life: acoustic & amplified

poetry, quotes & thoughts about life

Archive for the category “Passion”

11 Jun 2016

I see you


A woman in the city, who was a sinner,

stood behind him at his feet, weeping,

and began to bathe his feet with her tears….

He said, “Do you see this woman?”

—Luke 7.37, 44

……………………..
No, we do not see.

To one of Jesus’ most arresting questions,

we have to answer: we don’t see her.

We see our prejudices and stereotypes. W

e see our fears and projections.

We don’t see this woman;

we see what we think of her.

We see a sinner.

We see someone disrupting our dinner.

We see someone who makes us uncomfortable.

Which is to say, we see our judgment,

our expectations,

our discomfort.

We see our own stuff.

We don’t see her.
But Jesus saw this woman,

really saw her.

He saw her pain and her strength,

her gratitude, her courage,

her transformation.

He saw the precious value of her gift.

He saw her soul at work.

He saw God’s grace in her.
Jesus really saw people.

He saw who they were and knew their story,

not because he had ESP

but because he paid attention.

The woman at the well,

the bent over woman,

the rich man,

Bartimaeus,

the woman who touched him in a crowd…

he really saw people because he wanted to. He

paid attention.

And there was healing in his seeing.

What he saw in people was not their flaws

but the mercy of God.

And seeing the grace was like sunlight on plants:

it made people heal and grow and bear fruit.
God, help me really see.

Help me set aside my feelings and judgments,

and see whole people,

your beloved,

precious souls.

Help me see myself:

help me notice my projections,

and name my fears and expectations;

help me confess my blinders

and set them aside so I can see.

Beloved, help me really see people,

really see your grace,

really see at all.

Beloved, I want to see.

 

__________________

Steve Garnaas-Holmes

Unfolding Light

http://www.unfoldinglight.net



At dusk, by the irrigation ditch

gurgling past backyards near the highway,

locusts raise a maze of calls in cottonwoods.

A Spanish girl in a white party dress
s

trolls the levee by the muddy water

where her small sister plunks in stones.

Beyond a low adobe wall and a wrecked car

men are pitching horseshoes in a dusty lot.

Someone shouts as he clangs in a ringer.

Big winds buffet in ahead of a storm,

rocking the immense trees and whipping up

clouds of dust, wild leaves, and cottonwool.

In the moment when the locusts pause and the girl

presses her up-fluttering dress to her bony knees

you can hear a banjo, guitar, and fiddle

playing “The Mississippi Sawyer” inside a shack.

Moments like that, you can love this country.

—–
“Passing through Albuquerque” by John Balaban


I wanna take this moment to look into your eyes.
Linger there with courage, allow your soul to rise
Feel your loving spirit
Touch your hidden dreams.
Let you know you’re not alone

that you’re finally seen…

Now’s there’s one less stranger in the world.

One less lonely heart in the night.

Lift your eyes and look at me

now there’s one less stranger in the world.

If you speak right from your heart
and let me do the same
If you allow my point of view
As we grow and change
If we both ask questions
to answers we seek
Then just sit in silence
allow our hearts to speak….

There’d be one less stranger in the world.
One less lonely heart in the night.
Lift your eyes and look at me
now there’s one less stranger in the world.

💑

AL


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31 May 2016

what am I missing? 

The speaker points out 

that we don’t really have

much of a grasp of things, 

not only the big things,

the important questions, 

but the small everyday

things. 

“How many steps up to your back yard? 

What is the name of your district representative? 

What did you have for breakfast? 

What is your wife’s shoe size? 

Can you tell me the color of your sweetheart’s eyes? 

Do you remember where you parked the car?” 

The evidence is overwhelming.

Most of us never truly experience life. 

“We drift through life in daydream, 

missing the true richness and joy that life has to offer.” 

When the speaker has finished we gather around to sing a few inspirational songs. 

You and I stand at the back of the group and hum along 

since we have forgotten most of the words.

😜
The Speaker by Louis Jenkins


Mary Oliver reminds me

to let go of any need that might linger in me

to, even try, to impress anyone. 

But to stay alert to the extravagant impressiveness around me, 

puddling at my feet,

drowning my life with goodness. 

To be easily astonished,

easily filled with wonder,

to let life boggle my mind.

To stay a child of joy and nature,

a collector of miracles. 

To stay in awe of sunsets

and dandelions,

coffee shops

and grasshoppers.

To gasp every time I get a view of the ocean,

to be breathless at the view from a mountaintop road at sunset. 

To feel wonder when I see a leaf change color.

To crane my neck, every single time, to catch a glimpse of sunlight on water,

to thrill everytime I touch the curve of a babies cheek. 

To get a chill of macabre delight

at gnarly, old toenails,

and bats hanging upside down

in a dark damp cave,

or flying around a street light as darkness falls slowly through the air. 

Such things keep me alive. 

These are the true riches of our living. 

Extreme miracles everywhere around us. 

We are here to witness, 

here to share descriptions of such beauty, 

even our feeble attempts are so amazing

they boggle the mind. 

Thank you, Mary Oliver, for this reminder, 

with your every beautiful, glorious word. 

We are each here to do our part,

to record our miracles

in our own voices, 

pens,

paints,

dances,

lyrics,

artistry,

we make up this tapestry,

we record the blazing glory,

the divine masterpiece. 

We each add notes to the grand symphony,

allowing the rocks to stay silent – 

at least for those who

don’t care to listen for the exquisite, out-of-this-world music they share – 

we play on through each day 

with such brilliance, light and passion,

savoring delight, 

everywhere we go…

until we are gone, 

and those who come behind us

find it all fresh and new once more,

and begin to tell their part of the story, 

in their own beautiful, unique ways. 

💞

AL 

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22 May 2016

gone fishing 


There is sensual pleasure in a small act done well 

My whole being loves how you cast that fishing rod

sight, sound, smell, touch, hearing all involved

observing,

absorbing,

thrilling; 

It sticks with me and loops in my memory – 

this beautiful dance of motion

playing again and again

the quick, sure whip of the rod,

the slow arc of the line against the blue sky before it breaks the water,

the vulture floating high in the blue and white, being themselves, 

sure of their importance,

not questioning their beauty,

or the importance of their purpose,

the graceful, smooth winding of the reel,

the flash of the silver lure dancing below the surface of the green water 

your patience as you teach me, 

a very amature student –

all revealing a new layer of beauty,

I want to learn this rhythm,

my soul responds with deep desire,

I want to be a natural part of this world,

a silver flash,

a big blue sky. 

🎣

AL


Birds know north without looking.

Some fish have a line down their bodies

to sense electrical fields

or changes in water pressure.

Jumping spiders see ultraviolet.

Bees have a little compass of iron

and can read earth’s magnetic field. 

And there’s a little silver thing in you

that listens to the Holy Spirit.

It’s really quiet, so you have to be quiet

to hear it listening, but it hears.

You don’t have to hear God;

just let the little silver thing in you

listen to the Spirit and speak 

to the rest of your body. 
__________________  

Steve Garnaas-Holmes

Unfolding Light

http://www.unfoldinglight.net


* 4 middle Fish photos above were taken by Fisherman Dan @ Branford, CT

Posted in action, Adventure, attitude, awareness, beauty, Becoming Yourself, Change, Choice, commitment, connection, find art at pinterest, Gratitude, Grieving, inspiration, intimacy, Letting Go, Life, Love, Miracles, mystery, nature, Passion, Patience, Peace, Reality | Leave a comment
20 May 2016

you CAN see the forest


Blessings 

occur.

Some days I find myself

putting my foot in

the same stream twice;

leading a horse to water

and making him drink.

I have a clue.

I can see the forest

for the trees.
All around me people

are making silk purses

out of sows’ ears,

getting blood from turnips,

building Rome in a day.

There’s a business

like show business.

There’s something new

under the sun.
Some days misery

no longer loves company;

it puts itself out of its.

There’s rest for the weary.

There’s turning back.

There are guarantees.

I can be serious.

I can mean that.

You can quite

put your finger on it.
Some days I know

I am long for this world.

I can go home again.

And when I go

I can

take it with me.

❤️
Blessings by Ronald Wallace


A toast to an unexpected Monday

Yes, my friend, a toast!

Unexpected mondays are one of my very favorite things

Along with the unexpected moments in everyday. 

For many years

I have looked for,

and always have found

in each day,

moments

Where I find myself breathless

suspended in the aha’s

of ordinary miracles,

the sharing the laughter hidden in our days –

the glory in the grey. 
I, under the shadow of Walt Whitman,

seeing the miraculous in it all. 

The simple pleasures,

which take our breath away

and remind us of our gift. 

this moment. 

Nothing more important than

this ordinary day

opening before us

like a sparkling present to unwrap. 

Slowly. 

Taking great care with the paper,

lingering over untying the satin ribbon,

Letting it slid beneath our fingers

Savoring the feeling

of the silk 

in all of our senses. 

Especially on the tip of our tongue.

This is passion. 

This is life! 

💞

AL



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15 May 2016

suit up


We drift through this gray, increasing nowhere

 Until we stand before a threshold we know

 We have to cross to come alive once more.
 May we have the courage to take the step

 Into the unknown that beckons us;

 Trust that a richer life awaits us there,

 That we will lose nothing

 But what has already died;

 Feel the deeper knowing in us sure

 Of all that is about to be born beyond

 The pale frames where we stayed confined,

 Not realizing how such vacant endurance

 Was bleaching our soul’s desire. 

❤️

    – John O’Donohue 


What are waves to rocks 

before they become 

the softness of sand…

Is that not love?

Whoever said ferocity 

cannot be kind

never saw the way a seed 

is destroyed as it 

comes alive.

     ~Joshua Israelievitch


If you want to succeed in your life, remember this phrase: The past does not equal the future. Because you failed yesterday; or all day today; or a moment ago; or for the last six months; the last sixteen years; or the last fifty years of life, doesn’t mean anything… All that matters is: 

What are you going to do, right now?  

❓

     – Tony Robbins 


I am so tired of waiting,

Aren’t you,

For the world to become good

And beautiful and kind?

-Langston Hughes

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05 May 2016

spring slowly but surely


The trees here are still mostly bare,

their infinite fingers of resolute patience.

They are in no hurry. What will come, 

will.
South of here it’s different, and farther north. 

But this is here. 
On some twigs the tenderest green

emerges, a different green, and fragile

as new things are.
Without yet the singing, buzzing and sweetness

they gather life in near-freezing wind, bare,

or nearly so.
Sap runs. You can’t see it.

Small things underground shift,

and something larger than all this.

Tomorrow is more open than the western sky,

moving.

__________________ 

Steve Garnaas-Holmes

Unfolding Light

http://www.unfoldinglight.net



photos above by Fisherman Dan @ Branford, CT

🌾

If you have become ash,

Then wait you become a rose again.

And do not remember how often you have become ash

But how often you were reborn in ashes to a new rose.

🌹

~ Rumi


I’ve been paying attention this spring

my current obsession is 

the dogwoods birthing 

it’s been a patient process

over the past couple of weeks

it all started with tiny beads on the end of bare branches

every day they appear a bit more 

they’re almost fully blooming now

my favorite tree is early in my walk

it’s mainly white with pink centers

but three large branches are pink with white centers 

it’s simply beautiful

the magnolias came 

and went quickly this year

the weeping cherries

are currently bawling their pink tears 

falling in puddles on the ground

I find them on my shoulders

in my hair

This slow spring is reminding me

not to rush

just allow

beauty in all she is

knows herself

everything we love

is always

right on time

🌳

AL

Posted in attitude, awareness, beauty, Becoming Yourself, Blessing, Change, confidence, Glory, Growth, Letting Go, Life, Love, Miracles, mystery, nature, Passion, Patience, soul and spirit, strength, transformation, Trust | Leave a comment
03 May 2016

smiling’s my favorite… 


Days the weather sits

in the endless sky,

the clouds drifting by.
The winter’s snow,

summer’s heat,

same street.
Nothing changes

but the faces, the people,

all the things they do
‘spite of heaven and hell

or city hall—

Nothing’s wiser than a moment.
No one’s chance

is simply changed by wishing,

right or wrong.
What you do is how you get along.

What you did is all it ever means.

😂

Place to Be by Robert Creeley

My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style. – Maya Angelou

😘
Oh yes, this is my motto!!

These four things for the rest of my life:

Passion 

Compassion

Humor

Style

Maya is my friend

She knows me well

We are soul connected in so many ways

Thank you, my sister

For your words

Your journey

Your passion

Your choices

I am ever grateful for your teaching

I will do my best to live

the same way you did

within the space I have been given

So my song

will be transformed from

breaking free from my cages

and I will sing my personal song

of freedom

🎼

AL


Don’t leave home without your sense of humor. Don’t come home without it either.

    – Robert Moss

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28 Apr 2016

risk it all  


We are here essentially to risk ourselves in the world. We are a form of invitation to others and to otherness, we are meant to hazard ourselves for the right thing, for the right woman or the right man, for a son or a daughter, for the right work or for a gift given against all the odds. And in all this continual risking the most profound courage may be found in the radical and simple willingness to allow ourselves to be happy along the way…

😄

LONGING by David Whyte


It’s not how we leave one’s life. 

How we go off the air. 

You never know do you. 

You think you’re ready

for anything; 

then it happens, and you’re not. 

You’re really not. 

The genesis of an ending, nothing but a feeling, 

a slow movement, 

the dusting of furniture 

with a remnant of the revenant’s shirt.

Seeing the candles sink in their sockets; 

we turn away, 

yet the music never quits. 

The fire kisses our face.

O phthsis, o lotharian dead eye, 

no longer will you gaze on the baize of the billiard table. 

No more shooting butter dishes out of the sky. 

Scattering light.

Between snatches of poetry and penitence 

you left the brumal wood of men and women. 

Snow drove the butterflies home. 

You must know how it goes, 

known all along what to expect,

sooner or later … 

the faded cadence of anonymity.

Frankly, my dear, frankly, my dear, frankly

💞

Only the Crossing Counts by C. D. Wright


Well I won’t back down, no I won’t back down

You could stand me up at the gates of hell

But I won’t back down
Gonna stand my ground, won’t be turned around

And I’ll keep this world from draggin’ me down

Gonna stand my ground and I won’t back down
[Chorus:]

Hey baby, there ain’t no easy way out

Hey I will stand my ground

And I won’t back down
Well I know what’s right, I got just one life

In a world that keeps on pushin’ me around

But I’ll stand my ground and I won’t back down
Hey baby there ain’t no easy way out

Hey I will stand my ground

And I won’t back down

No, I won’t back down

This day maybe be rough and bloody and heartbreaking but it is here and it is now and it is bursting with untold potential and possibility and our response to it is of utmost, urgent importance.

       – Rob Bell

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18 Apr 2016

don’t stop believin’ 

  
when life gets hard

and love is dry

when hearts get hurt

and eyes just cry

there’s just one thing that’s left to try

pour some music on it

when times are tough

when money’s tight

you try to make it

with all your might

just one thing will make things right

pour some music on it

pour some music all around

on your head

on the ground

That’s the way that joy is found

just pour some music on it

when the night 

is dark and grim

the day is gray 

and hope is dim

Just wait for light, just fake a grin

and pour some music on it

pour some music all around

let it out 

let it pound

Just pump it up, dance to that sound

just pour some music on it

are you tired, are you fat,

are you wearing thin?

just pour some music on it

are you happy, are you sad, are you wearing skin?

just pour some music in it

are you red, are you white, are you feeling blue?

just pour some music on it

are you old, are you young, are you feeling new

just pour some music on it

🎼

AL

   
    
 
  

Posted in Adventure, awareness, beauty, Becoming Yourself, find art at pinterest, music, Passion, Reality | Leave a comment
16 Apr 2016

watch & pray

 

HIDING is a way of staying alive. Hiding is a way of holding ourselves until we are ready to come into the light. Even hiding the truth from ourselves can be a way to come to what we need in our own necessary time. Hiding is one of the brilliant and virtuoso practices of almost every part of the natural world: the protective quiet of an icy northern landscape, the held bud of a future summer rose, the snow bound internal pulse of the hibernating bear.
Hiding is underestimated. We are hidden by life in our mother’s womb until we grow and ready ourselves for our first appearance in the lighted world; to appear too early in that world is to find ourselves with the immediate necessity for outside intensive care.
Hiding done properly is the internal faithful promise for a proper future emergence, as embryos, as children or even as emerging adults in retreat from the names that have caught us and imprisoned us, often in ways where we have been too easily seen and too easily named.
We live in a time of the dissected soul, the immediate disclosure; our thoughts, imaginings and longings exposed to the light too much, too early and too often, our best qualities squeezed too soon into a world already awash with too easily articulated ideas that oppress our sense of self and our sense of others. What is real is almost always to begin with, hidden, and does not want to be understood by the part of our mind that mistakenly thinks it knows what is happening. What is precious inside us does not care to be known by the mind in ways that diminish its presence.

Hiding is an act of freedom from the misunderstanding of others, especially in the enclosing world of oppressive secret government and private entities, attempting to name us, to anticipate us, to leave us with no place to hide and grow in ways unmanaged by a creeping necessity for absolute naming, absolute tracking and absolute control. Hiding is a bid for independence, from others, from mistaken ideas we have about our selves, from an oppressive and mistaken wish to keep us completely safe, completely ministered to, and therefore completely managed.
Hiding is creative, necessary and beautifully subversive of outside interference and control. Hiding leaves life to itself, to become more of itself. Hiding is the radical independence necessary for our emergence into the light of a proper human future.

☺️💞☺️
HIDING by David Whyte

   
All the things hidden in my heart

Like Mary, the mother,

Watching and observing Jesus. 

Being the witness of the unseen miracles 

The keeper of all I have seen. 

My faith is real,

because I have experienced great acts of God,

faithfulness

on the inside, and outside, of my life,

In the daily progression of my journey.  

You can’t take any of it away from me. 

I know what I have seen.

This is not my daddy’s faith

This is not my momma’s relationship. 

This is all mine. 

Intimacy 

Walking together. 

Miracles. 

Clouds and colors, 

falling stars and pillars of fire,

pointing the way. 

Falling in love. 

Commitment. 

Yes, the words of Jesus changed my life,

When I began to live them daily. 

When I stepped into the great unknown. 

Became an observer of my own soul. 

Became open to the door of the unknown. 

Became comfortable with being uncomfortable. 

Fell in passionate love with grace. 

Walked through the unlocked door into freedom 

All the hidden things will be revealed

All the hidden things will be proclaimed

All the hidden things will be shouted from the rooftops. 

All the hidden things will be joyfully sung at the top of my lungs. 

All the hidden things will remain hidden no more. 

💖

AL

    

Posted in attitude, awareness, beauty, Becoming Yourself, find art at pinterest, Hope, mystery, Passion, Poetry | Leave a comment

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