community | life: acoustic & amplified

Archive for the category “community”

28 Nov 2015

in a blue sky day

Woke up mid-dream

last night

(last night = wee hour morning)

Awakened by

broken sad mourning
My whole life

this date has been a celebration of life

My dad’s life –

a soul who entered this realm November 24 –

74 years of love ago
Today, this date brings tears

and morning mourning

Followed by blue sky

Up on the red roof

Fully alive

Generating compost

Organic buzzing be garden community possibility
Lost key

Kitchen studio

Boots on ladders

Roast beef sprout ciabatta

Pirates of the Carribbean

Stories of lobsters racing in

crusty rolls of butter
Once, years ago, I found my too soon gone Grandma

Today, in a swing overlooking a river

graced by such beautiful bridges

touching sky whilst grounding feet

step by stepping ever overwater

beneath sky,

I felt my daddy…
I sensed him smiling down upon November

gently holding my heart

and I couldn’t help but feel

the way he gently

firmly let go

of my pink stripe

banana seat bike

as I rode down the hill

of Kosta Drive

all those years ago
That moment I knew he knew

I could do this myself

And gave me the beautiful gift

of setting me

and my bicycle free.

🚲
Robin OK

Muse of Collaborative Completion + Visionary for Creative Collaborative ReTREATS

What is your incomplete creative project? Let me help you breathe it to life!

Phone: 513-659-3356

email: laughndream@gmail.com

website: laughanddream.com

💜

Don’t miss the 5th annual Creative Collaborative ReTREAT, Sep 30-Oct 2, 2016!

Website: creativecollaborativeretreats.com

email: creative.collaborative.us@gmail.com

In a day of goodness

We splashed this city all over outselves

Stopped to smell the lingering roses

Went home happily full from our adventures

Life is bittersweet

full of separation, loss, grief, and hurting hearts

full of friendship, adventure, kindness, beauty and truth

I love you

I miss you

I hurt

I laugh

Life is good

💞

I want my grief

to be brilliant, fast and gone.

Like Mozart. Or Stevie Ray.

Like fireworks. Boom! Flash!

Ooh, ahh. OK, done. Let’s go.
I want my grief to be brave.

Hurts more now, heals faster,

Grandma said, pouring salt

On a skinned knee.
I want to stand up to grief,

Stand it down, like the

Tiny man, big tank

In Tiananmen Square.
Because. Because if I am brave,

Bold, salty, open enough

The tank, the bleeding, the tears

Will stop sooner. I tell myself.
But grief laughs. Humbles me.

I lose keys, break cups, get lost.

Asked at CarMax Why are you

Selling this car? I burst
Into an embarrassment of tears.

A friend says, One doesn’t have grief,

Grief has you.

We wrestle, to the mat. I’m pinned.
But sometimes I break free.

Break patterns instead of dishes.

Start to write myself a new story,

To fling myself toward yes,
Begin to say, Oh. Now this. . . . Observe

What life brings. Reframe. Say,

I’m not wrestling grief,

We’re dancing.
So, I put my right foot in . . .

And turn myself about.

💔

I Want My Grief by Peg Runnels

Posted in Adventure, Alone, attitude, awareness, beauty, Becoming Yourself, beloved, Change, Choice, community, connection, Dreams, find art at pinterest, Freedom, friendship, Grieving, healing, inspiration, laugh, Letting Go, Life, Love, music, mystery, Passion, People, Reflection, Relationships | Leave a comment

22 Nov 2015

Anything that you learn becomes your wealth, a wealth that cannot be taken away from you; whether you learn it in a building called school or in the school of life. To learn something new is a timeless pleasure and a valuable treasure. And not all things that you learn are taught to you, but many things that you learn you realize you have taught yourself.

― C. JoyBell

I spent my weekend with my amazing friends, Kitt, Mike, Rebecca and Christian Haberman, in Louisville.

I sum this powerful time of connection and sharing with this:

I learned things. Lots of beautiful things. Things I will have with me always. (Happy Sigh) I am so grateful for all of the great people I have in my life.

I stayed in the room below (Lesley Haberman being all grown up and off in college) and got ready with these messages before me, reminding me, filling my heart. Messages written by a beautiful, teenage girl to remind herself….remember…remember..

💞

Thank you, Lesley, thank you Haberman Family. Love is so very good to us!

What a beautiful world…

Posted in action, Adventure, attitude, awareness, be, beauty, Becoming Yourself, beloved, Blessing, Choice, commitment, community, connection, courage, determination, Encouragement, Faith, Freedom, friendship, grace, Gratitude, Growth, Habits, Happiness, healing, inspiration, Life, Love | Leave a comment

18 Nov 2015

create new pathways

And here’s what made it happen…
They tell me –

Not to…

Don’t…

Forget the writer,

leave her be,

Focus on some other things,

words need not be free
They say no need to share adventures..

Stuff the stories,

hide your truths

Don’t capture the experience, it’s really of no use

They say

other things need my attention, my energy,
For God’s sake, earn a wage –
I’ll tell you what that does for me –

…finally, finally…finally –

sends me to the page
And all the walls and stops crash-tumble-trickle down
I sit furious-

typing –

damn punctuation, tense, pronoun
Does it really matter if they she he we agree?

It’s time to tell my story – for once, for now – for ME

💜

– Robin OK

http://www.creativecollaborativeretreats.com

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

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 best and highest offerings

you must be all you can be

gratitude fills you for this place

a place so lovely

it can bear up

even under the weight

of our 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.

❤️

Posted in action, Adventure, attitude, awareness, beauty, Becoming Yourself, beloved, Change, Choice, commitment, community, connection, courage, create, find art at pinterest, Freedom, Gratitude, inspiration, Letting Go, Life, Love, Miracles, Passion, Patience, perceptions, Relationships | 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

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

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

21 Jun 2015

peace stronger than the storm

A great storm lashes this nation
while much of the people sleep,

a storm of racial hatred, a storm of fear.

In fear a white man seeks out blacks

and kills them in their church.

This is not new.

The storm will not stop,

the waves of death will not stop.

He is only one wave of the storm,

blown by great winds of fear.

It is not out of hope or happiness he kills,

he kills out of fear.

The one wave is not the problem; the storm is.

The storm envelopes us all.

It defeats us, makes us anxious.

We cry, “Do you not care that we are perishing?”

A great storm battered the disciples’ boat.

Wind, invisible and relentless,

howled down on them, pushing against them.

Waves would not stop, would not stop

bashing them, beating them,

filling the boat, threatening to swallow them.
Fear howled in them like the wind,

fear beat in them like waves,

a relentless storm of fear.

Their hearts cried, “Save us! Manage this!”

But Jesus was asleep, not worrying,

not in control. Serene. At peace.

“Jesus, join our anxiety! Won’t you despair with us?”

But Jesus was unafraid.

Maybe weary, maybe needing not to be needed,

but also unafraid. At peace.
It was not fear, but his sisters’ and brothers’ cries

that awakened him. In his deep calm he rose,

not in fear, not in anger, but in peace

and gave his peace to the others,

and gave his peace to the winds and the seas.

Infinite peace flowed through him like wind,

passed out into the world like waves,

peace stronger than the storm.

It was not fear, but peace that calmed the storm.

The Man of Peace cries out in our own souls.

Calms the storms of our fears.

Grants us peace beyond understanding.

We let it fill us, that divine peace,

deep peace with all the world,

deepest love for this world and all its children,

children with and without mercy,

peace with the world and all is raging wounds,

peace even with the storm,

for it is peace with all of life.

This peace is also agony for our sisters and brothers.

It is care that we are perishing.

But it is care, not fear. It is deep peace.
And in that peace we shall awaken.

Not fear but our sister’s and brothers’ cries awaken us.

We rise, as Christ rises, always in hope.

In deep peace, not in fear or anger,

we will rise and stand in the storm.

The winds will whip us.

The waves will batter us. But we will stand,

because Christ stands in us.

We will cry out to the storm,

and cry out to our sisters and bothers

with a peace stronger than the storm,

“Peace! Be still!”
The wind will still lash us, the waves batter.

Fear will react; anger will rise like new waves.

The wounds will retract and hide, afraid to be touched,

the wind afraid to be named.

But in the storm we shall stand in that peace that is love,

cry out with that peace that is anguish,

hold fast with that peace that is courage,

endure with that peace stronger than the storm.

And there shall be peace.
Peace. Be Still.

Why are you afraid? Have you no faith?

__________________

Steve Garnaas-Holmes

Unfolding Light

http://www.unfoldinglight.net

No, my friends

darkness is not everywhere

for here and there

I find faces illuminated

from within.

Japanese lanterns

floating

among dark trees

😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊

Light by Carole Ann Borges

Listen to Cat Stevens sing Morning Has Broken http://youtu.be/e0TInLOJuUM

🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

photo sources found at www.pinterest.com/al513

Posted in awareness, beauty, community, compassion, connection, courage, find art at pinterest, forgiveness, Gospel, grace, Gratitude, Grieving, healing, kindness, Letting Go, Life, light, Love, nature, Peace, People, power, Prayer, Respect, soul and spirit, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment

22 Apr 2015

organic 🌎

We begin in the dark. Within.
Life.
Love.
Joy.
Invisible. Visible.
Grief.
Pain. Suffering. Healing.
Faith. Trust. Peace.
We grow and learn organically.
Evolution. Beginning. Ending.
Revolution. Courage. Strength.
Resolution. Passion. Alive.
All things come in their perfect time.
Longing. Loving. Belonging.
All things come.
Herky-jerky. Flowing.
Our choice.
Freedom.
Creativity.
Beauty. Kindness. Truth. Hope.
Are those gifts with wings
living in our hair.
Hovering around our shoulders.
Kissing our cheeks.
Wiping away our tears.
Birthing our songs as we rise from the ash. Flying.
As we live the dash.
In between.
Birth. Death. Visible. Invisible.