life: acoustic & amplified

poetry, quotes & thoughts about life

Archive for the category “home”

be

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My Dearest, I love you deeply.
I’m not worried to impress you,
or to keep you from getting mad at me;
nor do I need to figure you out,
or to tell you how I want you to be.
I just love you, weak in the knees.

My Love, when I think of you I forget myself;
I fill with joy and warmth at the thought of you.
When I think of other things, you are still on my mind.
I’m obsessed with you.

Beautiful Lover, I like you the way you are.
I enjoy your presence. I like being with you.
My world is made better because of you,
and I am grateful for you.

Beloved, my love is for your sake, not mine.
Yes, I want to hold you, enjoy you,
take you into myself.
But I don’t want to possess you; I want to bless you.
I care about you, and want the best for you.
My deepest soul honors you. My heart is yours.
I entrust myself completely to you.
My heart goes out to you, and belongs to you.
I will do anything for you, for your sake.
My whole life is my promise to you.
I give you myself, all of my living, for all of my life.

O Love, I am yours.
With joy, with gratitude, with utter trust,
with all of my being, forever,
I love you.

Amen.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
http://www.unfoldinglight.net

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Worthiness
Accepting Our Calling
by Madisyn Taylor

Our worth of being on the planet at this time cannot be judged as we are all worthy and essential to being here now.

The issue of worthiness may come up in many areas of our lives, as we ask, often unconsciously, whether we are worthy of success, love, happiness, and countless other things, from supportive relationships to a beautiful home. In the end, though, it all comes down to one thing: our willingness to claim our space in this life as humans on this planet at this time. When we accept our divinity, we no longer question whether we are worthy, because we know that we are meant to be here to fulfill a particular purpose, a purpose that no one other than us can fulfill.

There are no replacements who can take over and live our lives for us, no other person who has had the experiences we have had, who has access to the same resources and relationships, who carries the same message to share with the world. Our purpose may be large or small, and in most cases it is multi-leveled, with important actions taking place on the interpersonal level, as well as in terms of the work we do in the world. Small acts of kindness share the stage with large acts of sacrifice, and only through accepting and honoring our divinity can we know what we are called to do and when.

Ultimately, we are all equally, exactly, completely worthy of being here in this life. Moreover, we are all essential to the unfolding plan of which we are each one small, but important, part. If we suffer from low self worth, it is because we have lost track of understanding this truth, and allowing it to guide our actions in the world. Seeing ourselves as part of something larger, as beings called to serve, is the ultimate cure for feelings of unworthiness. In the end, it’s not about evaluating ourselves as worthy or unworthy, so much as it’s about accepting that we have been called here to serve and taking the steps required to listen and respond to what our lives are asking us to do.

http://www.dailyom.com

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May the road rise to meet you! – Irish Blessing

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I stood in the surf
waiting
for what I was to receive
I looked at,
then past,
glistening rocks,
colored shells,
green sea glass,
none of them were right.
My back was to the Sound,
Waves coming and going,
Sand shifting under my wet feet.
I scan,
wait for what I must recognize –
then I see it.
this?
a black glob of rocks stuck together
browns and grey and bits of reds
it’s ugly
it’s heavy
it’s rough
it’s jagged
it’s not what I thought I wanted,
it’s not what I thought was valuable.
what is it, that the water has just delivered,
and I feel lead to pick up
to cart home with me?
I want it to be romantic.
Maybe…
I search for romance…
a meteorite?
a mystery from another planet?
I walk the mile home,
wondering what lessons I will learn from this ‘gift’
I have just received from the ocean.
Almost home,
one more curve,
I spot my favorite kinda caterpillar,
the brown and black,
softest, loveliest velvet
crawler in the world.
I loved the feel of them as a little girl,
let them crawl all over me.
I pass it,
then double back,
as directed by intuition,
to visit this small friend.
I am bent down,
and my fuzzy friend moves along,
and recognition comes.
I carry,
in my hands…
asphalt,
ASPHALT???!!!
a piece of the road,
which came to me by way of the ocean.
I belly laugh
as I my lesson,
my gift,
becomes clearer.
I am,
right now,
every moment,
in the ocean of grace
no matter where I am
the path is in the ocean of love,
of God.
The road is everywhere!
It rises to meet me.
It comes one chunk at a time.
This is gift –
teaching me what I need,
bringing me diamonds with each step.
Living,
and breathing,
thanks
is the best gift.
We are always loved
The message is waiting in
every surf
every leaf
every tree
every song
every heart beat
every tiny created thing
every little moment breathes and burns.
Remove your shoes,
dance wild by the fire,
dive into the sky,
sing loud and long –
holy,
holy,
holy
and fly away
home.
I’ll meet you there!
xoxo

ACL 9/22/14

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every little thing

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We have to go the “second mile” with God. Some of us get played out in the first ten yards, because God compels us to go where we cannot see the way, and we say – “I will wait till I get nearer the big crisis.” If we do not do the running steadily in the little ways, we shall do nothing in the crisis.
– Oswald Chambers

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Every happening, great and small, is a parable whereby God speaks to us, and the art of life is to get the message. – Malcolm Muggeridge

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Nature will bear the closest inspection. She
Invites us to lay our eyes level with her
Smallest leaf, and take an insect view of its
Plain.

—Thoreau

The raspberries
in my driveway
have always
been here
(for the whole eleven years
I have owned
but have not owned
this house),
yet
I have never
tasted them
before.

Always on a plane.
Always in the arms
of man, not God,
always too busy,
too fretful,
too worried
to see
that all along
my
driveway
are red, red raspberries
for me to taste.

Shiny and red,
without hairs—
unlike the berries
from the market.
Little jewels—
I share them
with the birds!

On one perches
a tiny green insect.
I blow her off.
She flies!
I burst the raspberry
upon my tongue.

In my solitude
I commune
with raspberries,
with grasses,
with the world.

The world was always
there before,
but where
was I?

Ah raspberry—
if you are so beautiful
upon my ready tongue,
imagine
what wonders
lie in store
for me!

“Raspberries in my Driveway” by Erica Jong

I gotz good people who go with me

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This face is all I have, worn and lived in
And lines below my eyes are like old friends
And this old hearts’ been beaten up
And my ragged soul has had things rough
And this face is all I have, worn and lived in

The fairest they can fall bored in believing
Something to achieve, this peaceful feeling
After all these tears are only true
And your silver spoons can’t dig up my roots
And this face is all I have, worn and lived in

Worn and lived in
Through the tides of time
Worn and lived in
This face of mine
And I kept believing, the reflection on the wall
Who needs to be the fairest of them all

I never looked like you, cool and streamlined
I have this honesty that grows with time
And when cracks appear they suit me fine
Like a good old dog you won’t hear me whine
And this face is all I have, worn and lived in

Worn and lived in
Through the tides of time
Worn and lived in
This face of mine
And I kept believing the reflection on the wall
Who needs to be the fairest of them all

Sins and lies, they take the place of truth and answers
You can trade a glance and call it second sight
You cannot buy sympathetic mirrors
And honesty is an answer you cannot find

And I kept believing the reflection on the wall
Who needs to be the fairest of them all

This face is all I have, worn and lived in
And lines below my eyes are like old friends
And this old hearts’ been beaten up
And my ragged soul has had things rough
This face is all I have, worn and lived in
And this face is all I have, worn and lived in
– Willie Nelson

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how does your garden grow?

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Pull up some radishes for dinner,
my mother said.
They grow next to the house under your bedroom window.

Afraid I’d pull up something other than a radish
I gathered a sister, a brother
and we knelt in the dirt
under the screened window

looking

at what we thought
to be a radish.

Its leaves so new so green
our hands so hesitant so unsure

we reached and pulled

earth clung
to our fingers
to the fleshy roots
quivering in the sun

we pulled up radish after radish
handing them
a bouquet
to our mother.

She no longer cares for radishes.
My sister, brother and I tend our own gardens.
But I wish everyday
to kneel again
under that window

to feel new and green
hesitant and unsure.

“Radishes” by Susan B. Auld

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art by watercolor artist, Mary Lou Peters
http://www.maryloupeters.com

ringing loud

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…and that we all feel this undeniable bond with the land of our birth, and she knows it: we are all born of the dust of the earth and the breath of God.

Heavenly patriotism is this belief that all human lives everywhere are worth the same.

That we’re a country of countries, a world of families, a earth of one human race, and that was it — the essence of this great land she lived in.

What really unites this great land is more than a flag — it’s an idea. The idea that all peoples under heaven are the idea of a Great God.

That all peoples under heaven, in our back alleys and in our hospitals, in our prisons and shelters and headlines and every person in our far-flung world, are flagged as the handiwork of God, the dream of God, the art of God.

Everywhere she looked, there it was — “I was the stranger and you welcomed me in.“

It was strange and glorious, how it was happening in her, for her nation, for all the nations: Heavenly patriotism makes you patriotic for all of humanity.

You are doing something great with your life – when you’re doing all the small things with His Great love.

You aren’t a citizen of here working your way into heaven. You’re a citizen of heaven working His Way through here.

And it was there in every flag: the stripes that went on like a road, like The Way of Love that goes everywhere and always welcomes the wanderer in.

All those stars like a Love that can’t be contained by the walls in this world.

There under the bloom of fireworks,she could feel it –

the love of Christ exploding a heart.

– Ann Voskamp (edited)
http://www.aholyexperience.com
such good stuff! read her patriotic and amazing blog – http://www.aholyexperience.com/2014/07/what-really-unites-a-great-land-people-the-real-power-of-patriotism/

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i am a little church

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i am a little church (no great cathedral)
far from the splendor and squalor
of hurrying cities—i do not worry if briefer days grow briefest,
i am not sorry when sun and rain make april

my life is the life of the reaper and the sower;
my prayers are the prayers of earth’s own clumsily striving
(finding and losing and laughing and crying) children
whose any sadness or joy is my grief or my gladness

around me surges a miracle of unceasing
birth and glory and death and resurrection:
over my sleeping self float flaming symbols
of hope, and i wake to a perfect patience of mountains

I am a little church (far from the frantic
world with its rapture and anguish) at peace with nature
—i do not worry if longer nights grow longest;
i am not sorry when silence becomes singing

winter by spring, I life my diminutive spire to
merciful Him Whose only now is forever:
standing erect in the deathless truth of His presence
(welcoming humbly His light and proudly His darkness)

“i am a little church” by e. e. cummings, from E. E. Cummings: Complete Poems 1904-1962, edited by George James Firmage

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moments of joy

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Moments are miracles. There are some moments that are so full we gasp when we see them. Like drops of snow on a spiders web.

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They shine and sparkle. Begging us to celebrate. Go all in with joy and happy dancing.
This is one of those moments. Those God moments where it takes you a few days to adjust to the glory of what just happened!
I am so grateful!
A toast! To LIFE! and to places called HOME! and to the exquisite beauty we are surrounded by in this amazing world. May we never forget to see!

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arriving home to meet yourself

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And then there comes a moment
when all you have suffered
all you have learned
all you have lost and found
rise up and become
and suddenly you are
here
you are
who you dreamed of being
so many years ago
suddenly you have arrived
at what you caught glimpses of
for so many years
and the search,
the free fall of broken dreams,
broken hearts
broken everything
tumbling down rabbit holes
stumbling over the feet
of your own lack of knowledge
is over
for a moment
you find yourself on solid ground
stable
steady
raising your Ebenezer
those tributes to God
for all the mighty stones of help
in coming to this place
building this foundation on the solid rocks
you know so well
and though the pilgrimage may continue
though the journey is definitely not over
though life is fragile
and security an illusion
though the mystery is bigger than ever
there is a new sureness to your step
you love the questions with no answers
you will go from this place
from a different plane
always opening
opening
a new level has been achieved
a trusting unshakable has come
a calm in it all wraps around as a mantle
a new assurance of provision
a new traveling song to be sung as you walk forward
always forward
always pilgrim ready for new adventures
forgetting the names of what lay behind
you press on to your calling
the prize set before
reveling in the mercies ever new
for each new day
there is no stopping now
you have found something
which cannot ever be taken
you have arrived here by your own determination
reached a place
both spiritual and physical
a place of such magnitude
the light shines from every angle
it has sealed up the oldest sores
bound up the deepest wounds
satisfied the deepest longings
changed everything
settled old scores with finality
no longer will you settle for less than you deserve
no more will you tolerate anything less than your best and highest offerings
you must be all you can be
gratitude fills you for this place
a place so lovely
it can bear up
even under the weight
of your hearts wildest desires
with just this simple name
it resounds inside our souls like a bell –
home
yes, beloved,
you are home.
right where you belong.
all are welcome here.

AL 3/22/14

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