life: acoustic & amplified
poetry, quotes & thoughts about life
Archive for the category “Happiness”
What really matters in life is not what we buy, but what we
build; not what we have, but what we share with the world; not our capability but our character; and not our success but our true significance. Live a life that makes you proud – one that matters and makes a difference. Live a life filled with passion and love.
A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose
Read full post: 20 Bad Habits Holding Good People Back
http://www.marcandangel.com/
Finding a Box of Family Letters
by Dana Gioia
The dead say little in their letters
they haven’t said before.
We find no secrets, and yet
how different every sentence sounds
heard across the years.
My father breaks my heart
simply by being so young and handsome.
He’s half my age, with jet-black hair.
Look at him in his navy uniform
grinning beside his dive-bomber.
Come back, Dad! I want to shout.
He says he misses all of us
(though I haven’t yet been born).
He writes from places I never knew he saw,
and everyone he mentions now is dead.
There is a large, long photograph
curled like a diploma—a banquet sixty years ago.
My parents sit uncomfortably
among tables of dark-suited strangers.
The mildewed paper reeks of regret.
I wonder what song the band was playing,
just out of frame, as the photographer
arranged your smiles. A waltz? A foxtrot?
Get out there on the floor and dance!
You don’t have forever.
What does it cost to send a postcard
to the underworld? I’ll buy
a penny stamp from World War II
and mail it downtown at the old post office
just as the courthouse clock strikes twelve.
Surely the ghost of some postal worker
still makes his nightly rounds, his routine
too tedious for him to notice when it ended.
He works so slowly he moves back in time
carrying our dead letters to their lost addresses.
It’s silly to get sentimental.
The dead have moved on. So should we.
But isn’t it equally simpleminded to miss
the special expertise of the departed
in clarifying our long-term plans?
They never let us forget that the line
between them and us is only temporary.
Get out there and dance! the letters shout
adding, Love always. Can’t wait to get home!
And soon we will be. See you there.
from Pity the Beautiful. © Graywolf Press, 2012.
http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/
Why walking in faith is our calling
I believe God wants you to know…
…that everything is falling together perfectly, even
though it looks as if some things are falling apart.
Trust in the process you are now experiencing. Life
is on your side. It is showing that to you now, though
you may not be able to see it clearly at this time.
You have made your wishes and dreams known to
God. Now comes the time for faith. Faith that all
is right, right now. Tomorrow will reveal itself exactly
as it should.
– Neale Donald Walsh
http://www.nealedonaldwalsch.com/index.php?p=Home
I Surrender All
When we pray for God our shepherd to lead us, we usually have green pastures in mind. But when Peter and James healed a paralytic, preached to the crowd, and testified to the authorities who arrested them, they didn’t do this out of their own personal desire; they did it because God led them to. God didn’t exactly lead them beside still waters.
Our lives are richest in blessing, peace and vibrancy when we live not according to our own impulses, but in harmony with God’s grace. Whether it is toward peaceful rest or challenging action, God leads us from within, guiding, nudging, sometimes compelling us, and leads us from without, alluring, beckoning, pleading, needing us. We much prefer going our own way, of course―so we do what we can to ignore God’s shepherding. One way is to believe that God is on our side, so that we don’t feel the need to listen to God. We already know. Another way is to limit our faith to ideas, so that we can “believe” without actually acting. Another escape is to be busy, so that we believe we can’t afford to slow down as much as is needed to listen to God. Many believers are so sure and busy that if God really is a shepherd, they’re atheists.
You will not likely know God’s will for your life by pushing hard. You’re more likely to find out by listening for the voice of your shepherd and following. Whether you feel the need to stand up and act or lie down and rest, let God shepherd you. Let the Spirit within you and in others speak to you. Let God’s “rod and staff” gently lead you. Rather than deciding where you ought to be, discern where your shepherd is, and be there. Renounce all your ideas of where God ought to lead you. Let the shepherd decide. In stillness, listen. In openness, wait to hear. In humble trust, resolve to follow the shepherd before you know where he’s going.
Don’t resist when the shepherd leads you either to pastures greener than you think you deserve or valleys darker than you think you can handle. If you are with your shepherd, you are in the right place. You are in “the house of the Lord.” Listen, trust and follow. And don’t worry about saving the world. That’s God’s job. Neither shrink back in despair nor run ahead on your own; just stay with the shepherd. Just show up and take your place in the flock, where God needs you. Surely goodness and mercy will follow you all the days of your life.
_____________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
Used with permission
The Only Song
Oh God, I bless thee for the happy moment
when I first saw thy law fulfilled in Christ,
wrath appeased, death destroyed, sin forgiven,
my soul saved….
I want no other rock to build upon than that I have,
desire no other hope than that of gospel truth,
need no other look than that which gazes
on the cross…
May my cry be always, Only Jesus! only Jesus!
In Him I have all that I can hold;
enlarge me to take in more…
If I am tempted, and have no wit,
give me strength enough to trust in Him…
If in extremity,
let me feel that He can deliver me;
If driven to the verge of hope
and to the pit of despair,
grant me grace to fall into His arms.
O God, hear me,
do for me more
than I ask, think, or dream.”
~ excerpted from Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions blogged April 24, 2012 on http://www.aholyexperience.com/
THE ONLY SONG Lyrics
I see the choir in the robes, the piano player plays
And they all sing hallelujah
All the people in the front and the people in the back
Are singing praises to Ya
And I close my eyes and let the music wash right over me
Just like the blood of the lamb that washed me clean
I’m looking through the book at the hymns
That a thousand men have written for You
“Amazing Grace” and “I’ll Fly Away”
And “Joyful We Adore You”
And it occurred to me that the songs I sing, although they’re beautiful
They just don’t compare to the best one that I know
You are the melody, the words, You’re the chorus
Cause You gladly laid Your life down for us
All the blessings that You bring
You’re the only song I ever wanna sing.
All the sinners and the saints got something to say
But we know who gave ’em voices
And we’re all down here in the atmosphere just making joyful noises
Birds are singing in the air, thunder crashes like a drum
Your song is everywhere; it was my first number 1
You are the melody the words, You’re the chorus
Cause You gladly laid Your life down for us
All the blessings that You bring
You’re the only song I ever wanna sing.
Sing Halleluja
Hallelujah
Sing Hallelujah
Hallelujah
You are the melody, the words, You’re the chorus
Cause You gladly laid your life down for us
You are the melody, the words, You’re the chorus
Cause You gladly laid Your life down for us
All the blessings that You bring
Lord of Lords, and King of Kings
We will let our voices ring
You’re the only song we ever wanna sing.
You’re the only song I ever wanna sing (hallelujah)
You’re the only song I ever wanna sing (hallelujah)
You’re the only song I ever wanna sing.
We are the body – use all your gifts!!!
Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. – I Peter 4:10 NIV
It is what it is
I believe this statement above is true, and when you really get the importance and the impact of that statement it truly changes your mindset about the growth and evolving nature of people and how we change our lives – or not.
I remember when I began to realize this truth – in 1995, I had been struggling with my weight since 1987-88, I had 2 babies in 2 years and was in a very unhappy, abusive relationship. Food was my friend, and the joy of my day. Yet also a source of imprisonment and shame. I would diet/fail and then feel worse about myself than ever. That all changed for me one day. I decided I had enough and I was going to lose that 90 pounds.
This was five years into my life-changing experience with God. I had been reading every self-help idea that I could find, and following the words of Jesus from Matthew 5-7, and, as I look back, this was my first big test of faith and endurance. Could I discipline myself, could I change myself, change the way I thought about food? Could I really change my life so openly and begin to become who I wanted to be?
Six months later I had lost 90 pounds, but that wasn’t all that had changed. I had a new confidence in myself. I had many new ideas about my own strength, my value, my ability to accomplish what I wanted in the face of adversity, and a new concept of change. My faith was stronger and my resolve was more firmly established! I remembered trying before and failing – what made this time different? I was ready. This truth has followed me since, and I have begun to understand myself and others better because of this truth. This is why ‘motivation’ and ‘resolutions’ don’t last. It has to be an embracing of a new way. A readiness to let go of the old in order to go higher and arrive at a new and better place. This usually makes life uncomfortable – sometimes for a long time, and so we have to be ready and willing to make that move.
Some people never do.
It is each persons responsibility to decide how they want to live their lives, and that means their choices and their changes are up to them. When we stand at the end of life and look back, what do we want to have left behind us? What do we want our lives to look like? Who have we crafted ourselves into? Have we settled, or have we prepared ourselves and then embraced the changes to become our highest selves?
That’s my goal! I keep getting preparing myself to be ready to grow in grace, knowledge and love! We must be willing to change – we must be prepared to make choices which reflect our desires!
life: acoustic & amplified 