have inspired much learning in my own voyage on this simple, yet so radical, path.

Over these years, I felt lead to share some of my tiny bits of insight with others – it has just been so amazing! So beautiful! So everything – I just wanted others to open to it as well, to learn and heal along with me! Over these years I have learned to be a writer and a poet. Until recently I didn’t feel I could claim those ‘titles,’ but I do now, just another way love has changed me. I am so grateful.

This brings us to yesterday, which brings us to Frederick Buechner’s 90th birthday! Buechner is one of the best, most beautiful, writers ever. Sometimes I stop breathing when I read his words. I won’t say more, at this moment, as this is becoming a very long post, but here’s my best advice: read him!

Recently someone, somewhere, on Facebook, posted words by poet, Fred LaMotte. They deeply touched me and so I ‘friended’ him. Then he began posting his words and I found myself on Amazon ordering one of his books. I received it last week, and it has been moving me into some very deep waters.

Yeah, so, back to yesterday, I re-posted a happy birthday write-up about Buechner and then…

I got this comment from Fred LaMotte:

He was the reason I became a teacher and a school chaplain. When I was a 10th grader at Exeter Academy (near Boston) he was the school chaplain. It was before he became a writer. One dreary morning in late Winter, we were 700 half asleep boys in morning ‘Chapel’ (it was just an assembly really), and decided to read to us. He read the entire 7th chapter of ‘The Wind In The Willows,’ ‘Piper at the Gates of Dawn.’ It was very long and I think I might have been the only one stayed awake. It was amazing. Not only did it show me my first real piece of spiritual writing, but I thought, “Wow! This is his job? Reading to people about the great God Pan? I want to do this!” Thank you Frederick Buechner.

💞

WOW!! Then Fred LaMotte shared that chapter of the Wind and the Willows, ya know, the one that inspired some pretty intense poetry, which is, at this moment plowing up some new fields in my back forty…

Wow upon WOW!

Here’s that link. My advice: Read it!!

http://yourradiance.blogspot.com/2013/03/piper-at-gates-of-dawn.html?m=1

I have not read The Wind in the Willows since I was a teenager, and, at that time I remember thinking it was rather stupid. My thoughts being something like, ‘Good grief, what in the heck is this about?’

Yesterday, I finally ‘got it!’ I broke down. I took my shoes off and bowed to the glory. Yesterday, a gift of love I offered was returned to me, unaccepted. I ‘got it!’ I broke down. I took my shoes off and bowed to the glory. There’s no right or wrong here, just gift. I choose to be only grateful to continue on in the, ‘yes and amen!’ of it all.

I have no idea what Love (God) will teach me next. I am a very humble beginner. No Master here. Just a girl who cannot believe how lucky I am to be on this narrow road. A very unlikely pilgrim, I. Always wearing inappropriate shoes for climbing these steep hills, but somehow, always getting the view of the most beautiful sunsets imaginable. I guess it’s true what Babe Ruth said, ‘You can’t beat a man who keeps getting up!’

Here’s a song I wrote for my children’s musical about my life of faith, named: The Fantastical Inside-Out-Upside-Down Journey of a Rich Little Poor Girl

You Otter Know (verses spoken in the style of Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked by Cage the Elephant/choruses in Sinatra style)

I was walking in the forest

I was feeling all alone

The birds and bees were sleeping,

the weeping willow weeping
Then I heard a little creature

Start moving oh so slow

and the little brook began to play

music with its toes

the woodpecker was keeping time

upon that tall oak tree

and I could not help start dancing

cause I knew it was for me

and as I whirled and twirled about

I came upon a log

and the beaver and the otter (Frank Sinatra style Beaver. Sammy Davis Otter)

were acting more like hogs (pushing each other to get to the log stage with microphone)

and then they each began to croon

they’re words were oh so rare

I stood there for a moment

my foot still in the air
and they sang to me…
You otter know I love you

loved you from the start

(if you’ll beaver me

then I’ll beaver you

You never walk alone)

You otter know I love you

love your precious heart

(beaver me it’s true

I’ve always loved you

You’re never far from home)
and the band it just kept playing

and my happy heart did gasp

Cause this was so much better

than that silly talking a**

uhhh donkey
Then my heart it felt so happy

and my eyes at last could see

That though I hadn’t been aware

You’d never once left me

and as I danced on down that path

I swear I sang this song

The one my friends had written,

which had been there all along
and I sang…
You otter know I love you

loved you from the start

(if you’ll beaver me

then I’ll beaver you

You never walk alone)

You otter know I love you

love your precious heart

(beaver me it’s true

I’ve always loved you

You’re never far from home

💞

Ephesians 1:4

Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes.

New Living Translation

You don’t have to melt

until you are ready.

Remember this:
Each moil of your unoiled joints,

every numb stiff gristle of resistance,

cramp of anger, clabber of shame,
clot of envy, opinion or belief,

is simply a mass of refusal

contracted into “me,”
a particle afraid to waltz

with its field, a wave

that will not settle to its sea,
a sky who thinks it is a cloud,

a self who didn’t give up

I-dentity…
Don’t let go until you’re

ready, friend. You have forever.

You remember this:
To melt is not to pass away,

but to pulverize diamonds

with your dancing,
watch the spiraling fire

of your body, and witness

the whirled.

🔥

Alfred K. LaMotte

Some mornings

I wake up a king,

anointed, anticipated,

shining.
Some mornings

I wake up a pilgrim,

on a journey yet unseen,

but on a road laid out

with adventures to be met.
Some mornings

I wake up a mule.

No power to wield,

nowhere to go,

just me, just here,

dull and pointless.
Those days

I must be

most vigilant and ready,

for my master

is a good samaritan

and I never know

when I will be needed

for something luminous.

__________________

Steve Garnaas-Holmes

Unfolding Light

http://www.unfoldinglight.net

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

Posted in action, Adventure, Alone, art, attitude, awareness, beauty, Becoming Yourself, Beginning, Beliefs, beloved, Blessing, Blog, Change, Choice, commitment, community, confidence, connection, courage, create, determination, Encouragement, Faith, find art at pinterest, Freedom, friendship, fun, Glory, Gospel, grace, Gratitude, Growth, healing, home, Hope, Imagine, intimacy, Joy, Letting Go, Life, Love, mystery, Passion, Patience, Peace, People, Quotes

12 Jul 2016

I am fascinated by bold individualism – Charles Cooper (meee tooooo!!!❤️)

dark matter sutra

last nite in the dark sky

a fox was calling

this eerie voice scathing scratching the air

scaring every living thing around

straight out of a horror movie or worst

some scary witch after me

for all my past sins and debauchery

I was ready to lock the doors

grab a pitch fork

throw the covers over my head

who knows really what a fox really is

maybe a prisoner in a fur body

trying to get out

some convict from a strange distant galaxy

“ .. and for your crimes against humanity

we shall set you on another world

known as earth

in strange body

with strange bedfellows

whizzing bullets

and hungry wolves”

no matter what religion or science says

you never really know

who or what is in these other bodies

each of us stardust

catapulted from the infinite womb

dark matter given form

like blue hanuman

or immortal sunlight

I will call out to you from the wilderness

a purple cloud in a wide room

a child with a halo

a bed of moss

or some eagle soaring above the plane

in a total act of rebellion

from his dark matter sutra

NO PATH
‘There is No Path that Goes all the Way’

:-Han Shan
Not that it stops us looking

for the full continuation.
The one line in the poem

we can start and follow

straight to the end. The fixed belief

we can hold, facing a stranger
that saves us the trouble

of a real conversation.
But one day you are not

just imagining an empty chair
where your loved one sat.

You are not just telling a story
where the bridge is down

and there’s nowhere to cross.
You are not just trying to pray

to a God you always imagined

would keep you safe.
No, you’ve come to a place

where nothing you’ve done

will impress and nothing you

can promise will avert
the silent confrontation,

the place where

your body already seems to know

the way, having kept
to the last, its own secret

reconnaissance.
But still,

there is no path

that goes all the way,
one conversation

leads to another,
one breath to the next

until
there’s no breath at all,

just

the inevitable

final release

of the burden.
And then,

wouldn’t your life

have to start

all over again

for you to know

even a little

of who you had been?
…
Excerpt from ‘NO PATH”

From RIVER FLOW: New and Selected Poems by David Whyte

return to your own path

love leads us ever onward

to the open skies of freedom

❤️

photo sources @www.pinterest.com

Posted in Adventure, attitude, awareness, beauty, Becoming Yourself, beloved, Change, Choice, confidence, connection, courage, determination, Encouragement, Faith, find art at pinterest, Growth, healing, home, Hope, Letting Go, Life, Love, Miracles, mystery, Passion, Quotes | Leave a comment

11 Jul 2016

peace. love. seal the deal. – Miles

White and black cannot be found

in the ruins and valleys of a human face.

You’re the dust in a wrinkled rainbow,

whorled pallet of earth tones,

ginger, sorrel, burnt sienna.
Who called you “white,”

that disdain for shadows,

color of the fear of falling

through the prism of contradictions?
You are not white, you are oak,

apple wood and dandelion.

Make wine of yourself.

Make a barrel of your bones.

Acquire the flavor of your ancestors.
Who called you “black,”

that abstraction of a laughing tear?

You are not black, you have sown

sunset in your cheek furrows.

You are banyan, and mahogany,

kola nut and olive, cocoa bean of grief,

kinnikinnik of the sacred pipe.

You are the night.
Voracious love has dipped us both

in honey, meshed our dreams

in darkest cilia, netted our souls

like mushrooms in sweet loam,

the wild manure of one dragon.
Through innumerable pungent roots

the same juice bears us upward

into starlight.

🌠

Who Told You? by Alfred K. LaMotte

my heart hurts today

for this pain.

I feel great sorrow,

shattering grief,

love cracks me open,

allows me to feel this

hurricane of rage,

this fraction of our creation –

soul division.
for what we,

as human-kind,

have chosen to accept

within the soil of our borders,

our birthright is so much more.

we are each beloved.

we are royal, each and every one.
sadness sits on me,

a heavy fog,

as I drive,

wait,

pay,

that smarmy man

with the weird goatee,

wearing the faded Jack Daniels t-shirt,

I try to love him –

I humbly admit my failure today,

I promise to keep trying,

it is my only hope to change this world.

I return to my place in this universe,

the one I belong to for this moment –

I walk a mile quickly

my angst

mixing with grief

tears won’t stop

I walk this beach,

so familiar,

yet always new.

I pick up rocks,

I move from rocks,

to sand,

to benches.

I stand while the gulls float,

so easy,

so secure,

so assured,

so secure,

so loved,

so free.

As I watch

peace fills me…
I let go…
always a brutal struggle for this stubborn girl,

(I prefer to name that quality ‘determined’)

always, always, worth it.
trusting life is a ruthless business.

I choose to live,

I choose to feel,

I choose to open,

I choose to pay attention,

I choose to connect,

I choose to participate,

I choose to love,

ruthlessly.

What about you?

💞

God grant you the eyes of heaven

to see each person’s divine belovedness

and so find joy.
God grant you a listening heart

to hear the cries of the silenced,

and so gain wisdom.
God grant you humility

that unburdened by yourself

you may be free.
God grant you courage

to enter the world’s dark wounds,

and so bring healing.
God grant you patience,

to know the strength of the long journey,

and so be given hope.
God grant you a heart of love,

to be moved to action,

and so receive deep peace.
God grant you God’s own spirit

to share in the healing of the world,

and so know God’s deep delight.

__________________

Steve Garnaas-Holmes

Unfolding Light

http://www.unfoldinglight.net

Posted in attitude, awareness, beauty, Becoming Yourself, beloved, Change, Choice, commitment, compassion, confidence, connection, courage, determination, Encouragement, Faith, find art at pinterest, Happiness, home, Hope, Imagine, inspiration, Letting Go, Life, light, Love, mystery, Passion, Peace, power, Prayer | Leave a comment

09 Jul 2016

if you look for me…

Nature,

my teacher

my school

my temple

my shed

my friend

my lover

my passion

my peace

my darkness

my shining

my opening

my knowledge

my quests

my mystery

my luminosity

my path

my return

my budding

my harvest

my seasons

my eternal

my connection

my uniqueness

my blush

my beauty

my ravaging

my savaging

my circle

my arrow

my path

my journey

my longing

my desire

my tryst

my trust

my hope

my haven

my safety

my risk

my skip-itty-doo-dah

the hair on my chinny-chin-chin

my space

my intimacy

my solitude

my family

my found

my faith

my dancing

my lame

my music

my words

my rhythm

my song

my vision

my sight

my lost

my found

my sin

my soul

my tears

my laughter

my being

my belonging

my life

my love

my looking in

my letting go

my begging

my abundance

my start

my stop

my end

my beginning

my heart

my skin

my senses

my fences

my flash

my fire

my living

my death

my creator

my Spirit

my wound

my healer

my receiver

my giver

my adventure

my wild

my silence

my sound

my doo-be-doobie-do

my fa-la-la-la

my going

my coming

my heaven

my home

my ashes

my resurrection

my grounding

my wings

my births

my deaths

my everything

🌸🌻🌺🌾🌷🌹

photos by Fisherman Dan @ Branford, CT

in the heart of the yellow sun

the great current

the blinding white stars

over a blue sheet

when this age has passed

and thunder rolled back its

ringing flames

nestled in the high pines

of course these wild atoms of your heart

swallowed by the great current

the burning wings

the wedding at cana

and so it happens

to each and all

water to wine

flesh to light

it is summer now

in the skies long house

a rib cage of heat and fragrance

surrounded by 5000

your a lifted fish

or a loaf

in the hands of christ

it is no wonder now

you are surrounded

by immigrants and thresholds

as vulnerable as dew

in a field of fire

it is useless now

to utter

the unsayable

why would you want to burn redemption

when the whole world is an open secret

totally lifted

and out of proportion

🌞
Adam A DeFranco

Posted in action, Adventure, attitude, awareness, beauty, Blessing, Change, Choice, compassion, confidence, connection, Faith, find art at pinterest, Glory, Gospel, grace, Gratitude, inspiration, intimacy, Letting Go, Life, Love, Miracles, mystery, nature, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment

07 Jul 2016

where do you go from here?

Nothing happens by chance, no one goes on a quest without a reason, without the pull of the magnet there is no action.

💞

– Rumi

When all the world is young, lad,

And all the trees are green;

And every goose a swan, lad,

And every lass a queen;

Then hey for boot and horse, lad,

And round the world away;

Young blood must have its course, lad,

And every dog his day.

When all the world is old, lad,

And all the trees are brown;

And all the sport is stale, lad,

And all the wheels run down;

Creep home, and take your place there,

The spent and maimed among:

God grant you find one face there,

You loved when all was young.

🌳

Young and Old by Charles Kingsley

I lay and watched your final breath

Lay in a pool of steel, blood and nashing teeth

All knew your smile and humor

I saw the life you were to live

So much love you left behind

So much more you had left to give.

Every breath I took was fire

Not desire, No silent repose

That life I was given back was given to chasing ghosts

No action, no deed, nothing ever was my own

From reverie to taps, a life spent chasing ghosts.

In times such as this,

What is born of such circumstance?

Death gives birth to so much mourning

That spawns life and living.

Your death gave birth to me

Achievements you will never see

Tears, monuments, poetry and prose

You gave your life,

I gave you those.

Just another life spent chasing ghosts.

👻

Chasing Ghosts by Charles Cooper

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 of your soul

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 ever 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 own best and highest offerings.

you must be all you can be.

that is all.

gratitude fills you for this place,

a place so lovely,

it can bear up

even under the weight

of your 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.

🏡

This road is not for the timid or the faint of heart. not at all. But there is no other road. No one will simply wave a magical wand over you. It is a road of destruction and the question is, “How much are you willing to give up? How much can you endure?

Greg Calise read full article:

https://www.scienceandnonduality.com/you-must-die-to-live

Posted in action, Adventure, Alone, attitude, awareness, be, beauty, Becoming Yourself, Beginning, Burnign Bridges, Change, Choice, courage, Encouragement, Faith, find art at pinterest, Freedom, Gratitude, Growth, healing, home, Hope, inspiration, Letting Go, Life, Love, Reality, Reflection, Relationships, risk, soul and spirit, strength, transformation, Trust, truth, words | Leave a comment

04 Jul 2016

perspective ;)

No! ne’er was mingled such a draught

In palace, hall, or arbor,

As freemen brewed and tyrants quaffed

That night in Boston Harbor

– Oliver Wendall Holmes

fireworks photos by Fisherman Dan @ Branford, CT

Freedom only belongs

to those who choose to use it,

but ‘belongs’ is not really the right word,

because freedom will only exist for those who let go completely,

those who allow it to stay free.

Freedom, unused or manipulated,

is no longer freedom.

Like any great gift,

the cost is great,

even so,

freedom does nothing

until it is received,

open handed,

open spirited,

used in practical living.

I’ve sat in prisons

for many years

not realizing the doors were unlocked.

Granted, many of the doors were difficult to get open,

people I trusted TOLD me they were locked,

some were rusted over,

others had puzzle latches

I had to figure out,

but one by one they all opened,

and I stepped out into

sunshine.

Increasingly lighter,

increasingly comprehending of this grace-thing called freedom.

The mystery, the magnitude,

the path, the fire, the gift

called freedom.

There I go again,

falling in love with free will,

falling in love with free air, surf and sky,

falling in love with me.

🇺🇸

God of love set us free

https://youtu.be/KOrCJgzrdQg

Posted in Change, Choice, courage, find art at pinterest, Freedom, Letting Go, Life, Love, Trust, truth, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment

02 Jul 2016

page turner

A hill or edge or precipice,

horizon out and mystery

above, beneath, within.
Departure, limen: driveway,

pier, or gate, or aisle,

a road; and a goodbye.
A parting; sorrow, mostly

masked, and wonder.

Fear of what is next.
Riven wide enough for light,

made empty space enough

for pouring in of this:
a breathing— listen— low,

a hope, a vision, passion,

story told and still unfolding,
woven in your bones and

pouring through your veins,

and every other soul.
In all those faces, rapt

or gaping, still unknowing,

God has set a flame
not yet but soon to burst,

to shine, to speak. That’s why

Christ came, and came again:
to breathe it back into us. All

the love of God is there, now,

in your hands, your wanting hands.
The space awaits. The silence

breathes. The road an arm, a hand.

Begin.

__________________

Steve Garnaas-Holmes

Unfolding Light

http://www.unfoldinglight.net

Strange to realize

on our very worst day of life

someone else is having their very best.

Every death

is countered with birth.

Every grieving tear

with belly laughter.

On the night we see the stars fall

the sun is rising on the other side of the world.

The human spirit cannot be conquered

we rise again with each fall,

else we do not rise at all,

and come to the end,

which is another new beginning.

Tides come in

as tides go out.

With every broken heart

there is an answering new moment of love.

For every first kiss

a final slamming of the door –

figuratively or literally.

For every threshold we cross

we must cross again in a new moment.

We each have moments of glory

moments of defeat.

Worry is the paper tiger

which strips our moments of joy.

Illusions of control hide behind our eyes

always revealed to be a waste of our precious resources.

There is a time for every season.

In all we are to bring the sacrifice of praise.

It is the amazing hat-trick to the healing of our wounds

that in every single circumstance

we stand in the truth of that moment

and we give thanks,

or curse the darkness.

Our choices lead us ever onward

toward the life

we will leave behind,

life happens while we make plans,

all we have slips daily through our hands.

What will we do with your extraordinary, astonishing gift?

🖐🏼

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

Posted in action, Adventure, attitude, awareness, beauty, Becoming Yourself, Change, Choice, connection, courage, Encouragement, Faith, find art at pinterest, inspiration, Letting Go, Life, Love, Miracles, mystery, Passion, Purpose, Reality | Leave a comment

01 Jul 2016

stillpoint

Psalm of the Threshold
Eternal One, I praise you on this threshold;

the door opening is to you.

Under your eye I pack my belongings;

in your arms I move to a new place.
By your Spirit guide my hand

to take only what you give me

and leave the rest;

to bring with me what is truly need

and leave behind what is unneeded.

Give me faith to trust

what cannot be left behind,

and to release what I thought was part of me

but was only the leaves of a season.

Give me grace to say goodbye

even to myself

and turn and welcome the new day,

even in my own soul.
God of time and story,

may I ever dwell on thresholds,

between then and not yet,

in the present, moving.

By your grace open doors;

by your grace lead me through them.

For every door is your eye

and every path is the palm of your hand.

__________________

Steve Garnaas-Holmes

Unfolding Light

http://www.unfoldinglight.net

so I stand at the threshold

of everything new

looking for the key

to the open front door

I stand at the edge

of all that I am

wanting what could be

instead of what is

afraid of not knowing

yet knowing I know

cause I’ll never walk alone

The best is yet to come

🚪

I will not die an unlived life.

I will not live in fear of falling or catching fire.

I choose to inhabit my days,

to allow my living to open me,

to make me less afraid,

more accessible,

to loosen my heart until it becomes a wing,

a torch,

a promise.

I choose to risk my significance;

to live

so that which came to me as a seed

goes to the next as a blossom

and that which came to me as a blossom,

goes on as fruit.

🍇🍎🍏🍊🌽🍒🍓🍋🍉🍑

Dawna Markova

Posted in action, Adventure, attitude, awareness, Becoming Yourself, Beginning, Change, Choice, connection, courage, Faith, find art at pinterest, Letting Go, Life, Miracles, mystery, soul and spirit, strength, Trust, Vulnerability, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment

29 Jun 2016

nothing is more powerful than beauty in a wicked world… – Amos Lee

I asked the earth, I asked the sea and the deeps, among the living animals, and things that creep. I asked the winds that blow, I asked the heavens, the sun, the moon, the stars, and to all things that stand at the doors of my flesh…My question was the gaze I turned to them. Their answer was their beauty.

– St Augustine

Lovers find secret places inside this violent world
Where they make transactions with beauty. – Rumi

Close your eyes.
Fall in love.
Stay there.
– Rumi

We live, shields up,
prepared for battle,
expecting war.
We harden ourselves,
with the best of intentions.
Our best defense is protective prevarication.
Our best offense is distracting laughter.
Violence becomes a way of life.
Tenderness becomes a thing we try to remove from our children
as early as possible.
We think we know this –
if we can control the carnage,
if we don’t allow our weaknesses to drag behind us
like toilet paper stuck to our shoe,
No vulnerabilities allowed to peak out like saggy undergarments.
No imperfections leaking out of our ears or fingertips,
we’ll win.
We got this.
We set life up without possibility of change,
without allowing any new circumstances to come to us…

then love comes
with it’s un-understandable mystery
and finds us not ready.
Who could ever be ready for this?
then we seek places,
benches, beaches, back seats…
places to share with the other.
unexpected moments of joy and connection
find us at newly found secret spots
where shields are lowered,
vulnerability given,
tenderness ruthlessly
invades the moment
and beauty is transacted.
soul’s mingle,
hands touch.
Life gets messy and wet.
Car windows steam up on drizzly mornings
as love comes peeking through
working to melt stony hearts,
to return us to joyful living
these are the moments life was made for,
two souls torn from the same clay,
loving each other for a million years and more,
suddenly find each other within the same moment,
and it takes our breath away.