life: acoustic & amplified

poetry, quotes & thoughts about life

Archive for the category “Passion”

02 Oct 2015

what matters most 

 THE ANCIENT DREAM

She has come to sense the inner world goes deep, indeed deeper than the wounds and breakages that others inflict. The contemplative has broken through to that sanctuary in the soul where love dwells. Crucial to this contemplative journey is the trust and imagination to realize that regardless of how you have been damaged, there is within you a sanctuary of deep love, trust and belonging. This is the ancient dream, the masterpiece of divine creativity: the creation of the human heart. Before time – back in the winter of nothingness and then all through the infinite springtime of evolution – the dream was the birth of an intimate well of kindness, care and love in the world, dwelling in the tabernacle of the human heart. 
🔹

John O’Donohue 

Excerpt from BEAUTY


 dear lord in this time of darkness
help us see the darkness
dear lord help us to not pretend

no more pretending
dear lord may our gaze be defenseless 

and unshardable 
teach us the piety of the open eye 
dear lord in this time of darkness

may we be unafraid to mourn and together and hugely
may dignity lose its scaffolding

faces crumble like bricks
dear lord let grief come to grief
and then o lord help us to see the bees yet in the lavender

the spokes of sunlight down through the oaks
and the sleep-opened face of the beloved

and the afternoon all around her 

and her small freckled hands

🔹

Prayer by Teddy Macker

 

Hearts out searching for a home
that one place where we belong

it’s a cold dark night here lately

but I have seen the light

home is your arms 

holding me tight
deeper and deeper into the beautiful 

waking my heart to sing this song

fly with me as flames grow higher

passion flaming deep desire

touching us on this dark night
There are times when life goes hazy

that place we all fall down

life can be so hard my baby

will you hold the line tonight?

open up your heart and fight 
we can do it together

love’s the place where dreams come true

we can make it together 

I believe we can make it

through 
there is hope in this moment 

there is hope in the sky

when days go dark and lonely baby

as long as stars are burning bright

there is hope

there is hope, ’cause

they burn for you

oh baby 

we can make it through

🔹

AL

Listen to Time of the Season by The Zombies http://youtu.be/wG5R7vyu-mA

 

photos found at www.pinterest.com 

Posted in attitude, awareness, beauty, Becoming Yourself, beloved, Change, Choice, commitment, compassion, courage, Encouragement, Faith, find art at pinterest, friendship, healing, Letting Go, Life, Lonely, Love, mystery, Passion, Peace, People, Prayer, Reflection, soul and spirit, touch, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment
21 Sep 2015

being alive 

 

 What is this hand in me, hanging on,
grabbing for what I do not need?
The clinging hand, white knuckled, fretting,

leads me and gets stuck in narrow places. 
Grasping, be done. That yearning,

die in me. That whole hand, cut it off. Let it go.
The hand to possess, the foot to be elsewhere,

the eye to colonize, let them go. I am already myself. 
Away with longing forever to be otherwise.

Better to enter life—yes, come in, come all the way in—
than stay in the grave the hand holds tight,

the unquenchable fire of always needing more.
Bend my wanting of trinkets, God. Give me thirst 

for what is poured into me. 
Unable to add to my infinite life,

I will only be this, alive. 
__________________ 

Steve Garnaas-Holmes

Unfolding Light

http://www.unfoldinglight.net

 

  photos found at www.pinterest.com

Posted in action, Adventure, attitude, awareness, beauty, Choice, compassion, connection, courage, determination, healing, Joy, Letting Go, Life, Love, Passion, People, Relationships, soul and spirit, Trust, Vulnerability | Leave a comment
13 Sep 2015

You will learn by reading, but you will understand with love.      – Rumi   

 

 does everything happen twice?
does anything come once and never show up again?

what happens if we pay attention to what comes to us in a day,

a week,

a year?

what about this morning? 

will the sun ever shine quite this way again? 

will I ever have another summer

where I actually love the heat of the dog days,

The Mets just keep winning, 

I spend days waiting, and wanting, to be kissed by you, 

and I am surrounded by fresh flowers every day? 

AL

   

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

 photo sources at www.pinterest.com

Posted in attitude, awareness, Choice, connection, courage, find art at pinterest, Letting Go, Life, Love, Passion, Seasons, Smile | Leave a comment
11 Aug 2015

every day life offers…

 

    
  This is what life does. It lets you walk up to
the store to buy breakfast and the paper, on a 

stiff knee. It lets you choose the way you have 

your eggs, your coffee. Then it sits a fisherman 

down beside you at the counter who says, Last night,

the channel was full of starfish. And you wonder,

is this a message, finally, or just another day?
Life lets you take the dog for a walk down to the

pond, where whole generations of biological 

processes are boiling beneath the mud. Reeds

speak to you of the natural world: they whisper,

they sing. And herons pass by. Are you old 

enough to appreciate the moment? Too old?

There is movement beneath the water, but it 

may be nothing. There may be nothing going on.
And then life suggests that you remember the 

years you ran around, the years you developed

a shocking lifestyle, advocated careless abandon,

owned a chilly heart. Upon reflection, you are

genuinely surprised to find how quiet you have

become. And then life lets you go home to think

about all this. Which you do, for quite a long time.
Later, you wake up beside your old love, the one

who never had any conditions, the one who waited

you out. This is life’s way of letting you know that

you are lucky. (It won’t give you smart or brave,

so you’ll have to settle for lucky.) Because you 

were born at a good time. Because you were able 

to listen when people spoke to you. Because you

stopped when you should have and started again.
So life lets you have a sandwich, and pie for your

late night dessert. (Pie for the dog, as well.) And 

then life sends you back to bed, to dreamland, 

while outside, the starfish drift through the channel, 

with smiles on their starry faces as they head

out to deep water, to the far and boundless sea.

☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️

Starfish by Eleanor Lerman

   
    
 Listen to The Eagles sing Peaceful Easy Feeling http://youtu.be/n00g71TySS4

Posted in attitude, awareness, beloved, Blessing, Change, Choice, determination, Freedom, grace, Life, Love, Passion, Patience, Peace, People, soul and spirit, truth | Leave a comment
10 Aug 2015

All find what they truly seek.            – C.S. Lewis

 

   

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

 

Ask and it will be given
Seek and you will find

Knock and it will open

Guaranteed

Motivations are key to this

It’s not about surface talk,

sometimes, it’s not even 

what you THINK you’re seeking

but under all 

within all

is what you truly seek

and that is what you will find. 

Really it is what will find you. 

Be careful of your choices –

because you will always find 

what you seek 

is seeking you
AL

guess what song…http://youtu.be/Mk7-GRWq7wA

photos found at www.pinterest.com/al513

Posted in attitude, awareness, Choice, find art at pinterest, Love, Passion, Relationships, Trust, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment
09 Aug 2015

 the possibilities are endless   

  
Turn a fool into gold

Turn a broken heart into a warrior of love

Turn a weak voice into an instrument of peace

Turn my messy life into a picture of grace

Turn my eyes to see only beauty

Turn my mourning into laughing

and my weary heart to be a trusting home

Turn my sorrow into pure joy

keep my feet from stumbling on the path

That is my prayer, oh Lord,

Turn my fear into courage

And turn my self will into a puddle of loving goodness to pour out on the ones I love

Let me walk hand in hand, 

and sleep in peace each night,

in fields of gold with the one who loves me like no other could ever love me

Thank you. Thank you,

always and forever

So be it

xo

💞

AL

Listen to Jason Isbell sing Cover Me Up http://youtu.be/WdwnGG29Upw

💞
photo found on facebook/rumi

  

Posted in attitude, awareness, beloved, connection, find art at pinterest, grace, Gratitude, Joy, Letting Go, Life, Love, Miracles, mystery, Passion, Prayer, soul and spirit, Trust, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment
04 Aug 2015

 holding on…letting go…   

   

   
I closed my eyes

and returned 

to people, 

and places,

I love. 
I closed my eyes

and opened

my heart

to magic,

and mystery,

I fell in love. 
I closed my eyes

and committed 

my life

to love, to You,

my soul’s beloved. 
I closed my eyes

and saw

a new heaven,

and earth,

a world of love. 
I closed my eyes

and found

myself,

within myself

deep calling to deep
I closed my eyes

and sang

my words,

songs you gave me,

my love song to You. 
AL

 

photo sources at www.pinterest.com 

Posted in attitude, awareness, beauty, Becoming Yourself, beloved, Change, Choice, confidence, create, determination, Growth, Letting Go, Love, Passion, soul and spirit | Leave a comment
02 Aug 2015

give it all

  

Posted in attitude, awareness, Becoming Yourself, Choice, Passion, People | Leave a comment
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
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

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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

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

   – The Gospel of Thomas

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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

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