our lives are built on choices
Every moment we live we face our next choice with the freedom to make a new and better choice.
life: acoustic & amplified
poetry, quotes & thoughts about life
Archive for the category “Encouragement”
how’s the diet?
if we are what we eat,
then I have eaten slamming doors
and too much sunshine
and not enough rain
with every way to say goodbye
in every language that has ever existed
and I have eaten every
way to ignore love
and every form of leaving.
if we are what we eat,
i have eaten cowards
and regret
and i have eaten the way people
rely and rely and rely and rely
but I have also eaten trust issues in
the form of rotten apples
and peaches without pits.
I have starved myself when the only thing
on my plate has been
to fall into something greater
than I could understand
and something that could make
the wholeness I feel,
not alone.
If we are what we eat,
I must have eaten
my worst enemy.
Amanda Helm
http://amandaspoetry.tumblr.com/post/59253380196/if-we-are-what-we-eat-then-i-have-eaten-slamming
Changing our lives is possible.
One step at a time. We must be brutally honest with ourselves and then break patterns one at a time.
One step, one choice at a time!
climb
We climb mountains.
We get back up when we fall.
We keep fighting for our dreams.
We refuse to die, while there is breath within our bones.
We stare our suffering in the eye,
and walk straight through the dark forest with courage,
trusting our steps will not fall.
We will not fail.
We are warriors.
We are aware of the value of the soul.
We are strong yet soft.
We know ourselves.
Acknowledge our weaknesses,
seeking for truth.
Bow in humility when we make a mistake.
Easily say the words –
forgive me
and
I forgive you
Light glows within us.
We are the children.
We are the beloved.
We are the followers,
of this man Christ,
who comes to us right where we are,
but never leaves us there.
From glory to glory
we are learning to be holy.
As we walk the mountains
and valleys
listening for the call,
thirsty for grace,
abandoned to love,
eyes to the sky.
Lifting up the man
who gives us all good things –
peace unshakable,
Joy unending,
Patience to wait for a drop more of this un-understandable mystery,
Love unconditional and unlimited.
We become free to be who we were created to be.
We do nothing from guilt or manipulation.
Our love songs come from gratitude,
expressions of love pour out unfettered,
joy-full.
We speak with authority,
not to judge,
but from experience.
nothing can rip our faith from our hearts
we Know that we Know
because of the practical living of our faith,
because we wear trust like a garment,
because we have seen with our eyes,
heard with our ears,
touched with our own hands,
been moved,
sometimes in spite of ourselves,
in direct opposition to our own selfishness.
And so we climb,
ever upward and outward,
towards the stars
toward the heavens.
They say God saves his best work
for the inside of things.
May it be so, Lord.
May it be so.
AL 10/17/13
As we awake to a new day, most of us think of the same old things. It’s a new day, so think of new things. New things to do, new ways to do them, new ways to make things interesting, new things to make life better, new ways to help your dreams come true. If you wake up every new day thinking of the same old things, then you set yourself up for the same old fall. – unknown
The only way to life is to accept each minute as an unrepeatable miracle, which it is exactly what it is –
a miracle and unrepeatable.
~Margaret Storm Jameson
As for me, I would see God, and to God would I commit my cause,
who does great things
and unsearchable, marvelous things without number.
Job 5:8-10
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my friends
Trees
by Joyce Kilmer
I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is press’d
Against the sweet earths flowing breast;
A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
A tree that may in summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.
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Knowing Is Not Enough; We Must Apply
by Brian Johnson
“Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.” ~ Bruce Lee from Striking Thoughts
This is a HUGE theme of all these Notes and Optimal Living 101.
Knowing something is nice, but it means NOTHING if we don’t actually apply it to our lives. As we often say, THEORY (or knowing something) is RUDIMENTARY philosophy. PRACTICE (or actually living a truth) is the advanced stuff.
Are you spending all your time in theory—simply talking about all the stuff you believe to be true? Or, are you focused on LIVING it?
Vernon Howard puts it brilliantly in The Power of Your Supermind: “You see, knowing the words is not the same thing as living the meaning. Suppose I memorize the printed instructions on a first-aid kit. Does that mean I can give first aid? No. The full meaning comes when I admit I know nothing and then try, practice, succeed.”
Let’s take another moment for reflection.
What’s the #1 thing you KNOW would be great for you to do but you just haven’t gotten yourself to make an essential part of who you are?
* Insert Jeopardy music *
“Upon reflection, it’s clear to me that, although I *know* this is important and would have huge positive benefits in my life, I haven’t yet made this knowledge an essential part of my day- to-day living:
I hereby commit to rockin’ it. Amen.”
If you do nothing
Nothing will be done.
Sounds like we should know this,
right?
It’s just fascinating for me to see
this in practice,
the result of a decision to create a newsletter,
then to commit to creating that publication for one full year.
Now, 6 full years later,
as I end that project,
to make way for new projects,
there are over 135 issues
on a website devoted to that good thing.
2 years ago
I decided to begin a daily poetry and quotes blog,
(hello reader :))
I now have around 800 blog posts
chock-full of good stuff.
Last December, I committed to a poem a day.
11 months later,
I have almost 600 poems written.
It’s crazy cool!
And it has been a huge lesson to me,
Dreams and Ideas are great,
but only the commitment, focus
and actually acting on the idea,
will call it forth into the world. 
All those words, ideas and poems would still be inside me somewhere,
if I had not said, yes,
to DOING it –
every damn day.
Nothing gets done without the work.
Intention and action go together
then the magic happens.
Doing the work is essential,
in order to build the house,
in order to change the world.
10/07/13
curiosity
One day, many years ago,
I realized how little I knew
about life
about the world
about God
about love
about relationships
about nature
about cultures
about people
about learning
about how things work
about myself
about pretty much everything.
Yes, one day the full impact hit me
of how small my understanding
really is,
and it changed my life.
I became aware.
I became aware that I could choose,
even though no one gave me permission.
It hit me – that all the people,
who had told me they had the complete truth,
and so I should just believe them,
couldn’t possibly ALL be right.
I also realized, very importantly, most of them were not people I wanted my life to emulate.
So, maybe, living wasn’t about being right, or perfect.
Maybe life was about being open, learning about each other,
about helping each other.
Maybe love really was about unconditional,
whatever that truly meant.
Maybe life was about trying…
anything…everything
that I found intriguing,
or felt my soul drawn to.
And so I opened myself to this new way
of thinking,
of being,
of seeing.
I became curious.
I became open.
I became dogmatic –
about NOT being dogmatic.
I removed the words,
‘I’m right’ and ‘I can’t’ and ‘impossible’ from my vocabulary.
I fought my automatic judgments….
still one of my biggest daily battles….
I keep making that choice.
I fought to improve only myself,
to forgive myself,
to keep learning the hard way,
it is my choice.
I sought to tell, and live, my ever-evolving truth,
holding that truth lightly in open, adoring hands,
always allowing myself to be wrong without shame,
allowing for changes without despising the learning,
I am ever-so-happy when I make that choice!
I battled to take responsibility
for my thoughts and actions,
Always adjusting, making new choices.
Staying aware.
Being honest.
Making lots of mistakes,
Life is very messy at times.
I’ve lost a lot.
I’ve gained more than I lost.
At some point, along the way,
I became convinced, at least for me,
this was the only way to truly live.
The mystery keeps getting bigger.
I continue to do war with my desire to shut down my heart,
in the face of constant hurts and disappointments.
I keep letting go.
Opening, always opening.
Each step has become a miracle moment. 
Each opening leads me to open more.
I have come to see everything is grace.
I have come to understand the extreme value,
of each human soul,
of being vulnerable,
of being human,
of just being.
I have made the commitment to the path of curiosity,
not because I will ever learn it all,
but because I won’t.
Yet, I am aware, that there is infinite learning at my fingertips,
and I want as much as I can get,
to go as high as I can go,
to know as much
of God,
and Mystery,
and life itself,
as I am able.
One day, not very long ago, I found the words of poet, Mary Oliver.
She gives these brilliant life instructions,
pay attention.
be astonished.
tell about it.
Yes, that has been my path.
As Einstein said,
I have no special talents –
I’m just passionately curious.
I add to that:
I have completely fallen in love with life!
I’ve grown fabulously addicted to seeing the holy miracles all around me.
I am so blessed, so full, so grateful!
I can’t help wanting to share
the path of this glorious adventure,
with others who love it too –
and so,
though I’ve been accused of talking too much,
more than a few times, in my life,
I’ll just keep on…
because, I’ve found,
all voices are beautiful –
in their own way.
10/03/13
searching
Eldorado
Gaily bedight,
A gallant knight,
In sunshine and in shadow,
Had journeyed long,
Singing a song,
In search of Eldorado.
But he grew old—
This knight so bold—
And o’er his heart a shadow
Fell, as he found
No spot of ground
That looked like Eldorado.
And, as his strength
Failed him at length,
He met a pilgrim shadow—
‘Shadow,’ said he,
‘Where can it be—
This land of Eldorado?’
‘Over the Mountains
Of the Moon,
Down the Valley of the Shadow,
Ride, boldly ride,’
The shade replied,—
‘If you seek for Eldorado!’
Edgar Allan Poe
http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/
life: acoustic & amplified 