life: acoustic & amplified

poetry, quotes & thoughts about life

Archive for the category “thankfulness”

29 Jan 2014

You can watch life. Or actually play life. And only one way wins. – Ann Voskamp

That just calls for repeating!! Did you and I really get that?
One more time…slowly…

You can watch life. Or actually play life. And only one way wins.

So your space won’t look normal, and so your space won’t be comfortable, and so your space won’t be standard or steady or safe. Make your space and play anyway.
You don’t have to know if you have what it takes.
You just have to know that you will take what you’ve been given and make something of that.
Days when you will just have to salvage time planks. Because you don’t get space and time. You get given the materials to make time and space. Days when you will have to make space.
Days when you will have to make your own field — and then go be out standing in it.
– Ann Voskamp
http://www.aholyexperience.com

Posted in action, Adventure, attitude, awareness, Becoming Yourself, Beginning, Choice, courage, create, determination, Dreams, Encouragement, find art at pinterest, strength, success, thankfulness, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment

19 Jan 2014

a morning glimpse

All human beings are alone. No other person will completely feel like we do, think like we do, act like we do. Each of us is unique, and our aloneness is the other side of our uniqueness. The question is whether we let our aloneness become loneliness or whether we allow it to lead us into solitude. Loneliness is painful; solitude is peaceful. Loneliness makes us cling to others in desperation; solitude allows us to respect others in their uniqueness and create community.

Letting our aloneness grow into solitude and not into loneliness is a lifelong struggle. It requires conscious choices about whom to be with, what to study, how to pray, and when to ask for counsel. But wise choices will help us to find the solitude where our hearts can grow in love.

http://www.henrinouwen.org

waking up alone.
i try to think when i last had
this gift of solitude.
just me
the house quiet.
creating my morning
looking forward to the coming hours
with myself.
don’t know if i’ve ever had quite this
feeling
in the past 48 years.
it’s not my space.
i’m still surrounded
by the energy,
the possessions of another,
but i get a tiny foretaste
of what my home will be
when I finally get there.
i luxuriate in the promise
of this morning.
this slice of freedom
expanding my joy
in my homecoming to be.
i take off all the expectations
and do a little reveling,
soul dancing,
exhale and let a little out.
inhale take a little in.
relax and allow the guard to come down just a bit.
i’m not there yet,
but I’m the closest I’ve ever been.
this moment is a gift.
i can almost smell the soup simmering on my stove top,
the pie in the oven.
i can almost hear the laughter of friends,
maybe even family, around the table.
i can almost touch the softness of the fabrics,
the rich colors,
the art on the walls.
i can almost see the warm light of the fire on the hearth,
already blazing in my heart.
it’s right around the next bend,
the little place
waiting with arms wide open,
saying,
welcome home, beloved,
come on in
and let your hair down –
so glad you’re finally here.

AL 1/19/14

Posted in Alone, attitude, awareness, beauty, Becoming Yourself, beloved, determination, Encouragement, Freedom, Gratitude, home, Letting Go, quiet, Solitude, soul and spirit, Sweet, thankfulness | Leave a comment

18 Jan 2014

AL 1/18/14

Posted in attitude, awareness, Blessing, Choice, Death, determination, Dreams, Faith, find art at pinterest, Glory, Gratitude, Grieving, Letting Go, Life, Losing, Love, Miracles, Prayer, soul and spirit, strength, thankfulness, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment

08 Jan 2014

God is unwaveringly good — and we are unfathomably loved. That slays demons. -Ann Voskamp

Gratitude isn’t only a celebration when good things happen. It’s a declaration that God is good no matter what happens.

This is brazen. In a cynical world, this is blatant and bold and subversive. This is Truth.

The best artists discipline themselves to practice their art. The best life artists practice the discipline of gratitude — which makes their life art. It is an aching miracle — how true masterpieces are always painted in the dark. – Ann Voskamp
http://www.aholyexperience.com

Posted in action, attitude, awareness, beauty, beloved, Blessing, Choice, Encouragement, Faith, find art at pinterest, Gratitude, Habits, soul and spirit, thankfulness, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment

07 Jan 2014

ahhhh, the warmth of presence

Yes, these days come, too:
gray, banal, post-epiphany,
the child in hiding,
the gold spent,
the myrrh lost on the way to Egypt,
the wise men long gone
to a country too far to hail,
the wailing over but
the sadness not,
the road leading
nowhere in particular,
starless.

Remember
it was often this way,
the star lost in fog,
the road drifted over
by weariness.

Still, something led you on.
Someone walked in you
those miles, bore your heart
deep in their robes,
safe from the swirling,
deadening sands.
That is how you have come
to this dreary day.

The promise is not glory,
not certainty, but presence.

This gray
is the inside of God’s robes,
bearing you,
without your guiding,
by another road.
________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
http://www.unfoldinglight.net

Posted in Adventure, Alone, awareness, Becoming Yourself, Choice, determination, Faith, find art at pinterest, Freedom, soul and spirit, thankfulness, Trust, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment

04 Jan 2014

do you see the prayers made of everything that some people call ordinary?

Mindful
by Mary Oliver

Everyday
I see or hear
something
that more or less

kills me
with delight,
that leaves me
like a needle

in the haystack
of light.
It was what I was born for —
to look, to listen,

to lose myself
inside this soft world —
to instruct myself
over and over

in joy,
and acclamation.
Nor am I talking
about the exceptional,

the fearful, the dreadful,
the very extravagant —
but of the ordinary,
the common, the very drab,

the daily presentations.
Oh, good scholar,
I say to myself,
how can you help

but grow wise
with such teachings
as these —
the untrimmable light

of the world,
the ocean’s shine,
the prayers that are made
out of grass?

Posted in attitude, awareness, beauty, courage, Encouragement, find art at pinterest, Glory, Poetry, Prayer, thankfulness, words, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment

23 Dec 2013

Christmas is a good time to look beyond the wrapped gifts and find your treasure

Posted in Adventure, attitude, awareness, beloved, Encouragement, Freedom, Life, Love, thankfulness, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

15 Dec 2013

surrender to the longing of our hearts

Let us be the answer to Your prayer with others. We are all seeking to know You. Our deepest part. Our most intimate longing is to know we are loved. That we are whole. That we are enough. That we are ok in being less than perfect, than what others, and our own longing hearts, want us to be. Our greatest fear is that we are not enough.
Allow us to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that You love every tiny part of us that. That You created us to know our own value and beauty. That we are truly Your beloved.
And as we know this amazing truth from You, allow us to share that astounding, life changing, truth with everyone You bring to us. Allow us to live You in every heart beat, so that what we have come to know by heart will go on as harvest and the world will be changed and healed with every light that shines into every darkness. Let us be Your city on a hill so that Your grace pours down around our ears and drowns us in glory and goodness. Thank You for loving us so much. Help us to live like we believe.