life: acoustic & amplified

poetry, quotes & thoughts about life

Archive for the category “Peace”

Can you feel the music?

A lot of the daily messages I get right now are about Lent. I didn’t grow up with Lent and so I find it somewhat exotic. Over the past several years I have observed the practice and have found it so beautiful and beneficial. It is an important event, and it is a time to go deep into some tough issues. The messages I get in my daily inspirational doses are great (for the most part) and present Lent as both difficult, but joyous! Which I believe is true. We must begin to be vulnerable to our brokenness, if we want to feel our deepest joy!

It is interesting to me the contrast of when I hear people talking about Lent in everyday conversation. Like at my job, or in a restaurant. It seems a lot of people feel like Lent is about deprivation and punishment. I over hear them dreading ‘giving up’ chocolate, beer or meat and wondering if it will interfere with their entertainment schedule, or if is just too hard. Most of them seem to be dreading it. When I can, I try to insert myself into their  conversation (I hope they appreciate it at some point! ha) and assure them that is not what Lent is about – we are not called to punishment! We are called to a deeper experience of life. We are called to freedom, love and joy! Life is beautiful  – that is the message!

I try to encourage the people who feel this way to turn it around this year. Don’t be punished by ‘giving up’ use the 40 days to ADD something special. Write a 40 day journal and concentrate on looking for one good thing a day to be thankful and write about!

Lent is about reflection about deepening our lives in every way. Let’s try to get the message out that Jesus never wanted religion – his beautiful life and death was because of love to give us truth and freedom. He wants our love, relationship, communion, fellowship, passion. Yes, it’s all about love.

 

how to live a happy, peaceful life:

wow!
it’s always my choice!

If you want it – it’s all there for us!

We just have to choose who we want to be and then keep making choices toward those amazing things!!!! I love that!

Be Sure to Take A Beautiful Path

The Road Not Taken
Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

More options for inspiration at http://pinterest.com/al513/the-path-we-take-makes-all-the-difference/

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. Lewis
Today is a ‘Freedom Anniversary’ for me! It is a big deal! My life has been a progression of stepping towards freedom.
The battles have been long, dangerous and hard to win in order to free myself. Both physically and spiritually. I am not completely there yet – it is a life-long exploration and journey to free myself. The chains and bars in my prisons, because I find they are legion, are very strong. My Alcatraz type barren -rock islands were such a long way from shore, with many snipers, predators and sharp rocks in the water and on all sides of the shores. My guards were very alert and ready to shoot me, or keep me locked down and in solitary for my whole life. They were gleeful when I fell and happy over my pain and destruction.
And yet, the love, the words, and truth, of God were so much more powerful than any of these things, that no prison in this world could not hold me and, for 22 years now, I keep walking out of my prisons into the brilliant light and sunshine of the free!!!!

I 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.

http://songsfromthevalley.com/July-09-2-14-Freedom.pdf

The Importance of Personal Responsibility

's avatarHeartWork

An Invitation to Wholehearted Living hosted by Elaine Hansen and Margaret Rahn

http://heartworkguides.com/brene-brown-the-price-of-invulnerability-and

The importance of vulnerability and tenderness has become increasingly into the forefront of my thinking over the past couple of years. It is one of the most important choices we have to make as humans and the choices we make over this is a ‘life or death’ kind of choice. There are little decisions we make over this that lead us to live a false life.

Our society seems to encourage and celebrate ‘badness’. ‘Good girls gone bad’ seem to make people laugh and admire them for going this direction. Tiny example of this – I heard a father singing a song with his 8-year-old daughter, ‘…whips and chains excite me’. WHAT?????? WHY???HOW????? Can we truly believe we can sing and laugh over these types of words and actions and our lives and relationships will move into happy directions? Words are soooo important!!!!

Somehow we have decided we don’t want to live in reality. There is much pain in life – there is also much joy in life and in order to truly experience life, we have to allow both of these things to be felt, embraced, and accepted. We are here to help each other be better, to heal, to give love and lift each other up. We are given the choice of how we experience and share these things! And we have the power to live a happy, or an unhappy life.

Mostly we just react to life. We don’t realize we are choosing, we just strike back when someone hurts us, not realizing what we are doing. It feels natural. It feels powerful and good in that moment. But the consequences are very grave. As we choose to shut down our hearts, as we choose darkness, anger, revenge and blame, our actions become more desperate to ‘feel’ and so we spiral into addictions, abuse and secret behaviors that lead us further and further into darkness and way from shame. We begin to believe lies and forget that we are the beloved creations of God and we are loved beyond what we can ever comprehend.

If you click on the link above you will find out about a workshop I went to on Saturday and will also see two TED talks by Brene Brown on her vulnerability research. Sooooo good!!!

I have lots more to say about this…but I am out of time for this morning…think about these things!!! Make choices towards your own personal responsibility and happiness! Determine to seek it out for yourself! This is your personal life story – don’t let someone else rob you of your happiness and love!

true success is finding the joy and miracle of each moment

“What day is it?”

It’s today,” squeaked Piglet.

“My favorite day,” said Pooh.

wow! so important! sweet or sour?

His eye is on the Sparrow and I know He watches me – Civilla D. Martin

A Bird’s Song

Small bird on a
thin branch
sings,

not asking
anyone, not
copying.

Such a short
little song,
so slender,

of no great
meaning,
yet so

true, so easily
winding through
the air,

as the air
will let it,
inviting your heart

somewhere
wonderful.
Isn’t that

all your life
needs
to be?

__________________
S
teve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net

 

 

 

 

Things that matter most!

Last week I opened my lunch box and Chris had slipped a little stone in it. When I asked him why, he responded he wanted me to ‘be reminded that he loves me and wants me in his life. I have a home with him.’ Home has a huge meaning for me at this time in my life after years of wandering it is such a blessing to have a home. The stone is beside my keyboard and I find myself picking it up and being reminded several times a day of where I am in this journey, praying for this man, for this gift of our relationship, for the home we will build, breathing thanks. It is a very good feeling and makes me smile a lot. It gives me hope and strengthens me!  🙂 I am very blessed!

The people of God have always built monuments of stones as reminders of God’s grace and deliverance. In the Bible you find the people of God stacking stones in various places as they go.

We forget things so easily – let’s start living, and remembering, with intention, something as small as a pebble can have a great impact in our lives! These are the things that matter most!

Intention Set in Stone Prayer Stone Stacks

Add a stone blessed with a prayer to a mound and your intentions merge with those who have left stones before you.

Stone has played a role in spirituality from the very moment humanity externalized its sacred vision. Humans gave form to their devotion by scratching images of their deities into rock faces, carving holy statuary, and building stone shrines. The earliest of these were nothing more than simple piles of rocks that honored sacred places, revelations, people, and events. Following in the footsteps of this ancient tradition provides us with a simple and beautiful way to externalize our own spirituality. In your travels, you may have encountered on the sides of roads, trails, or pathways stacks of stones that look like random sculpture. Add a stone blessed with a prayer to such a mound, and your intentions merge with those who have left stones before you, empowering you all.

Associating a prayer with a particular stone alters the substance of both, and the formation of a prayer mound can balance and intensify the energy of a site. The mere act of choosing a stone can inspire mindfulness, as we lose ourselves in the moment seeking a pebble that speaks to our souls. And placing a prayer stone on a towering cairn is a meditation in patience—slowness and stillness allow us to find our stone’s center of gravity so the delicate ceremonial structure before us remains intact. Be cautious, however, when you feel guided to place a prayer rock upon stone mounds you see intermittently alongside well-worn but unmarked hiking paths. Hikers often use small cairns as guide markers to ensure that those who follow in their footsteps will not lose the trail. When in doubt, begin a new prayer pile slightly further away from the path itself and consider adding a relic of some kind to help others understand its purpose.

When you mindfully place a prayer by beginning a stone heap or adding to an existing mound, your thoughts and intentions are left in the care of fate itself. The cairn of which your prayer was one part may be unintentionally knocked down or destroyed by Mother Nature’s own hand. Try not to let this weigh heavily upon your spirit. The potent energy of your prayer was released by this destruction, ensuring that the purpose underlying that prayer will spread outward in the direction of the furthest reaches of the universe.
www.dailyom.com

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