life: acoustic & amplified

poetry, quotes & thoughts about life

Archive for the category “Reflection”

02 Dec 2014

how do you wait?

On January 17, 2012 I added these words to the ‘Other Words’ page of this blog…
Timing is everything. How do we wait on things we want more than life? How many times have I run ahead of God and not waited? Almost always. It never seems to get any easier for me, yet I have learned the value and the importance and so I struggle to incorporate this all important lesson into my life. Timing…learn timing…timing is everything. Wait for the right gift, wait for the best blessing, wait for exactly what you need to be prepared and given to you…in the fullness of time!

Help me, dear Lord! May I wait in peace and be ready for action when you show me the way!
💞💞💞💞💞💞💞💞💞💞💞💞💞
Here we are entering the time of year known as Advent aka Waiting for Jesus to Come.
The only way we can wait is if we believe the waiting will, ultimately, bring us all the things that have been promised! Then the waiting is worth it!
I believe! My foundation is built on solid rock and the roots of faith have grown down deep through the storms of life.
And so I wait the coming of what has been promised! For as long as it takes! I will focus and I will wait! ACL

Prepare your way in me, Lord,
prepare your way in me, my Lord.

Make my rough places smooth,
the crooked make straight, my Lord.

Lay your hand at my root,
that I may bear fruit, my Lord.

Come and empty my heart
of all things but you, my Lord.

Guide my feet in your way,
fill me with your peace, my Lord.

Prepare your way in me, Lord,
prepare your way in me, my Lord.

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

Posted in attitude, awareness, Becoming Yourself, Blessing, courage, Encouragement, Faith, find art at pinterest, Gratitude, Growth, Hope, Letting Go, Life, Love, Miracles, Patience, Peace, Reflection, Seasons, soul and spirit, strength, success, thankfulness, Thoughts, Today, touch, Trust, Winning, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment

05 Nov 2014

carry the beauty with you

Photos by Fisherman Dan of Branford, CT

Sometimes we forget people, even people we appreciate, after they’re no longer present. Recently I have been gifted with a re-visit of the music of John Denver. As I have re-connected with his gifts, his spirit, his voice, it has taken me to new places of beauty and old places of re-birthing. 💞 Am so grateful for the talents each of us bring to the world. Our gifts, when shared, are eternal. Don’t withhold who you have been created to be. Share your truth now! Today! Every day! Beauty brings hope! Sharing brings eternal joy and changes the world! There are no accidental gifts! Embrace yourself!

Posted in Adventure, attitude, awareness, beauty, Becoming Yourself, Beginning, beloved, Blessing, Choice, connection, courage, create, Growth, Habits, healing, inspiration, intimacy, Life, Love, Miracles, mystery, nature, Reflection, Respect, soul and spirit, Thoughts, Trust, truth, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment

19 Oct 2014

joy comes

Posted in action, Adventure, attitude, awareness, Becoming Yourself, Beginning, beloved, Change, Choice, commitment, confidence, create, dark, find art at pinterest, fun, Gratitude, Happiness, Letting Go, Life, Love, Miracles, mystery, nature, Patience, Peace, perceptions, receiving, Reflection, Smile, soul and spirit, thankfulness, Thoughts, time, Trust, Winning, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment

11 Oct 2014

listen and learn

Tilt your head slightly to one side and lift
your eyebrows expectantly. Ask questions.

Delve into the subject at hand or let
things come randomly. Don’t expect answers.

Forget everything you’ve ever done.
Make no comparisons. Simply listen.

Listen with your eyes, as if the story
you are hearing is happening right now.

Listen without blinking, as if a move
might frighten the truth away forever.

Don’t attempt to copy anything down.
Don’t bring a camera or a recorder.

This is your chance to listen carefully.
Your whole life might depend on what you hear.

How to Listen by Joyce Sutphen

Posted in find art at pinterest, Life, Love, Reflection, Relationships, soul and spirit, Thoughts, Trust, words, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment

28 Sep 2014

Never be afraid of the breaking things — because if you let it come, it will come that even the breaking things will break — and then you will finally break free. – Ann Voskamp

You’ll notice it on the way out the nursing home door, how that something that’s been broken in you — is starting to break. Let it come.
– Ann Voskamp

the only way to get through the dark
is to…

put one foot in front of the other,
just keep walking,
inching,
ahead.
sit down and rest when you need to,
just sit there,
head down
on a squishy pillow.
cry when you need to,
as hard,
as loud,
as long as you need.
let it spill,
soak the covers,
(blow nose as needed).
allow it to be dark,
even as you wait for morning.
don’t fight the dark,
just let it be what it is
let go,
float on the river of grace,
trust
and hope.
look to God,
and God alone.
while you are there,
in the darkest dark,
learn to die,
surrender to the cross,
know this death
is the door to freedom.

ACL 8/14/13

Posted in attitude, awareness, connection, courage, dark, Death, determination, Encouragement, Faith, find art at pinterest, inspiration, Life, light, Reflection, soul and spirit, strength, success, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment

09 Sep 2014

into the mystery

I
Do not
Want to step so quickly
Over a beautiful line on God’s palm
As I move through the earth’s
Marketplace
Today.

I do not want to touch any object in this world
Without my eyes testifying to the truth
That everything is
My Beloved.

Something has happened
To my understanding of existence
That now makes my heart always full of wonder
And kindness.

I do not
Want to step so quickly
Over this sacred place on God’s body
That is right beneath your
Own foot

As I
Dance with
Precious life
Today.

“Today” by Hafiz, from The Gift: Poems of Hafiz, the Great Sufi Master. Purported to be translated from the original Persian (Farsi) by Daniel Ladinsky. © Penguin Compass, 1999.

Please note that Ladinsky’s “translations” are controversial, considered by many to be less Hafiz than Ladinsky himself.

She whose gaze is heaven
has gathered up earth
and kissed herself into it,
breathed life into the clay
and made you
into an altar
for her praise.

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

Posted in awareness, beauty, find art at pinterest, Letting Go, Life, Love, mystery, Reflection, soul and spirit, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment

04 Sep 2014

miles to go

We are always on a journey from darkness into light. At first, we are children of the darkness. Your body and your face were formed first in the kind darkness of your mother’s womb. Your birth was a first journey from darkness into light. All your life, your mind lives within the darkness of your body. Every thought that you have is a flint moment, a spark of light from your inner darkness. The miracle of thought is its presence in the night side of your soul; the brilliance of thought is born in darkness. Each day is a journey. We come out of the night into the day. All creativity awakens at this primal threshold where light and darkness test each other. You only discover balance in your life when you learn to trust the flow of this ancient rhythm.
– John O’Donohue

Posted in Adventure, attitude, awareness, dark, Encouragement, Faith, find art at pinterest, Glory, Grieving, healing, Letting Go, Life, light, Love, Reflection, soul and spirit, Stars and Moonlight, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment

12 Jun 2014

Abba (breathe in) I belong to you (breathe out) – Brennan Manning

Empowered to Receive Love

The Spirit reveals to us not only that God is “Abba, Father” but also that we belong to God as his beloved children. The Spirit thus restores in us the relationship from which all other relationships derive their meaning.

Abba is a very intimate word. The best translation for it is: “Daddy.” The word Abba expresses trust, safety, confidence, belonging, and most of all intimacy. It does not have the connotation of authority, power, and control, that the word Father often evokes. On the contrary, Abba implies an embracing and nurturing love. This love includes and infinitely transcends all the love that comes to us from our fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, spouses, and lovers. It is the gift of the Spirit.
– Henri Nouwen
http://www.henrinouwen.org

Trinity meditation

Holy One,
Mysterious Love,
“I Am,”

I wonder; I surrender.

Gentle Christ,
Self-Pouring
Companion,

I thank you; I love you.

Holy Spirit,
Divine Breathing,
Emerging love,

I bear you; I follow you.
______________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
http://www.unfoldinglight.net

Posted in action, attitude, awareness, beloved, Choice, Faith, find art at pinterest, grace, Gratitude, inspiration, intimacy, moment, mystery, Passion, Prayer, quiet, Reflection, soul and spirit, thankfulness, Thoughts, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment

10 Jun 2014

awareness is the bridge to gratitude

We know it is close
to something lofty.
Simply getting over being sick
or finding lost property
has in it the leap,
the purge, the quick humility
of witnessing a birth—
how love seeps up
and retakes the earth.
There is a dreamy
wading feeling to your walk
inside the current
of restored riches,
clocks set back,
disasters averted.

Relief by Kay Ryan