life: acoustic & amplified

poetry, quotes & thoughts about life

Archive for the category “nature”

timing be everything…just wait and see  

 

 walking while waiting…not holding onto the breath…finding the shallow end of the pool, gliding full body under the water…raising expectations while others wonder , slightly wandering , forgetting to remember is not an option while the day is so bright…finding fashion foolishly delightful, while taking ones shoes off …holy hours become …earth and flesh blown open , .birthing beyond time and space, then settling into the sunroom for hot peach tea and a tiny croissant…such a simple remedy while walking and waiting…
Beauty,

Donna Knutson

   
    
    
  

  
 

what we choose lives on

  
For everyone you touch, you also reach everyone they will ever know… and everyone they will ever know… and everyone they will ever know… So for the rest of all time, your kindness will be felt, in waves that will spread, long after you move on.

 #notesfromtheuniverse http://www.tut.com/Inspiration/nftu

  

grid & flow  

 

THE SEA IN YOU
When I wake under the moon, 

I do not know who I have become unless 

I move closer to you, obeying the give and take

of the earth as it breathes the slender length

of your body, so that in breathing with the tide 

that breathes in you, and moving with you 

as you come and go, and following you, half in light 

and half in dark, I feel the first firm edge of my floating palm 

touch and then trace the pale light of your shoulder 

to the faint, moon-lit shadow of your smooth cheek, 

and drawing my finger through the pearl water of your skin,

I sense the breath on your lips touch and then warm

the finest, furthest, most unknown edge of my sense of self,

so that I come to you under the moon 

as if I had swum under the deepest arch of the ocean, 

to find you living where no one could possibly live,

and to feel you breathing, where no one could 

possibly breathe, and I touch your skin as I would 

touch a pale whispering spirit of the tides that my arms 

try to hold with the wrong kind of strength and my lips 

try to speak with the wrong kind of love and I follow

you through the ocean night listening for your breath

in my helpless calling to love you as I should, and I lie 

next to you in your sleep as I would next to the sea,

overwhelmed by the rest that arrives in me and by the weight 

that is taken from me and what, by morning, 

is left on the shore of my waking joy.

THE SEA IN YOU by David Whyte
  
 
It is the great mystery of life

That to every part

there is a counterpart

the polarity is the great gift

Also the great curse

The friction keeps us learning

else we die, even as we live. 

Gravity keeps on earth

Anti-gravity surrounds us a few miles above 

without both we would not exist. 

Trees breathe carbon in

Exhale oxygen

We do the opposite. 

The sun and moon 

are in the perfect spots for us to survive. 

We fight change,

though it is the one thing 

that truly allows us to become. 

We want to have answers –

Cut. 

Dry. 

Concrete. 

We want to KNOW 

Yet the great mystery of life is letting the mystery be greater than us

while inhaling the small parts we can comprehend

and using them to create good with our part. 

seeing new every day.

evolving slowly. 

The yin. 

The yang. 

Within the darkness

We find the light. 

With letting go of the other

We finally own our oneness. 

Within the deepest sorrow

We release ourselves

for our most complete joy. 

When we give ourselves empty

we receive back waves of abundance and are filled fresh. 

We want what glitters, 

but find the best gifts 

are always on the bottom shelf,

sometimes a little dusty from not being used. 

Each and every day, in order to find our way into the unlimited potential of our highest self

we must first commit to our holy and unique calling,

our own glorious belovedness. 
AL

💜

Photos found on http://www.pinterest.com

  

 

in this time

  
Hokusai says Look carefully.

He says pay attention, notice.

He says keep looking, stay curious.

He says there is no end to seeing.
He says Look Forward to getting old.

He says keep changing,

you just get more who you really are.

He says get stuck, accept it, repeat yourself

as long as it’s interesting.
He says keep doing what you love.

He says keep praying.

He says every one of us is a child,
every one of us is ancient,

every one of us has a body.

He says every one of us is frightened.

He says every one of us has to find a way to live with fear.
He says everything is alive—

shells, buildings, people, fish, mountains, trees.

Wood is alive.

Water is alive.

Everything has its own life.

Everything lives inside us.

He says live with the world inside you.
He says it doesn’t matter if you draw, or write books.

It doesn’t matter if you saw wood, or catch fish.

It doesn’t matter if you sit at home

and stare at the ants on your verandah or the shadows of the trees

and grasses in your garden.
It matters that you care.

It matters that you feel.

It matters that you notice.

It matters that life lives through you.
Contentment is life living through you.

Joy is life living through you.

Satisfaction and strength

are life living through you.

Peace is life living through you.
He says don’t be afraid.

Don’t be afraid.

Look, feel, let life take you by the hand.

Let life live through you.

🌳

by, Roger Keyes is an American professor of East Asian studies. This poem is apparently his cross-media translation of the art of Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) into poetry.

  
the stones are alive

the stones speak

tell stories of my life

sing me love songs

respond to my touch

grow warm when I’m near

glow with my compliments

smile with my encouraging words

blush as they rest against my skin

absorb my secrets

reveal my favorite colors

are perfectly comfortable with themselves –

hot or cold

polished or raw

the stones never argue

always tell the truth

give with no demand

accept themselves as beautiful

never question that they are 

amazing,

valuable,

beloved

just the way they are 

just the way we are
AL 

  
  

  

  

tricky 

  
So, I’ve been thinking about discipline- you know, the thing we think we need to find if we are going to do the things we know are good for us (like eating well, exercise, daily meditation etc.) I can clamp down with my will and pick up those aspirations daily- but at times it just feels like endless work, and sooner or later I run out of steam. 
So lately, I’ve been trying something different. Instead of berating myself and insisting that today (or tomorrow) I will dig deep and find the necessary discipline, I’ve been thinking about giving myself gifts. 
As in- today, I’m giving myself the gift of taking a walk in the autumn leaves, of taking my time in prayer and meditation, of making a wonderful stew for dinner. If I can keep my attitude in the range of doing something kind for myself (as opposed to doing something I think I “should” do) not only is it easier to create good self-care, it becomes about receiving that care with gratitude. 
And that’s just a more enjoyable way to receive the gift of this day. 

~Oriah 

 

   


   

Halloween was confusing. All my life my parents said, ‘Never take candy from strangers.’ And then they dressed me up and said, ‘Go beg for it.’ I didn’t know what to do! I’d knock on people’s doors and go, ‘Trick or treat.’ ‘No thank you.’

– Rita Rudner  

  

 

peep

  
Photo found on facebook

🍁

The rain breaks, though the sky is still grey, even so

The trees are drenched in golden glow, 

leaves glistening like glowing emeralds, rubies, gold dripping in puddles to the ground,

there neon reds, pinks and oranges screaming for my attention like an extravert teenager in the 1980’s –

It is so beautiful it takes my breath away 

I stop and stare for timeless time, 

drinking it into my soul, 

into my storehouse of these flaming glory-moments

Then I go on with my day, 

full of wonder and hope 

I heard it in your voice this morning

There are good things ahead

🍂

AL

   
    
    
 
photos by Fisherman Dan @ Branford, CT

🍁

If we could, 

like the trees, 

practice dying, 

do it every year 

just as something we do— 

like going on vacation 

or celebrating birthdays, 

it would become 

as easy a part of us 

as our hair or clothing. 
Someone would show us how 

to lie down and fade away 

as if in deepest meditation, 

and we would learn 

about the fine dark emptiness, 

both knowing it and not knowing it, 

and coming back would be irrelevant. 
Whatever it is the trees know 

when they stand undone, 

surprisingly intricate, 

we need to know also 

so we can allow 

that last thing 

to happen to us 

as if it were only 

any ordinary thing, 
leaves and lives 

falling away, 

the spirit, complex, 

waiting in the fine darkness 

to learn which way 

it will go. 

🍂

Learning from Trees by Grace Butcher

  🍂🍁🍂🍁🍂🍁🍂
There is no such thing in anyone’s life as an unimportant day. 

-Alexander Woolcott

fall. falling. fallen.   

  
Fall, falling, fallen. That’s the way the season 

Changes its tense in the long-haired maples 

That dot the road; the veiny hand-shaped leaves 

Redden on their branches (in a fiery competition 

With the final remaining cardinals) and then 

Begin to sidle and float through the air, at last 

Settling into colorful layers carpeting the ground. 

At twilight the light, too, is layered in the trees 

In a season of odd, dusky congruences—a scarlet tanager 

And the odor of burning leaves, a golden retriever 

Loping down the center of a wide street and the sun 

Setting behind smoke-filled trees in the distance, 

A gap opening up in the treetops and a bruised cloud 

Blamelessly filling the space with purples. Everything 

Changes and moves in the split second between summer’s 

Sprawling past and winter’s hard revision, one moment 

Pulling out of the station according to schedule, 

Another moment arriving on the next platform. It 

Happens almost like clockwork: the leaves drift away 

From their branches and gather slowly at our feet, 

Sliding over our ankles, and the season begins moving 

Around us even as its colorful weather moves us, 

Even as it pulls us into its dusty, twilit pockets. 

And every year there is a brief, startling moment 

When we pause in the middle of a long walk home and 

Suddenly feel something invisible and weightless 

Touching our shoulders, sweeping down from the air: 

It is the autumn wind pressing against our bodies; 

It is the changing light of fall falling on us. 

🍂

Fall by Edward Hirsch

   
    
    
    
 In Fall I saw 

a skyline of tree roofs 

blowing off in 

natural disasters 

of Biblical proportions. 

Every treehouse laid bare 

roofs to be mended in April 

when surplus roofing supplies arrive 

from Mother Nature 

painted bright shades of spring green 

with all the colors of the rainbow 

adorning the mended windows 

as the birds move into their summer homes. 

All in the right time 

not before 

I have known days of the extreme

Both hot and cold 

Pain and joy 

Full and empty 

I have wsited for spring 

I have been healed 

like the trees 

Now I wait for the time 

when the lovebirds come build their nest 

in my heart 

🍁

AL

   

Nature Photos by Fisherman Dan @ Branford, CT

Word art found on facebook

at the river  

  
The mouth of the river may be beautiful. 

It doesn’t remember the womb of its beginning. 

It doesn’t look back to where it’s been 

or wonder who ahead of it polished the rough stones. 
It is following the way 

in its fullness, 

now like satin, 

now cresting, 

waters meeting, kindred 

to travel gathered together, 

all knowing it flows 

one way, shining or in shadows. 

And me, the animal 

I ride wants to drive forward, 

its longing not always my own, 

overrunning its banks and bounds, 

edgeless, spilling along the way 
because, as I forget, 

it knows everything 

is before it. 

🔹

Journey by Linda Hogan

   

It’s a beautiful, perfect day 

Warm, with a shadow of cool 

makes me know fall is coming 

I do love me some October 

I drove to Rocky Hill

to sing

spent way too much money 

on not much of anything 

coffee

filling up with gas 

ordered a book for 46$ 

from Chenè in Africa, 

Re-Authoring the World:

story narrative 

changing our perceptions 

changing our world 

things are changing for me 

it is time for me to begin again 

time for readjusting the flow 

time to take another step 

time to make my choices 

from a place of strength 

from a place of determination 

Freedom belongs to those who use it 

🔹

AL

🔹

you think you have time…

🔹

listen to Amy Grant & Vince Gill sing House of Love

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

🔹

Nothing has to happen immediately, this minute, or right now. It’s okay to pause for just a moment. Just take a breath. Then go quietly inside. Ask Life Itself to lead you to your best outcome. There’s nothing you have to do, really, except get out of your own way. — Neale Donald Walsch

a little help from our friends 

   
photos by Fisherman Dan @ Branford, CT

listen to Jack Johnson sing Upside Down http://youtu.be/dqUdI4AIDF0

🍁

If you stand at the edge of the forest 

and stare into it 

every tree at the edge will blow a little extra 

oxygen toward you 
It has been proven 

Leaves have admitted it 
The pines I have known 

have been especially candid 
One said 

that all breath in this world 

is roped together 
that breathing is 

the most ancient language

🔹

Ancient Language by Hannah Stephenson

  A bright gold canary diamond 

In the middle of a row of emeralds 

Light sparkles on brilliant color 

Natures jewels glimmering in sunlight 

Trees can’t help but be happy with who they are. 

Beloved 

Comfortable 

Extravagantly, audaciously beautiful 

Spectacularly themselves 

Totally at home where they’re planted 

Reaching for the sky 

Content to be rooted and grounded 

Letting their leaves come and go 

As they see fit 

watching all the dancing 

as seasons come and go. 

Knowing there will always be abundance 

Giving us life giving oxygen with, 

not even a whisper, 

of quid pro quo 

jealousy, 

or manipulation. 

Trees are magnificent. 

I can’t help but admire 

their character and integrity 

Their deep wisdom and acceptance of life. 

Their mystery and playfulness. 

Their understanding and gracious giving hearts. 

Even driving down the busiest of highways during rush hour 

becomes a beautiful experience 

when you spend the moments of the stop-n-go

looking out your car window 

at the show being put on 

right next to the roadway

🔹

AL

  
  

other photos found @ www.pinterest.com 

becoming one

The sojourning spirit is deep within each of us, if we’d listen, but it is not fundamentally about finding ‘the job’ or ‘the voice’ or ‘the degree’ or ‘the position’. The journey, at least as I know it, is a journey to union. It is a journey from fragmentation to wholeness, a journey from exile to home, a journey from attachment to union, a journey from hiding to “being hidden” in Christ, a journey from neurosis to theosis.    – Chuck deGroat

   
    
    
 

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