Love asks,
“How open can you become?”
“Will you empty yourself a bit more?”
“I want to enter the recesses of the hidden spaces too,
and fill you with surprises.”
Soul does not ask.
Soul walks in, unannounced with torch in hand
and slides into the easy chair,
Illuminating the room,
Oblivious to whether it is comfortable or not.
Soul is on a mission.
Meanwhile,
the birds are perched
on the fragrance of freedom.
⚜
Inspiration by Flora Aube
I have lived restricted
for so many years
the days they vanish
the years disappear
One day I feel
from the ocean a breeze
It warms my inside
and melts my ice
There are doors forgotten
that lead somewhere
though I never dared
believe they existed
⚜
Restricted Living by Kjell Walfridsson
Longest night.
Darkness falls like snow,
falls and falls,
deepening.
Older than the universe,
here before it,
and will be after.
Wraps an arm around us
as if we’re old friends.
We are.
Darkness lives in us,
radiates from us.
We speak it.
Darkness is the velvet cloth
where you cherish the gem
of your presence among us,
darkness the womb,
darkness the manger
that cradles your light,
this holy being
that becomes us,
births us.
In the darkness
you do not come to us,
we come from you.
Because you are with and not apart,
even the darkness
is you.
Because you shine in it
the dark is our dark,
none of it unchanged.
Your being our light,
your hereness our life,
shining in the longest night.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
To go into the darkness with a light
is to know the light.
To know the dark, go dark.
Go without light and find that the dark too, blooms and sings
and is traveled by dark feet and dark wings.
– Wendell Berry
Black. out. black.
Black. on. black.
Dark. on dark. on dark.
I was simply looking for home.
Not knowing the current alley would lead
to where the sidewalk ended
I stepped off the edge
out of the world of light
waking into morning night
a banished sun
no stars
or moon
or streetlights
or fireflies
or lighters
in pitch darkness
I lay, unable to move,
senses adjusting
to what is my new reality
hearing the life
that lives here
wondering if I’ll make friends
while I’m here
learning this new space.
🌌
AL
Gift suggestions:
To your enemy – forgiveness.
To an opponent – tolerance.
To a friend – your heart.
To a customer – service.
To every child – a good example.
To all – love.
💞
– Oren Arnold
In the sixth month already
of the impossible
Gabriel,
so usually unseeable—
startling,
though you thought him so foreign,
how nearer than you
to the seed of your life—
fills the room with his wings,
wraps with his words
this world
beside God’s so small,
sets it in the greater one
among stars
and you
lit by the same light,
and calls forth your trust in heaven’s actual, —
for with God nothing is impossible—
the divine within,
inviting your invitation
from even deeper in,
a Word,
a world entrusted to you,
your being
that by gift and labor blesses,
brought with singing
through the portal of this blood of birth
and that crucial other,
calling to life
in your drab littleness
the body of your holiness,
the flesh that God without you cannot have.
Even God waits
to see the miracle,
the birth that only you can birth.
There is no test for paradise,
only paradise.
Say yes.
😇
_________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
http://www.designlovefest.com/2012/12/holiday-centerpiece/
Getting it Right—Write!
I have a notion
I must confess
A notion you see
That has me quite obsessed
It sits in my head
both day and night
it haunts my dreams
and gives me great fright
It rules my thoughts
this little notion
stirring up doubts
and causing a commotion
It wiggles and niggles
in my brain
with a feverish pitch
it drives me insane
This obsession you ask
what could it be?
My obsession is a task
I seek endlessly!
To get it right
To do my best
To show I’m bright
I can pass the test
This feeling to get it right
Is ever so strong
I work day and night
To not get it wrong
I was given great insight
About this “getting it right”
I just learned recently
A truth that has finally set me free
It’s not it at all
about getting it right.
It’s about happiness and light
and letting your soul shine bright
No have to’s
No pressure
No should’s
Did me a world of good!
So no longer will I labor
to get it right
I will do my best
to give it a rest!
So In my chair I sit and write
No longer will I yearn
or worry with concern
it’s quite easy once when you learn
I will change my mantra
and simply ignore
those three little words
I was obsessed with before
What’s my new mantra
you might ask
I’ve changed my word
just a small task
I am no longer worried
about that word right
I will feed my soul
and simply WRITE!!
🌀
Linda Clark
We seldom notice how each day is a holy place
Where the eucharist of the ordinary happens,
Transforming our broken fragments
Into an eternal continuity that keeps us.
Somewhere in us a dignity presides
That is more gracious than the smallness
That fuels us with fear and force,
A dignity that trusts the form a day takes.
So at the end of this day, we give thanks
For being betrothed to the unknown
And for the secret work
Through which the mind of the day
And wisdom of the soul become one.
🔹
John O’Donohue
For everyone you touch, you also reach everyone they will ever know… and everyone they will ever know… and everyone they will ever know… So for the rest of all time, your kindness will be felt, in waves that will spread, long after you move on.
#notesfromtheuniverse http://www.tut.com/Inspiration/nftu
I’m not asking for permission
tho I thank you for your good intentions in the giving
I surrender to
life
voice
purpose
passion
healing
love
music
breath
spirit
joy
peace
you do what you want
with, or without, permission,
I won’t mind
just remember:
I won’t go down without a fight
da da da dada
da da da dada
da da da dada da da da da…
just play your funky music
and keep on dancing
💞
AL
(with a little inspiration from my friends)
Listen to Serenity Fisher sing Rose Red
how can you call it a sacrifice when you do it willingly because you believe in it? – Aung San Suu Kyi
I am this morning meadow
into which you pour yourself.
I am the still air
in which you rise, a mountain, huge.
I am this city street
which you walk, a crowd
with your stories, your nations.
I am this bird
and you are flight, and song.
I am the ocean
and you are my water.
I am the desert
and you are my stillness.
I am this heart
and you are my beating.
You are this day
into which you pour me,
breath by breath.
Together,
we are this life.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
there is no cage
love must be stepped into
freely.
there is no withholding
love gives it all away.
there is no have to’s
love must be given and received willingly.
there is no selfish motive
love always wants the highest and best for the other person.
there are no ‘no’s’
love always says yes.
love takes commitment.
it is not an easy job,
both parties –
equal and
100 percent in it.
you must choose what you want,
along with the consequences of those choices.
Just know, for sure,
love will always set you free
there is no fear in love
AL
Healthy aggression has been given a bad name for far too long. I remember the day when it was acceptable to stand down those who behaved unjustly. Not in a way that was disproportionate to the crime, but in a way that met it right where it lived. This seems to have been lost in the last decades, both because of the softee toffee premature forgiveness movement and because of our growing awareness of the horrifying effects of unhealthy aggression. As a man, I have found this entirely confusing. Often I have stood down injustice with appropriate ferocity and been judged for it, as though I was the unjust one. I have some compassion for this interpretation, as I do recognize that it is difficult for many trauma survivors to not be triggered by aggression of any kind. But something is lost when we don’t make the distinction between the kinds of aggression that rectify wrongs, and those that perpetuate them. It is time to again raise healthy aggression to the rafters of acceptability. Sometimes its the truest path of all.
💪
– Jeff Brown
Change and growth are painful
not because we’re gaining,
but because we’re losing.
We lose old ideas.
Old habits. Old stories.
Old comforts.
We shed all that’s become
too heavy to carry onward,
wrapped too tight around skin
that needed to finally breathe.
A body that had to break loose
from the once present chapter.
Blank pages had been begging.
Ink aching to write
a new road and world.
A soul that could no longer deny
the taste of something else.
Something that felt true.
Something not yet seen.
We don’t have to see something
in order to believe.
💪
– an excerpt from Victoria Erickson’s fantastic new book- Edge of Wonder, available on Amazon
It is time to go deeper, to find your rudder
The unswerving truth of who you are
To keep you on track to your destiny.
Some tacking and jibing – yes
But with minor adjustments
On your way once more
Wind at your back to carry you
To ease your way
for a time.
The storms will come, for oceans will be oceans
Fear appears
Fear of being tossed about in the waves
Fear of not surviving rough seas
Fear is to be your teacher
Fear is to be your guide
Fear is to hold your hand as you look beyond the horizon
Of what you have always known
To the truth you can only know
Once you face fear
And see the love in its eyes.
💪
The Truth of You by Brenda Newberry
life: acoustic & amplified 