life: acoustic & amplified

poetry, quotes & thoughts about life

Archive for the category “mystery”

16 Jan 2016

let your guard down

 Take me past

the guarded place

in you

where confusion

covers itself

in unrelenting confidence

then marches on

In lively steps

Take off the façade

let it fall away

into nowhere

Turn around and face me

I search the infinite depth

where beyond all entrenchments

I find your thirst

to be met 

and understood

the sadness in your bones,

the want of your silent cries

to be heard

and be known—

abiding within those 

unseen landscapes

is a world of precious

dreams

Let me touch where

the battle wounds

lie quietly healing—

Buried beneath

an armored sheath

rests a lifetime of love

and loneliness,

blame and triumph, 

honor and defeat

Within this blended web

of scars and treasures,

glistening with honesty,

there you are—

I found you,

beneath the soldier’s plated heart

So loosen the knots around my own

see all its agony bared and mending

and in between each open space

we’ll breathe upon the frailty

All the wishful longings to be had

bring to me yours

as I meet you there with mine.

🎭

Quest by Susan Frybort

   
   
   
   

Posted in attitude, awareness, beauty, Change, Choice, connection, Growth, healing, Letting Go, Life, mystery | Leave a comment
11 Jan 2016

seeing eternity 

 

Let these be your desires: To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night. To know the pain of too much tenderness. To be wounded by your own understanding of love; And to bleed willingly and joyfully. To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving; To rest at the noon hour and meditate love’s ecstasy; To return home at eventide with gratitude; And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips.                    

    – Kahlil Gibran

   

My language the size of a seed, small and frozen for a winters night…the sweet drain of being married to the fire side heat and slippers …

Honey drenched while walking towards the woods …

tender landscape of icicles frozen on glass…

a mirror wiped dry of reflection…

something pierced deep in the breast while creating less, and easing into body’s rhythm 

the howl of the moon, the darkness too bright…

devoured by love…

seeking water but kept thirsty…

fabulous root in the deep of my core…a sigh left for longing…

Beauty,

Donna Knutson

 

 
Under the light of eternity
things,
the daily trivia,
the daily frustrations,
fall away.
It is all a matter of getting to the center of the beam.  
~ May Sarton, Journal of a Solitude

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

Posted in Adventure, attitude, awareness, beauty, Becoming Yourself, big, Choice, find art at pinterest, Life, Love, mystery, nature, perceptions, Prayer | Leave a comment
10 Jan 2016

arriving. departing. 

   

 Above the mountains 
the geese turn into

the light again
painting their

black silhouettes

on an open sky.
Sometimes everything 

has to be

enscribed across

the heavens
so you can find 

the one line

already written 

inside you.
Sometimes it takes 

a great sky

to find that
first, bright

and indescribable

wedge of freedom

in your own heart.
Sometimes with

the bones of the black

sticks left when the fire 

has gone out
someone has written 

something new

in the ashes

of your life.
You are not leaving.

Even as the light 

fades quickly now,

you are arriving.
…

The Journey by David Whyte

 

   
 

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

  

 

Posted in action, Adventure, attitude, awareness, beauty, Becoming Yourself, Choice, create, Encouragement, Faith, find art at pinterest, healing, home, Life, Love, Miracles, moment, mystery, Poetry | Leave a comment
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

and so it goes

🌀

AL

   


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
02 Jan 2016

pick a peck of poems 

 

 Stop whatever it is you’re doing. 
Come down from the attic. 

Grab a bucket or a basket and head for light. 

That’s where the best poems grow, and in the dappled dark. 
Go slow. Watch out for thorns and bears. 
When you find a good bush, bow to it, or take off your shoes. 

Then pluck. This poem. That poem. Any poem. 

It should come off the stem easy, just a little tickle. 

No need to sniff first, judge the color, test the firmness. 
You’ll only know it’s ripe if you taste. 
So put a poem upon your lips. Chew its pulp. 

Let its juice spill over your tongue. 
Let your reading of it teach you 

what sort of creature you are 

and the nature of the ground you walk upon. 

Bring your whole life out loud to this one poem. 
Eating one poem can save you, if you’re hungry enough. 
When birds and deer beat you to your favorite patch, 

smile at their familiar appetite, and ramble on. 

Somewhere another crop waits for harvest. 
And if your eye should ever light upon a cluster of poems 

hanging on a single stem, cup your hand around them 

and pull, without greed or clinging. 

Some will slip off in your palm. 

None will go to waste. 

Take those you adore poem-picking when you can, 

even to the wild and hidden places. 

Reach into brambles for their sake, 

stain your skin some shade of red or blue, 

mash words against your teeth, for love. 
And always leave some poems within easy reach 

for the next picker, in kinship with the unknown. 

If you ever carry away more than you need, 

go on home to your kitchen, and make good jam. 

No need to rush, the poems will keep. 

Some will even taste better with age, 

a rich batch of preserves. 

Store up jars and jars of jam. Plenty for friends. 

Plenty for the long, howling winter. Plenty for strangers. 

Plenty for all the bread in this broken world. 

⚜

On How to Pick and Eat Poems by Phyllis Cole-Dai

   
    
 
    

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

 

Posted in action, Adventure, attitude, awareness, find art at pinterest, giving, mystery, Passion, Poetry, Quotes | Leave a comment
25 Dec 2015

merry happy

   
    
    
    
    
 
  
I wish you love 🎄❤️🕯🎄

   
   
So very thankful! 💞

Posted in attitude, awareness, beauty, beloved, Blessing, connection, find art at pinterest, grace, Happiness, Happy Holiday!, Joy, Love, Miracles, mystery, receiving, Reflection, Relationships | Leave a comment
24 Dec 2015

each piece 

  
I am struck by the otherness of things rather than their sameness. 

The way a tiny pile of snow perches in the crook of a branch in the

tall pine, away by itself, high enough not to be noticed by people, 

out of reach of stray dogs. It leans against the scaly pine bark, busy

at some existence that does not need me. 
It is the differences of objects that I love, that lift me toward the rest

of the universe, that amaze me. That each thing on earth has its own

soul, its own life, that each tree, each clod is filled with the mud of

its own star. I watch where I step and see that the fallen leaf, old

broken grass, an icy stone are placed in exactly the right spot on the

earth, carefully, royalty in their own country

❄️
Looking for the Differences by Tom Hennen

❄️

top photo found at http://www.pinterest.com

   
    
    
    
    
    

photos by Fisherman Dan @ Branford, CT 

❄️

O come thou Mystery,

unseen, unbidden, unfelt,

but so madly needed here.
Come to us 

who push you away with our despair,

snare us with wonder.
Come to us, the lonely and broken,

O Small One,

not to solve but to be with.
Come to us who grieve 

place or worth or hope,

and find it with us.
Come to us in our smugness

and lay yourself down in the manger

of our secret wounds.
Come to us in our privilege

and let us hang our lives

on a poor little peasant child. 
Come to us in our violent fear

and calm us with your tiny voice.

Ask us to love you. 
For us who find it hard to love each other,

come and gather us in a circle,

have us care, have us sing. 
Come to us, too afraid to need, 

be fragile among us, 

and let us fall in love.
Neglect our neglect, Emmanuel,

come and be a tiny flame of love among us,

and light our own.
__________________ 

Steve Garnaas-Holmes

Unfolding Light

http://www.unfoldinglight.net

   

Posted in action, Adventure, attitude, awareness, Becoming Yourself, community, connection, create, grace, Gratitude, Happy Holiday!, intimacy, light, Love, Miracles, mystery, nature, Peace | Leave a comment
22 Dec 2015

gift

 

 Longest night.

Darkness falls like snow,

falls and falls, 

deepening.

Older than the universe,

here before it,

and will be after.

Wraps an arm around us

as if we’re old friends.

We are.

Darkness lives in us,

radiates from us.

We speak it.

Darkness is the velvet cloth

where you cherish the gem

of your presence among us,

darkness the womb,

darkness the manger

that cradles your light,

this holy being

that becomes us,

births us.

In the darkness

you do not come to us,

we come from you.

Because you are with and not apart,

even the darkness

is you.

Because you shine in it

the dark is our dark,

none of it unchanged.

Your being our light,

your hereness our life,

shining in the longest night.

__________________

Steve Garnaas-Holmes

Unfolding Light

http://www.unfoldinglight.net

 

 To go into the darkness with a light 
is to know the light. 

To know the dark, go dark. 

Go without light and find that the dark too, blooms and sings 

and is traveled by dark feet and dark wings. 

– Wendell Berry 

  
Black. out. black. 

Black. on. black. 

Dark. on dark. on dark. 

I was simply looking for home. 

Not knowing the current alley would lead 

to where the sidewalk ended 

I stepped off the edge 

out of the world of light 

waking into morning night 

a banished sun 

no stars 

or moon 

or streetlights 

or fireflies 

or lighters 

in pitch darkness 

I lay, unable to move, 

senses adjusting 

to what is my new reality 

hearing the life 

that lives here 

wondering if I’ll make friends 

while I’m here 

learning this new space. 

🌌

AL

 

 Gift suggestions: 
To your enemy –  forgiveness. 

 To an opponent – tolerance. 

   To a friend – your heart. 

     To a customer – service. 

       To every child – a good example. 

          To all – love. 

💞

           – Oren Arnold

  

Posted in action, Adventure, Alone, attitude, awareness, Becoming Yourself, beloved, Change, Choice, connection, courage, dark, Death, determination, Dreams, find art at pinterest, fragile, Glory, Gospel, grace, Gratitude, healing, home, Letting Go, Love, Miracles, mystery, nature, power, Prayer, quiet, Reflection | Leave a comment
21 Dec 2015

let 

 

   

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

   
 

  

Posted in action, Adventure, attitude, awareness, beloved, connection, Encouragement, Faith, Freedom, grace, healing, Hope, Letting Go, Life, Love, mystery, Reflection, Relationships | Leave a comment
17 Dec 2015

finding center

 

 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

  

Posted in action, Adventure, attitude, awareness, Becoming Yourself, Choice, connection, find art at pinterest, Gratitude, Life, Love, Miracles, moment, mystery, nature, trees | Leave a comment

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