life: acoustic & amplified

poetry, quotes & thoughts about life

Archive for the category “Encouragement”

perhaps 

 

 We talk about balance…
as if…

we can actually achieve such a thing

in this, 

the odd numbered trinity-teeter-tottered

kaleidoscope of a heart, soul and mind

living within the human pie crust 

we name skin!
It is our work

our great career –

to keep opening to the liquid mystery 

of living in this very moment. 

Free will choice,

our supreme gift –

our supreme curse. 
Oh, yes, 

we want things fixed. 

We want to know,

to define truth,

to arrive and settle,

to judge others through our personal lens,

to be right, of course. 
How do we live with the reality of ‘seeing in part’,

through a ‘dark veil’,

with just glimpses of the light in the night sky,

we fish in the darkness,

trying to catch one small piece of a star at a time,

just to have it burn out,

leaving us to go back and try again?
This is the life of the seekers, 

the mystics,

the warriors,

who have been seized with the firm belief –

that life matters. 

That love is the way to healing. 

That there is always more of God to be had. 

The mystery gets bigger with each illumination. 

The balance comes from allowing it all. 

Good. Bad. 

Joy. Sorrow. 

Sickness. Pain. 

Poverty. Wealth. 

Even the broken path,

the truth and the lies,

have eternal divine purpose. 

Our task to 

learn,

open,

love,

trust,

forgive,

heal,

move,

sing,

dance,

create,

keep letting go,

keep changing,

be present,

through it all. 
We dream the large dreams of living into our best selves. 

We focus intently on each small task before us. 

We think,

We listen,

We give,

We receive. 

We speak, when necessary. 

We walk daily in vigilance. 

Letting the legacy of each day stand on it’s own. 

We live knowing our next choice is always our most important….

and so it goes

and so it goes

🌀

AL

   


Sometimes you have to leave 

what you think you know

behind.

No one ever really wants to do this.

Knowing things

can be very comforting.

All day, soul whispers

what I need to know.

I don’t hear her

until I lay aside

cherished beliefs and assumptions

until I dare to be with the not-knowing.

And then. . . . 

Well, that’s the risky part, isn’t it?

There is no telling 

what living an ensouled life

might ask of us.
~Oriah “Mountain Dreamer” House
So this is where I am in writing the book, “The Choice,” -on the great plain of not knowing, offering myself- pen in hand- anyway. Each day, the darkness yields to the light, and words hit the page, surprising me. This is what it’s like: the light coming again and again, the darkness making the illumination breath-taking.

  
 

   

  
 

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

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

 

   

  

Happy New Year!!!   

 

    


  

    

   

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

  

ready? clean. close. begin.  

 

 CLOSING 2015
One always has to know when a stage comes to an end. If we insist on staying longer than the necessary time, we lose the happiness and the meaning of the other stages we have to go through.

Closing cycles, shutting doors, ending chapters – whatever name we give it, what matters is to leave in the past the moments of life that have finished.
Did you lose your job? Has a loving relationship come to an end? Did you leave your parents’ house? Gone to live abroad? Has a long-lasting friendship ended all of a sudden?

You can spend a long time wondering why this has happened.
You can tell yourself you won’t take another step until you find out why certain things that were so important and so solid in your life have turned into dust, just like that.

But such an attitude will be awfully stressing for everyone involved: your parents, your husband or wife, your friends, your children, your sister.

Everyone is finishing chapters, turning over new leaves, getting on with life, and they will all feel bad seeing you at a standstill.
Things pass, and the best we can do is to let them really go away.
That is why it is so important (however painful it may be!) to destroy souvenirs, move, give lots of things away to orphanages, sell or donate the books you have at home.
Everything in this visible world is a manifestation of the invisible world, of what is going on in our hearts – and getting rid of certain memories also means making some room for other memories to take their place.

Let things go. Release them. Detach yourself from them.
Nobody plays this life with marked cards, so sometimes we win and sometimes we lose.

Do not expect anything in return, do not expect your efforts to be appreciated, your genius to be discovered, your love to be understood.
Stop turning on your emotional television to watch the same program over and over again, the one that shows how much you suffered from a certain loss: that is only poisoning you, nothing else.
Nothing is more dangerous than not accepting love relationships that are broken off, work that is promised but there is no starting date, decisions that are always put off waiting for the “ideal moment.”
Before a new chapter is begun, the old one has to be finished: tell yourself that what has passed will never come back.

Remember that there was a time when you could live without that thing or that person – nothing is irreplaceable, a habit is not a need.

This may sound so obvious, it may even be difficult, but it is very important.
Closing cycles. Not because of pride, incapacity or arrogance, but simply because that no longer fits your life.
Shut the door, change the record, clean the house, shake off the dust.
Stop being who you were, and change into who you are.

🎭

Paulo Coelho

 

The devil loves unspoken secrets, especially those that fester in a man’s soul. 

       – Melville

 

  the path keeps winding
I keep walking

always into surprises

always into adventures

today an unexpected ‘wow’ on the path

love always wins

grace always changes us

I keep seeing it

as I practice this truth named love

as I let go into the the flow

as I clear out the old

leave

return

let go

keep letting go

making space for now

the work of living in now

this freedom thing is a worthwhile challenge 

this mystery just keeps expanding

this love thing is truly

the only thing

that could possibly 

change this world….

or anyone…

mainly..

namely.

someone 

like 

me. 

begin again

trust the new beginning. 

🌎

AL

 

prep work

 

    
  

   

   

   

   

Ready. Set. Go.  

let 

 

   

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

   
 

  

the hardest thing 

 

 this birth of awaiting changes
this for that

tit for tat

tuxedo memories

pinstripe debonair

glamour hangs

like confetti in the air

life goes 

round and round

flinging dreams

synthetic roads

leading nowhere 

screams and laugher 

hardest when not fair

up one side now

down the other there

we hang on

we stomp our feet 

and swear

this ain’t right

this we cannot bear

life goes forward

ever on and on

wanting only

to change our point of view

we are loved

no matter what we lose

love will win

love’s always life’s sweet muse

sight or blind

the vision ours to choose

❤️

AL

 

 expectancy. awe

Anticipation of 

coming back to life

moving through the grey

into new 

love

joy

peace

light

There is no guarantee of anything in this lifetime

however there are amazing things hidden

which bring forth their fruit

in their season

Sometimes it feels like it just won’t happen,

then…

flash, boom, bang

and you got okra up to the second floor windows! 

Go ahead, live with the hope

Plan with the expectancy

of all good things

come in their time

💞

AL 

 

It rains on the just and the unjust.  

💞

On this day of your life I believe God wants you to know… 
…that yearning for a new way will not produce it.

Only ending the old way can do that.
You cannot hold onto the old all the while

declaring that you want something new.

The old will defy the new;

the old will deny the new;

the old will decry the new.

 

There is only one way to bring in the new.
You must make room for it.

 💞

   – Neale Donald Walsh

timing be everything…just wait and see  

 

 walking while waiting…not holding onto the breath…finding the shallow end of the pool, gliding full body under the water…raising expectations while others wonder , slightly wandering , forgetting to remember is not an option while the day is so bright…finding fashion foolishly delightful, while taking ones shoes off …holy hours become …earth and flesh blown open , .birthing beyond time and space, then settling into the sunroom for hot peach tea and a tiny croissant…such a simple remedy while walking and waiting…
Beauty,

Donna Knutson

   
    
    
  

  
 

It’s hard to beat a person who never gives up.           ― Babe Ruth 

 

  

 

   

Never. Never. Never Quit. 

    – Winston Churchill 

  
 

it was bouncing around in my brain this morning   – Linda Clark

  
Getting it Right—Write!

I have a notion

I must confess

A notion you see

That has me quite obsessed
It sits in my head 

both day and night

it haunts my dreams

and gives me great fright
It rules my thoughts

this little notion

stirring up doubts

and causing a commotion
It wiggles and niggles

in my brain

with a feverish pitch

it drives me insane
This obsession you ask

what could it be?

My obsession is a task

I seek endlessly!
To get it right

To do my best

To show I’m bright

I can pass the test
This feeling to get it right

Is ever so strong

I work day and night

To not get it wrong
I was given great insight

About this “getting it right”

I just learned recently

A truth that has finally set me free
It’s not it at all

about getting it right.

It’s about happiness and light

and letting your soul shine bright
No have to’s

No pressure

No should’s

Did me a world of good!
So no longer will I labor

to get it right 

I will do my best

to give it a rest! 
So In my chair I sit and write

No longer will I yearn

or worry with concern

it’s quite easy once when you learn
I will change my mantra

and simply ignore

those three little words

I was obsessed with before
What’s my new mantra

you might ask

I’ve changed my word

just a small task
I am no longer worried

about that word right

I will feed my soul

and simply WRITE!! 

🌀

Linda Clark

   

  

We seldom notice how each day is a holy place
 Where the eucharist of the ordinary happens,

 Transforming our broken fragments

 Into an eternal continuity that keeps us.
Somewhere in us a dignity presides

 That is more gracious than the smallness

 That fuels us with fear and force,

 A dignity that trusts the form a day takes. 
So at the end of this day, we give thanks

 For being betrothed to the unknown

 And for the secret work

 Through which the mind of the day

 And wisdom of the soul become one. 

🔹

John O’Donohue
 

 
http://www.creativesoulsart.com

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