life: acoustic & amplified
poetry, quotes & thoughts about life
Archive for the category “Quotes”
Solitude
The Voice in the Garden of Solitude
Solitude is the garden for our hearts, which yearn for love. It is the place where our aloneness can bear fruit. It is the home for our restless bodies and anxious minds. Solitude, whether it is connected with a physical space or not, is essential for our spiritual lives. It is not an easy place to be, since we are so insecure and fearful that we are easily distracted by whatever promises immediate satisfaction. Solitude is not immediately satisfying, because in solitude we meet our demons, our addictions, our feelings of lust and anger, and our immense need for recognition and approval. But if we do not run away, we will meet there also the One who says, “Do not be afraid. I am with you, and I will guide you through the valley of darkness.”
Let’s keep returning to our solitude.
– Henri Nouwen
http://www.henrinouwen.org/
Read the full ‘Alone’ Newsletter at http://songsfromthevalley.com/September-09-2.18-Alone.pdf
Check out William Perrelli’s photography at http://unusualphotos.shutterfly.com/
be vulnerable – say no to risk management
Intimacy is the act of telling another human being the truth about yourself and risking rejection. Without the risk, there is no real acceptance. ~ Dick Doherty
constructive chaos is an important part towards happiness
If you change nothing – nothing will change – unknown
Purge drama! Make changes towards your happiness!
Time, love and tenderness- check
So you say that you can’t go on Love left you cryin’ And you say all your hope is gone And
what’s the use in tryin’ What you need is to have some faith Shake off those sad blues Get yourself a new view
Oh, nothing is a sad as it seems, you know ‘Cause someday you’ll laugh at the heartache Someday, you’ll laugh at the pain Somehow you’ll get through the heartache Somehow you can get through the rain
CHORUS: When love puts you through the fire When love puts you through the test Nothing cures a broken heart Like time, love and tenderness When you think your world is over Baby just remember this Nothing heals a broken heart Like time, love and tenderness Time, love and tenderness
I understand how you’re feeling now And what you’ve been through But your world’s gonna turn around So baby don’t you be blue All it takes is a little time To make it better The hurt won’t last forever
Oh, all the tears are gonna dry you know ‘Cause someday you’ll laugh at the heartache Someday you’ll laugh at the pain You may be down on your luck But baby that old lucks gonna change
CHORUS:
Baby, oh baby you just need some You just need some Time, love and tenderness
Time, love and tenderness The hurt ain’t gonna last forever Time, love and tenderness Time, love and tenderness
Michael Bolton – Time, Love and Tenderness Lyrics
I keep getting back up…
There are days when I just want to quit. I don’t want to keep fighting these battles. I just want to go my own way. I want to give up and be comfortable. I don’t want to be aware, or have to choose. I don’t want to be strong. I want to jump into the music business and go to the top. I want to sell myself to get there. I want to sing to thousands of people and get praise and acclaim from all over the world. I know I could work hard enough. I want to be spoiled and live in a nice house. I want to buy shoes and be shallow. I want to be beautiful and dress fabulous in designer clothes and prove to everyone, especially certain people on a short list I have, what I…yes, I said it, what I can do. If I can’t do that, then I want to forget it all and be able to be satisfied with some simple job and blend into anonymity, which then makes me want to just lay in bed for days, in my pajamas, and only get up to eat ice cream out of the container. I want…I want….I want….is the recurring theme.
Every day I am aware of how difficult, even impossible, it is to live this spiritual life. Every day I face a new choice of who I want to be, how I live. It goes against everything I seem to want. Every moment is a new choice to make. So many choices and so many times I fail. Over and over I fail. Yet God remains faithful. I have lived my faith – I have found the faithfulness of God to be so much more mind-blowing than I could ever comprehend. I have lived the miracles. No one can take that away from me! And so I continue with the struggle to love, the struggle to open my heart, the struggle to be patient and obedient and wait on God’s timing for my music. One more day the battle wages on and I chose to take one more faltering step with God. Yes, the warrior is a child every morning, every night and all through the day. Thankfully I know the truth that everything is grace! Gods mercy remains and is new every morning – just for me. Oh, and for everyone else who chooses to receive it.
Henri Nouwen says this about Spiritual Choices:
Choices. Choices make the difference. Two people are in the same accident and severely wounded. They did not choose to be in the accident. It happened to them. But one of them chose to live the experience in bitterness, the other in gratitude. These choices radically influenced their lives and the lives of their families and friends. We have very little control over what happens in our lives, but we have a lot of control over how we integrate and remember what happens. It is precisely these spiritual choices that determine whether we live our lives with dignity.
Life is Beautiful! – Motto of Marc’s Bagels, Blue Ash, Ohio
“I don’t really want more time;
I just want enough time.
Time to breathe deep & time to see real & time to laugh long, time to give You glory & rest deep & sing joy…
I just want time to do my one life well.
Life at its fullest is this sensitive, detonating sphere —
and it can be carried only in the hands of the unhurried and reverential—
a bubble held in awe.”
~ One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are
2012: Time to remove shady people from your life – Paulo Coelho
A new year is upon us.
It’s time to take down the old calendar, and if it has nice pictures, save it—you can use it again in 2022— and put up the new one, or the 1984 one that you’ve saved for 2012.
As you do, ponder the old calendar. Look at all those days. God was with you on every one of them. Think of all you’ve done, and give thanks for your endeavors. Give thanks for all the people you met, the folks who did things for you, the souls you touched, the companions you had on the way. Give thanks for all you’ve seen, and marvel at how the things that you’ve experienced, and the ways you chose to receive them, have become a part of who you are. Give thanks for the challenges, the terrible days, the long hauls, for they, too, are part of the journey that has brought you to this day, and part of who you are.
And of course remember all your mistakes, and even more important, what you learned from them. And know that as you leave behind the old year, all those mistakes are forgiven. The little goofs and the profound betrayals, the odd slips and the unbreakable habits, all are forgiven. They are as past as that old year, gone. All that remains is wisdom, what you learned from them.
You have changed and grown. That’s the good news as you stand at the threshold of a new year: we can change. In the new year we can become new people. Of course we resist change, but the truth is that it’s really not change that we dislike so much as loss. It’s our resistance to change that’s hard. Change, and the loss of the familiar, puts us in a vulnerable, powerless position, a place where we’re not in control, and we don’t “know” enough. That’s what we don’t like.
And that— that place of powerlessness, dependence and not knowing— is the gospel place, the place where our only hope, and our only power, is God. It’s the place Jesus invites us to be. It’s all about dying first and then rising. Did you notice last Sunday what Simeon in the temple said about the baby Jesus? “This child is set for the falling and the rising of many in Israel” (Lk. 2.34). Not the rise and fall, like coming and going. But the falling (first) and then the rising. So 2012 is the year you will die.
And rise. You will surrender everything to God’s infinite love, and let God re-create you. Enter the new year ready to die and rise in the Spirit of the Eternal One who gives you life as a gift.
As you put up the new calendar, even if it says 1984, be mindful that you are about to become someone new. This re-creation will involve loss, and you will be tempted to resist it. But God will be with you every single one of those 366 days. Be ready to accept the changes that will come, to rely on God’s merciful presence, and to be re-created in this new time. The whole year will come at you one moment at a time; you can enter into each present moment, willing and lovingly present, for you will be in the Loving Presence.
May God deeply bless your new year. It will be good.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
enjoy the magic moments right now!
I heard the bells, on Christmas Day,
Their old, familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet
The words repeat
Of peace on earth,
good will to men.
Henry W. Longfellow
life: acoustic & amplified 