life: acoustic & amplified

poetry, quotes & thoughts about life

Archive for the category “People”

26 Feb 2015

breaking open

Abundance is not a state of finances or wealth, it is a state of inner health. Wherever there is joy, appreciation, gratitude, giving, caring, creativity, vision, inspiration, love, patience and playfulness, there is abundance

– Unknown

You don’t need anyone’s affection or approval in order to be good enough. When someone rejects or abandons or judges you, it isn’t actually about you. It’s about them and their own insecurities, limitations, and needs, and you don’t have to internalize that. Your worth isn’t contingent upon other people’s acceptance of you — it’s something inherent. You exist, and therefore, you matter. You’re allowed to voice your thoughts and feelings. You’re allowed to assert your needs and take up space. You’re allowed to hold onto the truth that who you are is exactly enough. And you’re allowed to remove anyone from your life who makes you feel otherwise. — Daniell Koepke

From love we learn to ease

our fretful longing for more
and to rest in the blessedness
of things as they are.

From love we learn to heal our losses
and our fears of loss.

Love awakens us.
It shows us the truth about ourselves and
gives us the courage to live this truth.

Love sustains us:
it is our quintessential nourishment.

And love connects us–to others,
to ourselves, and to the source of all being.

Love is our teacher,
and we are love’s apprentices.

– Rich & Antra Borofsky

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17 Feb 2015

1 Comment

boundary lines and hard lessons

Shrive: to hear a confession;
to impose penance; to grant absolution.

Shrove Tuesday, our fifth snowstorm
in as many weeks.
In three feet of snow,
plowed shoulder deep beside the roads,
along the driveways,
we confess that we are human,
that we are weary,
the streets lined with quadriplegic cars,
that we are small, dependent, fragile.
The knife wind comes down on us
where we are tender.
We confess our bondage
to the narrow paths we’ve dug,
and keep digging.
Winter swallows our voices, erases speech;
our chanting shovels confess
we are not masters.
The silver sun hears us,
assures us straightening between shovelfuls
that we are not evil,
merely afraid,
and notes how much of our snow
is now in our neighbor’s driveway.
The strangeness so oddly transforming our streets,
the need, the hardship
tempt us inward, swirling winds,
but beckon us to reconcile, to accept,
to bond, to help.
We shovel toward each other.
The crow and the fox
who also shiver bear our absolution:
we too belong, and carry out penance
for being human
in labor and toil.
Shriven under mounds of baptismal white,
we are not judged.
This is not punishment,
just life,
that we must shovel.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
http://www.unfoldinglight.net

photo source tracks found at

Posted in action, attitude, awareness, Becoming Yourself, beloved, dark, determination, Encouragement, Faith, find art at pinterest, grace, Gratitude, Grieving, Growth, healing, Letting Go, Life, People, Relationships, Trust, www.pinterest.com

06 Feb 2015

wherever we find ourselves is where we are to share love

The Empire of God has no headquarters,
nor will there be a Final Battle.
God’s desire is more than saving selected souls:
it is the healing of the nations,
the mending of the whole world.
But there is no Situation Room
from which this campaign is directed.
The Spirit of healing and compassion,
the work of redemption and justice
is done in every little village and town.
Every heart is the center of the movement.
Every life, every act—your life, this day—
is where Christ works.
It is for this that you were born;
“that is what you came out to do.”
You don’t need to do great miracles.
The world is transformed in very small bits,
village by village, one moment at a time.
You are the message.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
http://www.unfoldinglight.net

in an imperfect world helplessness, acceptance and surrender are the defining words of love

photo source tracks found at

Posted in attitude, awareness, Becoming Yourself, Beliefs, beloved, Blessing, Encouragement, find art at pinterest, healing, kindness, Letting Go, Life, Love, People, soul and spirit, touch, Trust, Vulnerability, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment

01 Feb 2015

alchemist training

Loaves and Fishes

This is not
the age of information.

Forget the news,
and the radio,
and the blurred screen.

This is the time
of loaves
and fishes.

People are hungry
and one good word is bread
for a thousand.

– David Whyte
from The House of Belonging
©1996 Many Rivers Press

photo source tracks found at

Posted in attitude, awareness, Becoming Yourself, courage, find art at pinterest, laugh, Leadership, Letting Go, Love, People, Solitude, soul and spirit, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment

26 Jan 2015

There’d be one less stranger in the world
tonight
one less stranger looking for light
If we would just shine
as we walk through our day
there’d be one less stranger in the world

If you would just speak right from the heart
and let me do that right at the start
If you could allow me my point of view
I’d try to do the same thing for you
If we both ask questions
of answers we seek
Then sit in silence allow each one to speak
Well, what kind of world would these words create?

There’d be one less stranger in the world
tonight
one less stranger looking for light
If we would just shine
as we walk through our day
there’d be one less stranger in the world

see beyond the fear
see both far and near
shine your little light
shine with all your might

ACL 1/25/15

When an iceberg gets flipped over…

Projects

http://www.liftbump.com/2015/01/36523-iceberg-flips-breathtaking-beauty-hidden-underneath-revealed/

Posted in awareness, beauty, Becoming Yourself, community, connection, find art at pinterest, friendship, intimacy, Love, mystery, nature, People, Relationships | Leave a comment

25 Jan 2015

perfect surrender

I am always amazed that poems are willing to lie down and sleep inside the flat, closed pages of books. If poems behaved according to their essence, they would be out dancing on the seashore or flying to the heavens or trying to rinse out secrets of the mountains.
– John O’Donohue

Posted in attitude, awareness, beauty, find art at pinterest, Glory, Joy, Life, Love, People, Poetry, soul and spirit, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment

12 Jan 2015

what are you willing to risk?

Keep walking though there’s no place to get to.
Don’t try to see through the distances.
That’s not for human beings. Move within, but don’t move the way fear makes you move.
– Rumi

just acknowledge the fear and do it anyway!

Posted in attitude, awareness, Becoming Yourself, beloved, Change, Choice, connection, courage, Faith, find art at pinterest, inspiration, intimacy, Life, Love, mystery, People, Relationships, soul and spirit, touch, Trust, truth, Uncategorized, Vulnerability, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment

06 Jan 2015

the hardest simple truth

Posted in action, awareness, Becoming Yourself, Blessing, Choice, Encouragement, Faith, find art at pinterest, grace, inspiration, Life, People, Relationships, Respect, soul and spirit, touch, Trust, Vulnerability, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment

14 Dec 2014

everybody’s an artist

It seems to me that
paralleling the paths of action, devotion, etc.,
there is a path called art
and that the sages of the East would recognize
Faulkner, Edward Hopper, Beethoven, William Carlos Williams
and address them as equals.
It’s a matter of attention and discipline, isn’t it?—
combined with a certain God-given ability.
It’s what you’re willing to go through, willing to give, isn’t it?
It’s the willingness to be a window
through which others can see
all the way out to infinity
and all the way back to themselves.