life: acoustic & amplified
poetry, quotes & thoughts about life
Archive for the category “Dreams”
the purpose of love is to create trust in good – Mary Baker Eddy
What if this is as good as it gets?
What if THIS very day is the best life will be?
What if this 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 moment is hanging in the air above your head,
ready to splash all over you?
What gifts are being offered, if you will 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 dream to come true –
Not holding back till your illusion of happiness materializes.
But, right now, sitting in whatever circumstance you are in,
no matter if it includes
pleasure or pain,
birth or death,
sorrow or joy,
broken hearts or full.
What if, this very given moment,
you look around and begin
finding the avalanche of jewel-blessings
surrounding you NOW.
Maybe this is the best, and only, secret.
Don’t wait for happy.
Don’t postpone your celebration.
Don’t wait to dance.
Laugh hard until your belly hurts today.
Cry hard until the salt heals your hurts.
The goodness of life is available now,
as well as, every minute
of this day,
Then when this day is done,
and you have enjoyed it’s vast array of gifts,
do the same tomorrow.
AL 7/27/13
the mission
Each of us has a mission in life. Jesus prays to his Father for his followers, saying: “As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world” (John 17:18).
We seldom realise fully that we are sent to fulfill God-given tasks. We act as if we have to choose how, where, and with whom to live. We act as if we were simply plopped down in creation and have to decide how to entertain ourselves until we die. But we were sent into the world by God, just as Jesus was. Once we start living our lives with that conviction, we will soon know what we were sent to do.
– Henri Nouwen
http://www.henrinouwen.org/
dreaming of you
I gaze at the stars.
spring night air, and strange new sounds,
seep soft through open windows,
first night open for two seasons.
crickets and coyotes mix with dogs and cars
the occasional child crying,
bed time,
then the soothing sound of its mothers voice.
I lay on a hard mattress,
my neck hurts,
my head aches,
I wonder it’s not worse
with the stress of my wallet echo.
I have certainly gotten resilient
over these years.
I drift, soft with the night.
I think about the wonder
of this life I am living,
how much I have learned,
and how that is only
the surface.
the stars are fading,
the big dipper going to sleep.
my eyelids are getting heavy
time to find the dream answers
waiting on the other side
of my living
where anything can happen,
and it’s all really about me.
AL 4/9/13
joy is from God
Who says God has to be so serious all the time? That God can’t have some fun, go on a lark, crack a good one? Who says God can’t evolve a platypus instead of a woodchuck, or a flightless bird just as a joke? Or give you a gorgeous sunset just to see the expression on your face? Or invent laughter? Or remove a tumor without a trace just for the heck of it? Who says God’s passion is reasonable and not unrestrained celebration?
Jesus’ first miracle was a party trick. Pure fun. Wine from water. And really good stuff, too. And at a wedding, no less. It’s a parable of covenant faithfulness, and love, and an ironic reverse-foreshadowing of the Last Supper. It’s a parable of abundance and beauty and mystery and needless splendor. It’s about life, and about blessing, and about joy—way too much and too good, way more and better than we need. Ridiculous. Over the top.
God’s love isn’t sensible. It’s flagrant, overzealous, overgenerous, prodigal, out of bounds. It’s dancing on the table. Dancing in the streets. Dancing on our own graves. God’s will, decreed from the mighty throne on high, surrounded by dark clouds and glowering angels, is the joy of life—unexpected blessing, deep joy, wild delight, wine at a wedding—your wedding to God—the best wine imaginable. Just for fun. Why not?
Raise a glass! Drink deep.
______________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
http://www.unfoldinglight.net
change your story
a grown man meets himself.
Himself at just ten.
With the light in his eyes.
And the world in his heart.
He sets out to explain to his young self why he’s taken the road to someone else’s somewhere.
But he can’t.
And in the deafening silence he shakes uncontrollably.
As the years of an unconsidered life spill over.
And in that silence everything changes.
Forever.
Perhaps the ten year old had been his very soul in disguise.
Come to shake him from the prison of his daytime.
Soul Biographies
distractions
I am signed up to get a lot of daily, weekly, occasional inspiring emails. There is sooooo much out there which is inspiring and uplifting and many of these emails are so great. They help me focus, start my day with new and wonderful thoughts and also make me think about my life,challenge me to continue to learn, stay aware of who I am and how I have decided to live my life and keep me open to all sorts of points of view. Yet, they can also be a distraction from actually getting things done. I always have to make sure they are in their place and not keeping me from my work or my life, but enhancing both of those things.
A couple of days ago, one of my very favorite poets of all time, and my spiritual mentor, Steve Garness-Holmes talked about busyness in his poem post on the subject of Advent called Pregnant Pause, here is a little of his amazing insight (read full post at www.unfoldinglight.net )
We are in a hurry. We drive fast, even up to a red light. We hate standing in line. We “keep busy.” We’re like kids whining int he back seat, “Are we there yet?”
Well, we are there yet. We are here now. But we’re so busy being busy, and whining about it, that we don’t notice. Our busyness is not fruitfulness; it’s fear. We’re afraid of the stillness, afraid of the dark, afraid of what might come up in the silence. We’re afraid of not being in control and of being dependent, afraid of not knowing. We keep busy to stay unconscious.
Advent invites us into the dark, into the silence, into wakefulness. It is a time of preparing, yes, but also of waiting. Just sitting. Doing nothing, just being. It’s like being pregnant. God is doing miraculous things in us, and in the world, and there’s nothing we can do to make it happen or hasten. Like Mary, we just wait. Not wanting the child to be born prematurely, we wait the whole term. We enter into the mystery of not being in control, the darkness of trusting what is coming without seeing it, the silence of listening for what is beyond words. We enter into the stillness of paying attention. And we “wait upon the Lord.”
Each day, give some time to pause. Be free of the attachments of this world. Step out of the prison of busyness, the chains of having to justify yourself. Let go and be still. Deep within, let the miraculous child come to you. Wake up in the dark. Watch and listen. Trust what is coming. Don’t be afraid to wait. Perhaps then the day—even today—will not catch you unexpectedly like a trap but unwrap itself like a long-awaited gift.
Yesterday, in another inspiring daily note, one of my top favorites, Mastin Kipp, and his blog The Daily Love ( http://thedailylove.com/ ) talked about distractions and what it distracting from really stepping into our purpose.
There are SO many excuses that can distract us from our calling!
Here are some:
Twitter
Over giving to others
Making other people more important than ourselves
Watching TV
Too much socializing
Eating
Drinking
Sleeping
Drugs
Toxic relationships
Putting things off until tomorrow!
There is a rich gift within you that the world NEEDS you to give us. You don’t even recognize your power or importance. But it’s there and it’s waiting to be born. And the thing is that the world will not tell you this – only the subtle whisper within you does. And perhaps a good friend or two. Or an inspiring book or story that you read.
But in order to create this gift, in order to give birth to it… YOU must let go of all distractions.
Seriously, how much time do you spend on the above things? And how much time do you spend ACTUALLY creating or giving your gift?
_______________________
This bring anything into focus for you? It has for me! I believe you can have anything you want, but not everything you want! It’s up to me to choose what I want to create! then focus and do it! Good stuff!!!!!
The Invitation
It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living.
I want to know what you ache for, and if you dare to dream of meeting your hearts longing.
It doesn’t interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dream, for the adventure of being alive.
It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon. I want to know if you have touched the center of your own sorrow, if you have been opened by life’s betrayals or have become shriveled and closed from fear of further pain. I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own, without moving to hide it, or fade it, or fix it.
I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own, if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you 
to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, to be realistic, to remember the limitations of being human.
It doesn’t interest me if the story you are telling me is true. I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself; if you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul; if you can be faithless and therefore trustworthy.
I want to know if you can see beauty, even when it’s not pretty, every day, and if you can source your own life from it;s presence.
I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine, and still stand on the edge of the lake and shout to the silver of the full moon, “Yes!”
It doesn’t interest me where you live or how much money you have. I want to know if you can get up, after the night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone, and do what needs to be done to feed the children.
It doesn’t interest me who you know or how you came to be here. I want to know if you will stand in the center of the fire with me and not shrink back.
It doesn’t interest me where or what or with whom you have studied. I want to know what sustains you, from the inside, when all else falls away.
I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments.
Oriah from The Invitaion
http://www.oriah.org/
life: acoustic & amplified 