life: acoustic & amplified
poetry, quotes & thoughts about life
Archive for the category “Newsletter”
The Power of Union
Entering into Partnership
In partnership and relationship we harness the power of union.
The purpose of partnership is to create something greater than we can create alone. Not because of any deficiency or incompleteness in us, but because each of us is unique, with our own talents and abilities, and in partnership we increase the efforts and talents available for creating something meaningful together. All 
partnerships, whether romantic, creative, or professionally-based, can be powerful relationships for personal growth. In partnership we harness the power of union.
It is important to choose our partnerships consciously. Sometimes forged quickly during times of need, we may find ourselves rushing into unions with perhaps not the clearest intentions. Partnerships created from those starting point might serve our immediate needs, but the repercussions of a union so quickly fostered without much thought can be difficult to recover from. Granted, there is something to learn from every relationship, but looking to another to fix or complete us can turn a partnership into a dependent bond. If we can stay clear about what we want and what we need in a partnership, while staying grounded and remembering that we are our own source of happiness and fulfillment, we can create partnerships that support and enhance the best of who we are.
Everyone in our lives is a mirror reflecting back the parts we love and dislike about ourselves. If we have the courage to recognize our reflections in each other, we can grow through our partnerships. A partnership that offers both acceptance of who we are and an opportunity for personal transformation can be fertile ground for growing a healthy, lasting union. When we find this kind of partnership, we are more likely to want to 
keep it, invest in it, and nurture it. Life is a collaborative effort. Much of what we do can be enhanced through partnership. Together we are stronger because our personal power is multiplied by two. Through partnership we experience the joys of working, living, and loving together.
www.dailyom.com
Illusion Newsletter found at
www.songsfromthevalley.com
It’s more…
WHEN GOD IS SILENT
Gentle Pilgrim,
do not be anxious in those times
when your prayers are struck dumb
and God falls silent.
Do not worry when you walk among ruins
longing for an explanation,
when you break your questions
against the hard darkness,
when the ears of your heart
stop up like wells of clay,
when you listen and hear
nothing.
Take heart: you have not
been cut off,
you have fallen into the
deep green pool
at the center of the world
where there is no language,
only presence.
You have passed out of the
market of words
and into the hands of God.
Wrap the silence around you
like a prayer shawl,
this communion with mysteries too great
to be compressed into the paper cups of words.
Be still, and trust God’s mute embrace,
God’s sigh too deep for words,
God’s presence,
beyond all explanation.
_______________________________
Copyright © 2009
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
unfoldinglight@hotmail.com
extravagantly glorious pink trees for everyone!!!
Happy Spring to all!
Spring is busting out all over and the world is full of beautiful color! I love Spring!!!! My very favorite season!
Last year I did a Spring newsletter http://songsfromthevalley.com/March%2011%204.9%20Spring.pdf
I spent about an hour on a blog post this morning titled, Examine What You Tolerate. When I went to publish – it disappeared. The WHOLE thing!!! I was pretty frustrated so I just left it and went to watch a movie! Ha
Now, two hours later, after watching the movie Contagion, which will definietely make you think!!! I have put my loss into perspective. The thoughts I wrote this morning will be coming to you at a moment when I have time to write them again! Meantime, here is the link to the newest newletter – People. www.songsfromthevalley.com
If you don’t have lots of time to read the newsletter today. If you are faced by a frustration, a loss, an obstacle. Remember, it’s your choice how you handle! Process, back up, let it go and give thanks, knowing all things happen as they are supposed to – life is an adventure!!!
I’m convinced that God, who began this good work in you, will carry it through to completion – Phil 1:6
Confidence… thrives on honesty, on honor, on the sacredness of obligations, on faithful protection and on unselfish performance. Without them it cannot live.
– Franklin D. Roosevelt
So many of us believe who we have been created to be just isn’t good enough. I know the feeling, I understand it fully. I have had it most of my life – I still struggle with it in some areas of my living, which is why I am always aware! I want to be the BEST I can be. I want to reach my highest potential for happiness. I want to be who God created me to be and do what I was created to accomplish!
Someone recently told me that they ‘liked my confidence’. That it gave them ‘hope.’ Somehow it kinda hit me weird, I immediately heard the old voices telling me I was ‘talking too much’, ‘I just wanted attention’, that I was ‘vain’ – I felt like maybe I was being ‘too much’ and I felt myself pull back and not speak as much as I wanted to.
So, of course, I have thought it over for the past few weeks and processed the comment, why I felt that way and, I gotta tell you, the more I ’roll around’ in her comment – the more I am really liking it! Ha! I want people to have hope, I want to be the instrument of hope and peace! My confidence comes from the faithfulness, healing and miracles, which I have experienced over a difficult and broken life! It is not about self confidence – it is Christ-confidence!
I know this is much, much bigger than me! I have confidence because I have discovered the truth of the unconditional love of God! I am beloved, you are beloved! Every soul on earth has this vast value and this beloved status!!!!! Wooo hoooo! Now that’s something important to share!!!!!!!
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us most. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and famous?’ Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that people won’t feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in all of us. And when we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others. Maryann Williamson – Used by Nelson Mandela in his 1994 inaugural Speech
http://songsfromthevalley.com/April-10-3.7-Beauty.pdf
love sets free
Free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having. – C.S. LewisI Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Maya Angelou
A free bird leaps on the back
Of the wind and floats downstream
Till the current ends and dips his wing
In the orange suns rays
And dares to claim the sky.
But a bird that stalks down his narrow cage|
Can seldom see through his bars of rage
His wings are clipped and his feet are tied
So he opens his throat to sing.
The caged bird sings with a fearful trill
Of things unknown but longed for still
And his tune is heard on the distant hill for
The caged bird sings of freedom.
The free bird thinks of another breeze
And the trade winds soft through
The sighing trees
And the fat worms waiting on a dawn-bright
Lawn and he names the sky his own.
But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams
His shadow shouts on a nightmare scream
His wings are clipped and his feet are tied
So he opens his throat to sing.
The caged bird sings with
A fearful trill of things unknown
But longed for still and his
Tune is heard on the distant hill
For the caged bird sings of freedom.
Look, look with your ‘special eyes’! (attitude is our choice!)
When we choose not to focus on what’s missing from our lives but are grateful for the abundance that’s present… we experience heaven on earth. – Sarah Breathnach
One of my favorite words: passion
To have passion, to have a dream, to have a purpose in life. And there are three components to 
that purpose, one is to find out who you really are, to discover God, the second is to serve other human beings, because we are here to do that and the third is to express your unique talents and when you are expressing your unique talents you lose track of time. – Deepak Chopra
Songs from the Valley Newsletter on Passion http://songsfromthevalley.com/jan-11-4-2-passion.pdf featuring one of my favorite artists, Bonita Williams Goldberg!!!! http://bonitawilliamsgoldberg.com/
life: acoustic & amplified 