intimacy | life: acoustic & amplified

Archive for the category “intimacy”

15 May 2015

do it again….do it again

Our Lord has written resurrection not in books alone—but in every leaf in springtime. – Martin Luther

“Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, “Do it again”; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead.

For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony.

But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony.

It is possible that God says every morning, “Do it again” to the sun; and every evening, “Do it again” to the moon.

It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them.

It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.”

G K Chesterton

Hope and renewal and rebirth are at the heart of things.

The world in winter looks so much as if it’s dying—and yet, and yet …

The frozen streams heard him sigh…

“We’ll run again!” they seemed to cry.

The tall dead grasses all were rustling…

“But we’re not dead, we’re only sleeping!”

The lost flowers were singing on and on…

“But we’re only hidden, we’re not gone!”

That tiny green shoot preached to me that morning. About hope. About joy.

And about vulnerability—which isn’t weakness, but true strength.

Everywhere we look, God is speaking to us. His creation is singing to us. The Heavens are shouting it out. It’s not what it looks like! There is hope beyond the walls of the world!

That Joy is at the heart of things.

That a Light shines beneath it all.

That Love runs the universe.

The more childlike we become — the more like God we are.

And really, it shouldn’t surprise us that God is “younger” than we are.

After all, it wasn’t a general, or a warrior, or a politician God sent to rescue His broken world —

It was a baby.

👶🏻👶🏻👶🏻👶🏻👶🏻👶🏻👶🏻

– Sally Lloyd-Jones on A Holy Experience

http://www.aholyexperience.com/2015/05/when-youre-desperate-for-some-hope-in-the-midst-of-a-monotonous-life/

Photos by Fisherman Dan @ Branford CT

Listen to Keb’ Mo sing Closer http://youtu.be/Fdv-KafABk4

Posted in attitude, awareness, beauty, Becoming Yourself, beloved, Encouragement, fun, inspiration, intimacy, Joy, Letting Go, Life, Love, Miracles, moment, Vulnerability | Leave a comment

09 May 2015

declaration

THIS IS ENOUGH!

Listen to John Legend sing All of Me http://youtu.be/Mk7-GRWq7wA

photo source at www.pinterest.com/al513

Posted in Choice, commitment, connection, courage, find art at pinterest, inspiration, intimacy, Letting Go, Life, Love, Relationships, soul and spirit, truth, Vulnerability, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment

30 Apr 2015

simply says it

via Project Happiness on facebook

Listen to You Can Close Your Eyes – Anika Larsen & Jessie Mueller http://youtu.be/8USVXvRUKoI

Posted in attitude, awareness, beauty, Becoming Yourself, find art at pinterest, healing, Hope, intimacy, Letting Go, Life, Trust, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment

23 Apr 2015

settling in to happiness

What happens when your soul

Begins to awaken

Your eyes

And your heart

And the cells of your body

To the great Journey of Love?

First there is wonderful laughter

And probably precious tears

And a hundred sweet promises

And those heroic vows

No one can ever keep.

But still God is delighted and amused

You once tried to be a saint.

What happens when your soul

Begins to awake in this world

To our deep need to love

And serve the Friend?

O the Beloved

Will send you

One of His wonderful, wild companions—

Like Hafiz.

💑💑💑💑💑💑💑💑💑

What Happens by Hafiz

Today I want to greet joy

Without a trace of protection
I want to open my eyes to the light
Without a blink of dread
I want to look at my past
Without a whisper of shame
I want to look at my future
Without a hint of fear
Today I want to dance
Without pausing to think
I want to belly laugh
Without caring who hears
I want to open my arms
and twirl in the sun
Until I fall breathless
free to be myself
full of the joy
that I open to allow
completely letting go
Without even a smudge of suspicion
or an instant of hesitation

ACL 3/4/13

Listen to Stevie Wonder sing For Once In My Life http://youtu.be/3oZClso_yUQ

Photo sources found at www.pinterest.com/al513

Posted in attitude, awareness, beauty, Becoming Yourself, beloved, connection, courage, Faith, find art at pinterest, friendship, fun, intimacy, Letting Go, Life, Love, mystery, Passion, Relationships, soul and spirit, Trust, Vulnerability, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment

21 Apr 2015

humming

One old man keeps humming the same few notes
of some song he thought he had forgotten
back in the days when as he knows there was
no word for life in the language
and if they wanted to say eyes or heart
they would hold up a leaf and he remembers
the big tree where it rose from the dry ground
and the way the birds carried water in their voices
they were all the color of their fear of the dark
and as he sits there humming he remembers
some of the words they come back to him now
he smiles hearing them come and go

🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶

Parts of a Tune by W. S. Merwin

🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶

Just lying on the couch and being happy.

Only humming a little, the quiet sound in the head.
Trouble is busy elsewhere at the moment, it has
so much to do in the world.

People who might judge are mostly asleep; they can’t

monitor you all the time, and sometimes they forget.
When dawn flows over the hedge you can
get up and act busy.

Little corners like this, pieces of Heaven

left lying around, can be picked up and saved.
People wont even see that you have them,
they are so light and easy to hide.

Later in the day you can act like the others.

You can shake your head. You can frown.

Any Morning by William Stafford

Listen to James Taylor sing You’ve Got A Friend http://youtu.be/xEkIou3WFnM

Quote/photo sources found at www.pinterest.com/al513

Posted in attitude, awareness, compassion, connection, create, Faith, find art at pinterest, Happiness, intimacy, Joy, Letting Go, Life, Love, music, mystery, nature, People, Reflection, Relationships, Smile, Solitude, soul and spirit, Thoughts, Today, touch, Trust, truth, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment

13 Apr 2015

Prayer

Bright Morning Star

God’s diamond brooch

Upon the blackest night

Whispering Hope

‘Neath mercy’s cloak,

“The dark is almost light!”

Waken, Slumber!

Sleep not past

The painted dawn for thee.

Burst forth, O Star

One day not far

And shine Thy light on me.

– Beth Moore

I’m wandering through aisles in Barnes and Noble on Saturday. Wandering, wondering…hoping to find something I need to read, something to help me where I hurt and feel overwhelmed right now. I scan titles, can’t really focus, in the Christian aisle. I’ve read many of these books, nothing seems to be ‘it’ ugh. sigh. Surely I’m not past hope.

Suddenly, I see this book. Beth Moore (love her) 10 weeks of Devotional Prayer. Ah. Prayer! THAT’S what I need right now. Intense prayer. Prayer. Changes. ME!

I buy it, still in my fog. Sunday morning I will realize the name connection of this book, Whispers of Hope. My daughter, Krista, has just written a fictional, fantasy of her life story called, Whispers of Heaven. I bow in gratitude for these whispers speaking in my life, changing things, breathing hope in new ways.

And so I begin this 10 week journey into prayer. Learning to love more deeply and truly, open myself more fully, praise, and praise more, all good things, communicate deeper with spirit, learning intimacy in new areas of trust and allow for life changing power to flow in and through me.

Listen to Jackie Velasquez On My Knees

http://youtu.be/bJwDxWddgSk

Posted in attitude, awareness, Becoming Yourself, Beginning, beloved, Blessing, Change, Choice, Gratitude, inspiration, intimacy, Letting Go, Love, power, Prayer | Leave a comment

11 Apr 2015

what’s meant to be will be

Longing for what I don’t have,

aware of the great space between us,

not driven to fill it,

yet there is a loneliness, a waiting,
not sadness, not pathetic at all,
but a homesickness,
remembering what I long for,

what I long to know,

patient with my unknowing,
and the dull, burning ache of my knowing,
trusting there is always more of love
than I can sense,
a great, wide solitude

I won’t clutter with less or other.

Such spaciousness leaves room
for these deep sighs
and profound joys
and mostly these calm, roomy smiles

I find sprinkled generously

throughout any given day.

ACL 4/11/15

(edited from Unfolding Light Waiting Thomas by Steve Garnaas-Holmes)

Listen to Desperado Linda Ronstadt http://youtu.be/uVhRqH7euHI

Photo sources at www.pinterest.com/al513

Posted in attitude, awareness, Becoming Yourself, beloved, Choice, confidence, connection, courage, determination, Faith, find art at pinterest, Freedom, intimacy, Letting Go, Life, Lonely, Love, mystery, People, Relationships, soul and spirit, touch, Trust, Vulnerability, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment

27 Mar 2015

The Opening of Eyes

That day I saw beneath dark clouds

the passing light over the water
and I heard the voice of the world speak out,
I knew then, as I had before
life is no passing memory of what has been
nor the remaining pages in a great book
waiting to be read.

It is the opening of eyes long closed.
It is the vision of far off things
seen for the silence they hold.
It is the heart after years
of secret conversing
speaking out loud in the clear air.

It is Moses in the desert
fallen to his knees before the lit bush.
It is the man throwing away his shoes
as if to enter heaven
and finding himself astonished,
opened at last,
fallen in love with solid ground.

The Opening of Eyes by David Whyte

photo sources found at

www.pinterest.com/al513

Posted in awareness, beauty, Choice, find art at pinterest, inspiration, intimacy, Letting Go, Life, mystery, Patience, power, soul and spirit, Trust, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment

26 Mar 2015

When wilt thou come unto me, Lord? Oh come, my Lord most dear! Come near, come nearer, nearer still, I’m blest when thou art near. – C. H. Spurgeon

There is a huge difference between learning about truth and experiencing truth. Touch the source. Your mind can take in endless pearls of wisdom and your mouth can repeat them, but until you have essential experience — you only have noise. Talk and even listening are nothing without understanding. We only truly understand what we experience. When people have understanding they tend to be more quiet and seek quietness. Consider the possibility that many of the things you hear and say are utter nonsense and meaningless repetitions of noise. Cut it all out. Quit getting your information second hand. Take any concept, lesson, story, book, quote or conversation and look for a way to touch its source of origin — which is always an experience.

http://bryantmcgill.com/20140228041027.html

“We are uncomfortable with intimacy and connection, which are among the greatest of our unmet needs today. To be truly seen and heard, to be truly known, is a deep human need. Our hunger for it is so omnipresent, so much a part of our life experience, that we no more know what it is missing than a fish knows it is wet. We need more intimacy than nearly anyone considers normal. Always hungry for it, we seek solace and sustenance in the closest available substitutes: television, shopping, pornography, conspicuous consumption — anything to ease the hurt, to feel connected, or to project an image by which we might be seen or known, or at least see and know ourselves.” – Charles Eisenstein