life: acoustic & amplified
poetry, quotes & thoughts about life
Archive for the category “Hope”
do Fun Stuff it’s good for you!
Last night we went snow tubing at Perfect North Slopes. It was just really fun! I love snow! To me it is one of my top favorite wonders in the world.
It was the coldest night of our winter, so far. 20 degrees and, we haven’t had a lot of snow so the machinces were working the whole time. There were lights all around on the slopes for us, for skiers, for snowboarders. It was beautiful and just letting go and flying down the hill with the wind and snow was really great for me. It was nice to not think about anything. Just have fun in that glorious, freezing moment!
My 46 year old neck and back are twinging a little this morning…ha…but well worth it! Very good medicine.
Life is full of important and serious moments – but never take our too seriously, and have as much fun as you can along the way. Life is an amazing gift to be lived to the fullest! Yes, God gives us richly all things to enjoy. Thank you!
A Scottish challenge for us this day – from one of my favorite writers!
Behind the Wires
Look around you, can’t you see what you’re missing,
Look around you, open your eyes;
There’s a whole world of loving and meeting
In a place where hostility dies.
Oh, I know that you don’t mean to hurt me,
You only want to protect what you’ve got,
But don’t you know the best way to lose it
Is to think that your freedom can be bought.
If you shut out your spirit of adventure,
If you close up your heart from within,
You build walls to keep out the danger
and find that you’ve locked yourself in.
I believe that peace is what we’re after,
But we’ve drawn up the lines for a war;
Surrender in trust to one another,
It’s the only thing worth fighting for.
So come out from behind your fences,
You’re in a war that no one can win,
Take a chance, lay down your defenses,
If I pull down the wire from the outside
Please won’t you pull it down from within.
Kathy Galloway (written for the women of the Greenham Common Peace Camp)
Love Burning Deep
used with permission
constructive chaos is an important part towards happiness
If you change nothing – nothing will change – unknown
Purge drama! Make changes towards your happiness!
What’s your name?
The meaning of names is a fascinating history. I found out the meaning of my birth name when I was about 9 or 10 and it thrilled me at the time that is meant something very personal to me – Amy Carol Duvall = Beloved Song of the Valley. From my earliest memories I had identified myself as a singer and so this was even more special to me.
Over the years I didn’t really think much about my name, I was just trying to survive life itself. Over those years I was given other names by the people I loved and cared about: fat, cow, lazy, clumsy, stupid, liar, vain, ugly, etc. The list was pretty long and none of it was very good. Words, and the thoughts they produce, are so powerful. Do we realize the power of our tongues and thoughts? It was very hard to live with those names, yet I had no way of rejecting them…they were true, right?
As I lived those names I always had a feeling of shame. I tried to hide them and not let anyone know. I tried to cover myself with coolness and ‘act’ like I was better than others by my love of fashion and my house being beautiful. I didn’t want to be called by those names, yet I didn’t know how to change them. I was too weak, a complete liar, vain and never finished anything hard (my mother told me that and she knew me better than anyone).
In 1990 I began a journey with God, and that journey began something that is truly remarkable. I began the process of earning a new name. I didn’t even know it, but as I began to attempt to live beyond my own abilities, and make frail attempts to live the words of Jesus in Matthew 5-7, I was earning a new name.
In 2007 I wrote my life story – as I looked for a title the meaning of my birth name came back to me. OMG! I had lived my name for all those years! I had walked through the valley as God’s beloved song. It hit me that maybe it would have been better to have been given a more fun name, but the realization was extremely profound at that time and it even became the inspiration for the title of my good-newsletter, Songs from the Valley (www.songsfromthevalley.com).
After this realization, I began to pursue and examine being God’s beloved. This is the amazing truth I found – we are ALL the beloved. It was so exciting to find so much evidence and documentation of how God loves us so much. It began to change me, this being loved so much by my creator! The truths of the value of each soul, and God’s real, unconditional love, has been shown to me over and over. It is mind-blowing and makes me a little giddy whenever I think about it.
Anyway…
Over the past four years God has done some amazing things in my life, and I have become aware that I am no longer in the valley, but I just realized that I have a new name. This is big! I am no longer the Beloved Song of the Valley – I am now the Beloved Song of Christ. Wow!!!! I stand amazed by grace.
We have all been given true names by God. It is who we really are. What’s your name? Beloved _________ of Christ! Ask and seek and you are guaranteed to find it. “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” Matt 7:7
Time, love and tenderness- check
So you say that you can’t go on Love left you cryin’ And you say all your hope is gone And
what’s the use in tryin’ What you need is to have some faith Shake off those sad blues Get yourself a new view
Oh, nothing is a sad as it seems, you know ‘Cause someday you’ll laugh at the heartache Someday, you’ll laugh at the pain Somehow you’ll get through the heartache Somehow you can get through the rain
CHORUS: When love puts you through the fire When love puts you through the test Nothing cures a broken heart Like time, love and tenderness When you think your world is over Baby just remember this Nothing heals a broken heart Like time, love and tenderness Time, love and tenderness
I understand how you’re feeling now And what you’ve been through But your world’s gonna turn around So baby don’t you be blue All it takes is a little time To make it better The hurt won’t last forever
Oh, all the tears are gonna dry you know ‘Cause someday you’ll laugh at the heartache Someday you’ll laugh at the pain You may be down on your luck But baby that old lucks gonna change
CHORUS:
Baby, oh baby you just need some You just need some Time, love and tenderness
Time, love and tenderness The hurt ain’t gonna last forever Time, love and tenderness Time, love and tenderness
Michael Bolton – Time, Love and Tenderness Lyrics
Keep your eyes and heart open as you go…
Miracles are everywhere!
Sometimes it’s the path itself where the beauty of God is revealed to us!
We are never alone!
I keep getting back up…
There are days when I just want to quit. I don’t want to keep fighting these battles. I just want to go my own way. I want to give up and be comfortable. I don’t want to be aware, or have to choose. I don’t want to be strong. I want to jump into the music business and go to the top. I want to sell myself to get there. I want to sing to thousands of people and get praise and acclaim from all over the world. I know I could work hard enough. I want to be spoiled and live in a nice house. I want to buy shoes and be shallow. I want to be beautiful and dress fabulous in designer clothes and prove to everyone, especially certain people on a short list I have, what I…yes, I said it, what I can do. If I can’t do that, then I want to forget it all and be able to be satisfied with some simple job and blend into anonymity, which then makes me want to just lay in bed for days, in my pajamas, and only get up to eat ice cream out of the container. I want…I want….I want….is the recurring theme.
Every day I am aware of how difficult, even impossible, it is to live this spiritual life. Every day I face a new choice of who I want to be, how I live. It goes against everything I seem to want. Every moment is a new choice to make. So many choices and so many times I fail. Over and over I fail. Yet God remains faithful. I have lived my faith – I have found the faithfulness of God to be so much more mind-blowing than I could ever comprehend. I have lived the miracles. No one can take that away from me! And so I continue with the struggle to love, the struggle to open my heart, the struggle to be patient and obedient and wait on God’s timing for my music. One more day the battle wages on and I chose to take one more faltering step with God. Yes, the warrior is a child every morning, every night and all through the day. Thankfully I know the truth that everything is grace! Gods mercy remains and is new every morning – just for me. Oh, and for everyone else who chooses to receive it.
Henri Nouwen says this about Spiritual Choices:
Choices. Choices make the difference. Two people are in the same accident and severely wounded. They did not choose to be in the accident. It happened to them. But one of them chose to live the experience in bitterness, the other in gratitude. These choices radically influenced their lives and the lives of their families and friends. We have very little control over what happens in our lives, but we have a lot of control over how we integrate and remember what happens. It is precisely these spiritual choices that determine whether we live our lives with dignity.
life: acoustic & amplified 