I have lived restricted
for so many years
the days they vanish
the years disappear
One day I feel
from the ocean a breeze
It warms my inside
and melts my ice
There are doors forgotten
that lead somewhere
though I never dared
believe they existed
⚜
Restricted Living by Kjell Walfridsson
I am struck by the otherness of things rather than their sameness.
The way a tiny pile of snow perches in the crook of a branch in the
tall pine, away by itself, high enough not to be noticed by people,
out of reach of stray dogs. It leans against the scaly pine bark, busy
at some existence that does not need me.
It is the differences of objects that I love, that lift me toward the rest
of the universe, that amaze me. That each thing on earth has its own
soul, its own life, that each tree, each clod is filled with the mud of
its own star. I watch where I step and see that the fallen leaf, old
broken grass, an icy stone are placed in exactly the right spot on the
earth, carefully, royalty in their own country
❄️
Looking for the Differences by Tom Hennen
❄️
top photo found at http://www.pinterest.com
photos by Fisherman Dan @ Branford, CT
❄️
O come thou Mystery,
unseen, unbidden, unfelt,
but so madly needed here.
Come to us
who push you away with our despair,
snare us with wonder.
Come to us, the lonely and broken,
O Small One,
not to solve but to be with.
Come to us who grieve
place or worth or hope,
and find it with us.
Come to us in our smugness
and lay yourself down in the manger
of our secret wounds.
Come to us in our privilege
and let us hang our lives
on a poor little peasant child.
Come to us in our violent fear
and calm us with your tiny voice.
Ask us to love you.
For us who find it hard to love each other,
come and gather us in a circle,
have us care, have us sing.
Come to us, too afraid to need,
be fragile among us,
and let us fall in love.
Neglect our neglect, Emmanuel,
come and be a tiny flame of love among us,
and light our own.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
In the sixth month already
of the impossible
Gabriel,
so usually unseeable—
startling,
though you thought him so foreign,
how nearer than you
to the seed of your life—
fills the room with his wings,
wraps with his words
this world
beside God’s so small,
sets it in the greater one
among stars
and you
lit by the same light,
and calls forth your trust in heaven’s actual, —
for with God nothing is impossible—
the divine within,
inviting your invitation
from even deeper in,
a Word,
a world entrusted to you,
your being
that by gift and labor blesses,
brought with singing
through the portal of this blood of birth
and that crucial other,
calling to life
in your drab littleness
the body of your holiness,
the flesh that God without you cannot have.
Even God waits
to see the miracle,
the birth that only you can birth.
There is no test for paradise,
only paradise.
Say yes.
😇
_________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
http://www.designlovefest.com/2012/12/holiday-centerpiece/
So, I’ve been thinking about discipline- you know, the thing we think we need to find if we are going to do the things we know are good for us (like eating well, exercise, daily meditation etc.) I can clamp down with my will and pick up those aspirations daily- but at times it just feels like endless work, and sooner or later I run out of steam.
So lately, I’ve been trying something different. Instead of berating myself and insisting that today (or tomorrow) I will dig deep and find the necessary discipline, I’ve been thinking about giving myself gifts.
As in- today, I’m giving myself the gift of taking a walk in the autumn leaves, of taking my time in prayer and meditation, of making a wonderful stew for dinner. If I can keep my attitude in the range of doing something kind for myself (as opposed to doing something I think I “should” do) not only is it easier to create good self-care, it becomes about receiving that care with gratitude.
And that’s just a more enjoyable way to receive the gift of this day.
~Oriah
Halloween was confusing. All my life my parents said, ‘Never take candy from strangers.’ And then they dressed me up and said, ‘Go beg for it.’ I didn’t know what to do! I’d knock on people’s doors and go, ‘Trick or treat.’ ‘No thank you.’
– Rita Rudner
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/
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
This is my commandment,
that you love one another as I have loved you.
—John 15.12
that is,
with tender attention
and stout resilience,
that is,
despite your blame and fear,
your betrayal yet to come,
your lack of repentance,
as I have loved you
when you were determined
not to deserve it,
that you love as I have,
withholding nothing,
excusing no one,
that you pour yourself out
for the unworthy,
as I have
pour yourself out
of your life
into eternal love
and as I have
rise
new,
perfected
in love.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
This morning, I met with a friend, age 64, who told me bitterly she’d stopped talking to her father. They’ve had so many arguments in the years I’ve known her! In their last scene, she said she told him, “I’m a grown up now! You can’t keep hurting me like you did when I was 12!” I don’t know for sure, but I can fill in the blanks on that one and so can you. My friend has recently lost 80 lbs and she has another 60 to go. Whatever happened back then, she never really got over it.
One of the drivers of the car in which I was passenger when both my children were killed blames himself for the accident to such an extent that his whole life has been mangled and wrought with emotional pain from that day to this. More than 20 years. He never really got over it.
What about you?
Do you have some secret pain, some traumatic memory, some inner anguish that you strive to hide from the world? Is there a monster inside you, jabbing at you and never letting you forget what happened?
Healing from serious issues can be a long, difficult process. At least, that’s how it has been for me. But unless we continue to work towards healing, toward bringing the dark into the light and letting it heal, we will end up like the people above — ending our lives too early; destroying our physical well-being; mangling our futures with self-recrimination.
The journey to wellness – not the kind you fake so other people think you’re OK now – requires a lot of courage. It’s going to be hard, but get this: it won’t be as hard as you think. And it will not require you to suffer as much as you suspect it might. I promise!
The first step in healing is deceptively simple: Decide that’s what you want to do.
Only you know the answer about whether you really want to revisit the past, dig it up and heal it so it doesn’t keep on screwing with your current life. If you don’t, you’ll end up with the life similar to the people above. I’m not suggesting you rush off to confront people who’ve hurt you. I’m not actually suggesting you rush off and DO anything. Healing the soul is as gentle and slow as healing the body. You can’t look at the cut on your finger and simply acknowledge you have a cut, then order it to heal instantly. You might have to tend to it a little. It will cause you pain (although not as much as the original injury.) You don’t have to relive and talk endlessly about your trauma to heal it. Although it would be VERY helpful to see a therapist or a clergy person, even that isn’t mandatory.
silence today and just ask this in the midst of your own stillness:
http://positiveoutlooksblog.com/2015/05/12/what-is-the-first-step-in-healing/
Listen to Ruthie Foster sing Woke Up This Morning http://youtu.be/Pd0p9AYGgIs 
photo sources found at www.pinterest.com/al513
Happy Birthday to me!! I’m so glad to be here!! 50 ROCKS!
A delicate fabric of bird song
We begin in the dark. Within.
Life.
Love.
Joy.
Invisible. Visible.
Grief.
Pain. Suffering. Healing.
Faith. Trust. Peace.
We grow and learn organically.
Evolution. Beginning. Ending.
Revolution. Courage. Strength.
Resolution. Passion. Alive.
All things come in their perfect time.
Longing. Loving. Belonging.
All things come.
Herky-jerky. Flowing.
Our choice.
Freedom.
Creativity.
Beauty. Kindness. Truth. Hope.
Are those gifts with wings
living in our hair.
Hovering around our shoulders.
Kissing our cheeks.
Wiping away our tears.
Birthing our songs as we rise from the ash. Flying.
As we live the dash.
In between.
Birth. Death. Visible. Invisible.
Connection. Miracles. Mystery.
Nature. Seasons. Harvest. Compost.
It’s who we are.
Dirt. Dust. Clay. Organic.
Earth.
ACL 11/19/13
https://m.facebook.com/WatercolorFlowers
life: acoustic & amplified 