If you have one hour of air
And many hours to go,
You must breathe slowly.
If you have one arm’s length
and many things to care for,
You must give freely.
If you have one chance to know God
And many doubts, you must
Set your heart on fire.
We are blessed.
Each day is a chance.
We have two arms.
Fear wastes air.
🔥
Freefall by Mark Nepo
photos found at http://www.pinterest.com
An extra day —
Like the painting’s fifth cow, who looks out directly, straight toward you, from inside her black and white spots.
An extra day —
Accidental, surely: the made calendar stumbling over the real as a drunk trips over a threshold too low to see.
An extra day —
With a second cup of black coffee. A friendly but businesslike phone call. A mailed-back package. Some extra work, but not too much — just one day’s worth, exactly.
An extra day —
Not unlike the space between a door and its frame when one room is lit and another is not, and one changes into the other as a woman exchanges a scarf.
An extra day —
Extraordinarily like any other. And still there is some generosity to it, like a letter re-readable after its writer has died.
💌
February 29 by Jane Hirshfield
It was heartbreak that showed me the courage of the feminine. The gift of having your heart smashed open by love and its related disappointments is that you remember what its like to feel everything again after days, years, lifetimes spent below armour. Through enheartened eyes, we see the courage it takes to stay in the feeling realm. We reward emotional armour because it allows us to ‘succeed’ in a survivalist world, when we should be honoring those who have the courage to remain emotionally receptive and open on the battlefields of life. It took me this long to realize that remaining heart-centred in this world is the greatest achievement of all.
💞
– Jeff Brown
Courage, dear heart!
These gifts we bring
an open heart
an open mind
empty hands
a love song pure
a life lived grateful
an eye for your beauty
a ready smile
feet quick to help the fallen
kind words spoken
a porch for sharing
a welcome hello
a warm goodbye
simplicity is hard to achieve
yet the best things always are
❤️
AL
find photo sources at http://www.pinterest.com
Mark Nepo tells us to,
‘put down what doesn’t work –
so that we can find what is sacred’.
What worked so well yesterday,
may not work today.
We wear out our structures of known truth,
the frameworks of what we use for living,
for healing.
Let them go,
trust in the new architecture –
modern,
with our personal, classic twist.
We are always becoming.
Watch for the signs of structural failure,
build the new bridge,
delight in this magnificent design,
those amazing cranes hanging in mid-air,
strong, foundational columns,
the rusty, hard rebar of our personal growth,
rising from deep within the waters muddy bottom,
creating the new skyline of your life,
welcome this new place of crossing.
It can handle rush hour,
or heavy foot-traffic.
Continue the build,
always creating with the future in mind,
before the old fully implodes underneath our feet.
🏗
AL
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
💖
AL
quote photo sources found at http://www.pinterest.com
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.
– Jen Lemen
photo sources found at http://www.pinterest.com
Yesterday we obeyed kings and bent our necks before emperors. But today we kneel only to truth, follow only beauty, and obey only love.
❤️
~ Khalil Gibran
We often confuse unconditional love with unconditional approval. God loves us without conditions but does not approve of every human behavior. God doesn’t approve of betrayal, violence, hatred, suspicion, and all other expressions of evil, because they all contradict the love God wants to instill in the human heart. Evil is the absence of God’s love. Evil does not belong to God.
God’s unconditional love means that God continues to love us even when we say or think evil things. God continues to wait for us as a loving parent waits for the return of a lost child. It is important for us to hold on to the truth that God never gives up loving us even when God is saddened by what we do. That truth will help us to return to God’s ever-present love.
❤️
– Henri Nouwen
‘In all the languages in the world, there is the same proverb: “What the eyes don’t see, the heart doesn’t grieve over.”
Well, I say that there isn’t an ounce of truth in it. The further off they are, the closer to the heart are all those feelings that we try to repress and forget.
If we’re in exile, we want to store away every tiny memory of our roots.
If we’re far from the person we love, everyone we pass in the street reminds us of them.
‘The gospels and all the sacred texts of all religions were written in exile, in search of God’s understanding, of the faith that moves whole peoples, of the pilgrimage of souls wandering the face of the Earth.
Our ancestors did not know, as we do not know, what the Divinity expects from our lives – and it is out of that doubt that books are written, pictures painted, because we don’t want to forget who we are – nor can we.’
______________________________
(in “Eleven Minutes”, by Paulo Coelho)
photo sources found at http://www.pinterest.com
I wish I had a nickel for every stranger who has ever told me, I’ve lost all hope. This happens to me regularly and what surprises me most is my instant reaction which is always something along the lines of “I know that feeling so well” or “Me too.” It seems this is one of the most common, most human feelings we can have and one we aren’t “supposed” to have if we’re evolved, rational creatures. It seems it’s a pitiable feeling to have, requiring an intervention or precipitating an emergency, but what if it just is something we feel sometimes, that’s very painful, made more painful by the feeling we are not supposed to feel it and that we should never ever say it out loud. What if our long days, months, years even with this feeling are hollowing out necessary places in our hearts where we can feel, really feel, what we long for? Like respect? Tenderness? Acceptance? Love?
– Jen Lemen / facebook
life: acoustic & amplified 