touch | life: acoustic & amplified

Archive for the category “touch”

27 Apr 2015

buzzing

If there’s anything I’ve learned, it’s that joy is not a constant state, but a low grade buzz that sometimes roars and other times purrs, but that it is always available to sink down into, if I’m feeling the ache that makes for tears or the ache that makes for celebration. – Jen Lemen
🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝

Jen Lemen says my poetry-prompt word of the day – buzz –
as she reads my blog and responds.

I love Jen Lemen over at ‘Hopeful World’

http://hopefulworld.org
I missed my word as I read it the first time,

not mindful of today’s word,

because I was still stuck in yesterday’s word ‘vine’.

Then there it is, with a Lemen-y flair…

My heart leaps to attention
I fly right there to find it
Copy the sentence…
Smile
yes, ‘joy is a low grade buzz’
along with
peace
love
harmony
they all live under the same everyday rooftop
once you understand them
allow them in
they are your friends
constant companions
making life balanced
glorious
stable
the foundation made of jewels
gold
strong rock
like granite
storms come and go
the buzz stays
and becomes the music we dance to
🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝
ACL 11/14/13

Listen to The Muppets sing Ode to Joy

http://youtu.be/VnT7pT6zCcA
🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝

a few months ago I was Jen Lemen’s apple cake angel 😇 https://lifeacousticandamplified.wordpress.com/?s=apple+cake&submit=Search

photo sources found at www.pinterest.com/al513

Posted in attitude, awareness, beauty, Becoming Yourself, courage, Joy, Letting Go, Life, Love, soul and spirit, Today, touch, Trust, words, Writing, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment

24 Apr 2015

What haunts us are not the dead, but the gaps left within us by the secrets of others. – Maria Torok & Nicholas Abraham

sometimes.
I don’t know what to say.
sometimes.
The very words catch behind
safe guards of emotion.
sometimes.
Speech refuses to commence.
sometimes.
Words pool behind the locked door. Waiting.
sometimes.
I lay and pray the words you don’t want to hear will dissolve inside me.
sometimes.
Silence fills the outside air.
sometimes.
Inside air is thick and muggy,
like the rain forest
or Savannah in August.
sometimes.
I go to sleep with heavy lungs,
weight of the unspoken hanging like the world between us.
sometimes.

ACL 6/19/13

Listen to Sara Bareilles sing Brave http://youtu.be/QUQsqBqxoR4

🙊🙉🙈🙊🙉🙈🙊🙉🙈🙊🙉🙈🐵

Photo sources found at www.pinterest.com/al513

Posted in Becoming Yourself, Choice, confidence, courage, find art at pinterest, Freedom, Letting Go, Passion, Patience, Reflection, Relationships, soul and spirit, touch, Trust, truth, Vulnerability, words, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment

21 Apr 2015

humming

One old man keeps humming the same few notes
of some song he thought he had forgotten
back in the days when as he knows there was
no word for life in the language
and if they wanted to say eyes or heart
they would hold up a leaf and he remembers
the big tree where it rose from the dry ground
and the way the birds carried water in their voices
they were all the color of their fear of the dark
and as he sits there humming he remembers
some of the words they come back to him now
he smiles hearing them come and go

🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶

Parts of a Tune by W. S. Merwin

🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶

Just lying on the couch and being happy.

Only humming a little, the quiet sound in the head.
Trouble is busy elsewhere at the moment, it has
so much to do in the world.

People who might judge are mostly asleep; they can’t

monitor you all the time, and sometimes they forget.
When dawn flows over the hedge you can
get up and act busy.

Little corners like this, pieces of Heaven

left lying around, can be picked up and saved.
People wont even see that you have them,
they are so light and easy to hide.

Later in the day you can act like the others.

You can shake your head. You can frown.

Any Morning by William Stafford

Listen to James Taylor sing You’ve Got A Friend http://youtu.be/xEkIou3WFnM

Quote/photo sources found at www.pinterest.com/al513

Posted in attitude, awareness, compassion, connection, create, Faith, find art at pinterest, Happiness, intimacy, Joy, Letting Go, Life, Love, music, mystery, nature, People, Reflection, Relationships, Smile, Solitude, soul and spirit, Thoughts, Today, touch, Trust, truth, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment

11 Apr 2015

what’s meant to be will be

Longing for what I don’t have,

aware of the great space between us,

not driven to fill it,

yet there is a loneliness, a waiting,
not sadness, not pathetic at all,
but a homesickness,
remembering what I long for,

what I long to know,

patient with my unknowing,
and the dull, burning ache of my knowing,
trusting there is always more of love
than I can sense,
a great, wide solitude

I won’t clutter with less or other.

Such spaciousness leaves room
for these deep sighs
and profound joys
and mostly these calm, roomy smiles

I find sprinkled generously

throughout any given day.

ACL 4/11/15

(edited from Unfolding Light Waiting Thomas by Steve Garnaas-Holmes)

Listen to Desperado Linda Ronstadt http://youtu.be/uVhRqH7euHI

Photo sources at www.pinterest.com/al513

Posted in attitude, awareness, Becoming Yourself, beloved, Choice, confidence, connection, courage, determination, Faith, find art at pinterest, Freedom, intimacy, Letting Go, Life, Lonely, Love, mystery, People, Relationships, soul and spirit, touch, Trust, Vulnerability, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment

08 Apr 2015

thread

Something is very gently,

invisibly, silently,
pulling at me—a thread
or net of threads
finer than cobweb and as
elastic. I haven’t tried
the strength of it. No barbed hook
pierced and tore me. Was it
not long ago this thread
began to draw me? Or
way back? Was I
born with its knot about my
neck, a bridle? Not fear
but a stirring
of wonder makes me
catch my breath when I feel
the tug of it when I thought
it had loosened itself and gone.

The Thread by Denise Levertov

BEGINNING well or beginning poorly, what is important is simply to begin, but the ability to make a good beginning is also an art form, beginning well involves a courageous clearing away of the confusing, the cluttered and the complicated to find the beautiful, often hidden lineaments of the essential and the necessary.

Beginning is difficult, and our procrastination is a fine, ever-present measure of our reluctance in taking that first close-in, courageous step to reclaiming our happiness. Perhaps, because taking a new step always leads to a kind of radical internal simplification, where, suddenly, very large parts of us, parts of us we have kept gainfully employed for years, parts of us still rehearsing the old complicated story, are suddenly out of a job. There occurs in effect, a form of internal corporate downsizing, where the parts of us too afraid to participate or having nothing now to offer, are let go, with all of the accompanying death-like trauma. In effect we must sit by the death bed of our own old, now departing wishes and come to the new step, learning that this new, less complicated self, and this very simple step, is all that is needed for the new possibilities ahead.

It is always hard to believe that the courageous step is so close to us, that it is closer than we ever could imagine, that in fact, we already know what it is, and that the step is simpler, more radical than we had thought: which is why we so often prefer to live in an almost world, why we prefer the story to be more elaborate, our identities to be safely clouded by fear, why we want the horizon to remain always in the distance, the promise never fully and simply made, the essay longer than it needs to be and the answer safely in the realm of impossibility.
💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢
‘BEGINNING’ From CONSOLATIONS:
The Solace, Nourishment and Underlying Meaning
of Everyday Words
© 2015 David Whyte and Many Rivers Press

Now Available

http://davidwhyte.stores.yahoo.net/newbook.html

Listen to Frank Sinatra Love’s Been Good to Me http://youtu.be/9pLpzNPiB48

photo sources foind at www.pinterest.com/al513

Posted in Adventure, Alone, attitude, awareness, Becoming Yourself, Beginning, commitment, connection, Encouragement, find art at pinterest, healing, Leadership, Letting Go, Life, Love, mystery, Relationships, soul and spirit, touch, Vulnerability, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment

05 Apr 2015

and the sad things begin to be upended… – Ann Voskamp

When the cross hits your life, a loneliness, a blindness and a darkness come all around you. Darkness and lostness are the worst parts of suffering. The wonder of the Resurrection is that this darkness was opened out and at the heart of the darkness a secret light was discovered. Each one of us who has come here hasn’t come to this place out of curiosity but we have come because we know the need that is in our lives and we know the frailty that is in our hearts and minds. We are strangers in the world. In our journey through life anything can befall us. It seems to be very difficult for us as humans to learn how to love, to learn how the let the fear and the resentment and the blindness fall away from us and to come into the special joy and peace and freedom of love. No matter how assured or competent we may feel, there is none of us who has not large territories of fear in our hearts, fear of sharing ourselves, of opening ourselves, of entering life. That is why we come to an ancient holy place like this, before the dawn, to let the new tender light of the resurrection touch our helpless fear and transfigure it and open it into courage.

~ John O’Donohue from his Easter Homily at Corcomroe Abbey 1992

Christ is risen!
Christ is risen indeed!

Crucified and risen Christ,
flood my heart with your light
and my soul with your living presence,
that I may trust the victory of God,
the victory of love over violence,
of life over death.
By your rising give me courage
to know that evil and oppression,
though they seem to reign,
have already been defeated.
You who bear me in your heart,
you have raised me up with you,
and set me free from my fear,
free from shame and despair,
free from all that would imprison me,
from all that would keep me
from loving perfectly.

Loving Christ,
I have died in you and risen in you.
May I walk with courage
into this new life.
Amen.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light

www.unfoldinglight.net

Listen to Sandi Patty sing Was It a Morning Like This?

http://youtu.be/eb1ayV5sTtM

🔆🔆🔆🔆🔆🔆🔆🔆🔆🔆

Shake out your qualms.
                                                Shake up your dreams.
                                                Deepen your roots.
                                                Extend your branches.
                                                Trust deep water
                                                and head for the open,
                                                even if your vision
                                                shipwrecks you.
                                                Quit your addiction
                                                to sneer and complain.
                                                Open a lookout.
                                                Dance on a brink.
                                                Run with your wildfire.
                                                You are closer to glory
                                                leaping an abyss
                                                than upholstering a rut.
                                                Not dawdling.
                                                Not doubting.
                                                Intrepid all the way
                                                Walk toward clarity.
                                                At every crossroad
                                                Be prepared
                                                to bump into wonder.
                                                Only love prevails.
                                                En route to disaster
                                                insist on canticles.
                                                Lift your ineffable
                                                out of the mundane.
                                                Nothing perishes;
                                                nothing survives;
                                                everything transforms!
                                                Honeymoon with Big Joy!

Easter Exultet by James Broughton

🔆🔆🔆🔆🔆🔆🔆🔆🔆🔆🔆🔆

photo sources found at

www.pinterest.com/al513

Posted in attitude, awareness, Becoming Yourself, Change, Choice, courage, dark, Death, find art at pinterest, Glory, Gospel, grace, Gratitude, Happy Holiday!, healing, home, Hope, Letting Go, Life, Love, Miracles, mystery, Passion, Patience, power, soul and spirit, Today, touch, Trust, truth, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment

29 Mar 2015

color guard 💚

– Ralph Waldo Emerson

💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚

My heart is green

with the fuzz of springtime growth

borning life again

from the rich, bloody soil

it throbs anew

💚

My mind is blue

as the sky in sunshine

then

like the night full of stars and glittering tears

it diamond sparkles

💚

My life is orange

as flames in a forest

fire

breathing the wind

it grows wild

💚

My love is red

there is no hiding it

passion

real as anything

it woos pilgrims

💚

My touch is gold

hands, lips on wounds

aching

for velvet skin, shared breath

it heals all

💚

My soul is pearl

creamy and warm

welcome

to all who come

it opens hearts

💚

My word is platinum

I seek only truth

wisdom

life with integrity

it unlocks doors

💚

My work is emerald

deep as the world

brilliant

full of riches

it creates wealth

💚

My legacy is silver

of the finest made

pure

nothing for me

it’s all about You

💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚

ACL 3/28/15

True Colors by Eva Cassidy

http://youtu.be/uhP0bamERME

photo sources found at

www.pinterest.com/al513

Posted in attitude, awareness, beauty, Becoming Yourself, beloved, Change, Choice, color, commitment, confidence, courage, find art at pinterest, healing, inspiration, Letting Go, Life, light, Love, Miracles, mystery, Reflection, soul and spirit, Stars and Moonlight, touch, Vulnerability, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment

26 Mar 2015

When wilt thou come unto me, Lord? Oh come, my Lord most dear! Come near, come nearer, nearer still, I’m blest when thou art near. – C. H. Spurgeon

There is a huge difference between learning about truth and experiencing truth. Touch the source. Your mind can take in endless pearls of wisdom and your mouth can repeat them, but until you have essential experience — you only have noise. Talk and even listening are nothing without understanding. We only truly understand what we experience. When people have understanding they tend to be more quiet and seek quietness. Consider the possibility that many of the things you hear and say are utter nonsense and meaningless repetitions of noise. Cut it all out. Quit getting your information second hand. Take any concept, lesson, story, book, quote or conversation and look for a way to touch its source of origin — which is always an experience.

http://bryantmcgill.com/20140228041027.html

“We are uncomfortable with intimacy and connection, which are among the greatest of our unmet needs today. To be truly seen and heard, to be truly known, is a deep human need. Our hunger for it is so omnipresent, so much a part of our life experience, that we no more know what it is missing than a fish knows it is wet. We need more intimacy than nearly anyone considers normal. Always hungry for it, we seek solace and sustenance in the closest available substitutes: television, shopping, pornography, conspicuous consumption — anything to ease the hurt, to feel connected, or to project an image by which we might be seen or known, or at least see and know ourselves.” – Charles Eisenstein

photo sources found at wwwpinterest.com/al513

Posted in action, Adventure, attitude, awareness, beauty, Becoming Yourself, beloved, connection, Encouragement, Faith, find art at pinterest, intimacy, Letting Go, Life, Love, Miracles, mystery, Relationships, touch, Trust, truth, Vulnerability, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment

25 Mar 2015

love letters

As I gaze into the world, I realise

that nothing falters in its

ability to reflect what

I’ve come here to see.

My challenge remains

to admit

to what it is

that I’ve seen.

👓👓👓👓👓👓👓👓👓👓👓

The Reflection by Nic Askew

http://nicaskew.com

It is time to write.

To blog.

To truthtell.

To confess, expose, reveal…

be real and raw and silly-serious moment by moment me.

Here. Now. -vs-. Someday. When.

Someday when I know what I’m doing?

Have it figured out?

Plotted, schemed, planned, blueprinted, outlined?

READY.

Ptttthhhhh! You know THAT day, right?

I am a beautiful messy mess heap of chaos and presence

Wanna know something?

My insides are scribbling.

I am scared. Scared of being scared. Scared of being scared of being scared.

Yesterday I shared with friends that I do not comprehend why I get

So. damn. frozen. stuck. stymied. in my lack of tracks

when.ever. I. contemplate coming here (yes, here, to a wordpress screen, fingers on keys) and writing any.thing.at. all.

(as clearly evidenced by the chronic non-posts pervading this site, right?)

And I think I must find out what is “wrong” and-or “why oh why” in order to overcome and be the golden-hued, prolific, profound, insightful, inspirational blogging goddess that we all know is in here somewhere.

(Ohhhhhhhh…. could that be why?!)

They told me to just write. Write me. For me.

Not for you. Or them. Or any grand scheme purpose.

Simply to write. Express. Allow words to come. Flow. Have their inexplicable way with me.

So here I am.

Shaking. Criticizing. Condemning. Regretting. ALLOWING. Receiving. Sharing. (Insert loud screechy horror movie scream here)

Writing words from voices whispering, hollering, quivering and shimmering

Fastwriting over, under, beside and through the scribbley scary insides

Less pretend pretense.

More real raw-been Robin.

I am a writer, after all.

I am also a Leader of Laughter and Guider of Dreams and Creativity Coach. And that scribble and scrape-slops my insides, too.