life: acoustic & amplified
poetry, quotes & thoughts about life
Archive for the category “Joy”
life abundantly
It is an ongoing temptation to think of ourselves as living under a curse. The loss of a friend, an illness, an accident, a natural disaster, a war, or any failure can make us quickly think that we are no good and are being punished. This temptation to think of our lives as full of curses is even greater when all the media present us day after day with stories about human misery.
Jesus came to bless us, not to curse us. But we must choose to receive that blessing and hand it on to others. Blessings and curses are always placed in front of us. We are free to choose. God says, Choose the blessings!
– Henri Nouwen
www.henrinouwen.org
look for miracles, smile…
Just as darkness retreats before light,
so all anger and bitterness disappear for the fragrance of humility.
-John Climacus
Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor
and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.
Be kind to one another, tenderhearted,
forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
Ephesians 4:31-32
Maritta Terrell
Thoughts are also posted at:
http://thoughtsaday.blogspot.com/
All the Hemispheres
Hafez
by Paulo Coelho on August 26, 2010
Open up to the Roof. Make a new water-mark on your excitement And love.
Like a blooming night flower, Bestow your vital fragrance of happiness And giving Upon our intimate assembly.
Change rooms in your mind for a day.
All the hemispheres in existence Lie beside an equator In your heart.
Greet Yourself In your thousand other forms As you mount the hidden tide and travel Back home.
All the hemispheres in heaven Are sitting around a fire Chatting
While stitching themselves together Into the Great Circle inside of You.
_______________________________
Hāfez (1325/26–1389/90) was a Persian poet. From: ‘The Subject Tonight is Love’
how much do we really have?
Some people say, ‘the glass is half full’. Others say, ‘the glass is half empty’. Still others say ‘the glass is always full’.
Abundance or scarcity – which do you live in? What do you choose to see?
Yesterday I had a moment when I didn’t think I had enough for myself and as tears came streaming down my face, I realized a woman next to me try to pay for a paper was counting her pennies. I debated on giving about a second – I didn’t have very much to give. Then as I put the dollar down on the counter for her paper, she turned to me and said, ‘Thank you so much, I am down to my last bit of change.’ I was so caught in my own personal distress of that moment and I was already on my way to the bathroom to compose myself. As I stood in the bathroom, I realized what she had said and the fact that she had nothing and I had 26 dollars! I could share. I was abundant!!! Why did I doubt? I have seen it over and over – there is always plenty enough to share.
I quickly went to find her, but she was nowhere to be found.
I have been thinking of it ever since.
Down To Earth
Took a leap of faith
Thought I’d learn how to fly
Lookin’ for rainbows
And dreams passing by
Searching for answers
To a whole bunch of lies
Tryin’ to be anybody but me
As I crashed to the ground
Here’s truth that I found:
Learned I must bend
So I won’t break
How to get real
Not be a fake
Chose to smile through the pain
And never to hate
Now I’m flying so high
While I’m walking around
Cause the sky doesn’t end
Till it touches the ground
Living each day now
One step a day
It’s so good to be
Where I want to stay
Just you and me
Found a few answers
Stopped asking why
Now it’s time to be free
And I’m flying so high
Right here on the ground
Cause I’m walkin’ on sunshine
Hooked on the feeling
On top of the world
I’m one happy girl
Learned to find rainbows
Right in the rain
Found out I had more
The more that I gave
Chose to be happy
Not to complain
Living with passion
I know what it’s worth
Cause life doesn’t start
Till you get down to earth
al 8/08
We don’t deny the negative, we just put it in the proper context as being miracles for our own growth. – Mastin Kipp
Everything you take for granted is a blessing. Everything you fear is a friend in disguise. Everything you want is a part of you. Everything you hate you hate about yourself. Everything you own does not define you. Everything you feel is the only Truth there is to know.
Everything you wish for is already on its way to you. Everything you think creates your life. Everything you seek for you will find. Everything you resist will stick around. Everything you let go of stays if it’s supposed to. Everything you need is right where you are.
Every time you bless another your bless yourself. Every time you blame another you lose your power. Every time you think you can, you can. Every time you fall you must get up and try again. Every time you cry you’re one tear closer to joy. Every time you ask for forgiveness, all you have to do is forgive yourself.
Everyone you see is your reflection. Everyone you know mirrors you. Everyone wants to be happy. Everyone wants to live in joy. Everyone seeks a higher purpose. Everyone breathes the same breath. Everyone needs love to survive. Everyone has a purpose to fulfill.
Everyone’s the same as everyone else. We just get caught up in labels, names, skin color and religion. Everyone’s the same as everyone else. No one wants to feel the pain. Everyone’s the same as everyone else. Everyone is dying for love to remain.
– Jackson Kiddard
Via The Daily Love
www.thedailylove.com
Wildflowers
Dark and early in your story someone fearful
of your inborn glory took it
and buried it behind your house,
and you, innocently, and wise to save yourself
from their greater wrath,
believed its absence.
It’s not a pompous glory,
insistent on regard, but sure and quiet
as a wildflower’s, asking nothing.
And so you’ve lived—so have we all—
without it, your heart shoveled over
with self-doubt and apology, as if
you have no place or voice here
among angels.
We see you in the cripples who flocked
to Jesus, the mute, the paralyzed,
bent over, shut out, gone mad.
And all he meant to say was this:
you shine. You bring a gift
as no one else, and you belong.
Your Word deserves a hearing,
and this world needs your beauty
and your grace. There is no rank
you fall below, no worth you fail to match.
Your shuttering was evil, and God
wants it undone, and wants you whole.
And so she takes you by the hand
and raises you to stand, to walk, to speak.
She listens to your song with joy.
She rains upon the earth
until you are unafraid of your radiance
and all our houses are surrounded by wildflowers.
______________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeou
s, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others. – Marianne Williamson
Fill my cup, Lord
Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young. – Henry Ford
;
I am emptied out that I might learn new things. I step into the void of this space with the same faith it took for Abraham to leave Ur, for Moses to part the waters, for Joshua to march around the walls seven days, then seven times. The same faith it took for Gideon to take his 300 and blow the trumpets. I am in very good company, and have been learning this way for 22 years now – just a tiny grain of sand in the hour glass of time and the baton of faith. Pretty good stuff!
friends with benches
Benches are special things aren’t they?
They themselves sit and rest, in the sun, in the shade, in the rain, in the snow, at three in the morning…
there to welcome whoever might pass by.
And for what purpose?
To give a soul a moment to rest, to look out, to think, to plan something, or to get over something.
And in their most special times, most special for these benches, are when two people meet and share themselves. Communicate and think more completely than they could or would if they were still walking.
Then after minutes or hours the people rise.
They are different forever because of those minutes, or hours.
Different in very minor ways most times I’m sure.
And at other times, profoundly changed.
They look back and the bench seems physically unchanged, but we know otherwise.
A person was there, moments after measurable warmth remains,
albeit slowly spreading out to be no longer measurable.
The world is different.
Relationships,
interconnections,
changes in perspective.
A reaffrimation of love in the broadest sense.
That maybe god did not make man in his image. That maybe man arrogantly makes god in his image.
God did not make only man,
and I don’t think everything else was made for only for man’s purpose.
Maybe what we find so beautiful and comforting is that nature,
the cosmos,
god,
free will,
the opportunities to do good or ignore other’s needs,
the choices to try and give more than we take,
or take all we can,
the always present capability to pursue happiness…
are all here as are we,
with a purpose we will always look for,
and never completely find,
and all of it as part of a whole incomprehensible to us.
Such joy possible just knowing we are so fortunate to be part of it.
God has no limits, none whatsoever.
On a bench,
realizing we are part of it all,
and always will be,
and sharing
that there is no necessity to understand it all.
– Sunny
life: acoustic & amplified 