life: acoustic & amplified
poetry, quotes & thoughts about life
Archive for the category “Faith”
so much potential…(and I quote)
“One isn’t necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential. Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can’t be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest.” ~Maya Angelou
Listen to Eric Clapton sing Let it Grow http://youtu.be/V069wWEnCys
💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣
photo sources at www.pinterest.com/al513
God shows up
Nobody loves such days,
everything smudged in powdered lead,
the whites all off, the blacks dull
like the bad side of a mirror.
Yet in a world of shadows
what matters are not the highlights
but the shades of grays.
This river, for instance, a sooty snake
mirroring an oatmeal sky.
But watch it eddy and swirl,
and gradually the lead turns silver, begins
to blaze from within, as if begging the sun
to bust out of its straight-jacket.
And shine. Which the sun very nearly does.
But in the end, it can’t be bothered.
It says, Sparkle yourself.
And eventually we do. Van Gogh returns
to the sea-light of his youth.
Sews the ear back on.
Trades his magentas and cyans
for a # 2 pencil. It is all in the shading,
he realizes. The pursuit of raging hues
was madness. God, no longer
in the rainbowed flame,
but in this wan, uncertain earthlight:
this almost-shimmer on a river.
Whatever plain brown paper wrapper
the day comes in.
☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️
Gray Scale by Richard Schiffman
☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️
Listen and watch Gene Kelly Singing in the Rain http://youtu.be/D1ZYhVpdXbQ
focus
listen to Eva Cassidy sing my favorite song…http://youtu.be/X6Oq-WQ-Sy4
No one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his property
without first tying up the strong man;
then indeed the house can be plundered.
—Mark 3.27
Jesus is able to cast out demons because he has already overpowered the “strong man.” He has robbed the demonic of its power.
What am I most afraid of? Is it being wrong, or being alone, or being powerless? Pain, failure, insecurity, being unloved, the shattering of my self-image? What is it? What is the deepest fear that will derail me today from loving perfectly? Take a moment to reflect.
When I feel this fear how might I react? What behaviors are red flags to me that I am afraid of the strong man?
Stay still for a moment. Breathe deeply. Be mindful of this: God has already overpowered that which I fear. Love has already disarmed it. Once, perhaps as a child, it made sense to fear it, but no longer. What I fear is now powerless to harm me.
I am free to walk into that fearful house and plunder it, to take life and beauty and grace. I am free to live deeply, to love perfectly, to know joy.
With trust, courage and gratitude I take this strength, this grace with me into the day.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
Photo source found at www.pinterest.com
on growing strong bones
backbones get built
vertebrae by vertebrae
with every victory
with every heartache
with every triumph
with every shattering
with each awakening
they become sturdy
bearing the weight of new consciousness
embodying self-love
strengthened, emboldened
yet still flexible, yet still able
to make flowing and fluid movement
undulating with pulsing life
able to stand firm in the face of a challenge or adversity
backbones don’t magically appear because we wish them into being
backbones need nurturing and kindness and discipline and conviction and intention
and desire
to form and develop
they help us be stalwart and valiant
protecting the soft, vulnerable, tender inner parts of our being
robust, hearty boundaries that
don’t cut us off from nourishment — they make sure we’re getting the right kind
the fortitude to love, not blindly, but with courage.
💪🏻💪🏾💪🏽💪🏼💪🏿💪🏼💪
How Backbones Get Built by Eloiza Jorge
https://deepeningwisdom.wordpress.com/2015/05/25/how-backbones-get-built-a-poem/
Never quit. Never. Rest when you need to, then get back up. Strength comes as you walk. Backbones come one good choice at a time.
Listen to Katy Perry sing Roar http://youtu.be/CevxZvSJLk8
photo sources found at www.pinterest.com/al513
give us peace 🇺🇸
I, may I rest in peace—I, who am still living, say,
May I have peace in the rest of my life.
I want peace right now while I’m still alive.
I don’t want to wait like that pious man who wished for one leg
of the golden chair of Paradise, I want a four-legged chair
right here, a plain wooden chair. I want the rest of my peace now.
I have lived out my life in wars of every kind: battles without
and within, close combat, face-to-face, the faces always
my own, my lover-face, my enemy-face.
Wars with the old weapons—sticks and stones, blunt axe, words,
dull ripping knife, love and hate,
and wars with newfangled weapons—machine gun, missile,
words, land mines exploding, love and hate,
I don’t want to fulfill my parents’ prophecy that life is war.
I want peace with all my body and all my soul.
Rest me in peace.
🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
I, May I Rest in Peace by Yehuda Amichai
For all whose lives have been taken by war,
grant your mercy O God.
For soldiers, civilians, those wounded and neglected,
grant your mercy, O God.
For earth despoiled and living beings sacrificed,
grant your mercy, O God.
For our glorification of war and violence
and our willingness to hurt others
to defend ourselves,
grant your mercy, O God.
We give thanks for your beloved
whom we have sacrificed;
we ask blessing for their loved ones,
confess our need for your grace,
and pray for the redemption of society.
Spirit of compassion and gentleness,
in the name of the One who was sacrificed,
save us by your grace,
and grant us your mercy.
Amen
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
🇺🇸 happy Memorial Day
Listen to Garth sing We Shall Be Free http://youtu.be/13s9eciFDzA
Quote photo sources found at www.pinterest.com
just this…
Photo by Charlie Doane @ Branford, CT 
Only a beige slat of sun
above the horizon, like a shade pulled
not quite down. Otherwise,
clouds. Sea rippled here and
there. Birds reluctant to fly.
The mind wants a shaft of sun to
stir the grey porridge of clouds,
an osprey to stitch sea to sky
with its barred wings, some dramatic
music: a symphony, perhaps
a Chinese gong.
But the mind always
wants more than it has—
one more bright day of sun,
one more clear night in bed
with the moon; one more hour
to get the words right; one
more chance for the heart in hiding
to emerge from its thicket
in dried grasses—as if this quiet day
with its tentative light weren’t enough,
as if joy weren’t strewn all around.
🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈
Mind Wanting More by Holly Hughes
Listen to my favorite song ❤️http://youtu.be/A3yCcXgbKrE
🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈
other photo sources found at www.pinterest.com/al513
leaps & bounds
When you send forth your spirit, we are created
—Psalm 104.30
Holy One,
breath of the big bang,
idea of creation,
you who make spring come forth,
who make life out of nothing,
breathe yourself into me.
Create me.
you are the flame,
I am your light.
You are the nerve,
I am your muscle.
You are the Word,
I am the story.
You are the song,
I am the singing.
I am one with you
and one with all Creation.
One Spirit,
one flesh, many forms.
In your Spirit
I am we.
Holy One, live in me;
I am your body.
I remember,
and I live.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
🌌🌄🌅🗻🌈🗾🌋🌠🌍
my words my world my earth my sky
you are them all
my notes my music my score my song
you are them all
my heart my soul my mind my life
you are them all
my blood my breath my skin my bones
you are them all
everything I am everything I hope to be
you are them all
AL
Listen to Amos Lee sing Learned A Lot http://youtu.be/wgzFPP-Fa8o
🗾🌠🗻🌄🌍🌈🌌🌋🌅
photo sources found at www.pinterest.com/al513
[God] seems to delight in using the unexpected, the least likely, or the weakest link to turn our lives upside down and inside out . . . and fulfill the plan he has had in mind since the beginning of time.
~ Thelma Well
💞
the answer to how is love
Everything is made of God. Love lies waiting in it.
Every darkest mystery
hides grace.
The most desperate act
is born of hopeful longing:
though the hope has been withheld
the longing still burns.
Even the greatest tragedy
is made of blessed pieces
and drips with the light
of grace it has passed through.
In even the most evil despot
a heart beats and breath is given.
The graver the injustice
the deeper the listening needed;
the more foul the evil
the more love is required.
Grieve your sorrows without pretense.
Protest oppression with courage.
Above all: don’t lose trust in the grace
already infolded in the knot.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
Listen to Gungor sing Beautiful Things http://youtu.be/1spkhp41ig4
photo sources found at www.pinterest.com/al513
settling in to happiness
What happens when your soul
Without a trace of protection
I want to open my eyes to the light
Without a blink of dread
I want to look at my past
Without a whisper of shame
I want to look at my future
Without a hint of fear
Today I want to dance
Without pausing to think
I want to belly laugh
Without caring who hears
I want to open my arms
and twirl in the sun
Until I fall breathless
free to be myself
full of the joy
that I open to allow
completely letting go
Without even a smudge of suspicion
or an instant of hesitation
ACL 3/4/13
life: acoustic & amplified 
