life: acoustic & amplified
poetry, quotes & thoughts about life
Archive for the category “Dancing”
What really matters in life is not what we buy, but what we
build; not what we have, but what we share with the world; not our capability but our character; and not our success but our true significance. Live a life that makes you proud – one that matters and makes a difference. Live a life filled with passion and love.
A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose
Read full post: 20 Bad Habits Holding Good People Back
http://www.marcandangel.com/
Finding a Box of Family Letters
by Dana Gioia
The dead say little in their letters
they haven’t said before.
We find no secrets, and yet
how different every sentence sounds
heard across the years.
My father breaks my heart
simply by being so young and handsome.
He’s half my age, with jet-black hair.
Look at him in his navy uniform
grinning beside his dive-bomber.
Come back, Dad! I want to shout.
He says he misses all of us
(though I haven’t yet been born).
He writes from places I never knew he saw,
and everyone he mentions now is dead.
There is a large, long photograph
curled like a diploma—a banquet sixty years ago.
My parents sit uncomfortably
among tables of dark-suited strangers.
The mildewed paper reeks of regret.
I wonder what song the band was playing,
just out of frame, as the photographer
arranged your smiles. A waltz? A foxtrot?
Get out there on the floor and dance!
You don’t have forever.
What does it cost to send a postcard
to the underworld? I’ll buy
a penny stamp from World War II
and mail it downtown at the old post office
just as the courthouse clock strikes twelve.
Surely the ghost of some postal worker
still makes his nightly rounds, his routine
too tedious for him to notice when it ended.
He works so slowly he moves back in time
carrying our dead letters to their lost addresses.
It’s silly to get sentimental.
The dead have moved on. So should we.
But isn’t it equally simpleminded to miss
the special expertise of the departed
in clarifying our long-term plans?
They never let us forget that the line
between them and us is only temporary.
Get out there and dance! the letters shout
adding, Love always. Can’t wait to get home!
And soon we will be. See you there.
from Pity the Beautiful. © Graywolf Press, 2012.
http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/
Spring wishes
I’m not sure who decided that dandelions were weeds, but the poor dandelion got a bad deal.
I walked through my new yard this morning on a beautiful bed of cheery, wish-filled dandelions, my favorite little violets and lucky, lucky clover. I sat on the deck and discovered the cutest little inch worm crawling on my hand and sang the inch worm song as i put him back in the grass, and as I thrilled to the bounty and beauty of spring, I was also reminded of my dad paying me a luxurious nickel for each large paper grocery bag full of dandelions I produced. I was never very good and probably only deserved 1/2 of my nickel! Ha
I’m kinda proud of that now, cause I like dandelions! Who decided they were weeds?????
More to come when I get rested up and get somewhat settled!
Happy Spring – bask, wallow and enjoy every beautiful bit!
Happy Spring to all!
extravagantly glorious pink trees for everyone!!!
Happy Spring to all!
Spring is busting out all over and the world is full of beautiful color! I love Spring!!!! My very favorite season!
Last year I did a Spring newsletter http://songsfromthevalley.com/March%2011%204.9%20Spring.pdf
face the truth
Where the Wild Things Are
Go with him
into the deserted places
where mind won’t survive,
deep in your wilds, exposed,
with the beasts,
feral, shifty, wise
in their wordless ways,
their primal hungers,
their devouring instincts,
disappearing easily
into your canyons and outcroppings.
You don’t vanquish them,
you watch,
and learn to survive among them,
and witness the mystery,
how they lie down beside him.
Even they know
these washes and gulches
are a palm.
In this extremity,
you find your place
among your terrors,
your wastelands,
your angels.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
Can you feel the music?
A lot of the daily messages I get right now are about Lent. I didn’t grow up with Lent and so I find it somewhat exotic. Over the past several years I have observed the practice and have found it so beautiful and beneficial. It is an important event, and it is a time to go deep into some tough issues. The messages I get in my daily inspirational doses are great (for the most part) and present Lent as both difficult, but joyous! Which I believe is true. We must begin to be vulnerable to our brokenness, if we want to feel our deepest joy!
It is interesting to me the contrast of when I hear people talking about Lent in everyday conversation. Like at my job, or in a restaurant. It seems a lot of people feel like Lent is about deprivation and punishment. I over hear them dreading ‘giving up’ chocolate, beer or meat and wondering if it will interfere with their entertainment schedule, or if is just too hard. Most of them seem to be dreading it. When I can, I try to insert myself into their conversation (I hope they appreciate it at some point! ha) and assure them that is not what Lent is about – we are not called to punishment! We are called to a deeper experience of life. We are called to freedom, love and joy! Life is beautiful – that is the message! 
I try to encourage the people who feel this way to turn it around this year. Don’t be punished by ‘giving up’ use the 40 days to ADD something special. Write a 40 day journal and concentrate on looking for one good thing a day to be thankful and write about!
Lent is about reflection about deepening our lives in every way. Let’s try to get the message out that Jesus never wanted religion – his beautiful life and death was because of love to give us truth and freedom. He wants our love, relationship, communion, fellowship, passion. Yes, it’s all about love.
In the willing hands of the believing, the emptiness can sing. He means to fill our emptiness with song. – Ann Voskamp
In Lent, as we fast from rich, sweet foods, we fast from our rich, sweet Alleluia. On Fat 
Tuesday (Mardi Gras, in French) an old tradition is to use up all the fat — the milk, eggs and butter in the house (usually in pancakes). And we use up all the alleluias. A liturgical tradition for this day includes burying the alleluias,carrying a small casket out of the church and interring it, as we would for someone we love. It’s a tender moment.
Use up your alleluias today. Relish the word. Walk around singing it, saying it, praying it. Rejoice in being “shriven” —having confessed and been absolved (hence another name for today, “Shrove Tuesday”) — before you enter into a season when your freedom is still being worked out. Then tonight, bury yourAlleluias. Kiss them goodbye. Wish them well. They will go down into the darkness, into the silence, to be drowned out by the moans and the cries. Let them go. They have infinite life in them. They will arise again on Easter, having seen Hell and transfigured it, and returned, singing.
But today do not worry yourself about the dark journey to come. This is the day the Lord is creating. Let us rejoice and be glad. Alleluia!
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
dreams & ideas are for doing
Trust that little voice in your head that says
‘Wouldn’t it be interesting if…’
And then do it.
– Duane Michals
life: acoustic & amplified 