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
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
like
me.
begin again
trust the new beginning.
🌎
AL
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
On this day of your life I believe God wants you to know…
…that there is a solution. There is. But you must keep
going to find it. You cannot stop, you cannot give up.
This is about more than just patience. This is about
more than just persistence. This is about absolute
knowing that God is on your side.
When you know this, you never give up…and the
sense of struggle goes away. You simply keep moving
forward knowing that, in the end, all will work out.
And that along the way there will be great insights
and wonderful remembering.
🎇
– Neale Donald Walsh
God Path with Robin OK 12/17/15
🌌
I won’t wish this pain away
I’ll just trust You and obey
won’t search for treasure on this ground
Cause in You my wealth is found
I know this is right where I should be
I will wait for Your light to shine in me
I will praise You every day
I am Yours
Beloved for eternity
Whatever will bring You glory
Whatever will magnify Your name
Whatever will bring You glory
Whatever, my life is not the same
Whatever will show you’re holy
Whatever I do is for Your praise
Whatever to tell my story
Whatever, my heart will sing Your grace
🌅
AL
🌋
Written on 11/22/13 at French Park in Cincinnati (first pic) Day before following God’s call to go to Louisville. $40 and no place to stay. I lived in my car for several weeks. ❤️ Miracles and adventures abounded….
I have loved in life and I have been loved.
I have drunk the bowl of poison from the hands of love as nectar,
and have been raised above life’s joy and sorrow.
My heart, aflame in love, set afire every heart that came in touch with it.
My heart has been rent and joined again;
My heart has been broken and again made whole;
My heart has been wounded and healed again;
A thousand deaths my heart has died, and thanks be to love, it lives yet.
I went through hell and saw there love’s raging fire,
and I entered heaven illumined with the light of love.
I wept in love and made all weep with me;
I mourned in love and pierced the hearts of men;
And when my fiery glance fell on the rocks, the rocks burst forth as volcanoes.
The whole world sank in the flood caused by my one tear;
With my deep sigh the earth trembled, and when I cried aloud the name of my beloved,
I shook the throne of God in heaven.
I bowed my head low in humility, and on my knees I begged of love,
“Disclose to me, I pray thee, O love, thy secret.”
She took me gently by my arms and lifted me above the earth, and spoke softly in my ear,
“My dear one, thou thyself art love, art lover,
and thyself art the beloved whom thou hast adored.
🤗
Hazrat Inayat Khan, The Dance of the Soul
Photos found at http://www.pinterest.com
I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast;
A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
A tree that may in Summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.
🎄
Trees by Joyce Kilmer
photo by Jen Lemen
🌳
The simplest things in life
Are the most extraordinary
Let them reveal themselves.
– Paulo Coelho
🌲
There is magic in every little thing.
Your very breath is magic
You, showing up on this tiny planet,
at this very time in history.
The way the sun glints off your hair.
The way the trees recognize you.
The way a child can turn their head
and plunge you into grief.
it’s all about perspective.
Einstein reminds us
We have a choice in how we live.
One of two ways –
As if nothing –
OR
As if everything –
Is miraculous.
I’m so glad I choose to see the enchanted pathway.
It’s always a fine day here.
No matter what circumstance I find myself in.
Magic abounds.
🌳
AL
We think we get over things.
We don’t get over things.
Or say, we get over the measles
but not a broken heart.
We need to make that distinction.
The things that become part of our experience
never become less a part of our experience.
How can I say it?
The way to “get over” a life is to die.
Short of that, you move with it,
let the pain be pain,
not in the hope that it will vanish
but in the faith that it will fit in,
find its place in the shape of things
and be then not any less pain but true to form.
Because anything natural has an inherent shape
and will flow towards it.
And a life is as natural as a leaf.
That’s what we’re looking for:
not the end of a thing but the shape of it.
Wisdom is seeing the shape of your life
without obliterating (getting over) a single
instant of it.
😘
The Cure by Albert Huffstickler
Photos found at http://www.pinterest.com
some years ask questions
some shake the foundations of our worlds
in a year of answers
be as quiet as possible
practice solitude
acquaintance yourself with silence
open your inner ears
listen for voices from other dimensions
care for your soul
allow deep mystery to bloom
sit in nature
find spots of beauty to fill you up
take time
go slow
so you can hear everything
waiting to be revealed
for such a time as this
🌪
AL
life: acoustic & amplified 