life: acoustic & amplified

poetry, quotes & thoughts about life

Archive for the category “Happiness”

16 Sep 2015

giving thanks for a perfect night    

 

important time spent
precious time together. 

important words spoken

raw heart truth. 

important choices made

driving…driving. 

laughter, sunset, baseball, hotdog, peanuts, selfies…shared

the champagne of living.

not to mention the kissing…

mums the word 

of the world beyond this world

where only two hearts can belong

and become more than they were before…

together. 

💞

AL

  
    
    
    
    
    
    
   
Listen to Todd Rundgren song Love is the Answer http://youtu.be/IjMKz0wCGmw

Posted in action, Adventure, awareness, beauty, beloved, Choice, connection, friendship, fun, Happiness, intimacy, Joy, Letting Go, Life, Love, Miracles, mystery, Relationships, soul and spirit, voice, Vulnerability | Leave a comment
18 Aug 2015
1 Comment

I’ll meet you there…

 

 A lone bird slips through the air.

You do not have to explain yourself.
The beating of your heart

is one with the vast, wordless song of the stars,

the great hum of the world. 
Rivers murmur praise,

deserts and oceans chant their meditations,

cities recite their industrious psalms;

and in your cell, unheard, unknown,

the mystery of heaven unfurls

in your silence. 
No one knows your place,

no one.

No one knows your precious belonging.

We can only believe, 

or err.
The marigold by the roadside

never knows. 

But it is true.
Your only work is to come to trust.
__________________ 

Steve Garnaas-Holmes

Unfolding Light

http://www.unfoldinglight.net

🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹

 

 It’s not just that when one door closes, another door opens. 

When one door closes, Amy, choirs burst into chorus, orchestras orchestrate, bugles bugle, marching bands march, dogs catch Frisbees, cats “chow, chow, chow,” pigs fly, and 10,000 new doors open. 

Kind of makes you want a door to close, huh? 

Whoohoooo! 

    The Universe

🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹

I will be taking a break from this blog🔹not sure how long🔹maybe forever🔹lots of beauty in the past 1,000+ posts if you are interested 🔹wishing love, life, music & much happiness to all who come here🔹as well as all who don’t🔹

AL💞

 8🔹18🔹15 AD

Posted in attitude, awareness, beauty, Change, Choice, confidence, connection, courage, Faith, find art at pinterest, Growth, Happiness, Letting Go, Life, Love, receiving, Reflection, soul and spirit, Trust, truth, Vulnerability, www.pinterest.com
13 Jul 2015

joy…now  

  
What if this is as good as it gets?

What if THIS very day is the best life will be?

What if this is your last chance to sing?

What if this moment is what you are called to?

What if this moment is your purpose?

What can you do to find the joy in this moment?

How can you be happy and satisfied right now?

What are the miracles that are happening for you as you read this?

What joy-filled cloud is hanging in the air above your head,

ready to splash all over you?

What gifts are being offered, 

if you just receive them,

allow them to tumble all around you?

Maybe, just maybe, these questions hold the true secrets of life. 

Maybe, living life in joy-fullness right now –

not waiting for some distant glory dream to come true –

Not holding back till your illusion of happiness materializes.

But, right now, sitting in whatever circumstance you are in,

this very given moment,

you look around and begin

to let go – 

to find the avalanche of joy jewels 

you’re walking on NOW. 

Maybe this is the best, and only, secret… 

DON’T WAIT FOR HAPPY!!! 

It is available now,

and every minute 

of this, 

and every, 

day. 

😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎

AL 

 

 It doesn’t make sense to those who can love deeply when others turn away. But not everyone is ready to keep the heart gate open to other humans. Not everyone can handle the vulnerabilities and risk. Some prefer substitute forms of love to the real thing. Perhaps they find it safer to channel their love toward a theoretical God that can never really hurt them, to a pet that will never trigger their memory of human disappointments, to a job that will gratify them economically without touching their hearts. There are so many substitute gratifications on this planet, most of them a covering over of our deep longing to connect with each other. If you are one who is truly ready to love, better to attach to those who can truly meet you there. There is the love-lit world of genuine vulnerability, and there is the love-avoidant world of seeming security. Different worlds altogether… 
😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍

– Jeff Brown (~an excerpt from the soon to be published ‘Spiritual Graffiti’)

  

😘😘😘😘😘😘😘😘😘😘

photo sources found at www.pinterest.com/al513

🌳         

I wonder, walking in these woods,

along stone walls so purposefully laid,

what it was like to clear the land,

by hand and oxen, long ago,

and pry the stones out, lift

the smaller ones, and heft them up,

the bigger ones with tools and

chains and wheels, with all

their solid weight pushing down against

you, against your hands, your will,
stone after stone, 

to clear it out. 
How right and good it must have seemed

to see the walls set out, 

the fields enclosed.
How hard and fine, and no less work

to lift away my bitterness, my fear,

and clear an open, gentle space. 

__________________ 

Steve Garnaas-Holmes

Unfolding Light

http://www.unfoldinglight.net

  

  

 
 

Posted in attitude, awareness, Change, Choice, determination, Happiness, Joy, Letting Go, Life, Love, music, Smile, soul and spirit, Trust, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment
05 Jul 2015

today’s choice

  
Listen to Lynyrd Skynyrd sing Free Bird http://youtu.be/iEAn9dNavT4

  

Posted in action, attitude, awareness, Change, Choice, Freedom, Happiness, Joy, Life, Love, perceptions, soul and spirit | Leave a comment
03 Jul 2015

interesting conversations (grade: C-)

  
HAMLET: To be, or not to be–that is the question:

Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles

And by opposing end them. To die, to sleep–

No more–and by a sleep to say we end

The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks

That flesh is heir to. ‘Tis a consummation

Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep–

To sleep–perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub,

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come

When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,

Must give us pause. There’s the respect

That makes calamity of so long life.

For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,

Th’ oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely

The pangs of despised love, the law’s delay,

The insolence of office, and the spurns

That patient merit of th’ unworthy takes,

When he himself might his quietus make

With a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear,

To grunt and sweat under a weary life,

But that the dread of something after death,

The undiscovered country, from whose bourn

No traveller returns, puzzles the will,

And makes us rather bear those ills we have

Than fly to others that we know not of?

Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,

And thus the native hue of resolution

Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought,

And enterprise of great pitch and moment

With this regard their currents turn awry

And lose the name of action. — Soft you now,

The fair Ophelia! — Nymph, in thy orisons

Be all my sins remembered.

🙀🙀🙀🙀🙀

Read more at http://www.monologuearchive.com/s/shakespeare_001.html#q445B8QYR85jGYt2.99

 

 I think of difficult days
Days I struggle to stay alive

To keep my head above water

To put one foot in front of the other

To stay hydrated in the middle of my water works
I think of days of joy

When everything sparkles

When I say hello to the bright-eyed me in the mirror

When I am so glad I’m alive

So connected to the whole
I think about the moods of nature

The sunny days

The gray days

Days of angry storms

or gentle raindrops

Days of extreme
Just like me

Extreme weather

caused by my energy

the energy around me 

environmental and

relational factors
personal forecast

Todays weather calls for

Sunny outlook

with occasional clouds

a few showers through out the day

wine at sunset

moon full tonight  

with a dream or two of your kisses

 still warm on my lips

floating through

Waking to a great day tomorrow 

until I see you again

  😱😱😱😱😱😱😱

AL

  
Listen to Amos Lee sing Soul Suckers http://youtu.be/zqidM_U9rgU

☔️☀️☔️☀️☔️☀️

photo sources found at www.pinterest.com/al513

   
  

Posted in attitude, awareness, beauty, Becoming Yourself, Choice, connection, courage, determination, find art at pinterest, Gospel, Growth, Habits, Happiness, inspiration, intimacy, Passion, soul and spirit, words, Writing, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment
28 Jun 2015

wonder unshackles us from the binding constraints of what we deem as possible, and it tickles us alive with the possibility of the impossible.   – Craig D. Lounsbrough 

 The biggest lesson I’ve learned so far is, “It’s okay.” It’s okay for me to be kind to myself. It’s okay to be wrong. It’s okay to get mad. It’s okay to be flawed. It’s okay to be happy. It’s okay to move on. 

    — Hayley Williams  

😃😃😃😃😃😃😃😃😃😃

http://www.aholyexperience.com/2015/05/when-truth-feels-like-burlapswhen-truth-feels-like-burlap/

   

  
 

  Listen to Amos Lee sing There I Go Again http://youtu.be/J0BXckR_-4c

☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️

  
photo sources found at www.pinterest.com/al513

 

Posted in attitude, awareness, Change, Choice, courage, find art at pinterest, Happiness, Love, Passion, soul and spirit, words, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment
26 Jun 2015

when we grow afraid we forget 

 
 I believe in all that has never yet been spoken.

I want to free what waits within me

so that what no one has dared to wish for
may for once spring clear

without my contriving.
If this is arrogant, God, forgive me,

but this is what I need to say.

May what I do flow from me like a river,

no forcing and no holding back,

the way it is with children.
Then in these swelling and ebbing currents,

these deepening tides moving out, returning,

I will sing you as no one ever has,
streaming through widening channels

into the open sea.
I, 12 [I believe in all that has never been spoken] by Rainer Maria Rilke. 

🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊

  
      
How can you not see it,

if you stand still enough,

or walk out far enough:

the light shimmering from every leaf,

the actual hardness of every stone?

This stone says something

of humility and presence, 

of where it came from, and the belly of stars,

but it stays silent to draw you nearer.

We are, all of us, even the thin geranium

on the back stoop, reaching up

for light, for life, for beauty, 

singing out with the great silent voice

of the immense glory of being,

the long, amazing story

and a love story it is.

Without your having to remember—

such a gift, such a gift—

your lungs open to the world

and take in life, each moment.  

Who gave you that?

How can you not sing, even in silence?

When we grow afraid we forget,

we wear protective layers 

of things to believe, things to do,

so many things to do,

so that we don’t come too near

and catch fire. 
_________________  

Steve Garnaas-Holmes

Unfolding Light

http://www.unfoldinglight.net

🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

 
  (I agree, Mary Oliver…hum, hum)
Listen to Mat Kearney sing Closer to Love http://youtu.be/EMRXXBGotnw

🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀

Photo sources found at www.pinterest.com/al513 

Posted in action, Adventure, attitude, awareness, beauty, Becoming Yourself, Choice, compassion, connection, courage, determination, Encouragement, Faith, find art at pinterest, Growth, Happiness, Letting Go, Life, Love, Passion, soul and spirit, Vulnerability, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment
20 Jun 2015

it is the duty and calling of an artist to speak their truth     – unknown 

  

   

  
 

   

  

Listen to Sara Barelleis sing Vegas http://youtu.be/HOHK2sXoIVw

🎼🎼🎼🎼🎼🎼🎼🎼🎼🎼🎼 
photo sources found at www.pinterest.com/al513

Posted in action, Adventure, attitude, awareness, Becoming Yourself, Beginning, Career, Choice, commitment, courage, create, determination, do, Encouragement, Faith, find art at pinterest, Habits, Happiness, Impossible, inspiration, Letting Go, Life, Love, Miracles, music, mystery, Passion, Patience, Relationships, soul and spirit, Trust, Vulnerability, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment
03 Jun 2015

every choice matters 

 
You could have grown cold, but you grew courageous instead. You could have given up, but you kept on going. You could have seen obstacles, but you called them adventures. You could have called them weeds, but instead you called them wildflowers. You could have died a caterpillar, but you fought on to be a butterfly. You could have denied yourself goodness, but instead you chose to show yourself some self-love. You could have defined yourself by the dark days, but instead through them you realized your light. 

            — S.C Lourie

  

   Listen to Eva Cassidy sing Time is a Healer http://youtu.be/ttl-W-hVDpQ

😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊

photo sources found at www.pinterest.com/al513

         

God, 

sometimes I just want you to hold me.

I’m not asking you to fix me,

though I wish you would.

I’m not asking you to fix my world,

though I really wish you would.

Just hold me. 

The whole earth and all the galaxies

in one arm and me in the other,

held to you close,

where I discover who I really am.

Just for now I don’t need faith or insight,

don’t need to repent, don’t even

need to pray.

I just need you to hold me.

__________________ 

Steve Garnaas-Holmes

Unfolding Light

http://www.unfoldinglight.net

Posted in action, attitude, awareness, Becoming Yourself, Change, Choice, courage, find art at pinterest, Happiness, healing, intimacy, Life, Love | Leave a comment
30 May 2015

who ya gonna be? 

  #363 curiosity 

One day, many years ago, 

I realized how little I knew 

about life

about the world

about God 

about love 

about relationships

about nature

about cultures

about people

about learning

about how things work

about myself

about pretty much everything. 
Yes, one day the full impact hit me 

of how small my understanding

really is, 

and it changed my life. 

I became aware.
I became aware that I could choose,

even though no one gave me permission. 

It hit me – that all the people, 

who had told me they had the complete truth,

and so I should just believe them,

couldn’t possibly ALL be right. 

I also realized, very importantly, most of them were not people I wanted my life to emulate.  
So, maybe, living wasn’t about being right, or perfect. 

Maybe life was about being open, learning about each other,

about helping each other. 

Maybe love really was about unconditional,

whatever that truly meant. 

Maybe life was about trying…

anything…everything

that I found intriguing,

or felt my soul drawn to. 
And so I opened myself to this new way 

of thinking,

of being, 

of seeing. 

I became curious. 

I became open. 

I became dogmatic –

about NOT being dogmatic. 

I removed the words, 

‘I’m right’ and ‘I can’t’ and ‘impossible’ from my vocabulary. 

I fought my automatic judgements….

still one of my biggest daily battles….

I keep making that choice. 

I fought to improve only myself, 

to forgive myself, 

to keep learning the hard way,

it is my choice. 

I sought to tell, and live, my ever-evolving truth,

holding that truth lightly in open, adoring hands,

always allowing myself to be wrong without shame,

allowing for changes without despising the learning, 

I am ever-so-happy when I make that choice!

I battled to take responsibility 

for my thoughts and actions,

Always adjusting, making new choices. 

Staying aware. 

Being honest. 

Making lots of mistakes,

Life is very messy at times. 

I’ve lost a lot. 

I’ve gained more than I lost. 
At some point, along the way,

I became convinced, at least for me,

this was the only way to truly live. 

The mystery keeps getting bigger. 

I continue to do war with my desire to shut down my heart,

in the face of constant hurts and disappointments. 

I keep letting go. 

Opening, always opening. 

Each step has become a miracle moment. 

Each opening leads me to open more. 

I have come to see everything is grace. 

I have come to understand the extreme value,

of each human soul,

of being vulnerable,

of being human,

of just being. 

I have made the commitment to the path of curiosity,

not because I will ever learn it all,

but because I won’t. 

Yet, I am aware, that there is infinite learning at my fingertips, 

and I want as much as I can get,

to go as high as I can go,

to know as much 

of God, 

and Mystery, 

and life itself, 

as I am able. 
One day, not very long ago, I found the words of poet, Mary Oliver. 

She gives these brilliant life instructions,

      pay attention. 

          be astonished. 

             tell about it. 

Yes, that has been my path. 

As Einstein said, 

    I have no special talents –

       I’m just passionately curious. 

I add to that: 

I have completely fallen in love with life!

I’ve grown fabulously addicted to seeing the holy miracles all around me. 

I am so blessed, so full, so grateful! 

I can’t help wanting to share

the path of this glorious adventure,

with others who love it too –

and so,

though I’ve been accused of talking too much, 

more than a few times, in my life,

I’ll just keep on… 

because, I’ve found, 

all voices are beautiful –

in their own way. 

AL

 
 Listen to my friend, Barbara McAfee sing Who Ya Gonna Be? http://youtu.be/Xf5BJgOmBd8

 
 

Posted in action, Adventure, attitude, awareness, beauty, Becoming Yourself, Blessing, Change, Choice, commitment, courage, create, find art at pinterest, Happiness, Impossible, Letting Go, Life, Love, Passion, soul and spirit | Leave a comment

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