life: acoustic & amplified

poetry, quotes & thoughts about life

Archive for the category “Reflection”

It’s all about me!

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Yes, it’s true, life truly begins when we decide to take personal responsibility for our lives. That decision changes everything! Doesn’t make life easy – in many ways it makes it harder – but the benefits are so wonderful, profound, even extraordinary you will never want to allow anyone else to control your life again.
As with all of life, this is s process, but it all starts with a choice. Your choice! That choice must be followed through with awareness and determination!
Good stuff will follow! Not saying it will all be easy…just saying it will bring you to a place of peace and joy which is the best way to live life!

Choices, choices, it’s all about choices

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April 4, 2012
Starting New
A Moment of Choice

We can choose to start over in this very moment, there is no need to wait for a new year or a new month or a new week.

There are times in our lives that lend themselves to starting something new. The beginning of a new year, finishing school, leaving a job, or changing homes—these all are times that turn our minds to fresh starts. Their advantage is that they bring with them the energy of that event, creating a tide of change around them that we can ride to our next shoreline. But we can choose to start anew anytime. In any moment we can decide that a bad day or a relationship that’s gotten off on the wrong foot can be started again. It is a mental shift that allows us to clean the slate and approach anything with fresh eyes, and we can make that choice at any time.

Starting new is most powerful when we focus our attention to what we are choosing to create. Giving all of our attention to the unwanted aspects of our lives allows what we resist to persist. We need to remember to leave enough room in the process of new beginnings to be kind to ourselves, because it takes time to become accustomed to anything new, no matter how much we like it. There is no need to get down on ourselves if we don’t reach our new goals instantly. Instead, we acknowledge the forward motion and choose to reset and start again, knowing that with each choice we learn, grow, and move forward.

Making the choice to start anew has its own energy—it’s a promise made to you. The forward momentum creates a sort of vacuum behind it, pulling toward you all you need to help you continue moving in your chosen direction. Once the journey has begun, it may take unexpected turns, but it never really ends. Like cycles in nature, there are periods of obvious growth and periods of dormancy that signal a time of waiting for the right moment to burst forth. Each time we choose to start anew we dedicate ourselves to becoming the best we are able to be.
http://www.dailyom.com

My favorite song to share with my friends!

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For the love of trees

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In the stillness

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Good stuff…

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extravagantly glorious pink trees for everyone!!!

Happy Spring to all!

Spring is busting out all over and the world is full of beautiful color! I love Spring!!!! My very favorite season!

 

 

Last year I did a Spring newsletter http://songsfromthevalley.com/March%2011%204.9%20Spring.pdf

 

Do you treat YOURSELF as a beloved child of God?

Claiming the Sacredness of Our Being

Are we friends with ourselves?  Do we love who we are?  These are important questions because we cannot develop good friendships with others unless we have befriended ourselves.

How then do we befriend ourselves?  We have to start by acknowledging the truth of ourselves.  We are beautiful but also limited, rich but also poor, generous but also worried about our security.  Yet beyond all that we are people with souls, sparks of the divine.   To acknowledge the truth of ourselves is to claim the sacredness of our being, without fully understanding it.  Our deepest being escapes our own mental or emotional grasp.  But when we trust that our souls are embraced by a loving God, we can befriend ourselves and reach out to others in  loving relationships.

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

Might need this bat for mine…

Batting!

Toward the end of winter I came upon
the Lord on a diamond, batting.

I said, “ Lord, what are you doing?”
These are your sins,” he said,

as a shadowy figure on the mound
with a vicious arm pitched.

He had no instinct: swung at everything,
even dirtballs. And hit ’em every time.

He had a beautiful swing,
fluid, sure, and joyful.

He hit pitch after pitch, endlessly.
I lost myself, watching.

Out of the park” he said, his eye
on a nasty looking knuckleball,

and swung like a dancer,
gracefully unwinding.  Chock!

It rose up over the fence, over the trees,
released from all earthly bonds,

floating free until it disappeared,
infinitely gone, still rising.

He watched it go, as if
he’d never seen such a beautiful thing.

I love this game,” he grinned,
and set for another pitch.

I think he was honestly
pleased with himself.

______________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
 Used With Permission
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net

 happy spring training baseball people!

Bless us as we make it home

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