life: acoustic & amplified

poetry, quotes & thoughts about life

Archive for the category “Life”

31 Jul 2015

we came here

 

 Proof of Heaven

this was the reason why you were brought to Narnia, that by knowing me here for a little you may know me better there.      – Aslan
We are brought places so that we may know God, just a little, better here in this broken world. We are given glimpses, shaded bits of glory, the pieces we are ready for, come to us, changing our lives forever, as we attempt to absorb this brilliance, so far beyond our understanding. We grapple and try, to open our minds ever wider. We try to share, in ways we are able, this new understanding, this life changing knowledge, knowing how difficult it is to understand. We could never have understood these things happening before we went through it for ourselves, yet we also know it is too important to keep to ourselves, and we understand that, IF we, who are just ordinary people, have experienced this, (and we cannot deny we have) then it is possible for others as well. 
And so, we try. We put it into inadequate words and we share it however we are called, this unexpected knowledge we have been given, even as we are just a bit embarrassed at the position it puts us in. It seems like it was a little simpler before these revelations. Yet it is also the best gift we have ever experienced and we just want others to know, to share it, to open to amazing grace. As Anne LaMotte says, ‘God’s grace comes to us right where we are, but never leaves us there’. 
When we find fellow travelers, who have experienced similar things, it is joyous and wonderful to share. It gives us strength, hope and allows us to open ourselves to even more of the unlimited possibilities which are ever present and possible as we move through this place and into the place where we are so intimately known, so completely beloved and so permanently connected. 
AL

 

Listen to Carrie Underwood sing How Great Thou Art http://youtu.be/3X6IzGDoGwo

Photo sources found at www.pinterest.com/al513 

Posted in Adventure, attitude, awareness, beauty, Becoming Yourself, Choice, compassion, confidence, connection, courage, Faith, home, Letting Go, Life, Love, Passion, Peace, People, perceptions, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment
29 Jul 2015

better, best, best-est

  
Tired and hungry, late in the day, impelled

to leave the house and search for what

might lift me back to what I had fallen away from,

I stood by the shore waiting.

I had walked in the silent woods:

the trees withdrew into their secrets.

Dusk was smoothing breadths of silk

over the lake, watery amethyst fading to gray.

Ducks were clustered in sleeping companies

afloat on their element as I was not

on mine. I turned homeward, unsatisfied.

But after a few steps, I paused, impelled again

to linger, to look North before nightfall-the expanse

of calm, of calming water, last wafts

of rose in the few high clouds.

And was rewarded:

the heron, unseen for weeks, came flying

widewinged toward me, settled

just offshore on his post,

took up his vigil.

                               If you ask

why this cleared a fog from my spirit,

I have no answer.

🔂🔂🔂🔂🔂🔂🔂🔂🔂🔂🔂

A Reward by Denise Levertov 

 

            Day ends, and before sleep
                         when the sky dies down, consider

          your altered state: has this day

            changed you? Are the corners

         sharper or rounded off? Did you

       live with death? Make decisions

   that quieted? Find one clear word

            that fit? At the sun’s midpoint

    did you notice a pitch of absence,

        bewilderment that invites

          the possible? What did you learn

     from things you dropped and picked up

         and dropped again? Did you set a straw

     parallel to the river, let the flow

            carry you downstream?

🔂🔂🔂🔂🔂🔂🔂🔂🔂

Questions Before Dark by Jeanne Lohmann

   

 
Photos by Fisherman Dan @ Branford, CT

Posted in attitude, awareness, Becoming Yourself, compassion, connection, Gratitude, healing, inspiration, intimacy, Letting Go, Life, Love, mystery, nature, soul and spirit, touch, Trust, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment
26 Jul 2015

We are not masters of this world, we participate in its life. – Thomas Moore 

 

Photo source found at facebook/ The Motivation Group

🎆🎇🎆🎇🎆🎇🎆🎇🎆🎇🎆🎇

Care of the soul requires ongoing attention to every aspect of life. Essentially it is a cultivation of ordinary things in such a way that soul is nurtured and fostered. 

         – Thomas Moore

   
    
 Fireworks photos by Fisherman Dan @ Branford, CT

🎆🎆🎆🎆🎆🎆🎆🎆🎆🎆

Recognize what is before your eyes, and what is hidden will be revealed to you. 

   – The Gospel of Thomas

🎇🎇🎇🎇🎇🎇🎇🎇🎇🎇

Listen to Katy Perry sing Firework http://youtu.be/QGJuMBdaqIw

The final mystery is oneself. When one has weighed the sun in the balance, and measured the steps of the moon, and mapped out the seven heavens star by star, there still remains oneself. 

Who can calculate the orbit of his own soul? 

    – Oscar Wilde

 

photo source found at www.pinterest.com/al513 

Posted in attitude, awareness, beloved, Change, Choice, Glory, Life, Passion, soul and spirit | Leave a comment
25 Jul 2015

transformations

 

 There is a teaching that says that behind all hardening and tightening and rigidity of the heart, there’s always fear. But if you touch fear, behind fear there is a soft spot. And if you touch that soft spot, you find the vast blue sky. You find that which is ineffable, ungraspable, and unbiased, that which can support and awaken us at any time. 
  – Pema Chodron

  
  
 

   

  

  

 
  

Listen to JJ Heller sing What Love Really Means http://youtu.be/PgGUKWiw7Wk

❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

photo sources found at www.pinterest.com/al513

Posted in attitude, awareness, Becoming Yourself, Change, Choice, courage, determination, Encouragement, find art at pinterest, forgiveness, Freedom, grace, healing, Letting Go, Life, light, Love, mystery, Patience, Relationships, soul and spirit, strength, Trust, truth, Vulnerability, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment
24 Jul 2015

practice the hardest virtue   

  
The phoebe sits on her nest

Hour after hour, 

Day after day, 

Waiting for life to burst out 

From under her warmth. 
Can I weave a nest for silence, 

Weave it out of listening, 

Listening, 

Layer upon layer? 
But one must first become small, 

Nothing but a presence, 

Attentive as a nesting bird, 

Proffering no slightest wish,

No tendril of a wish 

Toward anything that might happen 

Or be given, 

Only the warm, faithful waiting, 

Contained in one’s smallness. 

Beyond the question, the silence. 

Before the answer, the silence.

🐦🐦🐦🐦🐦🐦🐦🐦🐦🐦🐦

Beyond the Question, 1 by May Sarton

 

  

Listen to Playing for Change sing Gimme Shelter  http://youtu.be/4K8t6kCYfJo
🐦🐦🐦🐦🐦🐦

photo sources found at www.pinterest.com/al513

🐦🐦🐦🐦🐦🐦🐦

A great read from one of my favorite writers. A holy Experience by Ann Voskamp http://www.aholyexperience.com/2015/07/for-all-us-hope-ers-when-things-arent-working-out-as-wed-hoped/

  

  

Posted in attitude, awareness, Change, Choice, commitment, Letting Go, Life, Love, Patience, Peace, Prayer | Leave a comment
23 Jul 2015

communication  

  the bright, glowing world opens my heart in beauty –

 there’s this summer song

of cool wind on my skin, 

playing sweet, soft percussion through the tall, lush marsh grass

gentle water laps at the sand

invisible birds singing in surround sound

visible ones splash and dive for breakfast

patient, yet very aware

my heart resonates with the language we have spoken

the songs we have sung

the rich vibrations of our connection

over the past months…

over the past two days…

today’s fresh sun warms my back

my shadow sits large

writing poems

this morning

this day

this moment

in silence birthing 

my gratitude

my pleasure

 my gift

my life

thank you 

for being you,

for reaching out,

for holding my hand 

and my heart 💞

AL

 

  
Listen to John Legend sing All of Me http://youtu.be/Mk7-GRWq7wA 
💞

find photo sources @ www.pinterest.com/al513

Posted in awareness, beauty, beloved, Choice, courage, find art at pinterest, friendship, intimacy, Letting Go, Life, Love, Passion, Patience, Relationships, soul and spirit, touch, Trust, Vulnerability, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment
19 Jul 2015

mediocrity…never…the battle is on!   

 

 Feeling empty and unstrung
I wake from my dream 

warnings of being unwilling to change

of being stuck in one place

unwilling to do things different

I sit at my desk 

afraid 

because this dream was not about you

it was about me

and it scares the hell outta me

that it is what I will allow. 
I know 

the tractor beam of mediocrity is on –

will my shields hold?

Will I stay out of the pig pen, 

or just give up and wallow in the stinky mud?

The comfortable parking space calls me..
All this,

and the glaring monotony,

the forced prison,

of my day 

stares at me. 

how will I break this day open?

how will I know I have 

reached beyond my need for security?

how will I battle my own resistance?

how will I stay focused on my own need,

and not distract myself with yours?

I open poems by Mary Oliver

The Moths is all it takes!

I feel the door of freedom swing open wide. 

I write

I post

I say ‘thank you’

for these, and all the other words. 

Within the hour I get a comment from Oriah, whose poem,

 The Invitation, 

was a life changer

and I know life

has answered my need to know

that I am connected to the whole

I feast 

on bacon 

with a side of strawberries n cream & passion fruit Godiva truffles

knowing there is always 

more goodness

than I could ever eat up

my cup is overfull and sticky 

from all that honey 

from all those 

beauti-ous bees. 

🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝

AL (Oct 2013)

   
  

Listen to Willie Nelson sing This Face http://youtu.be/_79LW9_OIUA 
😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍

Find photo sources at www.pinterest.com/al513

The mind must

set itself up

wherever it goes

and it would be

most convenient

to impose its

old rooms—just

tack them up

like an interior

tent. Oh but

the new holes 

aren’t where 

the windows

went. 

🏡🏠🏠🏡🏠🏡🏠🏡

New Rooms by Kay Ryan

Posted in action, attitude, awareness, beauty, Becoming Yourself, Beginning, beloved, Change, Choice, commitment, community, connection, courage, determination, Encouragement, Faith, find art at pinterest, Freedom, Gratitude, Letting Go, Life, Love, Passion, Poetry, Reflection, soul and spirit, strength, truth, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment
18 Jul 2015

water ditty’s

 

 Sit and be still
until in the time

of no rain you hear

beneath the dry wind’s

commotion in the trees

the sound of flowing

water among the rocks,

a stream unheard before,

and you are where

breathing is prayer.

VI: Sabbaths 2001 [Sit and be still] by Wendell Berry

  

There is only one way, aging beauties,

to go down this river,

to hear the water’s music over the rocks,

to find a loving I, Thou, Who.

I say, spring out of the boat,

jump in naked, tender,

with your ferocious heart torn open.

💧💧💧💧💧💧💧💦

Hear the Water’s Music by Tere Sievers

 

 Listen to Keb Mo sing I’ll Be Your Water http://youtu.be/jTvsHvd0Mkk

Posted in attitude, awareness, beauty, Becoming Yourself, Change, Choice, commitment, connection, courage, determination, do, intimacy, Life, Love, mystery, Passion, Reflection, Relationships, soul and spirit, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment
16 Jul 2015

days of… 

  
Days of wine and focus

of hanging on

of staying strong

of keeping faith

of sitting still

of being silent

of thinking in beautiful 

of standing in my own shoes

of letting go 

of loving you through the distance

of letting you lead

of feeling the passion

of attempting not to burn up

of recognizing the spectacular

of allowing the mystery

of hearing the call

of accepting what is

of not crossing borders or boundaries

of opening and opening

of trusting the journey

of seeing the face of God

of surrender into something bigger than I can know

of making the daily commitment

of acknowledging the grace

of thanking for everything

of looking for the miracles

of talking to trees

of taking time to prepare

of expressing my love

of helping in time of need

of following my own path

of obedience rather than selfishness

of love and love and love

of all things love
AL

  

  Photo sources found at www.pinterest.com/al513

  

Posted in attitude, awareness, Becoming Yourself, Choice, courage, determination, Dreams, find art at pinterest, Growth, Habits, Life, Love, Passion, Patience, power, Purpose, strength, truth, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment
14 Jul 2015

a poem a day  

 

All poems are not equal
Just like grades of meat

and paper towels,

there are poems that are tough to chew on, stringy even

then there poems that melt into your mouth and soul, like velvety cream

some poems are flavored to perfection

and lots of poems with no salt

There are sturdy poems which mop up the spills of your heart

and thin poems, flimsy, ones that fall apart when you try to use them

There are poems that move and feel good in your hands

and poems that make your skin crawl when you read them. 

No, all poems are not equal –

sometimes I wonder 

why I like this thing called ‘poetry’ at all. 

At other times I know exactly 

why I have fallen so passionately

in love. 

❤️

AL

Listen to Stephen Burt at TEDx on Why We Need poetry http://www.ted.com/talks/stephen_burt_why_people_need_poetry

   
    
    
Listen to John Denver sing Poems, Prayers and Promises http://youtu.be/M6PEsa36SRY ❤️

photo sources found at www.pinterest.com/al513

   
 

❤️

for you…

 

 

Posted in attitude, awareness, beauty, find art at pinterest, Letting Go, Life, Love, mystery, Poetry, power, soul and spirit, words, Writing, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment

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