life: acoustic & amplified

poetry, quotes & thoughts about life

Archive for the category “Relationships”

24 Jan 2016

shiver me timbers 

  
The most living moment comes 

when those who love each other 

meet each other’s eyes and 

in what flows between them.

❤️

~ Rumi

  
What if love never feels safe? What if it was never meant to provide you with consistent feelings of comfort, certainty, and security? What if it comes spinning out of the stars offering something much more radical, creative, and transformative than ‘safety’ could ever deliver?
Perhaps it wasn’t safety you were seeking after all, but wholeness and an untamed, erupting sort of aliveness?
No matter how many profound insights you have, how many amazingly powerful awakening experiences you collect, or how convinced you become that you have it all together, you will always be at risk for the beloved to step in and pull the rug out from underneath you. He or she will do whatever it takes to reveal your true nature as open, naked, and outside the realm of the conceptual altogether.
No, it will likely never turn out quite like you thought it would. You can be grateful for that. Perhaps the creative and destructive activity of love will never ask that you ‘transcend’ your vulnerability, cover over your sensitivity, ‘heal’ your tenderness, or wiggle into some pre-conditioned, second-hand ‘state’ of ‘high’ vibration. But rather to give everything in service of the most radical vow of all: to remain embodied to and intimate with the full-spectrum explosion of what it means to be an alive human being in a world that has forgotten.
Perhaps love will always seed your world with the emissaries of reorganizing deflation, come to scatter its sacred nectar and fragrances throughout the four directions. Before you turn from this activity and abandon it as an ‘obstacle’ to your path, renew your vow to stay close and to no longer abandon the wildness within you. For this deflation is holy, unbearably creative, and is forming the crystalline substance of the path in every moment.
When you are totally unclothed – of all of your spiritual concepts and certain, safe knowing – love will show you what you are. When the known crumbles away, all that remains is your burning heart. There is nothing more alive than that. There is nothing more sacred than that.

❤️

   – Matt Kicata

  

  

Posted in attitude, awareness, beauty, Becoming Yourself, commitment, connection, courage, find art at pinterest, Letting Go, Life, Love, Relationships, soul and spirit, Trust, truth, Uncategorized, Vulnerability, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment
05 Jan 2016

be with me  

 
God has no doctrine, do you know that?

Only delight.
The Desired One comes to you, 

waits outside your house in the morning cold,

seeks you even in the worst neighborhood,

for no fancier reason than this:

the Beloved likes you,

and wants to be with you,

and hopes you will fall in love.
It is only the lost

for whom that is not enough.
Our Lover comes to us

even in our greed and terror

with no more complicated plot in mind

than to spend the awful hours and years

with us

and make them paradise. 
__________________ 

Steve Garnaas-Holmes

Unfolding Light

http://www.unfoldinglight.net

  
http://youtu.be/rUam2NeGZ_0

Posted in attitude, awareness, beauty, Becoming Yourself, beloved, courage, Glory, Gospel, grace, Life, Love, Relationships | Leave a comment
04 Jan 2016

just for today

  
It took me some years to understand that many of us are more afraid of happiness than misery. Because misery and martyrdom have an inherent safety about them- one is never particularly vulnerable, nor at risk of disappointment. Unhappiness becomes a security blanket, a way to armor ourselves against deep feeling. On the other hand, happiness has an intrinsically risky quality. When we open our hearts to life, we are always vulnerable to loss, to shattering, to having it all fall away. But it can also expand and deepen, joyfully permeating every element of our life. I can often sense when someone has made unhappiness their shield, their perpetual life stance. And it saddens me. Because locking ourselves into only one way of being is a self-fulfilling prophecy: misery begets misery. Because only through risking something can we arrive at a new perspective. And most significantly, because the rhythms and tides of one’s life can shift in the blink of an eye. All it takes is one sunny day and the whole damn thing can come back to light.

    – Jeff Brown

 

   

  

Posted in anger, attitude, awareness, Becoming Yourself, Beginning, Change, Choice, commitment, determination, do, Encouragement, find art at pinterest, Happiness, inspiration, Love, power, Relationships | Leave a comment
30 Dec 2015

you gettin’ excited?

 
  If you want to know the past, to know what has caused you, look at yourself in the PRESENT, for that is the past’s effect. If you want to know your future, then look at yourself in the PRESENT, for that is the cause of the future.

🍾

      – Majjhima Nikaya   

Holy One,

as a new year approaches

I seek to become not a new person

but more myself,

more aware of what is infinitely good in me,

more attentive to you in me,

who you become in me to be.
I am grateful for your presence,

in awe of your glory,

open to your grace

in me.
Unfold your light in me

and I will become you. 

Unbind your compassion in me

and I will shine with you.

Be in me;

I will be in you.

__________________ 

Steve Garnaas-Holmes

Unfolding Light

http://www.unfoldinglight.net

  
Weather Report
Light

today and ‪tomorrow‬,

emanating from within.

Visibility will be mixed

as some hide the light and others glow.

An atmosphere of glory will prevail

as God moves through us all.

__________________ 

Steve Garnaas-Holmes

Unfolding Light

http://www.unfoldinglight.net

  
  
http://www.pinterest.com

Posted in attitude, awareness, Becoming Yourself, Beginning, beloved, Blessing, Change, Choice, connection, determination, find art at pinterest, Freedom, Gratitude, Growth, Letting Go, Love, People, receiving, Reflection, Relationships | Leave a comment
25 Dec 2015

merry happy

   
    
    
    
    
 
  
I wish you love 🎄❤️🕯🎄

   
   
So very thankful! 💞

Posted in attitude, awareness, beauty, beloved, Blessing, connection, find art at pinterest, grace, Happiness, Happy Holiday!, Joy, Love, Miracles, mystery, receiving, Reflection, Relationships | Leave a comment
21 Dec 2015

let 

 

   

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

   
 

  

Posted in action, Adventure, attitude, awareness, beloved, connection, Encouragement, Faith, Freedom, grace, healing, Hope, Letting Go, Life, Love, mystery, Reflection, Relationships | Leave a comment
15 Dec 2015

things will fit 

 

 We think we get over things. 
                   We don’t get over things. 

                   Or say, we get over the measles 

but not a broken heart. 

We need to make that distinction. 

The things that become part of our experience 

never become less a part of our experience. 

How can I say it? 

The way to “get over” a life is to die. 

Short of that, you move with it, 

let the pain be pain, 

not in the hope that it will vanish 

but in the faith that it will fit in, 

find its place in the shape of things 

and be then not any less pain but true to form. 

Because anything natural has an inherent shape 

and will flow towards it. 

And a life is as natural as a leaf. 

That’s what we’re looking for: 

not the end of a thing but the shape of it. 

Wisdom is seeing the shape of your life 

without obliterating (getting over) a single                                        

instant of it.

😘

The Cure by Albert Huffstickler

  
 

Photos found at http://www.pinterest.com 

Posted in awareness, beloved, find art at pinterest, Grieving, Life, Love, Relationships, soul and spirit, Vulnerability | Leave a comment
06 Dec 2015

rejoice! 

 

  

  

  

  

 SUNDAY MORNING WITH THE SENSATIONAL NIGHTINGALES

by Billy Collins

It was not the Five Mississippi Blind Boys

who lifted me off the ground

that Sunday morning

as I drove down for the paper, some oranges, and bread.

Nor was it the Dixie Hummingbirds

or the Soul Stirrers, despite their quickening name,

or even the Swan Silvertones

who inspired me to look over the commotion of trees

into the open vault of the sky.

No, it was the Sensational Nightingales

who happened to be singing on the gospel

station early that Sunday morning

and must be credited with the bumping up

of my spirit, the arousal of the mice within.

I have always loved this harmony,

like four, sometimes five trains running

side by side over a contoured landscape––

make that a shimmering, red-dirt landscape,

wildflowers growing along the silver tracks,

lace tablecloths covering the hills,

the men and women in white shirts and dresses

walking in the direction of a tall steeple.

Sunday morning in a perfect Georgia.

But I am not here to describe the sound

of the falsetto whine, sepulchral bass,

alto and tenor fitted snugly in between;

only to witness my own minor ascension

that morning as they sang, so parallel,

about the usual themes,

the garden of suffering,

the beads of blood on the forehead,

the stone before the hillside tomb,

and the ancient rolling waters

we would all have to cross some day.

God bless the Sensational Nightingales,

I thought as I turned up the volume,

God bless their families and their powder blue suits.

They are a far cry from the quiet kneeling

I was raised with,

a far, hand-clapping cry from the candles

that glowed in the alcoves

and the fixed eyes of saints staring down

from their corners.

Oh, my cap was on straight that Sunday morning

and I was fine keeping the car on the road.

No one would ever have guessed

I was being lifted into the air by nightingales,

hoisted by their beaks like a long banner

that curls across an empty blue sky,

caught up in the annunciation

of these high, most encouraging tidings.

Posted in attitude, awareness, Becoming Yourself, Change, Choice, find art at pinterest, grace, laugh, Love, mystery, Relationships | Leave a comment
30 Nov 2015

decisions determine destiny 

 

Today I want to feel my way 

into a familiar name 

for the One who holds us all:

a name of endearment,

like the names lovers use in the tangled sheets

a name that ripples through sunlight and tears.

I will listen for that name today, 

Knowing it is the name the Beloved uses to call me.

😍

~Oriah House (c) 2015   My child, don’t be afraid. I am here. I know how hard it is to feel, sometimes. This moment, I know, is difficult to let yourself feel. Don’t hold back. Don’t protect yourself from feeling, your emotions this way and that. This is a gift from Me, the way your heart swings from high to low. I am the constant one. I keep you still. 

 

There are things you will have to face now. I know you want to bury your head, and I let you do that, your head buried on my chest. But know when you lift your head, I will be there to help you to rise. And you will rise, and your feet will find firm footing, and you will square your shoulders and take one step forward, and then another, and you will find you know your way.

 

There is much ahead, and the path does not always seem clear. But I help you to rise. I go ahead, and I help you to rise. And when you stumble, I will help you to stand again. And when you are scared, I will firm your trembling lip and I will navigate you through the storm of emotions and I will quiet your quivering heart.

 

You are fierce and gentle. You are beautiful and strong. You are chosen and delighted in. You are all I’ve made you to be. I took everything from you that has kept you from rising. I have taken everything that makes you feel small and unsure and hesitant. 

 

You can go forward, to the places I lead you. And you will know who you are. My child, the one who knows your Father, the one who knows your own name.

😍

loop

http://www.gatherministries.com/loop/?utm_source=Loop+Devotional&utm_campaign=8f1130a969-Loop_69_Time_For_You_To_Rise10_5_2015&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_a7b9cec9e0-8f1130a969-100590649

  
    
    
   
You are loved. Always and forever. 

Posted in attitude, awareness, be, beauty, Becoming Yourself, beloved, Change, Choice, connection, courage, dark, determination, find art at pinterest, forgiveness, Gospel, grace, healing, Letting Go, Life, Love, Miracles, mystery, Passion, Prayer, Relationships | Leave a comment
28 Nov 2015

in a blue sky day    

  
Woke up mid-dream

last night

(last night = wee hour morning)

Awakened by 

broken sad mourning
My whole life 

this date has been a celebration of life

My dad’s life – 

a soul who entered this realm November 24 – 

74 years of love ago
Today, this date brings tears

and morning mourning

Followed by blue sky

Up on the red roof

Fully alive

Generating compost

Organic buzzing be garden community possibility
Lost key

Kitchen studio 

Boots on ladders

Roast beef sprout ciabatta

Pirates of the Carribbean 

Stories of lobsters racing in

crusty rolls of butter
Once, years ago, I found my too soon gone Grandma 

Today, in a swing overlooking a river

graced by such beautiful bridges

touching sky whilst grounding feet

step by stepping ever overwater

beneath sky, 

I felt my daddy…
I sensed him smiling down upon November

gently holding my heart

and I couldn’t help but feel

the way he gently 

firmly let go

of my pink stripe 

banana seat bike

as I rode down the hill 

of Kosta Drive

all those years ago
That moment I knew he knew

I could do this myself

And gave me the beautiful gift 

of setting me 

and my bicycle free. 

🚲
Robin OK  

Muse of Collaborative Completion + Visionary for Creative Collaborative ReTREATS

What is your incomplete creative project? Let me help you breathe it to life!

Phone: 513-659-3356

email: laughndream@gmail.com

website: laughanddream.com

💜

Don’t miss the 5th annual Creative Collaborative ReTREAT, Sep 30-Oct 2, 2016! 

Website: creativecollaborativeretreats.com

email: creative.collaborative.us@gmail.com

   
    
    
    
    
    
    
 In a day of goodness

We splashed this city all over outselves

Stopped to smell the lingering roses

Went home happily full from our adventures

Life is bittersweet

full of separation, loss, grief, and hurting hearts

full of friendship, adventure, kindness, beauty and truth

I love you

I miss you

I hurt

I laugh

Life is good

💞

AL

  

I want my grief

to be brilliant, fast and gone. 

Like Mozart. Or Stevie Ray. 

Like fireworks. Boom! Flash! 

Ooh, ahh. OK, done. Let’s go. 
I want my grief to be brave.

Hurts more now, heals faster, 

Grandma said, pouring salt 

On a skinned knee. 
I want to stand up to grief,

Stand it down, like the 

Tiny man, big tank 

In Tiananmen Square. 
Because. Because if I am brave,

Bold, salty, open enough 

The tank, the bleeding, the tears 

Will stop sooner. I tell myself. 
But grief laughs. Humbles me.

I lose keys, break cups, get lost. 

Asked at CarMax Why are you

Selling this car? I burst 
Into an embarrassment of tears.

A friend says, One doesn’t have grief,

Grief has you. 

We wrestle, to the mat. I’m pinned. 
But sometimes I break free.

Break patterns instead of dishes. 

Start to write myself a new story, 

To fling myself toward yes, 
Begin to say, Oh. Now this. . . . Observe

What life brings. Reframe. Say, 

I’m not wrestling grief,

We’re dancing. 
So, I put my right foot in . . . 

And turn myself about. 

💔

I Want My Grief by Peg Runnels

Posted in Adventure, Alone, attitude, awareness, beauty, Becoming Yourself, beloved, Change, Choice, community, connection, Dreams, find art at pinterest, Freedom, friendship, Grieving, healing, inspiration, laugh, Letting Go, Life, Love, music, mystery, Passion, People, Reflection, Relationships | Leave a comment

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