life: acoustic & amplified
poetry, quotes & thoughts about life
Archive for the category “People”
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
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
covers off
You cant wake someone
pretending to be asleep
You cant talk to someone
pretending to listen
You can’t touch someone
pretending to be interested
You can’t connect with someone
pretending to be your friend
You can’t teach someone anything
pretending to know everything
You can’t satisfy someone
pretending to be perfect
You can’t give enough to someone
pretending to be grateful
You can’t change the world
pretending to be kind
You can’t heal your heart
pretending it’s not hurting
You can’t solve a problem
pretending you haven’t got one
You cant be loved by someone
pretending to be ready for love
You can’t find the truth
pretending it’s a lie
It is what it is
Pretending never really works…
but don’t even bother telling that to the pretenders
AL
Listen to The Platters sing Smoke Gets in Your Eyes http://youtu.be/BeC9Z1YQjXs
photo sources found at www.pinterest.com/al513
just a thought
Strange to realize
on our very worst day of life
someone else is having their very best day
Every death
is countered with birth,
Every grieving tear
with belly laughter
On the night we see the stars fall
the sun is rising on the other side of the world.
The human spirit cannot be conquered
we rise again,
and again, each time we fall
Tides come in
tides go out, over and over
With every broken heart
there is an answering new moment of love
For every first kiss
a final slamming of the door –
figuratively and/or literally
For every threshold we cross
we must cross another in a new moment
there are always new crossings
We each have moments of glory
moments of defeat
Worry is always a paper tiger
stripping our moments of joy
Illusions of control hide behind our eyes
always revealed to be a waste of our precious resources
our time here is too valuable to waste on such things
There is a time for every season
In all, we are to bring praise,
as sacrifice – as gift –
this simple act
the amazing hat-trick to the healing of our wounds
when, in every single circumstance,
we stand in the,
sometimes difficult,
sometimes brilliant,
beauty, kindness and truth of that very moment
and give thanks.
AL
Listen to George Harrison sing Give Me Love http://youtu.be/s-KAvPbO8JY
🌎🌎🌎🌎🌎🌎🌏
photo sources found at www.pinterest.com/al513
holy ground
There is grace on ground like this…
we can say that every step we take
of every day we live
Wherever we are is sacred ground
every bush we see burning with holy
every rock singing glory
every bird testament of abundance
every flower testament to extravagant love
every waterfall
every rainbow
and moonbow
and drop of the summer rain
shimmers with promise
rocks standing firm in the faith
glittering in sunshine
every person you meet has the same value
the same source
we are all made of stars
held together with mud
breathing the breath of the creator
the matter of the universe
life and death our greatest gifts
the space between can be our heaven
or the darkest shades of hell
we choose our path with every decision
free will is our constant companion
love, and connection, our greatest needs
choices are most important
wake up and guard them well
AL
Listen to Amos Lee sing Keep it Loose, Keep it Tight http://youtu.be/9xt8dVLPLFc
👤👤👤👤👤👤👤👤👤👤
photo sources found at www.pinterest.com/al513
what will you choose?
Just like everyone alive
Your days will be full of events –
threads, as it were,
weaving your life into a tapestry
There will be days of great joy and ones of overwhelming sorrow
Good days
Bad days
Medium days
Average days
Snow days
Hazy days
day after day after day
until they end
and you move on
All your days you will have circumstances to accept and embrace
or reject and avoid
to stay or leave
to fly or fear
Some to let go
some to overcome
some to enjoy
some to live through
Life is not about being fair
Life is about winning with the cards you hold
Winning doesn’t mean being rich, famous
or being born with a pedigree
Winning means living up to your own very unique, personal best
Winning means experiencing and inhabiting
love, peace and joy
You’ll be as happy as you decide to be
You will be as healthy as is possible based on what you decide to do
and the genes you were born with
You’ll choose to accept or reject what is offered
You’ll do what you want to do
Go where you want to go
Keep holding on to what is most important to you
– no matter if it makes you better –
or if it destroys you –
You’ll love who you love
Be who you are
You will be worth as much as you decide you are
You will judge others based on your own insecurities,
and your unchallenged beliefs
You will have as much love as you allow inside you
You will have as much of God as you seek to find
You will inhabit your life –
or not
All this will have nothing to do with your circumstances
It won’t matter how much money you have,
your gender,
or the color of your skin
It will all be about your choices
Always,
and only,
about your choices
AL
Listen to Misty Edwards sing Soul Cry http://youtu.be/b-IDAqxCZ7I
😇😈😇😈😇😈
Photo sources found at www.pinterest.com/al513
We must hold each other with tender care, so as not to bend a soul away from its truth. – from The Endless Practice
Over and over we break
open, we break and
we break and we open.
For a while, we try to fix
the vessel—as if
to be broken is bad.
As if with glue and tape
and a steady hand we
might bring things to perfect
again. As if they were ever
perfect. As if to be broken is not
also perfect. As if to be open
is not the path toward joy.
The vase that’s been shattered
and cracked will never
hold water. Eventually
it will leak. And at some
point, perhaps, we decide
that we’re done with picking
our flowers anyway, and no
longer need a place to contain them
We watch them grow just
as wildflowers do—unfenced,
unmanaged, blossoming only
when they’re ready—and mygod,
how beautiful they are amidst
the mounting pile of shards.
💐💐💐💐💐💐💐💐💐💐
The Way It Is by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer
Listen to Norah Jones sing The Long Way Home http://youtu.be/tpeIePQpSuU
🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
photo sources found at www.pinterest.com/al513
peace stronger than the storm
A great storm lashes this nation
while much of the people sleep,
a storm of racial hatred, a storm of fear.
In fear a white man seeks out blacks
and kills them in their church.
This is not new.
The storm will not stop,
the waves of death will not stop.
He is only one wave of the storm,
blown by great winds of fear.
It is not out of hope or happiness he kills,
he kills out of fear.
The one wave is not the problem; the storm is.
The storm envelopes us all.
It defeats us, makes us anxious.
We cry, “Do you not care that we are perishing?”
A great storm battered the disciples’ boat.
Wind, invisible and relentless,
howled down on them, pushing against them.
Waves would not stop, would not stop
bashing them, beating them,
filling the boat, threatening to swallow them.
Fear howled in them like the wind,
fear beat in them like waves,
a relentless storm of fear.
Their hearts cried, “Save us! Manage this!”
But Jesus was asleep, not worrying,
not in control. Serene. At peace.
“Jesus, join our anxiety! Won’t you despair with us?”
But Jesus was unafraid.
Maybe weary, maybe needing not to be needed,
but also unafraid. At peace.
It was not fear, but his sisters’ and brothers’ cries
that awakened him. In his deep calm he rose,
not in fear, not in anger, but in peace
and gave his peace to the others,
and gave his peace to the winds and the seas.
Infinite peace flowed through him like wind,
passed out into the world like waves,
peace stronger than the storm.
It was not fear, but peace that calmed the storm.
The Man of Peace cries out in our own souls.
Calms the storms of our fears.
Grants us peace beyond understanding.
We let it fill us, that divine peace,
deep peace with all the world,
deepest love for this world and all its children,
children with and without mercy,
peace with the world and all is raging wounds,
peace even with the storm,
for it is peace with all of life.
This peace is also agony for our sisters and brothers.
It is care that we are perishing.
But it is care, not fear. It is deep peace.
And in that peace we shall awaken.
Not fear but our sister’s and brothers’ cries awaken us.
We rise, as Christ rises, always in hope.
In deep peace, not in fear or anger,
we will rise and stand in the storm.
The winds will whip us.
The waves will batter us. But we will stand,
because Christ stands in us.
We will cry out to the storm,
and cry out to our sisters and bothers
with a peace stronger than the storm,
“Peace! Be still!”
The wind will still lash us, the waves batter.
Fear will react; anger will rise like new waves.
The wounds will retract and hide, afraid to be touched,
the wind afraid to be named.
But in the storm we shall stand in that peace that is love,
cry out with that peace that is anguish,
hold fast with that peace that is courage,
endure with that peace stronger than the storm.
And there shall be peace.
Peace. Be Still.
Why are you afraid? Have you no faith?
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
No, my friends
darkness is not everywhere
for here and there
I find faces illuminated
from within.
Japanese lanterns
floating
among dark trees
😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊
Light by Carole Ann Borges
Listen to Cat Stevens sing Morning Has Broken http://youtu.be/e0TInLOJuUM
🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻
photo sources found at www.pinterest.com/al513
life: acoustic & amplified 