life: acoustic & amplified

poetry, quotes & thoughts about life

Archive for the category “Reality”

where do you go from here?


Nothing happens by chance, no one goes on a quest without a reason, without the pull of the magnet there is no action.

💞

    – Rumi


When all the world is young, lad,

And all the trees are green;

And every goose a swan, lad,

And every lass a queen;

Then hey for boot and horse, lad,

And round the world away;

Young blood must have its course, lad,

And every dog his day.

When all the world is old, lad,

And all the trees are brown;

And all the sport is stale, lad,

And all the wheels run down;

Creep home, and take your place there,

The spent and maimed among:

God grant you find one face there,

You loved when all was young.

🌳

Young and Old by Charles Kingsley

I lay and watched your final breath

Lay in a pool of steel, blood and nashing teeth

All knew your smile and humor

I saw the life you were to live

So much love you left behind

So much more you had left to give.

 

Every breath I took was fire

Not desire, No silent repose

That life I was given back was given to chasing ghosts

No action, no deed, nothing ever was my own

From reverie to taps, a life spent chasing ghosts.

 

In times such as this,

What is born of such circumstance?

Death gives birth to so much mourning

That spawns life and living.

Your death gave birth to me

Achievements you will never see

Tears, monuments, poetry and prose

You gave your life,

I gave you those.

Just another life spent chasing ghosts.

👻

Chasing Ghosts by Charles Cooper




And then there comes a moment

when all you have suffered,

all you have learned,

all you have lost and found,

rise up and become. 

and suddenly you are 

here,

you are 

who you dreamed of being,

so many years ago. 

suddenly you have arrived

at what you caught glimpses of

for so many years, 

and the search,

the free fall of broken dreams,

broken hearts,

broken everything,

tumbling down rabbit holes,

stumbling over the feet 

of your own lack of knowledge,

is over.  

you find yourself on solid ground. 

stable. 

steady. 

raising your Ebenezer, 

those tributes to God, 

for all the mighty stones of help,

building this foundation,

on the solid rocks of your soul 

you know so well.  

and though the pilgrimage may continue,

though the journey is definitely not over,

though life is fragile,

and security an illusion.

there is a new sureness to your step,

a trusting unshakable,

a calm in it all, 

a new assurance of provision,

a new traveling song to be sung as you walk forward,

always forward.

always pilgrim ready for new adventures.

forgetting the names of what lay behind,

you press on to your calling,

the prize set before,

reveling in the mercies, ever new,

for each new day. 

there is no stopping now.

you have found something

which cannot ever be taken. 

you have arrived here by your own determination,

reached a place, 

both spiritual and physical,

a place of such magnitude 

the light shines from every angle,

it has sealed up the oldest sores,

bound up the deepest wounds,

satisfied the deepest longings,

changed everything, 

settled old scores with finality. 

no longer will you settle for less than you deserve. 

no more will you tolerate anything less than your own best and highest offerings.  

you must be all you can be. 

that is all. 

gratitude fills you for this place,  

a place so lovely,

it can bear up 

even under the weight 

of your hearts wildest desires, 

with just this simple name

it resounds inside our souls like a bell –

    home

yes, beloved,

     you are home. 

right where you belong. 

🏡

AL

This road is not for the timid or the faint of heart. not at all. But there is no other road. No one will simply wave a magical wand over you. It is a road of destruction and the question is, “How much are you willing to give up? How much can you endure?

Greg Calise read full article:

https://www.scienceandnonduality.com/you-must-die-to-live

page turner   


A hill or edge or precipice,

horizon out and mystery

above, beneath, within.
Departure, limen: driveway,

pier, or gate, or aisle,

a road; and a goodbye.
A parting; sorrow, mostly

masked, and wonder.

Fear of what is next.
Riven wide enough for light,

made empty space enough 

for pouring in of this:
a breathing— listen— low,

a hope, a vision, passion, 

story told and still unfolding,
woven in your bones and 

pouring through your veins,

and every other soul.
In all those faces, rapt

or gaping, still unknowing,

God has set a flame
not yet but soon to burst,

to shine, to speak. That’s why

Christ came, and came again: 
to breathe it back into us. All

the love of God is there, now,

in your hands, your wanting hands.
The space awaits. The silence 

breathes. The road an arm, a hand.

Begin. 

__________________  

Steve Garnaas-Holmes

Unfolding Light

http://www.unfoldinglight.net


Strange to realize 

on our very worst day of life

someone else is having their very best. 

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 with each fall,

else we do not rise at all,

and come to the end,

which is another new beginning. 

Tides come in

as tides go out. 

With every broken heart

there is an answering new moment of love. 

For every first kiss 

a final slamming of the door – 

figuratively or literally. 

For every threshold we cross

we must cross again in a new moment. 

We each have moments of glory 

moments of defeat. 

Worry is the paper tiger 

which strips our moments of joy. 

Illusions of control hide behind our eyes

always revealed to be a waste of our precious resources. 

There is a time for every season. 

In all we are to bring the sacrifice of praise. 

It is the amazing hat-trick to the healing of our wounds 

that in every single circumstance 

we stand in the truth of that moment

and we give thanks,

or curse the darkness. 

Our choices lead us ever onward

toward the life

we will leave behind,

life happens while we make plans,

all we have slips daily through our hands. 

What will we do with your extraordinary, astonishing gift?

🖐🏼

AL


photo sources found at http://www.pinterest.com

nothing is more powerful than beauty in a wicked world…     – Amos Lee    


I asked the earth, I asked the sea and the deeps, among the living animals, and things that creep. I asked the winds that blow, I asked the heavens, the sun, the moon, the stars, and to all things that stand at the doors of my flesh…My question was the gaze I turned to them. Their answer was their beauty. 

   – St Augustine


Lovers find secret places inside this violent world
Where they make transactions with beauty. – Rumi

Close your eyes. 
Fall in love. 
Stay there. 
                       – Rumi

We live, shields up,
prepared for battle,
expecting war. 
We harden ourselves, 
with the best of intentions. 
Our best defense is protective prevarication. 
Our best offense is distracting laughter. 
Violence becomes a way of life. 
Tenderness becomes a thing we try to remove from our children 
as early as possible. 
We think we know this – 
if we can control the carnage, 
if we don’t allow our weaknesses to drag behind us
like toilet paper stuck to our shoe, 
No vulnerabilities allowed to peak out like saggy undergarments. 
No imperfections leaking out of our ears or fingertips,
we’ll win.  
We got this. 
We set life up without possibility of change,
without allowing any new circumstances to come to us…

then love comes 
with it’s un-understandable mystery 
and finds us not ready. 
Who could ever be ready for this?
then we seek places,
benches, beaches, back seats…
places to share with the other. 
unexpected moments of joy and connection 
find us at newly found secret spots
where shields are lowered,
vulnerability given,  
tenderness ruthlessly
invades the moment
and beauty is transacted. 
soul’s mingle,
hands touch. 
Life gets messy and wet. 
Car windows steam up on drizzly mornings
as love comes peeking through
working to melt stony hearts,
to return us to joyful living 
these are the moments life was made for,
two souls torn from the same clay,
loving each other for a million years and more,
suddenly find each other within the same moment,
and it takes our breath away. 

or 

we build an igloo 

and refuse the gift. 

It’s always our choice. 

❤️💔

AL





photo sources found at http://www.pinterest.com

omnia vincit amor* :  love conquers all  


Sweet is the breath of morn, her rising sweet,

With charm of earliest birds; pleasant the sun,

When first on this delightful land he spreads

His orient beams, on herb, tree, fruit and flower,

Glistening with dew; fragrant the fertile earth

After soft showers, and sweet the coming on

of grateful Evening mild; the silent Night,

With this her solumn bird and hisfair Moon,

And these the gems of Heaven, their starry train;

But neither breath of morn nor rising sun

On this delightful land, nor herb, fruit, flower

Glistening with dew, nor fragrance after shower,

Nor grateful Evening mild, nor silent Night,

With this her solumn bird, nor walk by Moon,

Or glittering starlight, without thee is sweet

💔
John Milton


I’m a world away

In a thousand ways

Tossing and turning

Heat is burning

I stand and sway to the tunes I love

As the night sky fills my heart with love
And we’re looking at the same moon

Bella Luna

And she’s looking back you see

And we’re reaching for the same star

Bella Luna

In the silence can you feel me?
You’re a lifetime away

Where you need to be

Laughing and worrying

Life is swirling

I wonder, do you ever think of me?

As the lights go on in the evening sky
And we’re looking at the same moon

Bella Luna

And she’s looking back you see

And we’re singing the same songs

Bella Luna

In the wind can you hear me?
And I can’t think of you

Can you think of me?

You are there 

I am here

How it has to be
And we’re looking at the same moon,

Bella Luna

And she’s looking back you see

And we’re dancing to the moonglow

Bella Luna

In her eyes can you see me?

🌝

AL


photo sources found at http://www.pinterest.com

Where you belong should always be worthy of your dignity.       – John O’Donohue


                         everything here
                                              

 seems to need us
           

                   -Rainer Maria Rilke

😶🙃🙂

I can hardly imagine it

as I walk to the lighthouse, 

feeling the ancient

prayer of my arms swinging

in counterpoint to my feet.

Here I am, suspended

between the sidewalk and twilight,

the sky dimming so fast it seems alive.

What if you felt the invisible

tug between you and everything?

A boy on a bicycle rides by,

his white shirt open, flaring

behind him like wings.

It’s a hard time to be human.

 We know too much

and too little. 

Does the breeze need us?

The cliffs? 

The gulls?

If you’ve managed to do one good thing,

the ocean doesn’t care.

But when Newton’s apple fell toward the earth,

the earth, ever so slightly, fell

toward the apple.

🍎

The World Has Need of You by Ellen Bass


4:08 pm Seattle

june 24, 2016

the beauty of comversations

so amazing

such glory in these connections

from all over the world –

we all have need of each other. 

Front porches can be found anywhere. 

We share lunch tables

and stories, oh so exciting. 

The four friends head to the gate,

the two locals call a friendly greeting as they return to leave for home, 

they remember my name – 

it rings out in the busy airport!

Wave and smiling – I live here!

I sit and rejoice.

Write it. 🙂

   I am enriched

       by this going 

           by this obedience

                  by this calling

I have received such confirmation of my work. 

So energized,

             so blessed,

                      so excited, 

                so ready. 

I am smiling as the guy above my table says, 

So we must be in the allergy section….

(we talk throat clearing and 

the fact that I have eaten gluten,

 for a few)

Hi, I’m Gary…I’m Amy….

my next divine appointment 

has just arrived…

we cross paths 2 or3 times,

then just sit 

     talk, 

           share, 

                connect,

                  sleep

         (well, sorta…in a plane seat??????….winging to Phily)

we leave each other with a warm hug,

after an all night flight…

I am doing my work…

and it is good 

✈️

AL


Today I wish you grand adventures, shared laughter and please, for goodness sakes, park with WILD ABANDON!! ❤️ xo

she talks to trees 


each tree grows in two directions at once, into the darkness and out to the light with as many branches and roots as it needs to embody its wild desires. 

🌳

    –  John O’Donohue


Sky, embrace storm.

Let there be a stillness

around your whirlwind.
Breathe in chaos, breathe out

impossible turquoise blossoms

of transparency.
Ignite the cinders of yesterday

and burn them completely

under the andirons

of your sternum.
With a gentle sigh release

your eternal spark,

an infinitesimal diamond

dense as the wisdom congealed
on a corpse’s brow.

Intelligence without words.

Understanding without thoughts.
Today’s forecast:

sunny with rain,

and no distinction

between sorrow and joy.
Now rest in a darker silence

where opposites dance

like long-estranged lovers
renewing their marriage vows

against the advice of all

their relatives.

____
Fred LaMotte


Sometimes I just lean
against the nearest tree trunk
lay my hands on the rough bark 
stand heart to heart with the ones who give me clean air
in return for the exhaled breath they need from me
I rejoice in how we keep each other alive
I brush my cheek against its rough chest
and we dance for a while to the music 
of the wind through the leaves
🌳
AL

do the work

Each of us in our own work, our own play,

can transform the earth,

can ring a thousand stars

with any insignificant

anonymous sacrament

of the commonplace…

This little bowl of tea

could bring peace to 

all my ancestors,

to a hundred unborn 

generations, if I hold it 

tenderly, like a planet 

in the vast ancient space

of my palm, sip darkly 

without naming the flavor, 

and taste nothing with my 

mind but This…

then give thanks 

with a breath of silence in

no hurry to go.

_________
Fred LaMotte


Your faith is not your steadfast belief,

not certainty beyond questions.

Your faith is not what you think of God

or God’s anointed, for you yourself

have done some powerful anointing.

Your faith is giving your gifts,

without questioning how valued they are,

without questioning how worthy you are,

but simply offering what is in you.
What saves you is knowing you are received

without price, without judgment.

The Savior’s love is indeed powerful,

but how precious 

is what you have done for the Beloved.
God’s giving and receiving

are married in you. 
All that is broken is forgiven,

all that is wounded is healed,

all that is offered is cherished. 
All that is broken is forgiven,

all that is wounded is healed,

all that is offered is cherished. 

__________________ 

Steve Garnaas-Holmes

Unfolding Light

http://www.unfoldinglight.net


we do not need to stay broken
healing is our natural state of being
once we are whole again
we must be aware of the release of our pain
and open ourselves to move 
to the next natural state of living
we leave the brokenness behind
and dance in the light again
stronger than before
spreading our wings to fly 
higher than we ever dared before!

🎁

AL

gifts appear  


I give you an emptiness,

I give you a plenitude,

unwrap them carefully. 

— one’s as fragile as the other —

and when you thank me

I’ll pretend not to notice the doubt in your voice

When you say they’re just what you wanted. 
Put them on the table by your bed. 

When you wake in the morning

they’ll have gone through the door of sleep

Into your head. Wherever you go

they’ll go with you and

wherever you are they’ll wonder,

smiling about the fullness 

you can’t add to 

and the emptiness

that you can’t fill.  
When you feel nothingness 

and emptiness gnawing at your life, 

there is no need for despair.

 This is a call from your soul, 

awakening your life to new possibilities. 

Nothingness is the sister of possibility. 

🎁

Presents by Norman MacCaig


knowing the way,
learning when to say yes –
when to walk away

how to tell the differences between, 
the people truly wanting to change themselves, thus the world, 

your helpers, 

the light-walkers, 

from the ones with underlying, unsavory, motivations
– discernment,

intuition –

we use them everyday
or we get ourselves into
hot,
sticky,
uncomfortable 
situations…
where we hone our skills
by finally struggling,

 like a fly in the spider web,

finally extricating ourselves 

as we learn our newest lessons

the, God awful,
hard way
🎁

AL



 backbonez kinda people


You are not a coward. You have walked into the countless firestorms of life that would make the knees of a champion shudder at the very sight. You raised a child and held the hand of a dying loved one. You pulled from every inner resource to keep an entire family functioning and fed. You are not a coward. You once hit the bottom of a dark pit only to climb out to greet the next light of transition. You didn’t need nerves of steel or pray for superhuman strength, but relied on a determined heart of love to live your life for something big. 

   ~Susan Frybort, author of ‘Hope is a Traveler’


The Truth
I believe people can change

because of the changes in me
but…

they have to see the need

and want to change themselves
not everyone will change

just because I love them,

or they love me –

just because I want them to –

in fact, most of them won’t
My part in life, is to be myself,

realize my value,

live what I believe

and not allow someone else

to change me into who I am not,

or take away my value
To be in a relationship with someone

is to trust all that you are to another person

and to trust someone enough to allow them into yourself
If that other person has values, 

or behaviors,

that are damaging them, 

they will damage me. 

they will bring harm to who I am. 

What and who I become in the relationship 

will necessarily reflect what and who they are

how we speak to, and treat each other,

will make a major difference in the quality of our lives. 

This is the truth

AL





all things new 


God is not doing an old thing. God is not doing the next thing. God is doing a new thing and new things don’t fit in old vessels. As I was praying I believe the Lord is saying that He is making old vessels new again. Shedding off the old and making it new. This may mean old ways of thinking, repetitive ways that don’t work anymore or don’t yield results as they used to. Old bodies that don’t function the way they used to. Feeling any younger yet? Old and achy bodies will be regenerated into young, flexible and new bodies for the new thing to be placed into. New wine doesn’t go into old wine skins. God needs us 50ish people (give or take a few years) to impart into the younger generations and we need to be as active as they are.

🌎

      – David Hoffman


I meet you in the dark 

with my secret information,

my furtive questions.

I bring my grainy picture.

You bring me out into light

and give me yours, so much better,

for you too have been observing 

even more keenly

and loving even more deeply. 

God I come over and over

to give you 

my view of myself

and walk away with yours.

__________________ 

Steve Garnaas-Holmes

Unfolding Light

http://www.unfoldinglight.net


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