life: acoustic & amplified

poetry, quotes & thoughts about life

Archive for the category “determination”

10 Feb 2016

what if feeling bad is an ok part of being human?

  
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

    http://hopefulworld.org

   
  

  

 

Posted in Adventure, attitude, awareness, Becoming Yourself, beloved, Choice, connection, courage, dark, Death, determination, do, Faith, find art at pinterest, Grieving, healing, Letting Go, Life, Love, Patience, People, Reality | Leave a comment
01 Feb 2016

pay attention to the daily messages 

  
miles come

miles go

some stay a while

some roll on beneath our feet

or our wheels 

barely noticed

driving in the fast lane

with the windows rolled up tightly

in God we trust

unfolding on every bill we pull from pocket

but, the world doesn’t work that way…

or does it? 

peace, 

love,

always seal the deal

walk away free,

changed 

ready to see some new things

every choice brings us to our new place

right here 

right now

notice it

say thank you

❤️

AL

   
    
   

Posted in action, Adventure, attitude, awareness, beloved, Blessing, Choice, connection, courage, determination, find art at pinterest, healing, home, Hope, intimacy, Letting Go, Life, Love, perceptions, Reflection, Relationships, soul and spirit, Trust, truth, Vulnerability, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment
27 Jan 2016

personal reminders 

 

   

  

   

    
  

  

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

Posted in attitude, awareness, Becoming Yourself, beloved, Choice, commitment, determination, find art at pinterest, Letting Go, Life, Love, Reality | Leave a comment
25 Jan 2016

loving the oh-so not-so ordinary   

 

 This day is not ordinary. This day may be one of quiet or chaos, challenge or rest. But no moment is ordinary. It may be familiar. It may be predictable. It may make you frustrated and angry, discouraged and sad. It may be one where you see hope, hope all around. It may be the day you see deeper, go further, pursue a new place you’ve never traveled before.
 

I hold you in what you see as ordinary. I look ahead and stay here with you, in this moment.

 

Let me unfold it for you.
 

There is a point where you can no longer see. There is a point where there are obstacles and there is nothing to do but wait on Me, look to Me, desire for Me to take hold of all control and guide you.
Where I guide you, where I am with you, is not the place of ordinary.

There are the regular tasks to get done, the job to do, the responsibilities to complete. It may involve doing the same thing day after day, for a while, and another while.
But still, where I am is not ordinary.

Here—here I am, with you. The intake of your breath, the shape of your skin, the ideas taking place in your mind, the beat of your heart. You are a wonder, a beauty, and this day, with all I’ve made, can never be an ordinary day.

Let Me give you new eyes to see so you don’t miss the possibilities around you that I see. Let Me give you new eyes to see so you don’t get discouraged and mistake wonder for ordinary. Let me show you how what you think is mundane may be an opportunity to be with Me in a new way.
I am always new and always the same. You can always count on Me. But I never stop wanting you to see the hidden wonder in this not-so-ordinary day.

🎭

Loop

http://loop.gatherministries.com/loop-1/?utm_source=Loop+Devotional&utm_campaign=cee6d83e4e-Loop_85_This_Not_So_Ordinary_Day12_16_2015&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_a7b9cec9e0-cee6d83e4e-100590649

  
Rama Ink blog!! ❤️ click title below to visit!!! 

https://ramaink.wordpress.com/2016/01/25/cross-roads/#like-2971

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

Posted in attitude, awareness, beauty, Becoming Yourself, Choice, determination, Faith, find art at pinterest, grace, inspiration, intimacy, Letting Go, Life, Love, music, mystery, Passion, Patience, Peace, People, Reality | Leave a comment
22 Jan 2016

everyday hero

  
Quote of the Day: Virtue 
Next to the seven deadly sins, the seven cardinal virtues are apt to look pale and unenterprising, but appearances are notoriously untrustworthy.
Prudence and temperance, taken separately, may not be apt to get you to your feet cheering, but when they go together, as they almost always do, that’s a different matter. The chain smoker or the junkie, for instance, who exemplifies both by managing to kick the habit, can very well have you throwing your hat in the air, especially if it happens to be somebody whom for personal reasons you’d like to have around a few years longer. And the courage involved isn’t likely to leave you cold either. Often it’s the habit kicker’s variety that seems the most courageous.
If you think of justice as sitting blindfolded with a scale in her hand, you may have to stifle a yawn, but if you think of a black judge acquitting a white racist of a false murder charge, it can give you gooseflesh.
The faith of a child taking your hand in the night is as moving as the faith of Mother Teresa among the untouchables, or Bernadette facing the skeptics at Lourdes, or Abraham, age seventy-five, packing up his bags for the Promised Land. And hope is the glimmer on the horizon that keeps faith plugging forward, of course, the wings that keep it more or less in the air.
Maybe it’s only love that turns things around and makes the seven deadly sins be the ones to look pale and unenterprising for a change. Greed, gluttony, lust, envy, and pride are no more than sad efforts to fill the empty place where love belongs, and anger and sloth just two things that may happen when you find that not even all seven of them at their deadliest ever can.

 ⚜

~ Frederick Bruechner originally published in Whistling in the Dark and later in Beyond Words

 

   

 

  

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

Posted in action, attitude, awareness, Becoming Yourself, beloved, Change, Choice, commitment, connection, determination, Dreams, find art at pinterest, forgiveness, Freedom, Growth, Habits, Happiness, healing, Hope, Imagine, Impossible, inspiration, Joy, Letting Go, Life, Love, Miracles, mystery, Passion, Patience, Peace, power | Leave a comment
09 Jan 2016

what do you want?

I keep

learning…

 

 Whatever we learn to do, we learn by actually doing it; men come to be builders, for instance, by building, and harp players by playing the harp. In the same way, by doing just acts we come to be just; by doing self-controlled acts, we come to be self-controlled; and by doing brave acts, we become brave……
🔹

 Aristotle

   

   

   

  

   

   

   

Posted in action, attitude, awareness, Becoming Yourself, confidence, courage, determination, Dreams, focus, Passion, Patience, power, Purpose, strength | Leave a comment
04 Jan 2016

just for today

  
It took me some years to understand that many of us are more afraid of happiness than misery. Because misery and martyrdom have an inherent safety about them- one is never particularly vulnerable, nor at risk of disappointment. Unhappiness becomes a security blanket, a way to armor ourselves against deep feeling. On the other hand, happiness has an intrinsically risky quality. When we open our hearts to life, we are always vulnerable to loss, to shattering, to having it all fall away. But it can also expand and deepen, joyfully permeating every element of our life. I can often sense when someone has made unhappiness their shield, their perpetual life stance. And it saddens me. Because locking ourselves into only one way of being is a self-fulfilling prophecy: misery begets misery. Because only through risking something can we arrive at a new perspective. And most significantly, because the rhythms and tides of one’s life can shift in the blink of an eye. All it takes is one sunny day and the whole damn thing can come back to light.

    – Jeff Brown

 

   

  

Posted in anger, attitude, awareness, Becoming Yourself, Beginning, Change, Choice, commitment, determination, do, Encouragement, find art at pinterest, Happiness, inspiration, Love, power, Relationships | Leave a comment
30 Dec 2015

you gettin’ excited?

 
  If you want to know the past, to know what has caused you, look at yourself in the PRESENT, for that is the past’s effect. If you want to know your future, then look at yourself in the PRESENT, for that is the cause of the future.

🍾

      – Majjhima Nikaya   

Holy One,

as a new year approaches

I seek to become not a new person

but more myself,

more aware of what is infinitely good in me,

more attentive to you in me,

who you become in me to be.
I am grateful for your presence,

in awe of your glory,

open to your grace

in me.
Unfold your light in me

and I will become you. 

Unbind your compassion in me

and I will shine with you.

Be in me;

I will be in you.

__________________ 

Steve Garnaas-Holmes

Unfolding Light

http://www.unfoldinglight.net

  
Weather Report
Light

today and ‪tomorrow‬,

emanating from within.

Visibility will be mixed

as some hide the light and others glow.

An atmosphere of glory will prevail

as God moves through us all.

__________________ 

Steve Garnaas-Holmes

Unfolding Light

http://www.unfoldinglight.net

  
  
http://www.pinterest.com

Posted in attitude, awareness, Becoming Yourself, Beginning, beloved, Blessing, Change, Choice, connection, determination, find art at pinterest, Freedom, Gratitude, Growth, Letting Go, Love, People, receiving, Reflection, Relationships | Leave a comment
29 Dec 2015

the beds we make: predicted 

 

how much of our lives do we predict through our words

which come from our thoughts 

our actions following that form 

belief systems so deep seeded are seated 

within us deeper than deep

most times we do things 

from an unconscious place

of familial familiarity 

patterns so old

we can trace them into generations past passing

the torturous torch

ever forward 

how do we stop this bitter flower flowering?

how do we dam the damning history if our history?

remember to remember 

thoughts become things

words are power

actions speak louder than shouting 

we can do hard things

we get to choose

that’s what free will is all about

all we need is love

love wins every time

put that truth in your peace pipe and smoke it!

I’ll take all that into all the upcoming 

brand spanking, 

sparkling 

new years 

year after year –

I choose a life of love

🍾

AL  

 So, you get to choose – are you going to suffer, or be happy for the next seven years? 
I’m going to suffer. 

  

  
HEALING: is moving forward even when nothing is working out, and understanding that one day, it will all work together to create an even better today than yesterday. 

   – Soul Pancake 

Posted in action, Adventure, attitude, awareness, Becoming Yourself, Change, Choice, commitment, connection, courage, dark, Death, determination, do, find art at pinterest, Freedom, Gratitude, Growth, healing, Reality, receiving, Reflection | Leave a comment
22 Dec 2015

gift

 

 Longest night.

Darkness falls like snow,

falls and falls, 

deepening.

Older than the universe,

here before it,

and will be after.

Wraps an arm around us

as if we’re old friends.

We are.

Darkness lives in us,

radiates from us.

We speak it.

Darkness is the velvet cloth

where you cherish the gem

of your presence among us,

darkness the womb,

darkness the manger

that cradles your light,

this holy being

that becomes us,

births us.

In the darkness

you do not come to us,

we come from you.

Because you are with and not apart,

even the darkness

is you.

Because you shine in it

the dark is our dark,

none of it unchanged.

Your being our light,

your hereness our life,

shining in the longest night.

__________________

Steve Garnaas-Holmes

Unfolding Light

http://www.unfoldinglight.net

 

 To go into the darkness with a light 
is to know the light. 

To know the dark, go dark. 

Go without light and find that the dark too, blooms and sings 

and is traveled by dark feet and dark wings. 

– Wendell Berry 

  
Black. out. black. 

Black. on. black. 

Dark. on dark. on dark. 

I was simply looking for home. 

Not knowing the current alley would lead 

to where the sidewalk ended 

I stepped off the edge 

out of the world of light 

waking into morning night 

a banished sun 

no stars 

or moon 

or streetlights 

or fireflies 

or lighters 

in pitch darkness 

I lay, unable to move, 

senses adjusting 

to what is my new reality 

hearing the life 

that lives here 

wondering if I’ll make friends 

while I’m here 

learning this new space. 

🌌

AL

 

 Gift suggestions: 
To your enemy –  forgiveness. 

 To an opponent – tolerance. 

   To a friend – your heart. 

     To a customer – service. 

       To every child – a good example. 

          To all – love. 

💞

           – Oren Arnold

  

Posted in action, Adventure, Alone, attitude, awareness, Becoming Yourself, beloved, Change, Choice, connection, courage, dark, Death, determination, Dreams, find art at pinterest, fragile, Glory, Gospel, grace, Gratitude, healing, home, Letting Go, Love, Miracles, mystery, nature, power, Prayer, quiet, Reflection | Leave a comment

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