life: acoustic & amplified
poetry, quotes & thoughts about life
Archive for the category “healing”
look where you’re standing
Pick a crevice,
a homey gap
between stones
and make it
your own.
Grow a life here
from wind
rain
and the memories of ancients
embedded in limestone.
The bees will use you
for their sweet honey.
The rock will soften under
your touch.
You will draw moisture from fog
and hold it.
Your presence
will build soil.
This is all we have
in this life
all we own:
a flowering
an opening
a gap between stones
for tiny tender roots.
🎋
Flowering by Linda Buckmaster
Listen to Eli Young Band sing Even if it Breaks Your Heart
photos found at http://www.pinterest.com
peaceful
To bring about peace in the world, to stop all wars, there must be a revolution in the individual, in you and me. Economic revolution without this inward revolution is meaningless, for hunger is the result of the maladjustment of economic conditions produced by our psychological states: greed, envy, ill-will, and possessiveness. To put an end to sorrow, to hunger, to war, there must be a psychological revolution, and few of us are willing to face that. We will discuss peace, plan legislation, create new leagues, the United Nations and so on and on; but we will not win peace because we will not give up our position, our authority, our money, our properties, our stupid lives. To rely on others is utterly futile: others cannot bring us peace. No leader is going to give us peace, no government, no army, no country. What will bring peace is inward transformation which will lead to outward action. Inward transformation is not isolation, is not a withdrawal from outward action. On the contrary, there can be right action only when there is right thinking, and there is no right thinking when there is no self-knowledge. Without knowing yourself, there is no peace.
💞
The First and Last Freedom, J. Krishnamurti
photos found at http://www.pinterest.com
photos by Fisherman Dan @ Branford, CT
Listen to Cat Stevens sing Peace Train
so glad to see you
When it’s time for souls to meet, there’s nothing on earth that can prevent them from meeting, no matter where each may be located. When two hearts are meant for each other, no distance is too far, no time is too long, and no other love can break them apart.
– Jaime Lichauco
Then came a moment of renaissance,
I looked up – you again are there,
A fleeting vision, the quintessence
Of all that`s beautiful and rare.
– Alexander Pushkin
Don’t be afraid to be fully seen,
for you are God’s Beloved.
Seek to truly see others as God’s Beloved.
It is the light that re-creates us.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
Sōetsu Yanagi, founder of Japan’s modern craft movement, defines beauty as that which gives unlimited scope to the imagination; beauty is a source of imagination, he says, that never dries up. A thing so attractive and absorbing may not be pretty or pleasant. It could be ugly, in fact, and yet seize the soul as beautiful in a special sense…luring the heart into profound and endless imagination.
– Thomas Moore (edited)
May morning be astir with the harvest of night;
Your mind quickening to the eros of a new question,
Your eyes seduced by some unintended glimpse
That cut right through the surface to a source.
May this be a morning of innocent beginning,
When the gift within you slips clear
Of the sticky web of the personal
With its hurt and its hauntings,
And fixed fortress corners,
A Morning when you become a pure vessel
For what wants to ascend from silence,
May your imagination know
The grace of perfect danger,
To reach beyond imitation,
And the wheel of repetition,
Deep into the call of all
The unfinished and unsolved
Until the veil of the unknown yields
And something original begins
To stir toward your senses
And grow stronger in your heart
In order to come to birth
In a clean line of form,
That claims from time
A rhythm not yet heard,
That calls space to
A different shape.
May it be its own force field
And dwell uniquely
Between the heart and the light
To surprise the hungry eye
By how deftly it fits
About its secret loss.
💞
For the Artist at the Start of Day by John O’Donohue
Yes, SI, this is for you…
💞
Listen to Joe Cocker sing You Are So Beautiful
photos found at http://www.pinterest.com
be brave
Most of the greatest achievements on the planet are unknown to others – private overcomings, silent attempts at belief, re-opening a shattered heart. The real path of champions truly lies within – the transforming of suffering into expansion, the clearing of horrifying debris, the building of a healthy self-concept without tools. The greatest achievers have found a way to believe in something good despite being traumatized and fractured on life’s battlefields. No matter what else they accomplish in their lives, they are already champions. One day the world will realize that it is much harder to heal a shattered heart than excel at athletics. Go(l)d medals all around…
– Jeff Brown
They have told you to be quiet
since your crib,
when your needs, your cry for the divine
disturbed them.
You too have learned the command,
to silence your soul, to silence others.
Stand still and listen:
what is the voice within, crying out, silenced?
Rise; take heart.
The Beloved is calling you,
wants to hear your plea,
to honor your word,
to hear what has not been spoken,
wants you to come,
to ask for what must be asked for
and must be given.
Now, you have been called
and you have been heard.
Whom have we silenced?
Whom are you called to call
to reveal
the miracle of God?
Rise, take heart.
The Beloved is calling you.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
In the space between breaths
It can be gone
A months worth of words
Erased with a fingertip
A 12, 30 even 60 year marriage over
With 4 words spoken:
I want a divorce
A home with all it’s possessions
Destroyed in a matter of minutes in the fury of nature –
Fire or storm
Life
So fragile
With no guarantees
Of longevity
Or comfort
Begs to be lived
Now
To be counted for the sake of goodness
This is the only moment that counts
Don’t wait
Take a deep
deep breath
of the spirit that is giving it all
There is only one thing eternal
Say thank you
For that one thing that will always remain
All else can be destroyed
But not this.
What is this eternal gift?
this one and only gift that remains, that matters?
You already know…
say it together now…
Love
💞
AL
Listen to Gavin Rossdale sing Love Remains the Same
photos found at http://www.pinterest.com
fall. falling. fallen.
Fall, falling, fallen. That’s the way the season
Changes its tense in the long-haired maples
That dot the road; the veiny hand-shaped leaves
Redden on their branches (in a fiery competition
With the final remaining cardinals) and then
Begin to sidle and float through the air, at last
Settling into colorful layers carpeting the ground.
At twilight the light, too, is layered in the trees
In a season of odd, dusky congruences—a scarlet tanager
And the odor of burning leaves, a golden retriever
Loping down the center of a wide street and the sun
Setting behind smoke-filled trees in the distance,
A gap opening up in the treetops and a bruised cloud
Blamelessly filling the space with purples. Everything
Changes and moves in the split second between summer’s
Sprawling past and winter’s hard revision, one moment
Pulling out of the station according to schedule,
Another moment arriving on the next platform. It
Happens almost like clockwork: the leaves drift away
From their branches and gather slowly at our feet,
Sliding over our ankles, and the season begins moving
Around us even as its colorful weather moves us,
Even as it pulls us into its dusty, twilit pockets.
And every year there is a brief, startling moment
When we pause in the middle of a long walk home and
Suddenly feel something invisible and weightless
Touching our shoulders, sweeping down from the air:
It is the autumn wind pressing against our bodies;
It is the changing light of fall falling on us.
🍂
Fall by Edward Hirsch
In Fall I saw
a skyline of tree roofs
blowing off in
natural disasters
of Biblical proportions.
Every treehouse laid bare
roofs to be mended in April
when surplus roofing supplies arrive
from Mother Nature
painted bright shades of spring green
with all the colors of the rainbow
adorning the mended windows
as the birds move into their summer homes.
All in the right time
not before
I have known days of the extreme
Both hot and cold
Pain and joy
Full and empty
I have wsited for spring
I have been healed
like the trees
Now I wait for the time
when the lovebirds come build their nest
in my heart
🍁
AL
Nature Photos by Fisherman Dan @ Branford, CT
Word art found on facebook
vision
Drinking from an Empty Glass:
A Letter to a Dear, Dark Friend
Yes, I know the government is corrupt. Yes, I know
there are people conspiring. Yes, I know people can
lack integrity. Yes, I know that western culture is materialistic.
Yes, I know that corporations are self-serving.
Yes, I know that the media is manipulative. Yes, I know
it is hard to trust love. Yes, I know that it can be difficult
to believe in God. I share many of your concerns.
And I also know that we cannot change the world
without acknowledging what is wrong. I know that we
must stand against that which shames, oppresses and
damages humanity. I know that we should not ignore
the injustices and put on a fake smile. I know that we
must find our voice and stand our ground. I know that
we must fight for our right to the light. I believe deeply
in forward moving criticism.
But something doesn’t feel quite right. You complain
all the time. You have made negativity a full time
job. You don’t make an effort to find solutions. You
blame everything on the world out there. You don’t actually
do anything positive to effect change. And you
seldom acknowledge the positive steps humanity has
made. You seldom acknowledge the beauty around
you. You almost never see the light in the darkness.
I know something from my lived experience. I
know that the light is always there. It is there, in the
breath that keeps you alive, in the smile of a child, in
the yet another chance to find your path. It is there in
the rise of the feminine, in the therapeutic revolution,
in the burgeoning quest for authenticity. If you can’t see
it, then the issue is a personal one, for there are signs of
progress everywhere.
And I also know from a lifetime of overcoming that
it is possible to hold it all at once. To fight against injustice
while still embodying the light. To see where we
are lacking, while rejoicing in our abundance. To express
our anger, and to live our gratitude. To feel overwhelmed
by an unfair world, while still achieving our goals. To see how
far we have yet to travel, while applauding how far we have come.
And so I wonder what lives below your perpetual
negativity? Apart from the problems with the world,
what happened that darkened your lens? What made
the glass so empty? Is it really all about the world ‘out
there’, or are there also unresolved personal experiences
that need to be healed? What are you really trying to express
about the lack of love, attention, and satisfaction
in your life? What lives below this victimhood? What is
your deeper complaint? What needs to expressed and
resolved so that you will see some light shining through
again? Please don’t wait until the world is perfect, for it
will never be so.
Dear friend, how can I help you to believe again?
👀
(~Jeff Brown an excerpt from ‘Love it Forward’)
In every moment we make a decision — whether conscious or unconscious. Will I choose to open my heart, send love, withhold judgment and thus free myself from fear? Or will I close my heart, project fear instead of extending love, judge others, and thus bind myself to fear? The choice is mine and mine alone.
— Marianne Williamson
Like a tree our growth depends upon our ability to soften, loosen, and shed boundaries and defenses we no longer need.
🌳
Trees grow up through their branches and down through their roots into the earth. They also grow wider with each passing year. As they do, they shed the bark that served to protect them but now is no longer big enough to contain them. In the same way, we create boundaries and develop defenses to protect ourselves and then, at a certain point, we outgrow them. If we don’t allow ourselves to shed our protective layer, we can’t expand to our full potential.
Trees need their protective bark to enable the delicate process of growth and renewal to unfold without threat. Likewise, we need our boundaries and defenses so that the more vulnerable parts of ourselves can safely heal and unfold. But our growth also depends upon our ability to soften, loosen, and shed boundaries and defenses we no longer need. It is often the case in life that structures we put in place to help us grow eventually become constricting.
Unlike a tree, we must consciously decide when it’s time to shed our bark and expand our boundaries, so we can move into our next ring of growth. Many spiritual teachers have suggested that our egos don’t disappear so much as they become large enough to hold more than just our small sense of self—the boundary of self widens to contain people and beings other than just “me.” Each time we shed a layer of defensiveness or ease up on a boundary that we no longer need, we metaphorically become bigger people. With this in mind, it is important that we take time to question our boundaries and defenses. While it is essential to set and honor the protective barriers we have put in place, it is equally important that we soften and release them when the time comes. In doing so, we create the space for our next phase of growth.
🌳
by Madisyn Taylor
Daily OM
photos found at http://www.pinterest.com
one step
The wasps outside
the kitchen window
are making that
thick, unraveling sound again,
floating in and out
of the bald head of their nest,
seeming not to move
while moving,
and it has just occurred to me,
standing, washing the coffeepot,
watching them hang
loosely in the air—
thin wings;
thick, elongated abdomens;
sad, down- pointing antennae—
that this is the heart’s constant project:
this simple learning;
learning how to hold
hopelessness and hope together;
to see on the unharmed surface of one
the great scar of the other;
to recognize both
and to make something of both;
to desire everything and nothing
at once
and to desire it all the time;
and to contain that desire fleshly,
in a body; to wash it and rest it
and feed it;
to learn its name and from whence it came;
and to speak to it—oh,
most of all to speak to it—
every day, every day,
saying to one part,
“Well, maybe this is all you get,”
while saying to the other,
“Go on,
break it open, let it go.”
💞
Want by Carrie Fountain
Have you sat with grief?
Have you let it wring you dry?
Leave you swollen and exhausted
in it’s wake?
Allowed the pain from the inner depths of hell,
deeper than you knew existed,
to ooze out,
bubble up into your heart,
so that your tears could begin
to wash you clean?
Have you asked yourself
the questions with no answers?
then allow them to just co-exist with you,
allowing that life is good,
finding space for gratitude
even in the unanswerable?
Have you walked, and talked,
with death and your losses?
The innocence murdered
by anger and hate?
Precious time stolen
by monsters and ogres?
Hearts trampled
by words of violence and sarcasm?
Are you familiar with vulnerability?
With allowing your deepest feelings,
painful feelings,
raw feeling,
real feelings,
to come out of the grave
where you try to hide them?
Exposing your wounds,
old and new?
I know how hard it is,
I know.
I try to avoid it too.
I also know the truth.
It must be done.
It is the broken road to healing.
To life!
The more we feel,
the more we can feel.
Go deep, my friend
Open up wide.
Sit a spell and let it bubble.
Feel it all.
It will feel rotten for a while,
then comes the morning
you wake up good as new!
New and improved.
I promise you won’t regret it.
Just trust me on this one.
I am intimately familiar
with this process.
💔
AL
😘
photos found at http://www.pinterest.com
you get to choose
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting—
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.
🌎
Wild Geese by Mary Oliver
It’s all connected
All the love
All the loss
All the joy
All the pain
The world is made of God
We live in the ocean of his breath
Life is love is truth is love is Life
All connected
Everything I really needed to know
I learned from the ocean
and the trees.
The mountains
Introduced me to the angels.
Acorns were my very first teachers and the finest flock of seagulls
were my most recent.
We are the temple
‘We’ includes the universe
we find ourselves in
brothers and sisters
to stars and starships
🌎
AL
now
Now is the time to know
That all that you do is sacred.
Now, why not consider
A lasting truce with yourself and God.
Now is the time to understand
That all your ideas of right and wrong
Were just a child’s training wheels
To be laid aside
When you finally live
With veracity
And love.
We are each* a divine envoy
Whom the Beloved
Has written a holy message upon.
My dear, please tell me,
Why do you still
Throw sticks at your heart
And God?
What is it in that sweet voice inside
That incites you to fear?
Now is the time for the world to know
That every thought and action is sacred.
This is the time
For you to compute the impossibility
That there is anything
But Grace.
Now is the season to know
That everything you do
Is sacred.
🔹
Today by Hafiz *edit by me…original words ‘Hafiz is’
It’s there
balled up in the corner of your mind
covered over with cobwebs
under the heaviest lock and key
booby trapped
even Indian Jones couldn’t get to this
arc of your self-covenant
anger slowly poisoning you over the years
toxic rivers seeping out
flowing through your veins
as you refuse to touch it
or to acknowledge it can be conquered
the shadowy ghost of events so painful
you have avoided them your whole life
refused to allow
the crumpled, tangled, horrible
nightmare of these memories
to be straightened out
come into the sunlight
to begin waste removal
and cleanup of the mountain of trash
so deep
it’s eaten you from the inside out
destroying your peace
and your chances for building the life you deserve
you’ve tolerated much
to gain nothing
will you ever
reach for higher ground?
I pray you will
some fine day
I feel wonder
for how valued we each truly are,
how beloved.
I am amazed at how far, and willing,
God is to go,
to seek just one.
Love is everything
we are all God’s children,
no matter what we choose to do.
💞
AL
photos found at facebook
life: acoustic & amplified 