it is the duty and calling of an artist to speak their truth – unknown
Listen to Sara Barelleis sing Vegas http://youtu.be/HOHK2sXoIVw
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photo sources found at www.pinterest.com/al513
life: acoustic & amplified
poetry, quotes & thoughts about life
Archive for the category “Miracles”
God shows up
Nobody loves such days,
everything smudged in powdered lead,
the whites all off, the blacks dull
like the bad side of a mirror.
Yet in a world of shadows
what matters are not the highlights
but the shades of grays.
This river, for instance, a sooty snake
mirroring an oatmeal sky.
But watch it eddy and swirl,
and gradually the lead turns silver, begins
to blaze from within, as if begging the sun
to bust out of its straight-jacket.
And shine. Which the sun very nearly does.
But in the end, it can’t be bothered.
It says, Sparkle yourself.
And eventually we do. Van Gogh returns
to the sea-light of his youth.
Sews the ear back on.
Trades his magentas and cyans
for a # 2 pencil. It is all in the shading,
he realizes. The pursuit of raging hues
was madness. God, no longer
in the rainbowed flame,
but in this wan, uncertain earthlight:
this almost-shimmer on a river.
Whatever plain brown paper wrapper
the day comes in.
☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️
Gray Scale by Richard Schiffman
☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️
Listen and watch Gene Kelly Singing in the Rain http://youtu.be/D1ZYhVpdXbQ
practice
listen to Kate Earl sing Nobody http://youtu.be/imIxwxpd04E
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photo sources found at www.pinterest.com/al513
what are you looking for?
When our eyes are graced with wonder, the world reveals its wonders to us. There are people who see only dullness in the world and that is because their eyes have already been dulled. So much depends on how we look at things. The quality of our looking determines what we come to see. – John O’Donohue
Listen to Jason Mraz sing I’m Yours http://youtu.be/wIFh9hYongk
quote photo sources found at www.pinterest.com/al513
songs of gold
Photo by Fisherman Dan @ Branford, CT
A yellow flower
(Light and spirit)
Sings by itself
For nobody.
A golden spirit
(Light and emptiness)
Sings without a word
By itself.
Let no one touch this gentle sun
In whose dark eye
Someone is awake.
(No light, no gold, no name, no color
And no thought:
O, wide awake!)
A golden heaven
Sings by itself
A song to nobody.
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Song for Nobody by Thomas Merton
Listen to Sarah McLaughlin sing Ordinary Miracle http://youtu.be/m4j_wrmpMnU
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photo sources found at www.pinterest.com/al513
do it again….do it again
Our Lord has written resurrection not in books alone—but in every leaf in springtime. – Martin Luther
“Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, “Do it again”; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead.
For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony.
But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony.
It is possible that God says every morning, “Do it again” to the sun; and every evening, “Do it again” to the moon.
It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them.
It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.”
Hope and renewal and rebirth are at the heart of things.
The world in winter looks so much as if it’s dying—and yet, and yet …
The frozen streams heard him sigh…
“We’ll run again!” they seemed to cry.
The tall dead grasses all were rustling…
“But we’re not dead, we’re only sleeping!”
The lost flowers were singing on and on…
“But we’re only hidden, we’re not gone!”
That tiny green shoot preached to me that morning. About hope. About joy.
And about vulnerability—which isn’t weakness, but true strength.
Everywhere we look, God is speaking to us. His creation is singing to us. The Heavens are shouting it out. It’s not what it looks like! There is hope beyond the walls of the world!
That Joy is at the heart of things.
That a Light shines beneath it all.
That Love runs the universe.
The more childlike we become — the more like God we are.
And really, it shouldn’t surprise us that God is “younger” than we are.
After all, it wasn’t a general, or a warrior, or a politician God sent to rescue His broken world —
It was a baby.
👶🏻👶🏻👶🏻👶🏻👶🏻👶🏻👶🏻
– Sally Lloyd-Jones on A Holy Experience
Photos by Fisherman Dan @ Branford CT
Listen to Keb’ Mo sing Closer http://youtu.be/Fdv-KafABk4
Your future depends on many things, but mostly on you. – Frank Tyger
This is my commandment,
that you love one another as I have loved you.
—John 15.12
that is,
with tender attention
and stout resilience,
that is,
despite your blame and fear,
your betrayal yet to come,
your lack of repentance,
as I have loved you
when you were determined
not to deserve it,
that you love as I have,
withholding nothing,
excusing no one,
that you pour yourself out
for the unworthy,
as I have
pour yourself out
of your life
into eternal love
and as I have
rise
new,
perfected
in love.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
What Is The First Step In Healing
What do you need to do to get better?
This morning, a 73 year old doctor in Tampa Bay, Florida shot himself. Today was his 38th wedding anniversary. He was accused of recklessly driving his speedboat and killing four teenage boys in 1989. Although he was acquitted, he never really got over it.
This morning, I met with a friend, age 64, who told me bitterly she’d stopped talking to her father. They’ve had so many arguments in the years I’ve known her! In their last scene, she said she told him, “I’m a grown up now! You can’t keep hurting me like you did when I was 12!” I don’t know for sure, but I can fill in the blanks on that one and so can you. My friend has recently lost 80 lbs and she has another 60 to go. Whatever happened back then, she never really got over it.
One of the drivers of the car in which I was passenger when both my children were killed blames himself for the accident to such an extent that his whole life has been mangled and wrought with emotional pain from that day to this. More than 20 years. He never really got over it.
What about you?
Do you have some secret pain, some traumatic memory, some inner anguish that you strive to hide from the world? Is there a monster inside you, jabbing at you and never letting you forget what happened?
Healing from serious issues can be a long, difficult process. At least, that’s how it has been for me. But unless we continue to work towards healing, toward bringing the dark into the light and letting it heal, we will end up like the people above — ending our lives too early; destroying our physical well-being; mangling our futures with self-recrimination.
The journey to wellness – not the kind you fake so other people think you’re OK now – requires a lot of courage. It’s going to be hard, but get this: it won’t be as hard as you think. And it will not require you to suffer as much as you suspect it might. I promise!
The first step in healing is deceptively simple: Decide that’s what you want to do.
Only you know the answer about whether you really want to revisit the past, dig it up and heal it so it doesn’t keep on screwing with your current life. If you don’t, you’ll end up with the life similar to the people above. I’m not suggesting you rush off to confront people who’ve hurt you. I’m not actually suggesting you rush off and DO anything. Healing the soul is as gentle and slow as healing the body. You can’t look at the cut on your finger and simply acknowledge you have a cut, then order it to heal instantly. You might have to tend to it a little. It will cause you pain (although not as much as the original injury.) You don’t have to relive and talk endlessly about your trauma to heal it. Although it would be VERY helpful to see a therapist or a clergy person, even that isn’t mandatory.
silence today and just ask this in the midst of your own stillness:
Do I want to keep living with this inside me or is it time to begin healing?
If the answer is YES, don’t delay! Start now. It gets better, I promise.
by Wendy Keller
http://positiveoutlooksblog.com/2015/05/12/what-is-the-first-step-in-healing/
Listen to Ruthie Foster sing Woke Up This Morning http://youtu.be/Pd0p9AYGgIs 
photo sources found at www.pinterest.com/al513
The two most important days in your life
are the day you are born, and
the day you find out why.
are the day you are born, and
the day you find out why.
Mark Twain
Happy Birthday to me!! I’m so glad to be here!! 50 ROCKS!
Caesium standard
A caesium standard or caesium atomic clock is a primary frequency standard in which electronic transitionsbetween the two hyperfine ground states of caesium-133 atoms are used to control the output frequency. The first caesium clock was built by Louis Essenin 1955 at the National Physical Laboratory in the UK.[1]
Caesium clocks are the most accurate commercially produced time and frequency standards, and serve as the primary standard for the definition of the second in SI (the metric system). By definition, radiation produced by the transition between the two hyperfine ground states of caesium (in the absence of external influences such as the Earth’s magnetic field) has a frequency of exactly 9,192,631,770 Hz. That value was chosen so that the caesium second equalled, to the limit of human measuring ability in 1960 when it was adopted, the existing standard ephemeris second based on the Earth‘s orbit around the Sun.[2] Because no other measurement involving time had been as precise, the effect of the change was less than the experimental uncertainty of all existing measurements.
🕘🕘🕘🕘🕘🕘🕘🕘🕘🕘 05.01.15
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caesium_standard
Listen to Aime by Pure Prairie League http://youtu.be/V4mCiYQeU_s
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photo sources found at www.pinterest.com/al513
the answer to how is love
Everything is made of God. Love lies waiting in it.
Every darkest mystery
hides grace.
The most desperate act
is born of hopeful longing:
though the hope has been withheld
the longing still burns.
Even the greatest tragedy
is made of blessed pieces
and drips with the light
of grace it has passed through.
In even the most evil despot
a heart beats and breath is given.
The graver the injustice
the deeper the listening needed;
the more foul the evil
the more love is required.
Grieve your sorrows without pretense.
Protest oppression with courage.
Above all: don’t lose trust in the grace
already infolded in the knot.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
Listen to Gungor sing Beautiful Things http://youtu.be/1spkhp41ig4
photo sources found at www.pinterest.com/al513
Today!
This is why we survive the winter
The world shows off
Flowers are bursting color
Flaming forsythia frames the river
Fuzzy trees and bushes make me squirmy happy
The sky beams blue
The water waves joyfully
The sand gladly greets,
us with our winter legs
(except for the hardcore tanning bed crowd – already too brown for the rest of us)
little girls and their tattooed fathers pick up shells and rocks
to fill purple buckets of heartwarming, serious cuteness
coconut oil floats deliciously on the warm breeze
I can’t stop smiling
Spring has sprung
Let love begin
AL 4/29/15
life: acoustic & amplified 