life: acoustic & amplified
poetry, quotes & thoughts about life
Archive for the category “Life”
what if feeling bad is an ok part of being human?
I wish I had a nickel for every stranger who has ever told me, I’ve lost all hope. This happens to me regularly and what surprises me most is my instant reaction which is always something along the lines of “I know that feeling so well” or “Me too.” It seems this is one of the most common, most human feelings we can have and one we aren’t “supposed” to have if we’re evolved, rational creatures. It seems it’s a pitiable feeling to have, requiring an intervention or precipitating an emergency, but what if it just is something we feel sometimes, that’s very painful, made more painful by the feeling we are not supposed to feel it and that we should never ever say it out loud. What if our long days, months, years even with this feeling are hollowing out necessary places in our hearts where we can feel, really feel, what we long for? Like respect? Tenderness? Acceptance? Love?
– Jen Lemen / facebook
doxology and dreams in the dark
When I looked for good, then evil came unto me: and when I waited for light, there came darkness.
– Job 30:26
Smack dab in the middle of the fight
While I waited for right
my day turned to night
I thought I was fine
the good I would find
then early one morning I found I was blind
I lay on the ground
this dark hell I found
fluttering wings the only sound
I drank this dark brew
no way out but through
this darkness just grew and grew
Overtaking me, Helpless I turned
My hope was all burned
I could not choose what I thought I had earned
I lay in Your hand
in Your arc I did land
trusting the truth I had already found
Watching life pass
going ever so fast
oh how long will this dark, dark night last?
In spite of the fear
I am still here
I give thanks even through tears
I trust in Your plan
My life is just sand
I am a follower and not a just fan
and if I should die
The truth does not lie
The sun will still be here when I say goodbye
I trust in the way
I open and say
Come open the door today
So light come and hold me
Love come, grow boldly
Till every bush, and bud, flames holy
🌙
AL
do or do not….there is no try – Yoda
I want to be the song, a poem
I don’t want to play the record
Perch behind the lens
Hold the pen.
I want to be the song
Live the photo
Experience the novel.
Enough interpreting my existence.
Enough searching for the symbol, the reflection, the meaning.
I am resonant, alive, pulsing
One.
Treble and bass.
Light and shadows.
Beginnings and endings.
All of it.
I want to be the song.
Beating, polyrhythmic, harmonious.
The lyrics my prayers.
I want to live the photo.
Still, present, vibrant.
The image my essence.
I want to experience the novel.
Aching, poignant, truth.
The plot my story.
I want to be alive.
Color, beauty, heart-break.
Engaged, awake, heart-felt.
In awe.
Longing.
Loving.
💞
Spread the Love
Eloiza Jorge
💞
click on the photo below to go to Eloiza’s blog Deepening Wisdom
https://deepeningwisdom.wordpress.com/2012/07/08/i-want-to-be-alive/img_1833/
There comes a time when nothing is meaningful except surrendering to Love. Do It!
💞
– Rumi
Your great mistake is to act the drama
as if you were alone. As if life
were a progressive and cunning crime
with no witness to the tiny hidden transgressions.
To feel abandoned is to deny
the intimacy of your surroundings. Surely,
even you, at times, have felt the grand array;
the swelling presence, and the chorus, crowding
out your solo voice. You must note
the way the soap dish enables you,
or the window latch grants you freedom.
Alertness is the hidden discipline of familiarity.
The stairs are your mentor of things
to come, the doors have always been there
to frighten you and invite you,
and the tiny speaker in the phone
is your dream-ladder to divinity.
Put down the weight of your aloneness and ease
into the conversation. The kettle is singing
even as it pours you a drink, the cooking pots
have left their arrogant aloofness and
seen the good in you at last. All the birds
and creatures of the world are unutterably
themselves. Everything is waiting for you.
Everything is Waiting for You
…
EVERYTHING IS WAITING FOR YOU by David Whyte
Excuse me while I kiss the sky.
Pardon me while I hug the moon.
Forgive me while I dance with the ocean.
Give me a minute while I laugh with the stars.
Hold your horses while I sing to the angels.
Patience, my old friend, while I make love to the world.
Get some rest while I fly the skies with the eagles.
Count some sheep while I paint a masterpiece with Mother Nature.
Then…
Come lay down beside me and hold me.
caress my skin with lovers hands.
whisper secrets my soul longs to hear.
sing to me softly.
kiss me like the butterflies.
while I love you forever
and ever,
we fall asleep together
every night,
and I wake to see the face I love every morning.
Sweet dreams, my love.
good night.
🌙
AL
photos found at http://www.pinterest.com
all that’s left
If you have seen the snow
somewhere slowly fall
on a bicycle,
then you understand
all beauty will be lost
and how even that loss
can be beautiful.
And if you have looked
at a winter garden
and seen not a winter garden
but a meditation on shape,
then you know why
this season is not
known for its words,
the cold too much
about the slowing of matter,
not enough about the making of it.
So you are blessed
to forget this way:
a jump rope in the ice melt,
a mitten that has lost its hand,
a sun that shines
as if it doesn’t mean it.
And if in another season
you see a beautiful woman
use her bare hands
to smooth wrinkles
from her expensive dress
for the sake of dignity,
but in so doing trace
the outlines of her thighs,
then you will remember
surprise assumes a space
that has first been forgotten,
especially here, where we
rarely speak of it,
where we walk out onto the roofs
of frozen lakes
simply because we’re stunned
we really can.
⚜
Upon Discovering My Entire Solution to the Attainment of Immortality Erased from the Blackboard Except the Word `Save'” by Dobby Gibson
I woke up thinking,
how can I make this day different?
how can I live in inspiration within these circumstances?
how can I improve myself today?
Within this day I can make new choices.
Better decisions towards my health.
Towards my future.
Towards my goals.
Within this day I can eat and drink the things I know are health-full
I can read and write the words I know will inspire beauty and love.
I can think about each moment and choice as a precious gift.
I can allow the people in this house grace to choose for themselves without judgement.
I can exercise my body and make it better and stronger.
I can pray, fellowship and meditate growing in love and intimacy with God and the world.
I can open my mind and awareness to all the beauty and miracles surrounding me and say thank you.
I can find home within my heart and bless this dwelling place.
I can and I will live this way today,
I can and will commit to this way of living from this day forward.
Each choice matters.
I will live this moment well.
⚜
AL
Meet Me on Honeyspot Road
notice the world
whose whole reason is poetry
its heart beat music
of rhythm
of blues
teaching us to
touch
taste
smell
feel
move
always dancing
soul and spirit flying
life comes with sticky hands
people are always worthy
again and again
I fall for life as expressed in beautiful reality
the cold air numbs my hand
I come alive as I touch living water
the morning will come when
I will be coming home to you
💞
AL
When I am with you, the only place I want to be is closer.
– unknown
now open
You must give birth to your images.
They are the future waiting to be born.
Fear not the strangeness you feel.
The future must enter you, long before it happens.
Just wait for the birth,
for the hour of new clarity.
🌀
– Rainer Maria Rilke
Today is my friend, writer, fellow spirit seeker, Donna Knutson’s birthday!! Wishing her happy today and every day!
Sharing and loving her beautiful thoughts and words describing the lovely world event of her time here:
When 58 is Almost Gone and 59 Flowers Are Coming on Strong
Purple Iris …I let things die, and filled in holes…watered children and sappy songs.
Ranted about the radiance of Angels and cardboard boxes filled with 36 years of married love…
I chopped up word search puzzles because there is passion and paradox in loving words that heal, instead of hate…then tied them on a string, like prayer flags blowing through the bedroom in a February wind.
I wrote Voice with purple pen on a hundred sheets of silk like paper, folded them in drawers and placed them near the windows, so the morning sun could warm their chords and prepare the world for what sound would come that day.
I angled photos and trinkets from baskets, memorizing short periods of my day where love was the only witness to my growing , to fading a bit more like Autumn, then into a bright summers sunset spoken softly now, rose colored, like winter…
Family and friendships took in artists and dreamers…wedding vows that added deeper love to our days…heart shaped rocks in tiny boxes on tables to say we belong to one another…and children that grow into wonderful stories of every lasting love…
It was August before I blew kisses to the toddlers playing in a nearby gym, their jumping and fantasies whirling with my inner child, shaking fingers and toes, while hopping through a hundred thresholds, finding keys to a million doors…
I taught class while learning the heart of acceptance, forgiveness, fables and follies…how one can know absolutely nothing, and everything one needs to know…to be a water-bearer flowing…to kneel while pouring…to bend at just the right moment, to wash a glass, dimly lit…
I fought a concrete city with a magical jungle holding religions and relationships…forgave myself for not knowing how long I had been loved and known…how one gift could change it all…found sacred ground under a community with feet. Dancers who know how to move to a rhythm and a beat…
God speaking Yes, porous and free …a mystical thread sewn into the bone of the body,
A year like no other…just beginning to gather purple Iris for another…
Beauty,
Donna
photo sources found at http://www.pinterest.com
together in a hopeful world
Yesterday there was a facebook post from Jen Lemen over at Hopeful World http://hopefulworld.org (she’s one of my most admired people on the planet) telling me that it was a half-way-between-solstice moment and she would be burning a fire in celebration and prayer. If anyone wanted to be part…just say ‘yes’ and she would bring us! I said, ‘Yes, please’ as quickly as I could type it!!!
And so, last night, while I was sleeping…Jen Lemen was doing something so amazing, I get chill bumps every time I think about it!!! She was holding me, and mine, in that space between.
Yes, there was INTENTION, there was fire, there was singing, there was celebrating and grieving, there was prayer for the world, for everyone who requested it…and, Holy Batman, Batman, there was prayer for ME and all I hold within and without me.
What a gift! Beauty and all she is! Powerful and humbling! Encouraging and valuing! I feel it all this morning and I say, Thank you, Jen! Thank you, more than I can say! I am so blessed by you and your work!! 💞
I woke up to these words from Jen this morning:
Writing blessings. Saying prayers. May you be happy and peaceful. May no harm come to you. May no difficulty come to you. May you be deeply blessed. May you take care of anyone and everything smaller and sweeter than you are. May you surrender your power to make space for a forgotten voice. May you notice the earth and how she moves and breathes. May you say yes when you’re called and stay quietly beside until the time is right. May you become love and be love and find love and hope for more love, when others say it doesn’t matter or all hope is gone. #pathofprayerandpleasure #urbanfamily #bliss #mysticlife #blessings #imbolc #brigid #celticspring
🙏🏻
– Jen Lemen @ Hopeful World
The poet gives you a little stone to stand on,
a ledge, a moment of the world or your own mind
to notice, to ground yourself in,
and from there to leap
maybe to another stone, a similar noticing,
maybe to another star, the light you are made of,
or a beauty pouring itself into you,
or maybe just leap all the way to God.
When you are praying
the smallest thing
can be what you stand on,
can be your prayer.
Any time, from even a single twig
you can leap
and wherever you land will be God.
The leaping is God.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
Follow and support Jen Lemen @
art and photo sources found at http://www.pinterest.com
pay attention to the daily messages
miles come
miles go
some stay a while
some roll on beneath our feet
or our wheels
barely noticed
driving in the fast lane
with the windows rolled up tightly
in God we trust
unfolding on every bill we pull from pocket
but, the world doesn’t work that way…
or does it?
peace,
love,
always seal the deal
walk away free,
changed
ready to see some new things
every choice brings us to our new place
right here
right now
notice it
say thank you
❤️
AL
can we buy what we want?
Thinking that money will somehow make one happy isn’t thinking at all.
Hey, sorry, you know better. But you might not believe how many people think that just because they don’t have much of it now, its lack is at the root of their challenges, which is never the case.
Nev-a,
The Universe
It is hard, these steps. This releasing of the emotional debris that encases our heart. The shedding of the false-identifications that obstruct our path. The farewells to that which doesn’t serve. The fundamentlal shift from survivalism to authenticity as a way of being. It is hard, these steps. Because you are not just clearing your individual debris- you are tapping into and releasing the debris carried by your entire ancestry. You are shedding the armor of millions before. You are saying goodbye to ways of being that have served and imprisoned countless generations. You are making the shift from an animalistic way of being to one that is genuinely human. Do not underestimate your significance, fellow seekers of the heart. We may be the first deep release travelers. We may be the first authenticity-questing collective. We may be the first soulpod to consider the possibility that there is a sacred purpose at the heart of every birth. Our load, heavy. Our courage, essential. Our significance, profound. Our need for one another, irrefutable. We rise in unison, or not at all. We rise in unison, one hard ass step after another…
– Jeff Brown
Do not fall out of flow or confidence simply because a task led to hardship or disappointment. On any worthwhile journey, there will be many dead-ends and storms. Endure. Have faith and resolve. Don’t torment your mind wishing the path were conflict-free. Anticipate difficulty and decide to meet all obstacles as if they were obvious, inevitable, stones meant to sharpen your will and character. Happiness isn’t at the end of the path; it is in knowing that you met life and its inevitable hardships and blessings with a mindful grace, strength, and gratitude. What is in front of you is not terrifying or random or impossible – it is your proving ground, your opportunity to learn to bring peace to the chaos, your podiums to show your family and loved ones real grit and love and perseverance. Your only defeat in life will come from a mindset you choose that bemoans difficulty versus anticipates and rises above it.
– Brendon Burchard
Beauty comes in many forms–and there is no form more beautiful than you. Just exactly as you are, this minute, right now, without changing a thing…you are beautiful. Beautiful enough to take God’s breath away.
– Neale Donald Walsh
photos found at http://www.pinterest.com
life: acoustic & amplified 