life: acoustic & amplified
poetry, quotes & thoughts about life
Archive for the category “determination”
standing tall
Erik Wahl:
The purpose of art is not to produce a product. The purpose of art is to produce thinking. The secret is not the mechanics or technical skill that create art – but the process of introspection and different levels of contemplation that generate it. Once you learn to embrace this process, your creative potential is limitless.
Artwork should be an active verb (a lens by which to view the world) not a passive noun (a painting that sits dormant in a museum). Creativity lies NOT in the done but in the doing. Art is active and incomplete. Always shifting, always becoming. Art is a sneak peak into the future of potential, of what could be. Not a past result of what has been already done. Art is a process not a product.
Art is a human act. Art is Risky. Generous. Courageous. Provocative. You can be perfect, or you can make art. You can keep track of what you will get in return for your effort, or you can make art. You can enjoy the status quo, or you can make art.
This is the purpose for why art should not be cut from education.
Photo sources found at www.pinterest.com
every day life offers…
This is what life does. It lets you walk up to
the store to buy breakfast and the paper, on a
stiff knee. It lets you choose the way you have
your eggs, your coffee. Then it sits a fisherman
down beside you at the counter who says, Last night,
the channel was full of starfish. And you wonder,
is this a message, finally, or just another day?
Life lets you take the dog for a walk down to the
pond, where whole generations of biological
processes are boiling beneath the mud. Reeds
speak to you of the natural world: they whisper,
they sing. And herons pass by. Are you old
enough to appreciate the moment? Too old?
There is movement beneath the water, but it
may be nothing. There may be nothing going on.
And then life suggests that you remember the
years you ran around, the years you developed
a shocking lifestyle, advocated careless abandon,
owned a chilly heart. Upon reflection, you are
genuinely surprised to find how quiet you have
become. And then life lets you go home to think
about all this. Which you do, for quite a long time.
Later, you wake up beside your old love, the one
who never had any conditions, the one who waited
you out. This is life’s way of letting you know that
you are lucky. (It won’t give you smart or brave,
so you’ll have to settle for lucky.) Because you
were born at a good time. Because you were able
to listen when people spoke to you. Because you
stopped when you should have and started again.
So life lets you have a sandwich, and pie for your
late night dessert. (Pie for the dog, as well.) And
then life sends you back to bed, to dreamland,
while outside, the starfish drift through the channel,
with smiles on their starry faces as they head
out to deep water, to the far and boundless sea.
☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️
Starfish by Eleanor Lerman
Listen to The Eagles sing Peaceful Easy Feeling http://youtu.be/n00g71TySS4
holding on…letting go…
I closed my eyes
and returned
to people,
and places,
I love.
I closed my eyes
and opened
my heart
to magic,
and mystery,
I fell in love.
I closed my eyes
and committed
my life
to love, to You,
my soul’s beloved.
I closed my eyes
and saw
a new heaven,
and earth,
a world of love.
I closed my eyes
and found
myself,
within myself
deep calling to deep
I closed my eyes
and sang
my words,
songs you gave me,
my love song to You.
AL
photo sources at www.pinterest.com
transformations
There is a teaching that says that behind all hardening and tightening and rigidity of the heart, there’s always fear. But if you touch fear, behind fear there is a soft spot. And if you touch that soft spot, you find the vast blue sky. You find that which is ineffable, ungraspable, and unbiased, that which can support and awaken us at any time.
– Pema Chodron
Listen to JJ Heller sing What Love Really Means http://youtu.be/PgGUKWiw7Wk
❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
photo sources found at www.pinterest.com/al513
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
water ditty’s
Sit and be still
until in the time
of no rain you hear
beneath the dry wind’s
commotion in the trees
the sound of flowing
water among the rocks,
a stream unheard before,
and you are where
breathing is prayer.
VI: Sabbaths 2001 [Sit and be still] by Wendell Berry
There is only one way, aging beauties,
to go down this river,
to hear the water’s music over the rocks,
to find a loving I, Thou, Who.
I say, spring out of the boat,
jump in naked, tender,
with your ferocious heart torn open.
💧💧💧💧💧💧💧💦
Hear the Water’s Music by Tere Sievers
Listen to Keb Mo sing I’ll Be Your Water http://youtu.be/jTvsHvd0Mkk
days of…
Days of wine and focus
of hanging on
of staying strong
of keeping faith
of sitting still
of being silent
of thinking in beautiful
of standing in my own shoes
of letting go
of loving you through the distance
of letting you lead
of feeling the passion
of attempting not to burn up
of recognizing the spectacular
of allowing the mystery
of hearing the call
of accepting what is
of not crossing borders or boundaries
of opening and opening
of trusting the journey
of seeing the face of God
of surrender into something bigger than I can know
of making the daily commitment
of acknowledging the grace
of thanking for everything
of looking for the miracles
of talking to trees
of taking time to prepare
of expressing my love
of helping in time of need
of following my own path
of obedience rather than selfishness
of love and love and love
of all things love
AL
Photo sources found at www.pinterest.com/al513
joy…now
What if this is as good as it gets?
What if THIS very day is the best life will be?
What if this is your last chance to sing?
What if this moment is what you are called to?
What if this moment is your purpose?
What can you do to find the joy in this moment?
How can you be happy and satisfied right now?
What are the miracles that are happening for you as you read this?
What joy-filled cloud is hanging in the air above your head,
ready to splash all over you?
What gifts are being offered,
if you just receive them,
allow them to tumble all around you?
Maybe, just maybe, these questions hold the true secrets of life.
Maybe, living life in joy-fullness right now –
not waiting for some distant glory dream to come true –
Not holding back till your illusion of happiness materializes.
But, right now, sitting in whatever circumstance you are in,
this very given moment,
you look around and begin
to let go –
to find the avalanche of joy jewels
you’re walking on NOW.
Maybe this is the best, and only, secret…
DON’T WAIT FOR HAPPY!!!
It is available now,
and every minute
of this,
and every,
day.
😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎
AL
It doesn’t make sense to those who can love deeply when others turn away. But not everyone is ready to keep the heart gate open to other humans. Not everyone can handle the vulnerabilities and risk. Some prefer substitute forms of love to the real thing. Perhaps they find it safer to channel their love toward a theoretical God that can never really hurt them, to a pet that will never trigger their memory of human disappointments, to a job that will gratify them economically without touching their hearts. There are so many substitute gratifications on this planet, most of them a covering over of our deep longing to connect with each other. If you are one who is truly ready to love, better to attach to those who can truly meet you there. There is the love-lit world of genuine vulnerability, and there is the love-avoidant world of seeming security. Different worlds altogether…
😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍
– Jeff Brown (~an excerpt from the soon to be published ‘Spiritual Graffiti’)
😘😘😘😘😘😘😘😘😘😘
photo sources found at www.pinterest.com/al513
🌳
I wonder, walking in these woods,
along stone walls so purposefully laid,
what it was like to clear the land,
by hand and oxen, long ago,
and pry the stones out, lift
the smaller ones, and heft them up,
the bigger ones with tools and
chains and wheels, with all
their solid weight pushing down against
you, against your hands, your will,
stone after stone,
to clear it out.
How right and good it must have seemed
to see the walls set out,
the fields enclosed.
How hard and fine, and no less work
to lift away my bitterness, my fear,
and clear an open, gentle space.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
what will you choose?
Just like everyone alive
Your days will be full of events –
threads, as it were,
weaving your life into a tapestry
There will be days of great joy and ones of overwhelming sorrow
Good days
Bad days
Medium days
Average days
Snow days
Hazy days
day after day after day
until they end
and you move on
All your days you will have circumstances to accept and embrace
or reject and avoid
to stay or leave
to fly or fear
Some to let go
some to overcome
some to enjoy
some to live through
Life is not about being fair
Life is about winning with the cards you hold
Winning doesn’t mean being rich, famous
or being born with a pedigree
Winning means living up to your own very unique, personal best
Winning means experiencing and inhabiting
love, peace and joy
You’ll be as happy as you decide to be
You will be as healthy as is possible based on what you decide to do
and the genes you were born with
You’ll choose to accept or reject what is offered
You’ll do what you want to do
Go where you want to go
Keep holding on to what is most important to you
– no matter if it makes you better –
or if it destroys you –
You’ll love who you love
Be who you are
You will be worth as much as you decide you are
You will judge others based on your own insecurities,
and your unchallenged beliefs
You will have as much love as you allow inside you
You will have as much of God as you seek to find
You will inhabit your life –
or not
All this will have nothing to do with your circumstances
It won’t matter how much money you have,
your gender,
or the color of your skin
It will all be about your choices
Always,
and only,
about your choices
AL
Listen to Misty Edwards sing Soul Cry http://youtu.be/b-IDAqxCZ7I
😇😈😇😈😇😈
Photo sources found at www.pinterest.com/al513
life: acoustic & amplified 