life: acoustic & amplified
poetry, quotes & thoughts about life
Archive for the category “healing”
the wild & salty now
Welcome and entertain them all
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
🏡
Parker J. Palmer with a light-hearted metaphor from Rumi — on the unexpected visitor and welcoming her in, serendipitous chaos and all.
I paddled a small boat
through wind and waves in the open sea,
the wind wanting to wipe me sideways,
waves lurching me about,
the constant pressing, the effort,
the all aloneness of it,
a little dot in an ocean wide of green,
the struggle so welcome, so satisfying,
because I was there.
I have climbed mountains and hiked deserts,
raised children and journeyed through a marriage
simply to be there.
You have swung the hammer, sewed the seams,
taken the bus, changed the diapers,
recovered from the illness, done the time.
You run races, you wash dishes,
you row your body through its failings,
you work the work of youth or of aging,
you put your shoulder to it.
Even in prayer’s stillness
you go the distance.
This is the holy pilgrimage:
to meet the given day.
You give yourself to this moment as it is,
hand to hand, all in,
and beyond all accomplishment
you are given the gift
of this life.
You come home with salt in your hair
and a whole wide sea in your heart.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
Yesterday afternoon I watched Kate Hudson die in her movie,
A Bit of Heaven,
and I thought about how important our little bit of time is here on this earth.
The vast importance of now!
To never hold back sharing our love,
our bit of time here with the ones we love.
This morning, as I scrolled through my Facebook feed,
I read posts from various friends,
anniversaries of loss.
The shock of too young loss.
The bewilderment of unexpected loss.
The anger of longing for the love loss.
Missing persons.
Persons missing persons.
I listened to the music these friends shared.
Music chosen in a very personal, intimate way,
helping them deal,
bringing them comfort,
tapping into their passion,
their anger,
their extreme feelings,
their great oceans of emotion.
Music helping them allow,
helping them to move,
helping them release,
as they remain here, feeling left and bereft.
Music. Always music.
I cried with them,
for them,
for my own tsunami of losses.
As their music poured into me,
I felt their particular loss,
and I stood along side them and held them in love.
I honor the grieving hearts of the world.
I honor the gift, and power, of music.
🎼
Amy Lloyd (AL)
A New Thing
I am learning a new thing
I am digging deep into my belief systems
My very foundation –
the thing I learned,
the thing I wanted,
from the very beginning.
The very thing I have based every decision of my life on for 51 years,
has crumbled,
discovered hidden and rotten
under every good thing I’ve attempted to build.
I kept wonder why my fabulous additions
kept falling down around my ears…
now I see the gaping ground fault,
the illusive, sinking sand,
which I must release and repair.
It’s very difficult.
It’s extremely frightening.
It’s supremely challenging.
My new thing goes against the grain
of everything I’ve ever thought,
dreamed,
done…
since my very earliest childhood memories.
It’s been so very expensive.
Life built.
Time spent.
Dreams bent.
All washing away
as I open my hands and allow
a new firm foundation
to be built
as the levee breaks
and carries the remaining sinking sand
forever away…
times…
they are a changing!
Blackness becomes you! – Fred LaMotte
At the end of your chanted path,
where the desert becomes the sea,
when you arrive your
songs are already here.
They greet you with silence
and you learn your name.
The rainbow curves toward darkness.
The surface of every sphere
tilts into its vacuum, pours
a golden yolk into raven wings.
Now make a new body of your brave
annihilation, weightless as a flame.
And tell me, dancing tongue of fire,
don’t you prefer the night?
Blackness becomes you.
🔥
Alfred K LaMotte
When the sooty corners of our dark night
absorb into porcelain skin at last
leaving it a whole new shade of refined
When the geese in their skeined wedge take another enchanted voyage across the endless blue
When we wake up to this new day
loving life in spite of all that has gone before
When the one who loves us allows us joy in our exile
until we are ready to break our silent bread
When we allow the challenging heaviness of our limiting beliefs to enter into our arena wrestling until we have achieved Olympic gold
When we trust the great freedom of what has brought us to this very moment
When the wine of our heart
in it’s purest burgundy of bubbling merry or deepest sorrow
pours clear and jeweled in its crushing
When we give away freely our best crimson to everyone we meet at this royal wedding
When we finally recognize the truth that there is no journey of arriving
there is simply life
this grandest celebration of skin touching skin
the sharing of moments
the wonder of storytelling
the ancient ancestral linage of our tree-relations
the wonder of teaching and tasting and exploring
coffee and kisses and learning any odd/old/new thing with the ones you love
then we have arrived at our true work
the why we have sought so desperately to uncover for so long
lying crumpled and useless in the trash can
as we, a bit drunk, on our own exquisite vintage
make love to the world in blissful ecstasy
shhhh…there are new songs playing
listen…
just listen…
to that saxophone…
In this world
I’m so glad there is you
🎷
Amy Lloyd (AL)
No matter how dark the clouds seem, they are only clouds. The sun is always shining, the sky is always light blue. The clouds are just droplets of water, gathered together to tease people who don’t remember the truth.
– Chris Collins
check in
“This is my living faith, an active faith, a faith of verbs: to question, explore, experiment, experience, walk, run, dance, play, eat, love, learn, dare, taste, touch, smell, listen, argue, speak, write, read, draw, provoke, emote, scream, sin, repent, cry, kneel, pray, bow, rise, stand, look, laugh, cajole, create, confront, confound, walk back, walk forward, circle, hide, and seek.”
— from LEAP by Terry Tempest Williams
With Leap, Terry Tempest Williams, award-winning author of Refuge, offers a sustained meditation on passion, faith, and creativity-based upon her transcendental encounter with Hieronymus Bosch’s medieval masterpiece The Garden of Delights. Williams examines this vibrant landscape with unprecedented acuity, recognizing parallels between the artist’s prophetic vision and her own personal experiences as a Mormon and a naturalist. Searing in its spiritual, intellectual, and emotional courage, Williams’s divine journey enables her to realize the full extent of her faith and through her exquisite imagination opens our eyes to the splendor of the world. READ an excerpt: http://knopfdoubleday.com/book/191447/leap/
grace has a liberal bias
Most of life begins with a whisper ..a sigh that slips through the unconscious mind, the bridge between human and divine… raising the bar… giving us jiggle room to live a different kind of life…..there are no notes any more. Wisdom on paper, wisdom in blood.
Nothing more than thin layers dividing land from the sea, a clear lane that resides between ethereal sound and make believe. Peter Pan, a ship in the sky, a way to live enchanted, before the mystery flies over…beyond the eye…and heaven looks like…feels like…sounds like…smells like…a way through where nothing is divided.
Breathing God takes concentration, purity runs like…peach juice down the chin; laughter from a child; finding honey on the tongue as ordinary …dressing in robes no one can see, and purple, drapes nicely in the heat of the day…some will say it is only play, and a new day begins with thin sheets of invisible…wide roads of possible, milky white and radiant.
Stepping into, standing beside, claiming victory, ignoring nothing other than the speed in which you die. Born for this…
to be alchemy and dreamer all at the same time… tantalized by burning through layers while walking the streets catching whiffs of perfume…Julian of Norwich no further down the road than a few hundred years and I can still hear her saying…”this God of yours walks in mysterious ways, I’ve heard it too….” and the sunrise begins to taint the Nebraska sky…a slight puff of cloud coverage begins on the edge, a yellow hue…prayers slip through the heart space, between kingdoms of glory and powers of might…I call on all the guidance that waits nearby…and another holy day begins. The world within the world.
Beauty,
Donna Knutson
I step softly into this day
a bit raw
a bit salty
I sit with my understanding
I stare into the abyss between
I uncover the wound to feel the morning air
I gently touch what is exposed
I sing over it
I let it go
I allow this hard thing to be the right
I do not see it all
I see enough
I walk forward with my longtime companion,
Beauty, in all she is,
attends my walking,
never disappoints,
she keeps my heart soft,
gives me hope in the smug places.
I am ever aware and grateful
🌸
Amy Lloyd (AL)
…and in the time remaining…all I wish you is love…
what if?
Let’s remake the world with words.
Not frivolously, nor
To hide from what we fear,
But with a purpose.
Let’s,
As Wordsworth said, remove
“The dust of custom” so things
Shine again, each object arrayed
In its robe of original light.
And then we’ll see the world
As if for the first time.
As once we gazed at the beloved
Who was gazing at us.
🌎
Untitled [“Let’s remake the world with words”] by Gregory Orr
what if you tried something new?
what if you just threw away the rule book and trusted your gut?
what if you allowed someone in to help you, even for a minute?
what if you stopped defending your territory and absorbed some love?
what if you decided to let unexpeted things be the right timing?
what if you created a world where everybody belonged?
what if it’s really just about finding beauty and allowing beauty to find us?
what if you saw that no one is more valuable than another?
what if you knew, for sure, you are royal, and so am I?
what if you treated everyone you encounter with that assumption?
what if, every single time you wanted to, you made the phone call?
what if, every time you didn’t want to, you didn’t?
what if you began doing all the things you are dreaming of today?
what if these things simple things are all that truly matters?
what if the future of the world hangs on this iridescent string wrapped loosely around your wrist?
what if you leave for the next great adventure tomorrow, on this earth, or beyond?
what if you ask yourself these things every morning,
out in that field beyond right and wrong?
🌳
Amy Lloyd (AL)
getting to know me, myself & I
Spending time with myself
a day apart
alone
(sort of….I’m never really alone)
I sing my soul
I confront my blocks
I challenge my status quo
I confront my ambivalence
I shake the foundations of my acceptance
I shatter long shadows of my shame
I resolve erroneous stories
I let go of my need to stay the same
I enter my griefs
I accept my feelings
I forgive my failures
I write my treasures
I talk to my people
I connect with the world beyond my knowledge
I laugh…just because
I move into new freedom
I express my thanks
I smile and smile because of you
the sheer ecstasy that you are my friend (humming a little tune here)
Then I keep letting you go and letting you go
I destroy expectations
I combust my wanting
I celebrate my freedom
I explore how it will feel to have a structure
my structure
a home of my own
that important moment
I delve into my desire for a circle of true accountability
I call into being this right time for like minded friendships
responsibility in its highest and best format
I rise to meet my new
I give away my longing for the familiar
I slash the tires of my comfort zone
I conjure magic
all kinds of magic
I walk into this new room
the theatre of my making
hung with velvet curtains
the colors are mystic and navy blue
I am ready
I am willing
to bear this new badge
of courage
to assume the custom role
only I can fill
to step into these shoes…
designed just for me…
I love new shoes…(happy sigh)
central player of this fabulous life
I’ve been given
for this very time and place
I walk center stage
content with my integrity
proud of my accomplishments
prouder still of my strength of doing right
doing the hard things
of my open heart
my truth-filled speaking
which, sometimes,
brings silence to the room
I have done the work
I am prepared to preform
my calling is sure
leaving everything else far behind me
I saddle up
I put my game face on (Michael Phelps Style)
grace drips down my back
puddling around my feet
love clouds surround my going
like dust clouds of glory
keeping pace with my steps (Pigpen shout out)
I acknowledge the truth
I didn’t want to be here
hopes illusion lay dead
I didn’t know how I could go on
I challenged my very existence
I refused to save myself (I acknowledge my own sheer foolish audacity and ruthless trusting of Love)
and in doing so
I, somehow, saved myself
arose on the wings of the glorious morning
I bow to your wisdom
I thank you for this moment
this day of acknowledgement
this touch
this state of being just so
this satisfaction of discord
this testimony of salvation
this pilgrimage of miracle
this pathway of true glory
this victory of faith
this resolution of the awkward
this life of waterfall grace
the lighting bolts of my own thoughts
the thundering intensity of my own worded quotes
hanging chad of my living
scale of justice balancing in my favor
karma smiles at this boomerang harvest of goodness
this resurrection of Phoenix
rising and rising (there should be birdsong here)
this burning bush of unrelenting passion
all this is
just me myself
burning away
stripping away
chipping away
throwing away
breaking away
continual discovery
uncovering
excavating
reclaiming
becoming
I AM
All is well (shhh…do you hear the fireworks here?)
🔥
Amy Lloyd (AL)
hanging in this green moment 💚
From Jen Lemen 💚 sign up for Soul Snacks
💚💚💚💚💚💚😊😊💚💚💚
There was a sentence halfway written.
There was a thumbprint ridged in ink.
There was a crease in sheaved paper.
There was a ring left from the drink.
There was a chair turned, facing outwards.
There was a door hung from its hinge.
There was a drop that wasn’t water.
There was a dog that knew to cringe.
There was tall grass, dazed and listing.
There was dirt sporing the air.
There was a quiet cleft by birdsong.
There was ragged breathing, barely.
There’d been a plan, the traces told it.
There was a shovel in the back.
There were gloves and tape and sibilant teeth.
There were constraints that held them fast.
There was no way they would believe her.
There was no cold hand that made fists.
There’d be floodlit eyes for every move
And no coming back from this.
Sing, stolid choir of objects, eyeless and aghast,
of a world that came to stay.
Add to your claythroat concord what lies in a hole
that took all day.
If an account remains ungiven,
if the seams close sheer and smooth,
if God’s own mind forgets, this time,
a scene will bear the truth.
🌾
-Matthew Caldwell
https://claudiusspeaks.com/2016/07/28/scene-matthew-caldwell/
Suddenly I saw the cold and rook-delighting heaven
That seemed as though ice burned and was but the more ice,
And thereupon imagination and heart were driven
So wild that every casual thought of that and this
Vanished, and left but memories, that should be out of season
With the hot blood of youth, of love crossed long ago;
And I took all the blame out of all sense and reason,
Until I cried and trembled and rocked to and fro,
Riddled with light. Ah!
when the ghost begins to quicken,
Confusion of the death-bed over, is it sent
Out naked on the roads, as the books say, and stricken
By the injustice of the skies for punishment?
⚡️
The Cold Heaven by W. B. Yeats
Floating here
some three thousand miles off Portugal
I hang in your green,
breath held, limbs still,
ears just under water,
feet pointing down into mystery.
The sea in my veins
is so close to you,
blood of the planet I throb in.
In your silence I feel the crashing
of waves in my heartbeat,
the wind in and out
when I come up to breathe.
It may look just barely
but I feel so alive.
You have no ill will
yet I know if I breathe wrong
you will take me.
This far north your hands are cold,
your lips are cold.
Still I float in your womb
and you say
“I will hold you.”
Sitting in my umbilical prayers I hear you.
Mountains and deserts say this, too.
And beside a little white church
on a North Dakota prairie
a plot of ground,
surrounded by family names,
says as well,
“I will hold you.”
I hear you.
I hang here in this green moment.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
My heart is green
with the fuzz of springtime growth
borning life again
from the rich, bloody soil
it throbs anew
My mind is blue
as the sky in sunshine
then
like the night full of stars and glittering tears
it diamond sparkles
My life is orange
as flames in a forest
fire
breathing the wind
it grows wild
My love is red
there is no hiding it
passion
real as anything
it woos pilgrims
My touch is gold
hands, lips on wounds
aching
for velvet skin, shared breath
it heals all
My soul is pearl
creamy and warm
welcome
to all who come
it opens hearts
My word is platinum
I seek only truth
wisdom
life with integrity
it unlocks doors
My work is emerald
deep as the world
brilliant
full of riches
it creates wealth
My legacy is silver
of the finest made
pure
all about me
all about You
💚
Amy Lloyd (AL)
come together
we are human
man inside a woman
woman inside a man
a tao child
landscape of gardens
thin slice of the pie
samadhi inoculated
.
lint on gods sleeve
dust to dust
immortal vagabonds
luminous beings
red coat in a burning forest
a sky of palms
.
on a wide plank
on a great altar
on a cosmic tabernacle of christ and buddhas
like rain like fire or a bell from afar
.
we are human
fireflies in the desert nite air
or a ring of bone zendo
the inner satsang of life
gods torch
ablaze
.
in true contemplation
in righteous indignation
we enter the temple of infinity/]\
dust to dust
some diamond rough
a confluence
ablaze asunder a bright fire a torch of flames
in the satsang of life
in the womb of time
reigning a voice in a sea trees and storms
we are human
god fireflies like moths to light
.
.
Adam DeFranco (C) 2016 AD
The best advice ever, beautifully written, by Fred LaMotte:
‘Smart’ people believe in their thoughts, especially the thought of ‘me.’ How can a thought discriminate between ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ ideas? Only the silence beyond ideas, who watches without thought, can discriminate.
Don’t be so smart. Be a little stupid. Watch thoughts come and go without grasping them. Even the thought of ‘me.’ Rest beyond mind as self-radiant emptiness.
You are not an idea, ceaselessly arguing with other ideas. You are sparkling omnipresent free space, where all ideas arise and dissolve without conflict.
The way to peace is awakening the Witness.
Oh Infinite Intelligence, I ask not for more blessings,
but more wisdom with which to make better use of
the greatest of all blessings with which I was endowed
at birth – the right to embrace and direct to ends of my
own choice the powers of my mind.
———-
Napoleon Hill’s Greatest Speeches. Sound Wisdom. Pennsylvania. 2016. Pgs. 161-162
life: acoustic & amplified 