Maybe no one needs us to out-debate them this summer, like they need us to out-love them. Maybe no one needs us to prove anything like they need us to have proof of what mends us… of what moves us. – Ann Voskamp
Read full blog post at http://www.aholyexperience.com/2015/07/when-you-feel-a-bit-like-the-worlds-ablaze-with-hard-things-the-emmaus-option/
Listen to Adele sing To Make You Feel My Love http://youtu.be/ZzmTFBPMhk8
Photo sources found at www.pinterest.com
There is a teaching that says that behind all hardening and tightening and rigidity of the heart, there’s always fear. But if you touch fear, behind fear there is a soft spot. And if you touch that soft spot, you find the vast blue sky. You find that which is ineffable, ungraspable, and unbiased, that which can support and awaken us at any time.
– Pema Chodron
Listen to JJ Heller sing What Love Really Means http://youtu.be/PgGUKWiw7Wk
❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
photo sources found at www.pinterest.com/al513
I have always loved fashion
I still remember my shiny red rain boots
before I was even in first grade.
that blue satin dress
with puffy sleeves,
the purple gingham smock top worn with white bell bottoms.
I still remember the feeling
of falling in love with the words
‘desert boots’ on the school bus.
all through my life fashion has been
my field of study
what looks good with what,
on which body type,
what shoe looks best with what look,
it all matters in some weird way,
and yes, I am a believer in
shoes make the outfit.
BUT…
There are days when I enjoy
carrying on a family tradition
of really bad fashion
I remember my grandmother
free and easy
in old men’s pants with rips and tears in unfortunate places
old shirts, ripped and shabby.
Plaids and stripes of different colors and generations
smelling of pipe tobacco and mothballs,
mixed with house coats and bare feet,
occasionally high heels from a different day.
I remember my embarrassment,
and my wonder at her courage,
to wear these things
in public
(Declaring I would NEVER do such a thing)
and then to dance in them for us,
my cheeks would burn
the many times she blatantly revealed to all present
She was ‘commando’
(long before I knew what that term meant)
I remember my Aunt Margie
wearing ripped and way too thin
cotton
T-shirts and long-johns
Mis-matched and
way to revealing
to be comfortable
for anyone but her.
My Uncle Buddy used to say,
A stitch in time…saves embarrassment!
Neither listened.
I smile at myself today when I chose a mix of plaids and stripes,
colors clashing cheerfully,
sweat pants and flip flops
my hair flying in the air
I wear a smile and there’s passion in my eyes.
Revealing my faith
and the firm belief that,
in a moment,
anything could happen.
It makes me happy every time
I catch my colorful, jumbled reflection in a mirror,
or the microwave door.
I feel connected and rooted to my ancestors.
The ones of family folk lore,
who wore fur coats in the summertime and had fights in the middle of church –
sisters pushing each other off the organ stool…
just because their hair looked good that day
and they wanted to be seen…
yes, I am a descendant of colorful characters,
ones with imagination and courage,
ones with flair and the brass to stand proud
and pull off their living,
and fashion, with
style and grace, or at least,
loads of panache
and silliness.
I am now older,
and a wee bit wiser
from that easily embarrassed, trying to fit in,
girl I used to be.
thankfully I have grown comfortable in my own skin.
I now realize
the true power of fashion
is the reflection and revelation of how we view ourselves.
the true power of style
is the reflection and revelation of our character and creativity.
the true power of beauty
is the reflection and revelation of how well we know our own personal value(s) –
and respect the value(s) of those around us.
today I stand in the power of my heritage
the beauty of each person’s worth,
though you will need to look behind and beyond
these stripes and plaids.
At first glance you may think I made a mistake with my wardrobe today.
I may not seem to know much about fashion.
But if you take the time to look,
with new vision,
you will know I chose this on purpose
and you will begin to see
the vastness of this gift,
this legacy I have just begun to
fully love and appreciate:
beauty is in each one of us,
style is knowing the truth
of our beauty within
and letting it shine!
AL
Listen to Tony Bennet & Lady Gaga sing Lady is A Tramp http://youtu.be/ZPAmDULCVrU
photo sources found on www.pinterest.com/al513
Feeling empty and unstrung
I wake from my dream
warnings of being unwilling to change
of being stuck in one place
unwilling to do things different
I sit at my desk
afraid
because this dream was not about you
it was about me
and it scares the hell outta me
that it is what I will allow.
I know
the tractor beam of mediocrity is on –
will my shields hold?
Will I stay out of the pig pen,
or just give up and wallow in the stinky mud?
The comfortable parking space calls me..
All this,
and the glaring monotony,
the forced prison,
of my day
stares at me.
how will I break this day open?
how will I know I have
reached beyond my need for security?
how will I battle my own resistance?
how will I stay focused on my own need,
and not distract myself with yours?
I open poems by Mary Oliver
The Moths is all it takes!
I feel the door of freedom swing open wide.
I write
I post
I say ‘thank you’
for these, and all the other words.
Within the hour I get a comment from Oriah, whose poem,
The Invitation,
was a life changer
and I know life
has answered my need to know
that I am connected to the whole
I feast
on bacon
with a side of strawberries n cream & passion fruit Godiva truffles
knowing there is always
more goodness
than I could ever eat up
my cup is overfull and sticky
from all that honey
from all those
beauti-ous bees.
🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝
AL (Oct 2013)
Listen to Willie Nelson sing This Face http://youtu.be/_79LW9_OIUA
😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍
Find photo sources at www.pinterest.com/al513
The mind must
set itself up
wherever it goes
and it would be
most convenient
to impose its
old rooms—just
tack them up
like an interior
tent. Oh but
the new holes
aren’t where
the windows
went.
🏡🏠🏠🏡🏠🏡🏠🏡
New Rooms by Kay Ryan
On this day of your life I believe God wants you to know…
…that tomorrow is the most important day of your life.
Your greatest moment, your greatest achievement, your
greatest adventure lies in the future, never in the past.
There is a new you waiting to be created tomorrow.
That is the joy and wonder of the dawn. That is the
excitement of it!
Forget about yesterday! What is the grandest version
of the greatest vision ever you held about
Who You Are going to be tomorrow?
That is the only question that matters.
💞
Neale Donald Walsh
I promised you that I would do it; and I will. However, it will be done in My way and in My timing. My way and My timing are often different than what you expect; but, they are perfect and they are right. My timing is always the best timing, and My way is higher than yours. I have told you that in My word many times.
You know only what you perceive and see, but I know every dimension of everything that is going on in your situation. I know the spiritual forces that are at work against you and what strategies they are taking. I know the things that you cannot anticipate, and they will not catch Me by surprise. My child, I take every one of these factors into consideration when I choose to work on your behalf and to bring My glory to your life.
I want you to know that I am always at work in your circumstances to turn them into My glory. Child, when you are in difficulty, I will make a way for you to escape. It may not be exactly what you expect, but it will be perfect, it will be for your good; and it will be just as I promised in My word.
I am holy. I am loving. I am the truth; and I am also faithful and trustworthy. It’s My desire for you to learn how trustworthy I am, so that you will put the full measure of your trust in Me. Don’t you know how much it blesses Me when you trust completely? So, the answer to your question is yes; I will do it. I will deliver you. However, it will be done in My way and in My time, and it will bring My glory into your life, just as I planned.
– Chosen One Ministries
Photo sources found at www.pinterest.com/al513
Music is playing,
music with an aim, produced,
music of collusion and desire,
insistent and sexual.
Hard not to move with the music.
Hard not to fall into the rhythm,
seduce and be seduced.
But don’t slip on the blood
on the floor.
Other music plays,
silent, within.
Different feel, different band.
Music of a beating heart,
melody of tumbling water,
lullaby whispered for a lifetime,
song of hearts set free.
The Beloved cuts in.
“May I have this one?”
No one to impress, only to offend.
No one to dance for, only with.
Dance.
Let joy move you,
even in the face of evil,
let love move you.
Before the guns,
behind the prison bars,
on the gallows, dance.
Dance on your own grave.
When they threaten you, dance
the other dance that at last
will consume them as well.
Unseen, though you know within,
the Beloved takes you in steady arms.
Dance.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
💃🏻💃🏻💃🏻💃🏻💃🏻💃🏻💃🏻💃🏻💃🏻💃🏻💃🏻💃🏻
the story of your name is written in my book, your beginning, the moment where you felt you ended and I begin. That is your beginning, child.
You begin where you end and I begin.
And the story keeps writing, child. After beginning there is adventure. After beginning there is trust and falling and catching and believing and choosing and waiting. There is much waiting and beginning again.
Your story running right off the page with Me. – Loop Devotional from Gather Ministries
💃🏻💃🏻💃🏻💃🏻💃🏻💃🏻💃🏻💃🏻💃🏻💃🏻💃🏻
Listen to Lee Ann Womack sing I Hppe You Dance http://youtu.be/RV-Z1YwaOiw
💃🏻💃🏻💃🏻💃🏻💃🏻💃🏻
photo sources found at www.pinterest.com/al513
I’m reading a book on hope
which sounds like I’ve taken up tatting
old fashioned and harmless
hope is unpopular
even Buddhists diss it telling us to live
in one awful moment at a time
and these days almost everyone wants to be a Buddhist
hope is hard to grasp when your imagination’s
grown fat on darkness
like the thick underside of a mushroom
tragedy is grand scale
predictably beautiful in its way
hope is hokey
imperfect full of stumbling little acts
the way a strand of neighbors standing in the rain
on the shoulder of Highway One American flags
in their hands and homemade signs:
Peace is Patriotic
can make another strand start up
even in the imagination
standing on a curve of the coast highway
where the land seems to fall away
into the open mouth of the ocean
their bodies like flags
waving sloppily
steadfast in the downpour
🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
How to Hope by Katharine Harer – with thanks to Rebecca Solnit for her book, Hope in the Dark
💙❤️💙❤️💙❤️🇺🇸
Listen to Los Lobos/Grateful Dead sing This Land is Your Land http://youtu.be/zM18HENqNbk
❤️
But the day is past. The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epocha in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward, forevermore.
John Adams
July 03, 1776 to Abigail Adams
read full letter at http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/john-adams-to-abigail-adams-2/
Listen to Bon Jovi sing It’s My Life http://youtu.be/9SKFwtgUJHs
photo sources found at www.pinterest.com/al513
“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
life: acoustic & amplified 
