life: acoustic & amplified

poetry, quotes & thoughts about life

Archive for the category “inspiration”

called beyond the tracks

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You imagine you’re a train
making your way along your tracks
and maybe you want to plunge faster,
get farther, extend those narrowing tracks
into the vanishing point—
or maybe jump that track for another,
maybe somehow lay a track of genius
in a new direction—

but

what if you’re not a train?

 

What if you’re a sound,
as a song or of a bell,
or a voice saying “I love you,”
and your journey is to expand
in every direction
into this strange, waiting world?

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

ask, seek, knock = revelation, renovation, transformation

Once you say ‘I want to find Truth’, all your life will be deeply  affected by it. All your mental and physical habits, feelings and  emotions, desires and fears, plans and decisions will undergo a most  radical transformation.       – Nisargadatta

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what’s your soundtrack?

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believe

4Believe it is possible to solve your problem. Tremendous things happen to the believer. So believe the answer will come. It will. – Norman Vincent Peale

10 Questions You Should Know the Answers To…
Because the answers to these ten questions will help you discover the very best in yourself…

1. What would make you proud of yourself?

When you follow your heart and intuition, people won’t always agree with you. When you find something that makes you happy, not everyone will be happy for you. When you show unwavering kindness to others, some people will question your motives. When you are honest to the core, some folks will attempt to use your honesty against you. When you look for the best in everyone you meet, a few of them will take advantage of it.

Don’t let any of these people stop you from doing these things. These people don’t matter. In the end, what does matter is how you feel about yourself and the life you have led. You will ask yourself one question: “Am I proud of how I lived?” Make the answer: “Yes!”

2. How can you make a positive difference?

Even when it seems like a hopeless effort, do the right thing. Always live firmly by the forces of love and truth. The bullies and cheats who seem unstoppable in the short term always fall from power in the end. Love and truth always rise to the top.

Keep injecting your goodness into the world, one small act at a time. It’s these small acts of goodness stacked together that eventually change the world. You may never see the full result of your positive actions, but they will be accounted for and realized in time. If you do nothing, there will be no result – no positive change ever.

3. What are you trying to accomplish and why?

Know the answer to this simple question and remind yourself of it every single day. You must identify, without any doubt, the specific reason you do the work you do. Success can only occur when there is a target and a reason to hit it.

When you have a reason to do something, you have a legitimate purpose behind your efforts. When you connect this reason to a desired result, you’re able to summon the discipline and persistence necessary to get the job done. Give yourself a good reason and you will find a way to succeed. Read The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.

4. What are the roadblocks standing in your way?

A roadblock is only a roadblock if you don’t know about it. If you know about it, it’s just a challenge. Look around and evaluate the challenges you face; within them lie the opportunities to make lasting progress. You are in the best position to make the most of these opportunities, because you know exactly where you are, where you want to go, and what resources you have at your disposal.

Remember that the roughest roads often lead to the top, and the best way to get over a roadblock is to go through it. Thus, you must run toward your challenges with all your might, because the easiest way through them is to trample them beneath your feet. You have what it takes right now. You know what you must do and you know why. Step confidently into your challenges until you reach the road on the other side.

5. What’s the next step?

Remember, you will never make a bigger mistake than sitting back and doing nothing simply because you can only do a little. So go head and start small. Take a small step, and if you can’t take a small step, take a tiny one. Do what you can with the resources you have right now. Get yourself moving in a positive, productive direction.

The best thing about big success is that it comes one step at a time. A flash of success, no matter how small, creates the momentum necessary to create even more success. Every positive step forward puts you in position to take the next one.

6. What are your flaws and faults?

You will never be flawless. You will never be faultless. Acknowledge your flaws and faults and accept them. Let the difference between your flaws and the flaws of others be that you have accepted their existence and moved past them, while others are hopelessly trying to hide them. Let the difference between your faults and the faults of others be that you have addressed them and learned from them, while others are still living in denial.

Don’t fall victim to fabricated illusions. Don’t hide from reality. Face your deficiencies and use them to bask in the glory of your personal growth.

7. What issues do you need to resolve with yourself?

When you feel lonely you look around for someone to fill the void in your life. You assume that your loneliness stems exclusively from being alone. But once you find company, it doesn’t take long before you realize that there’s still a void in your life. You still feel lonely and unfulfilled, so you blame it on your company and you move on to someone else… and then someone else. This cycle perpetuates for months, or even years, until you are eventually ready to face the truth.

The truth is, a partner, or even just a friend, can add lots of beauty to your life, but they can’t fill a void that exists within you. You alone are responsible for you own fulfillment. If you feel desperately lonely when you’re alone, it means you’re in bad company. It means you need to work on your relationship with yourself first. To believe otherwise is to delude your mind and perpetuate your loneliness as you
hop from one failed relationship to the next.

8. How are you burdening yourself?

If you feel like your back is breaking from the weight your mind is carrying, perhaps it’s time to lighten the load you carry. There are many burdens you can easily let go of if you’re willing.

Start by leaving your worries behind you; worries only fill your mind with negativity. Instead take constructive action – get involved in something worthwhile that takes your mind off of things. Next, drop your grudges. Grudges and resentments simply suck energy and time away from you without any positive return. Once you’ve gotten this far, it’s time to stop pretending like you know everything. Rather than attempting to prove yourself, open your mind, eyes and ears to new and real possibilities. And before you wrap things up, let go of your impatience. Two of the most vital virtues of your personal growth will be your patience to wait for the right moment and your courage to make the best of it.

As you can see, dropping burdensome negativity from your life is fairly easy once you realize how much of it you’re carrying around with you. Do yourself a favor today and lighten your load.

9. How have you celebrated your progress lately?

Focus on the progress you’ve made, on the next positive step, on the silver lining between where you once were, where you are now, and where you’re headed. Do not think of yesterday’s failures, but of the success that is possible today.

Be proud of yourself. The fact that you’re trying is immensely impressive. You have conquered complacency. You are crushing your fears with every new effort you put forth. You aren’t where you want to be yet, but you’re making progress. Step by step will get you there. Even if you feel like you’re running in place, you aren’t. No effort that you make to attain something worthwhile is ever lost. It doesn’t matter how slow you go as long as you don’t give up.

10. What do you love about your life?

Life is a series of highs and lows. There will be times when bad things happen. When these times strike, it’s important to keep things in perspective. How you respond to life’s inevitable difficulties defines the strength and growth of your character, as well as the quality of your life. The false idea that you are a victim of any particular circumstance is simply inaccurate.

The fleeting ups and downs that occur on a daily basis are tiny threads in the overall fabric of your life. Each one adds to your personal growth. The quality of your life is ultimately your choice. You can choose to be immobilized by the gravity of your disappointments, or you can choose to rise from the suffering and treasure the most precious gift you have – life itself.

Marc and Angel Hack Life

10 Questions You Should Know the Answers To

know what you want

On this day of your life I believe God wants you to know…
…that if a man does not know what port he is steering for, no wind is favorable to him.

Seneca said that, and it is true. You have to know where you are going in order to get there. This may seem simplistic, but many people have no idea where they are going in life–much less where they are headed on the Journey of the Soul.

Yet these are things that have to be decided, not discovered. Too many people are waiting to discover what they should decide; to chance upon what they should be choosing.

Are you one of them?
– Neale Donald Walsh
http://www.nealedonaldwalsch.com

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Since God is near to all who call upon him, we are under no obligation to cross the sea. The kingdom of heaven can be reached in every land. – Abbess Samantham

Love has no limits and love can’t be contained and when we have a radical love for God, God takes care of the location of where that love goes.

Just radically, wildly, completely, wholly love. When someone stops doing nothing — and starts doing something — this is what starts to change everything. Do something. Love!
– Ann Voskamp
Someone who takes the time to understand their relationship with source, who actively seeks alignment with their broader perspective, who deliberately seeks and finds alignment with who-they-really-are, is more charismatic, more attractive, more effective, and more powerful than a group of millions who have not achieved this alignment.

Nobody else knows your reason for being. You do. Your bliss guides you to it. When you follow your bliss, when you follow your path to joy, your conversation is of joy, your feelings are of joy — you’re right on the path of that which you intended when you came forth into this physical body.
– Esther Hicks

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Phoebe

PhoebeI sat
stone-like
for days –
maybe weeks –
death still hanging out
smoking a cigarette
waiting for the chance
to conquer and suck
life from my defenseless body

now I realize the wings
I kept hearing
were not birds
as I thought
they were the wings of the
angels keeping watch
protecting
me
as my armor lay in a pile
I sat
staring
absorbing the carnage
wondering
how?
why?
it seemed impossible
I was still alive

AL 1/24/13

The Ascent

1Grab hold,
and take this hand that
reaches out to you.

Look up
into my eye;
my spirit
cries out to you:

Friendship is my thought.

Let us climb the jagged cliff of life
and fight the ascent of Opposition together,

if I can lift you today,
you will look back
and grab the hands of a thousand more.

– Howard Rainer,

joy is from God

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Who says God has to be so serious all the time? That God can’t have some fun, go on a lark, crack a good one? Who says God can’t evolve a platypus instead of a woodchuck, or a flightless bird just as a joke? Or give you a gorgeous sunset just to see the expression on your face? Or invent laughter? Or remove a tumor without a trace just for the heck of it? Who says God’s passion is reasonable and not unrestrained celebration?

Jesus’ first miracle was a party trick. Pure fun. Wine from water. And really good stuff, too. And at a wedding, no less. It’s a parable of covenant faithfulness, and love, and an ironic reverse-foreshadowing of the Last Supper. It’s a parable of abundance and beauty and mystery and needless splendor. It’s about life, and about blessing, and about joy—way too much and too good, way more and better than we need. Ridiculous. Over the top.

God’s love isn’t sensible. It’s flagrant, overzealous, overgenerous, prodigal, out of bounds. It’s dancing on the table. Dancing in the streets. Dancing on our own graves. God’s will, decreed from the mighty throne on high, surrounded by dark clouds and glowering angels, is the joy of life—unexpected blessing, deep joy, wild delight, wine at a wedding—your wedding to God—the best wine imaginable. Just for fun. Why not?

Raise a glass! Drink deep.

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

the still small voice of love

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Many voices ask for our attention. There is a voice that says, “Prove that you are a good person.” Another voice says, “You’d better be ashamed of yourself.” There also is a voice that says, “Nobody really cares about you,” and one that says, “Be sure to become successful, popular, and powerful.” But underneath all these often very noisy voices is a still, small voice that says, “You are my Beloved, my favor rests on you.” That’s the voice we need most of all to hear. To hear that voice, however, requires special effort; it requires solitude, silence, and a strong determination to listen.

That’s what prayer is. It is listening to the voice that calls us “my Beloved.”

Henri Nouwen

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