life: acoustic & amplified

poetry, quotes & thoughts about life

Archive for the category “Seasons”

17 Sep 2011

40 things to know in the valley!

  1. Faith and Hope = trust
  2. Nobody is as good or as bad as they want you to think
  3. You are never alone
  4. You are loved and valuable
  5. Don’t avoid the suffering…the only way out is through
  6. Face your truth
  7. It’s all about you
  8. Let go…let go…keep letting go…
  9. Kindness, beauty, truth
  10.  Keep working to gain ground
  11. Smile
  12. Live in awareness
  13. Look for miracles every moment
  14. Rest
  15.  Become yourself
  16.  Never stop learning
  17. Your gut always knows – trust!
  18. Look for friends on all levels
  19. Listen
  20. Ask, seek and knock
  21. Don’t give yourself away to peopleo who don’t understand
  22.  Enjoy, and laugh, at this moment – even the tough ones
  23. Fight to keep your heart open
  24. Find the value in your failures
  25. Surround yourself in nature
  26. Realize the value of your life
  27. Acknowledge the miracles
  28. Try everything you can and talk to everyone you meet
  29. Seek healing instead of justice or vengeance
  30. Keep on going
  31. Use Death as an Advisor
  32. Fear is a paper tiger/do what you fear
  33. Sing…LOUD
  34.  The light is within you
  35.  Joy and peace don’t depend on circumstances
  36. Don’t believe the “obstacle illusions” in your way
  37. The power of 40
  38. There is lots of Free Stuff out there
  39. Friends
  40.  Love Conquers All
Posted in Becoming Yourself, Beginning, Beliefs, Blessing, Change, Choice, courage, determination, Dreams, Encouragement, Growth, Habits, Happiness, Hope, Leadership, Letting Go, Life, light, Love, Miracles, People, power, Purpose, quiet, Reality, Reflection, Relationships, Seasons, Songs from the Valley, strength, success, Tears, Thoughts, time, Today, Trust, Winning | Leave a comment
13 Jul 2011

There Are Woods

Where I lived there were woods

where I walked in contemplation

every morning and evening.

People asked when I moved,

Are there woods? Can you walk?

Yes, there are woods, deep and quiet,

where I walk in silence each day.

 

And if there weren’t,

there is still a stand of trees nearby,

where I could sit and listen.

And if they were gone,

there would be my back yard,

and a little garden,

and if there were no yard

I could still sit in this chair

and gaze out the window

at the neighbor’s trees.

And if there were no window,

no trees across the way,

if I could not walk

or gaze or see at all,

 

there are still these gentle woods

that stretch out forever,

deep and verdant, in my heart,

where I go every morning and evening,

and whenever I want,

in the quiet.

 

And so do You,

walking in the cool of the shade.

I know you’re here

by your great footprints

of silence.

Posted in Becoming Yourself, Beginning, Beliefs, Blessing, Career, Change, Choice, courage, create, determination, Dreams, Hope, Letting Go, Life, light, Love, Miracles, Poetry, quiet, Reality, Reflection, Seasons, strength, time, Trust | Leave a comment
05 Jul 2011

This is what you shall do

by Walt Whitman

“This is what you shall do; Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families, read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life, re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body.”

“This is what you shall do…” by Walt Whitman, from the preface of Leaves of Grass. Public domain.
Posted in Becoming Yourself, Beginning, Beliefs, Blessing, Burnign Bridges, Career, Change, Choice, courage, create, Death, determination, dominance, Dreams, force, Freedom, Gratitude, Grieving, Growth, Habits, Happiness, Hope, Impossible, Judging, Letting Go, Life, light, Losing, Love, Miracles, Mother, Peace, People, Poetry, power, Purpose, quiet, Quotes, Reality, Reflection, Relationships, Seasons, Smile, Spring, Stars and Moonlight, strength, success, Tears, time, Trust, Winning, worry | Leave a comment
13 Jun 2011
1 Comment

Your Glory

Dark and early in your story

someone fearful of your inborn glory

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, ostentatious

or 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.

You 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.

used with permission

_____________________

Steve Garnaas-Holmes

Unfolding Light

www.unfoldinglight.net

Posted in Becoming Yourself, Beliefs, Blessing, Blog, Change, Choice, courage, determination, Dreams, Growth, Habits, Letting Go, Life, light, Love, Miracles, Peace, Poetry, Purpose, Seasons, strength
05 Jun 2011
1 Comment

Posted in art, Beginning, Beliefs, Blessing, Burnign Bridges, Career, Change, Choice, courage, create, Death, determination, dominance, Dreams, force, Freedom, Gratitude, Grieving, Growth, Habits, Impossible, Judging, Letting Go, Life, Love, Miracles, Party, Peace, People, Poetry, power, Purpose, quiet, Reality, Reflection, Relationships, Seasons, Smile, strength, success, time, Trust
02 Jun 2011

Markers


Markers of birth and death,
markers of marriage and divorce,
markers of graduation and success,
markers of failure and pain.

Within the fabric of human experience,
in the human life span . . .
There are measure marks.
Surprises on the journeys of life.
They are given on purpose… for our purpose.
The trouble is, we sometimes want to escape them.
Issues that we cant figure out.
Embracing them . . . easier said than done.

Aren’t we all searching for breakthrough,
healing, and restoration…?
From Covering, Hiding and Blaming . . .
A heart locked up, tight as a drum.
Suffering.

If we allow the process, and acknowledge our fear
Mercy and goodness chase us down.
The best comes and not the worst.
Over time . . . we gain the experience and we find the
treasure in the trial.
Scars are there to tell us where we don’t want to go.

Responding is the challenge, ACCEPTANCE…God loves us just the way we are.
He is the source, He is Big enough. Stay connected.
He makes us clear and pure on the inside.

We all hold keys that may open doors marked
“Do Not Enter”
They are ancient keys . . . keys of compassion,
keys of love,keys of trust
that bring life, hope and healing to suffering souls.
Because healed people heal people.

Markers…We are always in a process, looking for provision, daily forgiveness, fighting temptations, delivered from evil.
Recognizing Gods in charge.

Forever

Dan and Gina Blaze used with permission

NEPC
22 South Park Ave
Easton, CT 06612

http://www.newenglandprayercenter.org/?utm_source=NEPC+Contacts&utm_campaign=fd66b234d9-Markers6_1_2011&utm_medium=email

Posted in Becoming Yourself, Beginning, Blessing, Blog, Choice, courage, determination, Dreams, Freedom, Gratitude, Grieving, Habits, Letting Go, Life, Love, Miracles, People, Poetry, Reflection, Relationships, Seasons, success, Tears | Leave a comment
27 May 2011
1 Comment

Flowering

In the lengthening days of early spring,

among the vanishing snowshadows,

I hear new bird songs, see geese overhead,

and greet the long-awaited return of smells.

Trees light their little green sparklers,

and I walk among them.

Then the great flowering procession begins:

first the gentle, snow-defiant crocuses,

and the hyacinth, low and easy to miss,

then the forsythia, the dogwood, dandelions

and daffodils, followed in proper order

by the tulips and the flowering trees,

crabs and cherries, and the azaleas.

Little purple things, and white ones, dot the yard.

Finally the lilacs bloom, and I walk among them.

The catalpa tree will blossom much later,

and I will stand beside it as well.

Among flowering beings, softly opening,

with billowing wonders, I, too, live,

with my own great unfolding.

______________________

Steve Garnaas-Holmes – Unfolding Light – used with permission –  www.unfoldinglight.net 

Posted in Becoming Yourself, Beginning, Beliefs, Blessing, Blog, Change, Growth, Letting Go, Life, Love, Miracles, Poetry, Reflection, Seasons, Spring
17 May 2011

Red bricks‏

Along Main and Pleasant and Spring,

shoulder to shoulder through town

stand all these red brick buildings.

Brick by brick, a city is made.

Each brick was laid by hand,

with a trowel and a string, and an eye

for straight lines and plumb edges.

All of the walls, the straight ones,

the worn, painted ones,

the old and crumbling, leaning ones

are pages of an old book.

The arched windows,

the palladian windows,

the columns and corbels,

pediments and pilasters set in

at the rousing turn of the last century

by men in overalls and cardigans,

intent on creating a beautiful wall

and a fine city, are not like modern windows.

They say something.

Everything in this world,

every tangle of undergrowth,

every rumpled cloud,

every troubled tribe,

every sorry excuse for a soul

was laid by hand.

__________________

Steve Garnaas-Holmes

Unfolding Light

www.unfoldinglight.net

Posted in Becoming Yourself, Change, Choice, courage, determination, Growth, Judging, Life, Love, Miracles, People, Poetry, Seasons, time | Leave a comment
03 May 2011

May Blessing

May you be given eyes to see

in all that is bare and ordinary in you

an extravagant blossoming.

 May your presence be a blessing,

that others may feel with you

as if they have awakened

to a lovely spring day.

May your gifts suddenly bloom

in colors beyond your imagining.

May the swans of God’s grace

descend upon your pond

and build nests there,

and raise their young.

 May your whole earth

inside and out

be made new.

______________________

Steve Garnaas-Holmes

Unfolding Light

www.unfoldinglight.net

Posted in Becoming Yourself, Blessing, Gratitude, Growth, Life, Love, Miracles, People, Poetry, Seasons, Spring | Leave a comment
02 May 2011

Building a Bridge

An old man, traveling a lone highway,

Came at the evening cold and gray,

To a chasm deep and wide.

The old man crossed in the twilight dim,

or the sullen stream held no fears for him,

But he turned when he reached the other side,

And builded a bridge to span the tide.

“Old man,” cried a fellow pilgrim near,

“You are wasting your strength with building here;

Your journey will end with the ending day,

And you never again will pass this way.

“You have crossed the chasm deep and wide.

Why build you a bridge at eventide?”

And the builder raised his old gray head:

“Good friend, on the path I have come,” he said,

“There followeth after me today

A youth whose feet will pass this way.”

“This stream, which has been as naught to me,

To that fair-haired boy may a pitfall be;

He, too, must cross in the twilight dim –

Good friend, I am building this bridge for him.”

~W.A. Dromgoole

Public Domain

Posted in Beliefs, Change, Choice, courage, Death, Freedom, Gratitude, Growth, Habits, Life, Love, People, Poetry, Purpose, Seasons, time | Leave a comment

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