Letting Go | life: acoustic & amplified

Archive for the category “Letting Go”

08 Jan 2016

perhaps

We talk about balance…
as if…

we can actually achieve such a thing

in this,

the odd numbered trinity-teeter-tottered

kaleidoscope of a heart, soul and mind

living within the human pie crust

we name skin!
It is our work

our great career –

to keep opening to the liquid mystery

of living in this very moment.

Free will choice,

our supreme gift –

our supreme curse.
Oh, yes,

we want things fixed.

We want to know,

to define truth,

to arrive and settle,

to judge others through our personal lens,

to be right, of course.
How do we live with the reality of ‘seeing in part’,

through a ‘dark veil’,

with just glimpses of the light in the night sky,

we fish in the darkness,

trying to catch one small piece of a star at a time,

just to have it burn out,

leaving us to go back and try again?
This is the life of the seekers,

the mystics,

the warriors,

who have been seized with the firm belief –

that life matters.

That love is the way to healing.

That there is always more of God to be had.

The mystery gets bigger with each illumination.

The balance comes from allowing it all.

Good. Bad.

Joy. Sorrow.

Sickness. Pain.

Poverty. Wealth.

Even the broken path,

the truth and the lies,

have eternal divine purpose.

Our task to

learn,

open,

love,

trust,

forgive,

heal,

move,

sing,

dance,

create,

keep letting go,

keep changing,

be present,

through it all.
We dream the large dreams of living into our best selves.

We focus intently on each small task before us.

We think,

We listen,

We give,

We receive.

We speak, when necessary.

We walk daily in vigilance.

Letting the legacy of each day stand on it’s own.

We live knowing our next choice is always our most important….

and so it goes

🌀

Sometimes you have to leave

what you think you know

behind.

No one ever really wants to do this.

Knowing things

can be very comforting.

All day, soul whispers

what I need to know.

I don’t hear her

until I lay aside

cherished beliefs and assumptions

until I dare to be with the not-knowing.

And then. . . .

Well, that’s the risky part, isn’t it?

There is no telling

what living an ensouled life

might ask of us.
~Oriah “Mountain Dreamer” House
So this is where I am in writing the book, “The Choice,” -on the great plain of not knowing, offering myself- pen in hand- anyway. Each day, the darkness yields to the light, and words hit the page, surprising me. This is what it’s like: the light coming again and again, the darkness making the illumination breath-taking.

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

Posted in action, Adventure, attitude, awareness, balance, Becoming Yourself, Change, Choice, connection, courage, create, Encouragement, Faith, find art at pinterest, Freedom, Glory, Gospel, grace, Gratitude, healing, Letting Go, Life, Love, Miracles, moment, music, mystery, soul and spirit, strength, Trust, truth, Vulnerability, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment

07 Jan 2016

don’t try too hard

God just likes making things.
He doesn’t try too hard. Comfortable.

No particular message in mind –

Bugs,

Flowers,

Birds,

Stones,

Trees,

those beauties with leaves and sap.

Shells of all sorts,

revealing the sound of the ocean –

even in the middle of the desert.

He never runs out of fresh ideas,

new angles,

dazzling variations of old themes.

He makes masterpieces,

out of scavenged and wasted things.

Beauty within ashes and scars.

Gardens and vegetables from rotted orange rinds and other scraps.

Jewels from lumps of coal.

Our creativity, at least in part,

comes from resting in,

spending time with,

opening from within.

Prayer as emptiness.

Prayer as silence.

Prayer as stillness.

Prayer as rest.

Prayer as opening.

Prayer without wanting or asking.

Prayer as presence.

Then,

sometimes,

God,

the muse,

shows up,

hangs out on the sofa,

and our hearts begin to sing,

and we simply just can’t help making things ourselves…

💞

(based on the book: the holy wild by Mark Buchanan)

After the glut of sparkle and sentiment,
all that heavy gold and glory,

it’s kind of a relief to return

to an orderly house, a clean mantle,

a blue and white shirt, the regular dishes.
The world is plain, snow is crusted,

trees more bare than in November.

The marsh like the underside of a carpet,

the cattails bland and spent.

The asphalt road has nothing to say,

the gray sky shrugs and says, “Ditto.”
God stands there,

hands in the pockets of a drab jacket,

gazing at the brook’s blank of ice,

says, “Yeah, I like to hang out here.

It’s relaxing. Clears my head.”
I come home to a quiet house,

refrigerator humming. This too is holy.

I sit on the couch, gaze out at the yard.

“Huh,” I say. “What do you know?

Pockets.”
__________________

Steve Garnaas-Holmes

Unfolding Light

http://www.unfoldinglight.net

Posted in Adventure, art, beauty, Becoming Yourself, Beginning, create, find art at pinterest, Freedom, Glory, Gospel, grace, Gratitude, healing, inspiration, Letting Go, Love, receiving | Leave a comment

03 Jan 2016

all that and more

Love asks,
“How open can you become?”

“Will you empty yourself a bit more?”

“I want to enter the recesses of the hidden spaces too,

and fill you with surprises.”
Soul does not ask.

Soul walks in, unannounced with torch in hand

and slides into the easy chair,

Illuminating the room,

Oblivious to whether it is comfortable or not.

Soul is on a mission.
Meanwhile,

the birds are perched

on the fragrance of freedom.

⚜

Inspiration by Flora Aube

Posted in attitude, awareness, find art at pinterest, inspiration, Letting Go, Life, Love, power, Reflection | Leave a comment

01 Jan 2016

Happy New Year!!!

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

Posted in action, Adventure, attitude, awareness, Becoming Yourself, Beginning, Burnign Bridges, Change, Choice, courage, Encouragement, find art at pinterest, Happy Holiday!, inspiration, Letting Go, Life, Love, Reflection | Leave a comment

31 Dec 2015

New Years Eve Countdown

I have lived restricted

for so many years

the days they vanish

the years disappear

One day I feel

from the ocean a breeze

It warms my inside

and melts my ice

There are doors forgotten

that lead somewhere

though I never dared

believe they existed

⚜

Restricted Living by Kjell Walfridsson

Posted in action, Adventure, attitude, awareness, beauty, Becoming Yourself, Beginning, find art at pinterest, Freedom, Happy Holiday!, inspiration, Letting Go, Life, Love, power | Leave a comment

30 Dec 2015

you gettin’ excited?

If you want to know the past, to know what has caused you, look at yourself in the PRESENT, for that is the past’s effect. If you want to know your future, then look at yourself in the PRESENT, for that is the cause of the future.

🍾

– Majjhima Nikaya

Holy One,

as a new year approaches

I seek to become not a new person

but more myself,

more aware of what is infinitely good in me,

more attentive to you in me,

who you become in me to be.
I am grateful for your presence,

in awe of your glory,

open to your grace

in me.
Unfold your light in me

and I will become you.

Unbind your compassion in me

and I will shine with you.

Be in me;

I will be in you.

__________________

Steve Garnaas-Holmes

Unfolding Light

http://www.unfoldinglight.net

Weather Report
Light

today and ‪tomorrow‬,

emanating from within.

Visibility will be mixed

as some hide the light and others glow.

An atmosphere of glory will prevail

as God moves through us all.

__________________

Steve Garnaas-Holmes

Unfolding Light

http://www.unfoldinglight.net

http://www.pinterest.com

Posted in attitude, awareness, Becoming Yourself, Beginning, beloved, Blessing, Change, Choice, connection, determination, find art at pinterest, Freedom, Gratitude, Growth, Letting Go, Love, People, receiving, Reflection, Relationships | Leave a comment

29 Dec 2015

ready? clean. close. begin.

CLOSING 2015
One always has to know when a stage comes to an end. If we insist on staying longer than the necessary time, we lose the happiness and the meaning of the other stages we have to go through.

Closing cycles, shutting doors, ending chapters – whatever name we give it, what matters is to leave in the past the moments of life that have finished.
Did you lose your job? Has a loving relationship come to an end? Did you leave your parents’ house? Gone to live abroad? Has a long-lasting friendship ended all of a sudden?

You can spend a long time wondering why this has happened.
You can tell yourself you won’t take another step until you find out why certain things that were so important and so solid in your life have turned into dust, just like that.

But such an attitude will be awfully stressing for everyone involved: your parents, your husband or wife, your friends, your children, your sister.

Everyone is finishing chapters, turning over new leaves, getting on with life, and they will all feel bad seeing you at a standstill.
Things pass, and the best we can do is to let them really go away.
That is why it is so important (however painful it may be!) to destroy souvenirs, move, give lots of things away to orphanages, sell or donate the books you have at home.
Everything in this visible world is a manifestation of the invisible world, of what is going on in our hearts – and getting rid of certain memories also means making some room for other memories to take their place.

Let things go. Release them. Detach yourself from them.
Nobody plays this life with marked cards, so sometimes we win and sometimes we lose.

Do not expect anything in return, do not expect your efforts to be appreciated, your genius to be discovered, your love to be understood.
Stop turning on your emotional television to watch the same program over and over again, the one that shows how much you suffered from a certain loss: that is only poisoning you, nothing else.
Nothing is more dangerous than not accepting love relationships that are broken off, work that is promised but there is no starting date, decisions that are always put off waiting for the “ideal moment.”
Before a new chapter is begun, the old one has to be finished: tell yourself that what has passed will never come back.

Remember that there was a time when you could live without that thing or that person – nothing is irreplaceable, a habit is not a need.

This may sound so obvious, it may even be difficult, but it is very important.
Closing cycles. Not because of pride, incapacity or arrogance, but simply because that no longer fits your life.
Shut the door, change the record, clean the house, shake off the dust.
Stop being who you were, and change into who you are.

🎭

Paulo Coelho

The devil loves unspoken secrets, especially those that fester in a man’s soul.

– Melville

the path keeps winding
I keep walking

always into surprises

always into adventures

today an unexpected ‘wow’ on the path

love always wins

grace always changes us

I keep seeing it

as I practice this truth named love

as I let go into the the flow

as I clear out the old

leave

return

let go

keep letting go

making space for now

the work of living in now

this freedom thing is a worthwhile challenge

this mystery just keeps expanding

this love thing is truly

the only thing

that could possibly

change this world….

or anyone…

mainly..

namely.

someone

me.

begin again

trust the new beginning.

🌎

Posted in action, Adventure, attitude, awareness, Becoming Yourself, beloved, Change, Choice, Encouragement, Faith, find art at pinterest, friendship, Gratitude, Letting Go, Life, Love, Miracles, Passion, People, soul and spirit, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment

28 Dec 2015

Let us move into the New Year with a great sense of the thrill of living. –Dr. Norman Vincent Peale

Lean forward into your life… catch the best bits and the finest wind. Just tip your feathers in flight a wee bit and see how dramatically that small lean can change your life.

🔹

— Mary Anne Radmacher

Posted in action, Adventure, attitude, awareness, beauty, Becoming Yourself, Change, Choice, commitment, find art at pinterest, Letting Go, Life, Love, soul and spirit, strength, truth, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment

26 Dec 2015

be the manger

My Word is made flesh.
This is how I live.

I am born not once long ago,

but each moment, always.
Will you be my flesh?

Having none of my own,

can I put you on and wear you

into the world?

Will you be born for me?
Walk in the woods for me, will you?

Touch what you can touch for me,

touch with gentle fingers.

Listen for me. Hear so that I may hear.

Smell pine and sage, babies and cities.

Smell for me.
Look with my eyes.

See what I long to see,

one thing at a time.
Be with the lonely for me, will you?

Stay close to the suffering,

dance with the joyful, dance

as only a body can dance.

Let your heart be broken,

as only a beating one can.

Reach out to the despised,

notice the beauty.

Dare to be a child in a rough world.

This is how I come.
You are my flesh now, dear one.

Bear me into this world

and I will always be in you

and in all you meet.

Have an eye for those who don’t know this;

see it in them even when they can’t.
Let me discover

what it is to come to myself

in my own Creation.

Look— even now

I am coming close,

seeking the manger.

Even now I enter.
__________________

Steve Garnaas-Holmes

Unfolding Light

http://www.unfoldinglight.net

On the streets of anywhere lives a man.

The same man.
Homeless and alone in the world.
The tears that fill his eyes go by silent, and unnoticed.
Tears that cry out for a simple glimpse of the certainty that he’s a brother to us all.
That he belongs.
But you and I dare not look. Lest we catch such a glimpse.
A glimpse that might show us the frailty of our own humanity.
A glimpse that might admit that we are, and always have been, more than brothers.

– Nic Askew