life: acoustic & amplified

poetry, quotes & thoughts about life

Archive for the category “Reflection”

31 Jul 2012

well done

These days Olympic athletes are vying for gold medals, which only the very best will get. Although I’m not really into sports, I love watching people do things—almost anything—really, really well. Doing something excellently gives a dimension of beauty to it that makes it a joy to behold.

Sometimes new Olympic events are added, but some things you can never turn into a competition. It’s too bad there aren’t more gold medals anyway, some way of saying, “That was splendid!” I know a woman who was abused as a child—terribly—but she turned out OK. It took a lot of therapy, bad turns, good friends and self-discipline, but here she is with no bitterness, fear or self-loathing, and a lot of tenderness and wisdom. She ought to get a gold medal.

A friend of mine is exceedingly good at paying attention, listening with a deep, compassionate heart. There’s no medal for that. A kid in my church asks the best questions in the world. She should at least be in the running for a bronze. Someone can stop in perfect wonder at the shape and glory of a cloud. Another is always honestly encouraging. I know someone who can cry at the drop of a hat. There’s an old guy I know who’s almost always grumpy and cynical, but he’s 94 and he keeps going. Give the guy a medal. A newborn baby just lies there. Eats a little, poops and sleeps. Doesn’t even smile yet. And you can see the gold medal shining in her parent’s eyes.

Ephesians 4 says to “live a life worthy of your calling.” It says God gives each of us different gifts for building up the Body of Christ. We all contribute something to the community. You life’s work is to find out what your calling is, what your own gifts are. There are an infinite number of “Olympic events.”

And there are an infinite number of gold medals. “Each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ’s gift.” Christ’s gift is infinite. God’s grace is a gold medal for everyone, not for an outstanding accomplishment, not for being better than others, but just for being ourselves.

Discover what is is to be yourself, to live out the gifts God gives you. There’s no competition; nobody in the world can do it like you. Nobody. There won’t be a medal you can hang in your trophy case. But it will be beautiful, and a joy to behold. And whatever it is to be you, just to be you, know that it gives God that great smile of the coach whose favorite athlete has just won the gold.

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

Posted in attitude, Becoming Yourself, beloved, Choice, determination, Encouragement, Faith, find art at pinterest, Gratitude, Growth, Habits, Imagine, inspiration, Letting Go, Life, Love, People, power, Reflection, Relationships, soul and spirit, strength, success, thankfulness, Thoughts, Today, Winning | Leave a comment
30 Jul 2012
1 Comment

do not worry…

 

 

 

Matthew 6:25-34

New International Version (NIV)

25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry   about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.   Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life[a]?

28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor   was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom   and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Change the changeable,

accept the unchangeable,

and remove yourself from the unacceptable.

Denis Waitley

 

Do not conform yourselves to the standards of this world,

but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.

Then you will be able to know the will of God-

-what is good and is pleasing to him and is perfect.

Romans 12:2

Maritta Terrell
http://thoughtsaday.blogspot.com/

 

Posted in Adventure, Alone, attitude, beauty, Beliefs, beloved, Choice, courage, determination, Encouragement, Faith, find art at pinterest, Glory, inspiration, Letting Go, Life, Losing, Love, Miracles, nature, People, Quotes, Reflection, Relationships, soul and spirit, strength, thankfulness, Thoughts, Today, Trust, worry
27 Jul 2012

as much as we want

I don’t want you to get all A’s in life. I want you to get life. I want you to get God. A.W. Tozer said that you can have as much of God as you want.

It’s wild to think about that: How much of God do you really want? How happy do you really want to be? Why would you avoid Him and all your joy — when you could hunger for Him and have as much happiness as you want?

Ann Voskamp/July 10, 12
http://www.aholyexperience.com

——————————————————————————————

The sun rose this morning
with more light than you know what to do with.
More beautiful green living things
reach out to you
than you’ll ever have time to consider.
More birds sing to you than you’ll ever listen to.

Immeasurable grace
is poured out upon you,
splashing,
most of it rivering down your legs
and into the floorboards.

More of what you need to carry on
is secreted into your heart than you believe.
There is hope enough folded into this world.

Of forgiveness and tender delight
you are given more
than you can ever use or comprehend.

Of the darkest mystery,
dense with love
like the billioning stars,
you are given so much more,
even in your bleakest droughts,
your dustiest griefs and desolations,
than you can know.

And of you yourself,
given with confidence to this effulgent universe,
there is so much more than you can see,
so much more.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net

Posted in awareness, Becoming Yourself, Beliefs, beloved, Blessing, Choice, Dreams, Encouragement, Faith, find art at pinterest, Freedom, Glory, Gospel, Gratitude, Growth, Happiness, healing, Imagine, inspiration, Letting Go, Life, Love, Miracles, People, Reality, Reflection, Relationships, soul and spirit, strength, success, Tenderness, thankfulness, Thoughts, time, Today, truth | Leave a comment
25 Jul 2012

listen

Birds have been yelling at me all day,
trees trying to flag me down,
the sky making faces.

What does it take
to get
my attention?

In the room the clock taps is foot,
the window opens its eye,
the chair waits for me, patient, knowing.

Silence comes in to be with me,
doesn’t even need a chair
to be at ease.

Sunlight leans against a tree.
God and I just sit, saying nothing,
looking out the window.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net

Posted in Alone, attitude, awareness, Becoming Yourself, beloved, Change, Choice, Dreams, Encouragement, Faith, find art at pinterest, inspiration, Letting Go, Life, Love, Peace, People, Poetry, quiet, Reflection, Relationships, soul and spirit, thankfulness, Thoughts, time, Today | Leave a comment
22 Jul 2012

guard my heart

Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.
Matt 5:8

Posted in attitude, awareness, Beliefs, beloved, Choice, commitment, Encouragement, Faith, find art at pinterest, Gospel, Gratitude, inspiration, Letting Go, Life, Love, People, Prayer, Quotes, Reflection, Relationships, soul and spirit, Thoughts, time, Today, Trust, Vulnerability | Leave a comment
21 Jul 2012

think on this…

Posted in attitude, awareness, Becoming Yourself, Choice, compassion, courage, determination, do, Encouragement, Faith, find art at pinterest, Habits, inspiration, Letting Go, Life, Love, People, Prayer, Reflection, Relationships, soul and spirit, thankfulness, Thoughts, Today | Leave a comment
20 Jul 2012

Who is my neighbor?

“Love your neighbour as yourself” the Gospel says (Matthew 22:38). But who is my neighbor? We often respond to that question by saying: “My neighbours are all the people I am living with on this earth, especially the sick, the hungry, the dying, and all who are in need.” But this is not what Jesus says. When Jesus tells the story of the good Samaritan (see Luke 10:29-37) to answer the question “Who is my neighbour?” he ends the by asking: “Which, … do you think, proved himself a neighbor to the man who fell into the bandits’ hands?” The neighbour, Jesus makes clear, is not the poor man laying on the side of the street, stripped, beaten, and half dead, but the Samaritan who crossed the road, “bandaged his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them, … lifted him onto his own mount and took him to an inn and looked after him.” My neighbour is the one who crosses the road for me!

– Henri Nouwen
http://www.henrinouwen.org/

;

Last week Ann Voskamp, and her son Caleb, were in Haiti for Compassion http://www.compassion.ca/child_list.asp read her blog posts about this experience http://www.aholyexperience.com/ – if you are not moved to action, you must be dead!

Check out the newest issue of my newsletter at www.songsfromthevalley.com – it is a very personal one. At the preent moment, I am in the middle of a big faith walk, so please pray for me today as God calls me to your mind.

I read Martin Luther King, Jr’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail yesterday and one sentence especially jumped out at me – ‘Actually, time itself is neutral; it can be used either destructively or constructively.’

What are we going to do with our time here? It is always our choice!

Posted in Adventure, art, attitude, awareness, Becoming Yourself, Beginning, Beliefs, beloved, Blessing, Blog, Choice, commitment, compassion, Encouragement, Faith, Freedom, giving, Glory, Gospel, Gratitude, inspiration, Letting Go, Life, Love, Miracles, Newsletter, Passion, People, Reality, Reflection, Relationships, Songs from the Valley, soul and spirit, thankfulness, Thoughts, time, Today, truth | Leave a comment
19 Jul 2012

Wildflowers

Dark and early in your story someone fearful
of your inborn glory took it
and buried it behind your house,
and you, innocently, and wise to save yourself
from their greater wrath,
believed its absence.

It’s not a pompous glory,
insistent on regard, but sure and quiet
as a wildflower’s, asking nothing.

And so you’ve lived—so have we all—
without it, your heart shoveled over
with self-doubt and apology, as if
you have no place or voice here
among angels.

We see you in the cripples who flocked
to Jesus, the mute, the paralyzed,
bent over, shut out, gone mad.

And all he meant to say was this:
you shine. You bring a gift
as no one else, and you belong.
Your Word deserves a hearing,
and this world needs your beauty
and your grace. There is no rank
you fall below, no worth you fail to match.
Your shuttering was evil, and God
wants it undone, and wants you whole.

And so she takes you by the hand
and raises you to stand, to walk, to speak.
She listens to your song with joy.
She rains upon the earth
until you are unafraid of your radiance
and all our houses are surrounded by wildflowers.

______________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others. – Marianne Williamson

Posted in A Course in Miracles, beauty, Becoming Yourself, beloved, Blessing, courage, Encouragement, Faith, find art at pinterest, Freedom, healing, inspiration, Joy, Letting Go, Life, Love, Miracles, People, Poetry, Quotes, Reality, Reflection, soul and spirit, Tenderness, thankfulness, Thoughts, time, Trust, truth, Vulnerability | Leave a comment
17 Jul 2012

be still and know…

Just found these comics thanks to my new friend Rex Lai! Awesome stuff!!! Love it!!!

http://dharmacomics.com/

This is a little about the creator of these amazing comics –

Hi! My name is Leah. I live in San Francisco, CA. I started drawing comics in 2010 when i ran out of words but still had something to say.
The name DharmaComics is a double entendre. “Dharma”, a sanskrit word, has many translations. One of which is “Truth” – but rather than an objective truth, it refers to the truth inside each of us, our personal compass, guide, knowing.
Another is “Nature”, as in, our individual nature, that which we were born to be and do. The example is often given of an acorn, who’s dharma is to grow into an oak tree; and not just any oak tree, but the specific one it becomes.
To me “Dharma Comics” refers both to my quest to reflect deep personal truthfulness, and also, i experience these comics as something i am meant to do. I don’t have to believe in some big master plan, i know because like the acorn into the oak, they come naturally.

 

 

Posted in art, Becoming Yourself, beloved, Blessing, Encouragement, Faith, find art at pinterest, healing, inspiration, Letting Go, Life, Love, Peace, People, quiet, Reflection, Solitude, soul and spirit, thankfulness, Thoughts, Today, Trust, truth | Leave a comment
13 Jul 2012

friends with benches

Benches are special things aren’t they?

They themselves sit and rest, in the sun, in the shade, in the rain, in the snow, at three in the morning…
there to welcome whoever might pass by.

And for what purpose?

To give a soul a moment to rest, to look out, to think, to plan something, or to get over something.

And in their most special times, most special for these benches, are when two people meet and share themselves. Communicate and think more completely than they could or would if they were still walking.

Then after minutes or hours the people rise.
They are different forever because of those minutes, or hours.
Different in very minor ways most times I’m sure.
And at other times, profoundly changed.

They look back and the bench seems physically unchanged, but we know otherwise.

A person was there, moments after measurable warmth remains,
albeit slowly spreading out to be no longer measurable.
The world is different.
Relationships,
interconnections,
changes in perspective.
A reaffrimation of love in the broadest sense.

That maybe god did not make man in his image. That maybe man arrogantly makes god in his image.
God did not make only man,
and I don’t think everything else was made for only for man’s purpose.
Maybe what we find so beautiful and comforting is that nature,
the cosmos,
god,
free will,
the opportunities to do good or ignore other’s needs,
the choices to try and give more than we take,
or take all we can,
the always present capability to pursue happiness…


are all here as are we,
with a purpose we will always look for,
and never completely find,
and all of it as part of a whole incomprehensible to us.
Such joy possible just knowing we are so fortunate to be part of it.

God has no limits, none whatsoever.

On a bench,
realizing we are part of it all,
and always will be,
and sharing
that there is no necessity to understand it all.

– Sunny

http://pinterest.com/al513/friends-with-benches/

Posted in Adventure, beauty, Becoming Yourself, Beginning, Beliefs, Blessing, Choice, Encouragement, Faith, find art at pinterest, Freedom, giving, Glory, Gospel, Gratitude, inspiration, Joy, Letting Go, Life, Love, Miracles, nature, Passion, Poetry, Reflection, Relationships, soul and spirit, Tenderness, thankfulness, Thoughts, time, Today, Vulnerability, words | Leave a comment

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