determination | life: acoustic & amplified

Archive for the category “determination”

28 Apr 2016

risk it all

We are here essentially to risk ourselves in the world. We are a form of invitation to others and to otherness, we are meant to hazard ourselves for the right thing, for the right woman or the right man, for a son or a daughter, for the right work or for a gift given against all the odds. And in all this continual risking the most profound courage may be found in the radical and simple willingness to allow ourselves to be happy along the way…

😄

LONGING by David Whyte

It’s not how we leave one’s life.

How we go off the air.

You never know do you.

You think you’re ready

for anything;

then it happens, and you’re not.

You’re really not.

The genesis of an ending, nothing but a feeling,

a slow movement,

the dusting of furniture

with a remnant of the revenant’s shirt.

Seeing the candles sink in their sockets;

we turn away,

yet the music never quits.

The fire kisses our face.

O phthsis, o lotharian dead eye,

no longer will you gaze on the baize of the billiard table.

No more shooting butter dishes out of the sky.

Scattering light.

Between snatches of poetry and penitence

you left the brumal wood of men and women.

Snow drove the butterflies home.

You must know how it goes,

known all along what to expect,

sooner or later …

the faded cadence of anonymity.

Frankly, my dear, frankly, my dear, frankly

💞

Only the Crossing Counts by C. D. Wright

Well I won’t back down, no I won’t back down

You could stand me up at the gates of hell

But I won’t back down
Gonna stand my ground, won’t be turned around

And I’ll keep this world from draggin’ me down

Gonna stand my ground and I won’t back down
[Chorus:]

Hey baby, there ain’t no easy way out

Hey I will stand my ground

And I won’t back down
Well I know what’s right, I got just one life

In a world that keeps on pushin’ me around

But I’ll stand my ground and I won’t back down
Hey baby there ain’t no easy way out

Hey I will stand my ground

And I won’t back down

No, I won’t back down

This day maybe be rough and bloody and heartbreaking but it is here and it is now and it is bursting with untold potential and possibility and our response to it is of utmost, urgent importance.

– Rob Bell

Posted in action, Adventure, attitude, awareness, Choice, connection, courage, determination, do, Encouragement, find art at pinterest, fun, Letting Go, Life, Passion, risk, soul and spirit, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment

24 Mar 2016

black n white

find more amazement from Tyler Spangler @ http://tylerspangler.com
🌗
I reason, Earth is short — And Anguish — absolute — And many hurt, But, what of that?

I reason, we could die — The best Vitality Cannot excel Decay, But, what of that?

I reason that in Heaven — Somehow, it will be even — Some new Equation, given — But, what of that?

🌗

I reason, Earth is short… (301) by Emily Dickinson

I sink back upon the ground, expecting to die. A voice speaks out of my ear, You are not going to die, you are being changed into a zebra. You will have black and white stripes up and down your back and you will love people as you do not now. That is why you will be changed into a zebra that people will tame and exhibit in a zoo. You will be a favorite among children and you will love the children in return whom you do not love now. Zoo keepers will make a pet of you because of your round, sad eyes and musical bray, and you will love your keeper as you do not now. All is well, then, I tell myself silently, listening to the voice in my ear speak to me of my future. And what will happen to you, voice in my ear, I ask silently, and the answer comes at once: I will be your gentle, musical bray that will help you as a zebra all your days. I will mediate between the world and you, and I will learn to love you as a zebra whom I did not love as a human being.

🌗

I sink back upon the ground… by David Ignatow

🌗

In “Farewell to Arms” Ernest Hemingway wrote, “The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry.”

– Ocean Palmer quotes EH

photos found at http://www.pinterest.com

Little bird why you singin’ that sad song?

Makin’ me cry as I sing along

Did you know that your cage doors open wide?

All ya gotta do is just step outside.
Can’t nobody stop you
Cause you were born to fly

Til you touch the sky

Friends with every tree

You were born to be free

And I’ll dance along

To your freedom song
Little girl why you singin’ that sad song?

Cause he robbed you, now you’ve got no home

Think you’re stuck, locked inside of this damn cage

broken heart, broken dreams upon this page
Little boy I know that song you sing

She’s not right, you can do anything.

Cause your so much stronger than these chains.

you are free and your freedom bells just rang
Can’t nobody stop you
Cause you were born to fly

Til you touch the sky

Friends with every tree

You were born to be free

And I’ll dance along

To your freedom song
If we don’t use it

We ain’t free

It’s our choice

It’s up to each

If we don’t choose it

We won’t ever be

Everything we were born to be
Can’t nobody stop us
Cause we were born to fly

Til we touch the sky

Friends with every tree

We were born to be free

Won’t you dance along

To our freedom song

🌗

Posted in action, Adventure, awareness, beauty, Becoming Yourself, Change, Choice, commitment, confidence, connection, courage, Death, determination, Faith, find art at pinterest, Freedom, grace, Growth, healing, Letting Go, Life, Love, Miracles, mystery | Leave a comment

18 Mar 2016

you do what you do

There Will Be Things You Do
you won’t know why.

Maybe waiting to tie

your shoelaces

until everything else

is in place.

Could be you’ll slide

your egg yolks aside

eat every bit of bacon,

toast, whites while the forsaken

yellow orbs stare at you

from the side pocket

of your empty plate.

People will ask

why do you save

your yolks for last

and you won’t know—

won’t recall

the cousin from the south

came to visit one summer

ate his eggs so odd

your family said

stuck with you

like the way

you love to be kissed

on the back of your neck

can vaguely recollect

your mother’s kisses

after your bath

too gentle for memory.

There will be things you do

you won’t know why

like the way you look up at the sky

when anxious or blue

it’s what your father

used to do

every family trip

when nothing else

was right

except those clouds

moving north by northwest through the night

he showed you 

what pilots knew:

factors for safe flying

are visibility

and how low

and mean the clouds are.

☁️☁️☁️☁️

There Will Be Things You Do by Kim Dower

happy birthday to my dad!

Posted in attitude, awareness, connection, courage, determination, find art at pinterest, Gratitude, Joy, Letting Go, Life, Love, Miracles, mystery, nature | Leave a comment

13 Mar 2016

look no further

But all your losses brought you here to walk
under one name and to walk under one name only,

and to find the guise under which all loss can live;

remember, you were given that name every day

along the way, remember, you were greeted as such,

and treated as such, and you needed no other name,

other people seemed to know you even before you gave up

being a shadow on the road and came into the light,

even before you sat down,

broke bread and drank wine,

wiped the wind-tears from your eyes:

pilgrim they called you again and again. Pilgrim.

🚶🏻

Excerpt from the poem ‘CAMINO’

From ‘PILGRIM’: Poems by David Whyte

I ᖇEᔕOᒪᐯE
TO ᗷE ᗩᗯᗩᖇE

TO ᔕEE ᗩᑎᗪ ᔕEEK

ᗪIᗩᗰOᑎᗪᔕ ᗩᑎᗪ EᗰEᖇᗩᒪᗪᔕ

TO ᗯᖇITE about

ᗩᑎᗪ

ᗪOᑕᑌᗰEᑎT TᕼEᗰ

EᐯEᖇY way

EᐯEᖇY day

I ᖇEᔕOᒪᐯE

TO ᔕᗩY

‘I ᔕᗯᗩᖇE’

To ᑕᗩᖇE and CARRY

ᗰIᖇᗩᑕᒪEᔕ ᗩᑎᗪ ᒍEᗯEᒪᔕ

TO ᔕᕼᗩᖇE

ᗯITᕼ TᕼOᔕE I ᗰEET ᗩᒪOᑎG TᕼE ᗯᗩY

EᐯEᖇY ᗯᕼEᖇE

I WILL BEAR

THE TALES OF THE PILGRIM

💃🏻

The road seen, then not seen, the hillside hiding

then revealing the way you should take,

the road dropping away from you as if leaving you

to walk on thin air, then catching you, holding you up,

when you thought you would fall, and the way forward

always in the end the way that you came,

the way that you followed, the way that carried

you into your future, that brought you

to this place, no matter that it sometimes took

your promise from you, no matter that it always had to break

your heart along the way, the sense of having walked

from far inside yourself out into the revelation,

to have risked yourself for something that seemed

to stand both inside you and far beyond you,

that called you back in the end to the only road

you could follow, walking as you did, in your

rags of love and speaking in the voice

that by night, became a prayer for safe arrival…

👫

Excerpt from “SANTIAGO”

From PILGRIM: Poems by David Whyte

photos found at http://www.pinterest.com 

Posted in action, Adventure, attitude, awareness, Becoming Yourself, beloved, Blessing, commitment, connection, determination, find art at pinterest, Glory, healing, light, Love, mystery, People | Leave a comment

05 Mar 2016

full investigation…

Author Kent Crockett tells this classic story about his two year old son, Scott, who was sitting on the floor crying. Kent went into the room to investigate and he noticed a plastic baseball bat on the floor and asked his four year old daughter what happened. His little girl, Hannah, said, “He hit his head.” Kent said, “On what?” She pointed to the floor and said, “The bat.” Kent said, “Where was the bat?” She said, “In my hands.”

Where there is love

Where there is people

There is pain

Disappointment

Misunderstanding

Differences

Separation

Tears

Imperfection

Where there is love

Where there is people

There is joy

Inspiration

Community

Understanding

Connection

Life is about love

Life is about people

Embracing it all

Feeling it all

❤️💔❤️💔❤️💔❤️

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

Posted in action, Adventure, attitude, awareness, beauty, Becoming Yourself, beloved, Burnign Bridges, Change, Choice, compassion, confidence, connection, courage, determination, Encouragement, Faith, find art at pinterest, Freedom, friendship, Love, Reality | Leave a comment

29 Feb 2016

extra special

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

Posted in Adventure, art, attitude, awareness, beauty, Becoming Yourself, Beginning, Choice, commitment, confidence, connection, courage, dark, Death, determination, Encouragement, Faith, find art at pinterest, Grieving, Happy Holiday!, healing, home, Letting Go, Life, Losing, Love, Reflection, soul and spirit, strength, Trust, truth, Vulnerability, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment

24 Feb 2016

willingly

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

❤️

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

Posted in attitude, awareness, beauty, Becoming Yourself, beloved, connection, courage, determination, find art at pinterest, healing, Letting Go, Life, Love | Leave a comment

18 Feb 2016

2 Comments

When we walk on the earth with reverence, beauty will decide to trust us. – John O’Donohue

love warriors walk through this world

love dripping from open hands

falling onto shattered pieces of the broken

staining bits of the kaleidoscope of hearts

stepping carefully

slowing down

as the ones who have forgotten to know

appear to do battle

not knowing what they have forgotten…

we are all the light

we are each the beloved..

please let me hold you

touch those wounded places

rub love on the sore spots

until you remember

what you already know

stay here with me

for a long long while

let’s walk together

connecting

hands

hearts

love

as we go

allowing the drip to become

a pour

a fountain

a river

an ocean

as we sail our sea green ship

into this mystic world beyond the stars

beyond the moon

and once again

find ourselves home in the sun

☀️

photos found at http://www.pinterest.com

🌙

At the heart of things is a secret law of balance and when our approach is respectful, sensitive and worthy, gifts of healing, challenge and creativity open to us. A gracious approach is the key that unlocks the treasure of encounter. The way we are present to each other is frequently superficial. We become more interested in ‘connection’ rather than communion. In many areas of our lives the rich potential of friendship and love remains out of our reach because we push towards ‘connection.’ When we deaden our own depths, we cannot strike a resonance in those we meet or in the work we do. A reverence of approach awakens depth and enables us to be truly present where we are. When we approach with reverence great things decide to approach us. Our real life comes to the surface and its light awakens the concealed beauty of things. When we walk on the earth with reverence, beauty will decide to trust us. The rushed heart and the arrogant mind lack the gentleness and patience to enter that embrace. Beauty is mysterious, a slow presence who waits for the ready, expectant heart.

💖

John O’Donohue

Excerpt from BEAUTY

photo by Fisherman Dan @ Branford, CT

Posted in action, attitude, awareness, beauty, Becoming Yourself, Beginning, beloved, Choice, commitment, compassion, courage, determination, Encouragement, Faith, find art at pinterest, Letting Go, Life, light, Love, Poetry, power, Prayer

17 Feb 2016

am i?

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.