life: acoustic & amplified

poetry, quotes & thoughts about life

Archive for the category “Joy”

so glad to see you

  When itโ€™s time for souls to meet, thereโ€™s nothing on earth that can prevent them from meeting, no matter where each may be located. When two hearts are meant for each other, no distance is too far, no time is too long, and no other love can break them apart. 

    – Jaime Lichauco 

 Then came a moment of renaissance,

I looked up – you again are there,

A fleeting vision, the quintessence

Of all that`s beautiful and rare.

     – Alexander Pushkin

 

 Don’t be afraid to be fully seen, 

for you are God’s Beloved. 

Seek to truly see others as God’s Beloved. 

It is the light that re-creates us.

__________________

 โ€จSteve Garnaas-Holmes

Unfolding Light

http://www.unfoldinglight.net
 

 Sลetsu Yanagi, founder of Japan’s modern craft movement, defines beauty as that which gives unlimited scope to the imagination; beauty is a source of imagination, he says, that never dries up. A thing so attractive and absorbing may not be pretty or pleasant. It could be ugly, in fact, and yet seize the soul as beautiful in a special sense…luring the heart into profound and endless imagination. 
     – Thomas Moore (edited)

 

 May morning be astir with the harvest of night;
Your mind quickening to the eros of a new question,

Your eyes seduced by some unintended glimpse

That cut right through the surface to a source.
May this be a morning of innocent beginning,

When the gift within you slips clear

Of the sticky web of the personal

With its hurt and its hauntings,

And fixed fortress corners,
A Morning when you become a pure vessel

For what wants to ascend from silence,
May your imagination know

The grace of perfect danger,
To reach beyond imitation,

And the wheel of repetition,
Deep into the call of all

The unfinished and unsolved
Until the veil of the unknown yields

And something original begins

To stir toward your senses

And grow stronger in your heart
In order to come to birth

In a clean line of form,

That claims from time

A rhythm not yet heard,

That calls space to

A different shape.
May it be its own force field

And dwell uniquely

Between the heart and the light
To surprise the hungry eye

By how deftly it fits

About its secret loss.
๐Ÿ’ž
For the Artist at the Start of Day by John O’Donohue 

   
Yes, SI, this is for you…

๐Ÿ’ž

Listen to Joe Cocker sing You Are So Beautiful  

photos found at http://www.pinterest.com 

 

have some fun! xo

  
  
There’s no ‘I’ in ‘team’. Always better, and more fun, together! 

Listen to Jack Johnson sing Banana Pancakes 

๐ŸŒ

photos found on facebook

how do we ever ‘win’ in this world?

  
Do not hesitate to love and to love deeply. You might be afraid of the pain that deep love can cause. When those you love deeply reject you, leave you, or die, your heart will be broken. But that should not hold you back from loving deeply. The pain that comes from deep love makes your love even more fruitful. It is like a plow that breaks the ground to allow the seed to take root and grow into a strong plant.

   #HenriNouwen THE INNER VOICE OF LOVE

http://wp.henrinouwen.org/rgroup_blog/

  HEARTBREAK is unpreventable; the natural outcome of caring for people and things over which we have no control, of holding in our affections those who inevitably move beyond our line of sight. Heartbreak begins the moment we are asked to let go but cannot, in other words, it colors and inhabits and magnifies each and every day; heartbreak is not a visitation, but a path that human beings follow through even the most average life. Heartbreak is our indication of sincerity: in a love relationship, in a work, in trying to learn a musical instrument, in the attempt to shape a better more generous self. Heartbreak is the beautifully helpless side of love and affection and is just as much an essence and emblem of care as the spiritual athleteโ€™s quick but abstract ability to let go. Heartbreak has its own way of inhabiting time and its own beautiful and trying patience in coming and going.

Heartbreak is inescapable; yet we use the word as if it only occurs when things have gone wrong: an unrequited love, a shattered dream, a child lost before their time. Heartbreak, we hope, is something we hope we can avoid; something to guard against, a chasm to be carefully looked for and then walked around; the hope is to find a way to place our feet where the elemental forces of life will keep us in the manner to which we want to be accustomed and which will also keep us from the losses that all other human beings have experienced without exception since the beginning of conscious time. But heartbreak may be the very essence of being human, of being on the journey from here to there, and of coming to care deeply for what we find along the wayโ€ฆ
David Whyte

 

 Live today. Remove all blame from your vocabulary. Catch yourself when you find yourself using your past history as a reason for your failure to act today, and instead say, “I am free now to detach myself from what used to be”. – Dr Wayne Dyer

what is being responsible, truly?

what horrors do we shackle ourselves to in the name of responsibility?

how do we break the chains of control

of manipulation

of tradition

of condition

of religion?

and follow the the truth of our hearts 

of being in control 

of only our own lives

of our own destinies

of our souls true callings?

this is not about shirking our responsibility 

or being selfish

or leaving people in the lurch  

this is about coming from a place within

of being

of awareness

of beloved

of freedom

of disciplined action

seeing below the lying distractions so ready to keep us deluded

then allowing all things to flow from us 

to the ones we love

it’s the only way to truly live responsibly

in fact, it’s the only way to truly live

๐Ÿ”น

AL

  
photos found on facebook

becoming one

The sojourning spirit is deep within each of us, if we’d listen, but it is not fundamentally about finding ‘the job’ or ‘the voice’ or ‘the degree’ or ‘the position’. The journey, at least as I know it, is a journey to union. It is a journey from fragmentation to wholeness, a journey from exile to home, a journey from attachment to union, a journey from hiding to “being hidden” in Christ, a journey from neurosis to theosis.    – Chuck deGroat

   
    
    
 

being aliveย 

 

 What is this hand in me, hanging on,
grabbing for what I do not need?
The clinging hand, white knuckled, fretting,

leads me and gets stuck in narrow places. 
Grasping, be done. That yearning,

die in me. That whole hand, cut it off. Let it go.
The hand to possess, the foot to be elsewhere,

the eye to colonize, let them go. I am already myself. 
Away with longing forever to be otherwise.

Better to enter lifeโ€”yes, come in, come all the way inโ€”
than stay in the grave the hand holds tight,

the unquenchable fire of always needing more.
Bend my wanting of trinkets, God. Give me thirst 

for what is poured into me. 
Unable to add to my infinite life,

I will only be this, alive. 
__________________ 

Steve Garnaas-Holmes

Unfolding Light

http://www.unfoldinglight.net

 

  photos found at www.pinterest.com

giving thanks for a perfect night ย  ย 

 

important time spent
precious time together. 

important words spoken

raw heart truth. 

important choices made

driving…driving. 

laughter, sunset, baseball, hotdog, peanuts, selfies…shared

the champagne of living.

not to mention the kissing…

mums the word 

of the world beyond this world

where only two hearts can belong

and become more than they were before…

together. 

๐Ÿ’ž

AL

  
    
    
    
    
    
    
   
Listen to Todd Rundgren song Love is the Answer http://youtu.be/IjMKz0wCGmw

hello, again!ย 

 

A few weeks ago I took a break. I truly had no idea if I would return here. I was ok with that – it’s a lovely body of work. 

I enjoyed my break, a few times I thought about it…mainly I didn’t….

Over the past three or four days I keep getting a recurring message, ‘speak to the dry bones’. (Haven’t totally worked that out yet…in fact, I’m at sea on it – I welcome any thoughts on it…) 

Then, yesterday, I got the message in my soul…time to start again – return and build – and so, here I am. Not really sure where it’s going to go…feels a lot different from my first post 4+ years ago. There are lots of new things going on in my life. Lots of things being moved and removed. Interesting times for me, hard things, as always, still, there is the same, consistent hand of faith holding me, guiding me, urging me on, keeping me on the path of love, joy and peace. The world is a hard, broken place to live in, but deep inside each of us lives the key to overcome the world. I believe that completely. 

Thank you for reading my words. Thank you for being a part of my life. Thank you for understanding, or even mis-understanding my thoughts. It’s all good stuff! 

Welcome to my adventure!

Love and kisses, 

Amy

 

 Wisdom cries out in the street;

                  at the busiest corner she raises her voice:

         โ€œI will pour out my thoughts to you.โ€

                  โ€”Proverbs 1.20, 21, 23

I listen.

Amid the clatter and chatter

of my fears and fantasies,

the rattle and traffic of this world

the trip wire pitch, the push,

the drive for the deal

to buy me and sell meโ€”
I listen to your soft voice

humming beneath worry and duty,

steady, its ocean of silence,

its moon of light,
the nearest murmur,

no argument, no decree,

no foreign words, no hard words,

no words,

but wind in grass,

saying all I need to know, 
flowing water,

a river poured out in me

to drink, to bathe,

to lie in and float

to your sea. 

__________________ 

Steve Garnaas-Holmes

Unfolding Light

http://www.unfoldinglight.net

 

listen to Neil Diamond sing Hello Again http://youtu.be/ZnbMHkiIGwk 
Photo sources found at www.pinterest.com

ย the possibilities are endless ย ย 

  
Turn a fool into gold

Turn a broken heart into a warrior of love

Turn a weak voice into an instrument of peace

Turn my messy life into a picture of grace

Turn my eyes to see only beauty

Turn my mourning into laughing

and my weary heart to be a trusting home

Turn my sorrow into pure joy

keep my feet from stumbling on the path

That is my prayer, oh Lord,

Turn my fear into courage

And turn my self will into a puddle of loving goodness to pour out on the ones I love

Let me walk hand in hand, 

and sleep in peace each night,

in fields of gold with the one who loves me like no other could ever love me

Thank you. Thank you,

always and forever

So be it

xo

๐Ÿ’ž

AL

Listen to Jason Isbell sing Cover Me Up http://youtu.be/WdwnGG29Upw

๐Ÿ’ž
photo found on facebook/rumi

  

joy…now ย 

  
What if this is as good as it gets?

What if THIS very day is the best life will be?

What if this is your last chance to sing?

What if this moment is what you are called to?

What if this moment is your purpose?

What can you do to find the joy in this moment?

How can you be happy and satisfied right now?

What are the miracles that are happening for you as you read this?

What joy-filled cloud is hanging in the air above your head,

ready to splash all over you?

What gifts are being offered, 

if you just receive them,

allow them to tumble all around you?

Maybe, just maybe, these questions hold the true secrets of life. 

Maybe, living life in joy-fullness right now –

not waiting for some distant glory dream to come true –

Not holding back till your illusion of happiness materializes.

But, right now, sitting in whatever circumstance you are in,

this very given moment,

you look around and begin

to let go – 

to find the avalanche of joy jewels 

you’re walking on NOW. 

Maybe this is the best, and only, secret… 

DON’T WAIT FOR HAPPY!!! 

It is available now,

and every minute 

of this, 

and every, 

day. 

๐Ÿ˜Ž๐Ÿ˜Ž๐Ÿ˜Ž๐Ÿ˜Ž๐Ÿ˜Ž๐Ÿ˜Ž๐Ÿ˜Ž๐Ÿ˜Ž

AL 

 

 It doesn’t make sense to those who can love deeply when others turn away. But not everyone is ready to keep the heart gate open to other humans. Not everyone can handle the vulnerabilities and risk. Some prefer substitute forms of love to the real thing. Perhaps they find it safer to channel their love toward a theoretical God that can never really hurt them, to a pet that will never trigger their memory of human disappointments, to a job that will gratify them economically without touching their hearts. There are so many substitute gratifications on this planet, most of them a covering over of our deep longing to connect with each other. If you are one who is truly ready to love, better to attach to those who can truly meet you there. There is the love-lit world of genuine vulnerability, and there is the love-avoidant world of seeming security. Different worlds altogether… 
๐Ÿ˜๐Ÿ˜๐Ÿ˜๐Ÿ˜๐Ÿ˜๐Ÿ˜๐Ÿ˜๐Ÿ˜๐Ÿ˜

– Jeff Brown (~an excerpt from the soon to be published ‘Spiritual Graffiti’)

  

๐Ÿ˜˜๐Ÿ˜˜๐Ÿ˜˜๐Ÿ˜˜๐Ÿ˜˜๐Ÿ˜˜๐Ÿ˜˜๐Ÿ˜˜๐Ÿ˜˜๐Ÿ˜˜

photo sources found at www.pinterest.com/al513

๐ŸŒณ         

I wonder, walking in these woods,

along stone walls so purposefully laid,

what it was like to clear the land,

by hand and oxen, long ago,

and pry the stones out, lift

the smaller ones, and heft them up,

the bigger ones with tools and

chains and wheels, with all

their solid weight pushing down against

you, against your hands, your will,
stone after stone, 

to clear it out. 
How right and good it must have seemed

to see the walls set out, 

the fields enclosed.
How hard and fine, and no less work

to lift away my bitterness, my fear,

and clear an open, gentle space. 

__________________ 

Steve Garnaas-Holmes

Unfolding Light

http://www.unfoldinglight.net

  

  

 
 

today’s choice

  
Listen to Lynyrd Skynyrd sing Free Bird http://youtu.be/iEAn9dNavT4

  

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