The plains ignore us,
but these mountains listen,
an audience of thousands
holding its breath
in each rock. Climbing,
we pick our way
over the skulls of small talk.
On the prairies below us,
the grass leans this way and that
in discussion;
words fly away like corn shucks
over the fields.
Here, lost in a mountain’s
attention, there’s nothing to say.
⛰
Visiting Mountains by Ted Kooser
It won’t matter that 10,000 doors might be slammed in your face because when door number 10,001 flies open, revealing pathways of jade and gardens of love, with flowers dancing, fountains sparkling, friends blushing, moonbeams glowing, and abundance abounding, you’ll completely forget about all the other doors.
Happens every day,
The Universe
LOVE seeing this quote of mine as inspirational art!!! Soooo grateful to John Cool-Sign! Check out his Etsy store, thatcoolsign, for all the yummy stuff!!
https://www.etsy.com/shop/thatCoolSign?ref=search_shop_redirect&show_panel=true
The opposite of joy is not sorrow. It is unbelief.
❤️
–Leslie Weatherhead
Truthfulness.
Being honest with someone else really just means opening up to share out of our own self-honesty, being transparent about our own experience, the deepest within us, in a way that creates the space for the other to also feel safe exposing the vulnerability within themselves.
When truth is more important to us than fear of loss, we discover our wings.
When we are no longer afraid of change, of losing what we think we have, or the fulfillment we imagine to be sourced outside of us, and are willing to risk it all for our heart’s knowing, for the uncompromising integrity in that, the relief is surprisingly immediate.
Though it may involve facing the hurt of disillusionment, the fall of pride, the surfacing of old wounds, that is simply a part of the rebirth offered by a radical commitment to self-honesty.
The self-respect and confidence that emerges out of such an honoring, the willingness to offer up the surface dance to a deeper wisdom, makes it possible to gaze into the eyes and soul of another, with no need of approval, or fear of rejection, and no shame in being fully seen. True self-honesty diffuses self-judgement, and therefore any need for defensiveness. It reveals our innocence. We can finally just be ourselves.
And, maybe for the first time, without any subtle need of them, without any emotional dependency, we really truly see the one in front of us. We meet the naked beauty of the other, as never before, on equal ground. When we aren’t hiding from ourselves, we no longer need to hide from the world, which will always reflect back to us what we are avoiding. In this way, life is in continuous support of our liberation.
Free from the subconsious pressure of hope and expectation born of fantasy, of projected values and assumptions, free from the inner conflict of unexpressed gut feelings, it becomes so easy to give, to receive, to experience the fulfillment of true connection. Unconditional presence. Real love. The joy of that is far greater than any birthing pains.
Be honest to your heart, and give that a voice in your relationships. You’ll never regret it.
– Joshua Isrealievitch
We drift through this gray, increasing nowhere
Until we stand before a threshold we know
We have to cross to come alive once more.
May we have the courage to take the step
Into the unknown that beckons us;
Trust that a richer life awaits us there,
That we will lose nothing
But what has already died;
Feel the deeper knowing in us sure
Of all that is about to be born beyond
The pale frames where we stayed confined,
Not realizing how such vacant endurance
Was bleaching our soul’s desire.
❤️
– John O’Donohue
What are waves to rocks
before they become
the softness of sand…
Is that not love?
Whoever said ferocity
cannot be kind
never saw the way a seed
is destroyed as it
comes alive.
~Joshua Israelievitch
If you want to succeed in your life, remember this phrase: The past does not equal the future. Because you failed yesterday; or all day today; or a moment ago; or for the last six months; the last sixteen years; or the last fifty years of life, doesn’t mean anything… All that matters is:
What are you going to do, right now?
❓
– Tony Robbins
I am so tired of waiting,
Aren’t you,
For the world to become good
And beautiful and kind?
-Langston Hughes
Midnight poem
The clock has crossed the finish line
of yesterday
and begun this beautiful new day
This very minute everything begins new
I start this day soft,
in the darkness,
adjusting to the new date,
this particular date,
the date of my birth –
51 years ago now –
this year is passing quickly
I am living in this now,
in this wow!
It’s all happening!
No more filling time
No more empty spaces
No more waiting for…
I breathe my gratitude,
float away on a smiling cloud
as I drift back to sleep
🎂
AL
I am a recovering addict- addicted to artifice, disguise, misidentification, distraction, substitute gratifications, materialism, being right, winning every silly battle. Now I want to be a re-uncovering addict- addicted to baring my naked soul for all to see, particularly me. I want to see straight through my armor to the essential being quivering below. Nothing to hide, no place to hide it.
💞
– Jeff Brown
I hereby break all contracts I made unconsciously & consciously before I knew the depth of my own Spirit; the silent ones, the ones I inherited, passed down & accepted as my own from generation to generation.
I hereby severe all ties with that which holds me down & back, unable to see the glimmer of what I know to be true, whether by my own creation or by expectations tied like weights around my ankles by others lost in the sea of their own confused hearts.
I hereby reclaim my right to choose how my story unfolds, armed with creativity, a heart made of gold & reverent humility.
I hereby fully accept all of this living & what-is-yet-to-come with brash integrity & loving determination.
I hereby swear to use my superpowers for the love of all beings & I return anything that no longer serves my Higher & Lower Self (& the ones Caught-in-Between) with gratitude & consciousness.
I do this all with love, from the great source of it found in my very own beating heart.
❤️
– Bryonie Wise
You have burned your bridges.
You have passed through the gate
marked “no return”
And for you there is no going back
No going back to the security of
the known, familiar house,
To the well-worn dispensations
and the threadbare coverings.
Now you are out there in uncharted
territory
heavy with threat and shadows not
yet entered.
The risks are high, and yet you
strike out boldly,
Guided only by unwavering conviction
And the longing for the true centre
of the land.
This is what it means to do a new
thing.
So, you travel lightly.
You are abandoned, given up in all
things
To the task that lies ahead.
Therefore, you may be exactly who
you are.
You have inhabited yourself,
You are at home,
And home is where you are,
Even if it is the desert.
No one can dispossess you of your own in-dwelling.
This is what it means to be free.
We stand, one foot upon the bridge,
Wondering if we too have the courage to go over
And strike the match behind us.
🔥
The Dream of Learning our True Name by Kathy Galloway
Trees not yet leafed out,
the woods aren’t green,
just tiny flakes of green
in their childish little hands,
soft and small.
Something larger than them
from deep down stirs,
exceeds itself in them.
Among those who dare
a new thing
God grant me
such ancient courage.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
photo sources found at http://www.pinterest.com
19 years ago today
I stood at the edge
of a great abyss
in life
a part of me,
not known until that time,
had awakened
now I had a choice to make,
to accept –
or deny –
this part of myself,
which was revealed
in such a wild,
drastic,
unexpected
and overwhelming manner
I knew this would be
what, ultimately,
saved,
or
destroyed,
my life.
as I stood,
still in innocence,
not really knowing –
yet, somehow,
knowing in every way –
the costs,
the benefits,
the responsibility,
the awareness.
the long dark road ahead,
the excruciating valley years to come,
the sharp, rugged climb up the mountain.
19 years ago,
on this day,
I struggled
with all of this.
I made certain vows
concerning the choices
I would make through
my time of learning:
I would only follow love.
No matter how I failed, I would remember it is not about how good I am. I would try to live the words of Jesus in The Sermon on the Mount.
I would never make a choice
simply to benefit myself
or to get money.
I would learn to be truthful and fair and be the person I wanted to be.
I would be honest with myself – always – especially when I was wrong, or made a mistake.
I would stay aware and learn – so I would not make the same mistake twice.
I would make the best choice I could any given moment, and then move forward the best I could with no regret.
I would do my best and give my best.
I would look for good things every day.
That day I said ‘yes!’ to life
I jumped off the cliff
and began…
for good…
for bad…
to make my choices
from a new place of radical trust.
the rest is my history…
🍎
AL
All of my life I searched for truth and wanted to be beautiful
All my life I kept on moving looking for my home
All my life I played the part that someone else said was beautiful
All my life I lived afraid I couldn’t play that part
now I knock upon your door hear what my heart’s been longing for
welcome home
you belong
you are here
where I love you,
I want you
welcome home
won’t you stay
in my arms
I will hold you,
I need you
I won’t ever leave you
you are home
you are never alone
welcome home
I will sing you a song
I will build you an alter
I will shout to the hills
I will rise to the sky
I will bake you some bread
I will drink to your honor
I will dance in the rain
I will celebrate always
🏡
AL
Character. Strength. Intelligence. Style. That makes beauty.
💞
— Diane Von Furstenberg
A man looked for meaning.
For his very place in life.
He searched high and low.
He’d often hear a whisper, calling
his name from the other side
of what seemed like a door.
A door that remained hidden
from his ability to see.
Frustrated, he’d knock on
everything that resembled
a door. Turning here,
and there. Turning
just about anywhere.
Then one day,
unannounced,
it opened.
And he realised that he’d been
knocking from the inside.
And that the whisper
had been an echo.
The echo of his own soul
reminding him that
he was already home.
💞
The Whisper and the Echo by Nic Askew
WAITING TO GO ON
…It must be
we are waiting
for the perfect moment.
It must be
under all the struggle
we want to go on.
It must be,
that deep down,
we are creatures
getting ready
for when we are needed.
It must be that waiting
for the listening ear
or the appreciative word,
for the right
woman or the right man
or the right moment
just to ourselves,
we are getting ready
just to be ready
and nothing else.
Like this moment
just before the guests arrive
working
alone in the kitchen
sensing a deep
down symmetry
in every blessed thing.
The way
that everything
unbeknownst
to us
is preparing
to meet us too.
Just on the other
side of the door
someone
is about to knock
and our life
is just
about to change
and finally
after all these
years rehearsing,
behind
the curtain,
we might
just be
ready
to go on.
…
From ‘Waiting to Go On’ by David Whyte
The piano,
not played,
is still a piano –
patiently waiting
the music lies quietly
still inside
ready
not going anywhere else
not making itself heard
not anxious
or demanding
all it takes is the right hand
to touch the keys
to fall in love
and the song begins
the strings within
warm to life
always ready to play
💞
AL
I don’t think that anything happens by coincidence. No one is here by accident. Everyone who crosses our path has a message for us. Otherwise they would have taken another path, or left earlier or later. The fact that these people are here means that they are here for some reason.
💞
― James Redfield
I make a distinction between relationship challenges that are sourced in trauma and those sourced in developmental stages. Quite often, they are inextricably linked, but not always. Sometimes what is blocking someone’s emotional availability and fueling dysfunctional behavior is primarily related to unhealed traumas. But sometimes the deeper issue is that they are at a different emotional stage. In the latter case, it is not simply a question of holding the space for their healing. It’s a question of waiting, often for years, in the hope that they reach the stage you are at. An impossible scenario, both because you will have to stop growing yourself if they are to catch up, and because you really don’t know who they will be at the next stages of their developmental journey. They may grow into someone perfectly compatible with you, or they may move in another direction altogether. Perhaps the most important questions we can ask about a partner relates to their emotional age: How emotionally mature are they? What areas have they developed and integrated? What aspects are still under-developed? And how will their stage of development intersect with ours? Don’t be fooled by chronological age. Stage—not age—is what matters most.
💞
(~Jeff Brown an excerpt from ‘Spiritual Graffiti’)
I am no teacher
To teach you how to love,
For the fish need no teacher
To teach them to swim
And birds need no teacher
To teach them flight.
Swim on your own.
Fly on your own.
Love comes with no textbooks
And the greatest lovers in history were illiterate.
💞
~Nizar Qabbani
We must not give up. It takes so much time to heal because we are not just healing our own wounds- we are healing the world’s wounds, too. We think we are alone with our ‘stuff’, but we aren’t. With every clearing of our emotional debris, with every foray into a healthier way of being, with every excavation and release of old material, we heal the collective heart. So many of our familial and karmic ancestors had little opportunity to heal their pains. When we heal, their spirits breathe a sigh of relief. We heal them, too.
💞
– Jeff Brown
Lissette Hesmadt
Lover’s Leap Bridge
January 2016
Setting priorities is a difficult process…
No, it’s not!
That’s just what I keep saying.
But, it’s really very simple –
Just this…
What is the most important thing(s) in my life?
How do I reorganize my life around
the most important thing(s)?
Am I willing to do the work focused on that/those?
Those questions are on me.
The answers are very clear,
very simple.
YES!
Ok, then…
Get busy
make your music happen
Focus
Work
Do it!
This is it!
Set your sites…
Now…
Go…
💃🏻
AL
life: acoustic & amplified 