life: acoustic & amplified

poetry, quotes & thoughts about life

Archive for the category “Vulnerability”

19 Jul 2013

let your words fall out – Sara Bareilles

5I asked you questions.
direct ones.
You avoided answering,
so now I know the answers –
the ones you didn’t want me to know.
The ones you hid behind a smokescreen of words
that said nothing.
Proclaiming honesty,
when they were honestly nothing.
No meaning.
Then you asked me to define what you should say.
To which I give you the brilliant answer,
learned from my friend, Peter Block,
Exactly

AL 7/15/13

One of the very best lyricists of our day, in my humble opinion, is Sara Bareilles. She has this amazing truths about relationships she shares in her songs. They touch me, they help me, they give me ah ha moments. I have been listening to her new album on iTunes for free the past week and the album dropped on this past Tuesday! GET IT!!!! So very good. Sharing the first release with you today. So amazing, these words! WOW!

Brave
Sara Bareilles

You can be amazing
You can turn a phrase into a weapon or a drug
You can be the outcast
Or be the backlash of somebody’s lack of love
Or you can start speaking up
Nothing’s gonna hurt you the way that words do
And they settle ‘neath your skin
Kept on the inside and no sunlight
Sometimes a shadow wins
But I wonder what would happen if you

Say what you wanna say
And let the words fall out
Honestly I wanna see you be brave

With what you want to say
And let the words fall out
Honestly I wanna see you be brave

I just wanna see you
I just wanna see you
I just wanna see you
I wanna see you be brave

I just wanna see you
I just wanna see you
I just wanna see you
I wanna see you be brave

Everybody’s been there, everybody’s been stared down
By the enemy
Fallen for the fear and done some disappearing
Bow down to the mighty
Don’t run, stop holding your tongue
Maybe there’s a way out of the cage where you live
Maybe one of these days you can let the light in
Show me how big your brave is

Say what you wanna say
And let the words fall out
Honestly I wanna see you be brave

With what you want to say
And let the words fall out
Honestly I wanna see you be brave

Innocence, your history of silence
Won’t do you any good
Did you think it would?
Let your words be anything but empty
Why don’t you tell them the truth?

Say what you wanna say
And let the words fall out
Honestly I wanna see you be brave

With what you want to say
And let the words fall out
Honestly I wanna see you be brave

I just wanna see you
I just wanna see you
I just wanna see you
I wanna see you be brave

I just wanna see you
I just wanna see you
I just wanna see you
I wanna see you be brave

I just wanna see you
I just wanna see you
I just wanna see you
I wanna see you be brave

I just wanna see you
I just wanna see you
I just wanna see you.

Posted in Becoming Yourself, Change, Choice, courage, Encouragement, find art at pinterest, Freedom, People, Relationships, Thoughts, truth, Vulnerability, words | Leave a comment
10 Jul 2013

on our way

You are on your way from Jerusalem to Jericho,
going out from the heart of your religion into your daily life.
Along the way you are assaulted.
Whatever your religion has given you is taken.
You are stripped of a good way to present yourself.
You are robbed of your worthiness, whatever is to your credit.

The priest who would receive your sacrifice is not interested.
The Levite who would assure your righteousness does not.
You have no power, no treasure, nothing to offer,
nothing with which to prove or defend yourself.
You are utterly dependent, and deeply alone.
There is no reason to love you.
And your enemy draws near and bends over you.
Your fear, what you reject and despise, looms.

And heals you.
The one you distance makes you a neighbor.
The one you judge shows you mercy.
The one you refuse to love loves you.

We are loved without reason.
We are saved, not successful.
Only the one dependent on mercy can show us mercy.
Only the vulnerable can teach us trust.
We need the poor, to learn to receive.
We need the guilty, to learn to be forgiven.
We need the alien, to see ourselves, and all souls.

Without them, how destitute we are
on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho,
poor and naked, lost in the land of grace,
love draining out of us, ravenously sucking on our egos,
shivering in the rags of our self-sufficiency.

I don’t know about trusting the Lord
what the mother in the projects knows.
I don’t understand forgiveness like the prisoner.
I need to learn humility from the prostitute.
I will truly get mercy only side by side
with those who have no other hope.

The Samaritan I fear and despise
is my teacher, my master,
my savior,
my Christ.

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

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Posted in Adventure, Alone, attitude, awareness, Becoming Yourself, beloved, courage, Encouragement, Faith, find art at pinterest, Growth, healing, inspiration, Life, Lonely, Love, Miracles, People, perceptions, receiving, Relationships, soul and spirit, strength, success, Trust, truth, Vulnerability | Leave a comment
03 May 2013

the power of choosing creative forces

As my sufferings mounted I soon realized that there were two ways in which I could respond to my situation – either to react with bitterness or seek to transform the suffering into a creative force. I decided to follow the latter course.

– Martin Luther King Jr.

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Posted in attitude, awareness, Change, Choice, compassion, courage, Encouragement, find art at pinterest, forgiveness, Gospel, Gratitude, Leadership, Letting Go, Life, soul and spirit, thankfulness, Trust, Uncategorized, Vulnerability, Winning | Leave a comment
01 May 2013

who ya gonna be?

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http://youtu.be/Xf5BJgOmBd8

http://www.barbaramcafee.com/

Posted in action, attitude, awareness, beauty, Becoming Yourself, beloved, Blessing, Change, Choice, community, compassion, determination, Encouragement, Faith, find art at pinterest, friendship, fun, giving, healing, kindness, Letting Go, Life, Love, Peace, People, Relationships, Respect, soul and spirit, strength, success, Tenderness, thankfulness, Vulnerability | Leave a comment
01 Apr 2013

absorbing grief

Have you sat with grief?
Have you let it wring you dry?
Leave you swollen and exhausted
in it’s wake?
Allowed the pain from the inner depths of hell,
deeper than you knew existed,
to ooze out,
bubble up into your heart,
so that your tears could begin
to wash you clean?
So it can absorb into your highest self,
and make you all you can be?
Have you asked yourself
the questions with no answers?
can you allow them to just co-exist with you,
knowing for sure that life is good,
finding space for gratitude
even in the unanswerable?
Have you walked, and talked,
with death and your losses?
Your innocence murdered
by anger and hate?
Precious time stolen
by monsters and ogres?
Heart trampled
by words of violence and sarcasm?
Are you familiar with vulnerability?
With allowing your deepest feelings,
painful feelings,
raw feeling,
real feelings,
to come out of the grave
where you try to hide them?
Exposing your wounds,
old and new?
I know how hard it is,
I know.
I try to avoid it too.
I also know the truth.
It must be done.
It is the broken road to healing.
To life!
The more we feel,
the more we can feel.
Go deep, my friend
Open up wide.
Sit a spell and let it bubble.
Feel it all.
It will feel rotten for a while,
then comes the morning
you wake up good as new!
New and improved.
I promise you won’t regret it.
Just trust me on this one.
I am well acquainted with grief.
I am intimately familiar
with the process.

AL 4/1/13

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Posted in attitude, awareness, Becoming Yourself, courage, Encouragement, find art at pinterest, Grieving, healing, Life, Love, thankfulness, Uncategorized, Vulnerability, Winning | Leave a comment
18 Feb 2013

just breathe & trust

Trust is key. Trust you are where you are meant to be. Be trust filled; trust fully in your source, Divine Love. Know intuitively that this is the way, the only way. – Margaret Rahn

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I took a long hike in the desert, following a faint trail. Sometimes the path was not marked, not clear, little more than a six inch wide smudge of a different texture of sand between the rocks. I could not look across the landscape and see where it would take me. It was one step at a time. I had to trust the walking on it of those who had gone before. I really had to pay attention.

The other night I walked in the dark woods, the snow dark gray, the black trees only slightly darker. I couldn’t see the path; only the faint blur of footprints in the snow directly before me. I was not alone.

Sometimes the closest we come to the Word of God is not a voice, but faint footprints before us. Sometimes the closest we come to faith is not knowing or believing, but walking in those footsteps, hearing nothing, following.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
http://www.unfoldinglight.net

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Posted in attitude, awareness, Becoming Yourself, Beginning, Change, Choice, courage, Faith, find art at pinterest, Gratitude, Letting Go, Life, soul and spirit, strength, success, Vulnerability | Leave a comment
02 Feb 2013

If he desired to know about automobiles, he would, without question, study diligently about automobiles.
If his wife desired to be a gourmet cook, she’d certainly study the art of cooking, perhaps even attending a cooking class. Yet, it never seems as obvious to him that if he wants to live in love, he must spend at least as much time as the auto mechanic or the gourmet in studying love.
 – Leo Buscaglia

Calling, it waits for the hour when the soul shall open itself, having found its God and its home. When this is so, the soul will not keep its wealth to itself, but will let it flow out into the world. Wherever love proceeds from us and becomes truth, the time is fulfilled. Then the divine life floods through our human relationships and all our works. Then everything that is lonely and scattered and seeking for the way of God shall be bound together by divine power. Then, of human effort and of the divine miracle, shall the world be born in which Christ is fulfilled as reality.
– Eberhard Arnold

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Posted in action, attitude, awareness, beloved, Choice, commitment, find art at pinterest, giving, healing, Life, Love, People, Reflection, Relationships, soul and spirit, success, Tenderness, thankfulness, touch, Vulnerability | Leave a comment
12 Jan 2013

touch

Healing Our Bodies

Incorporating human touch in to our everyday lives is vital to the healing of our emotional and physical selves.

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Sometimes we might concentrate so much on our spiritual lives that we overlook the wonders of being present in our physical form. When we are more aware of the fact that our bodies are also important in terms of our personal growth, we may find it easier to nurture them. One of the most powerful ways to do this is through human touch, for a loving, comforting touch allows us to access the part of ourselves that yearns for a sense of oneness with the world around us. Even simple forms of touch connect us not just to our bodies but also to the energetic presence of other people.

There are so many ways to incorporate touch in our daily lives, one of the easiest being a heartfelt embrace. Just making a point to hug someone on a daily basis and really feel our energy pass between each other can strengthen the bonds that keep us together. Hugs help us heal any hurt or upset we may have recently experienced by letting us release into the moment of the embrace and realize that no matter what happens to us, we have someone in our lives who supports and cares for us.

Another nourishing form of touch is massage. While we may think of massage as a luxury, it is actually an ancient form of healing that enables us to open up our energetic pathways in order to receive unlimited energy from the universe. It doesn’t matter whether a simple massage comes from a loved one or a massage therapist, but by giving ourselves the gift of massage every once in a while, we are doing something healthy and beneficial for our bodies. Massage helps our bodies activate their own restorative powers, creating a wonderful way to engage fully in our own healing.

Letting ourselves take advantage of the healing nature of touch creates space where we can truly live in and experience the world through our bodies, allowing us to completely immerse ourselves in the loving sense of joy and wonder that is our life.

http://www.dailyom.com

Posted in attitude, awareness, beloved, Blessing, Encouragement, Faith, find art at pinterest, healing, intimacy, Life, Love, soul and spirit, Tenderness, touch, Vulnerability | Leave a comment
03 Jan 2013

Epiphany

The light,
and always that gentle,

the King
of love,
no weapons, laws or armies,
a tender child
who makes you tender,

what would it take for you
to empty out the treasure
of yourself
and give everything away,

what would it be like,
every moment,
even the dangerous ones,
to kneel like that?
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
http://www.unfoldinglight.net

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Posted in awareness, beloved, Blessing, Faith, find art at pinterest, giving, Gratitude, Letting Go, Life, light, Love, Patience, Prayer, receiving, soul and spirit, Vulnerability | Leave a comment
18 Dec 2012

light of the world

Now burn, new born to the world,
Double-natured name,
The heaven-flung, heart-fleshed, maiden-furled
Miracle-in-Mary-of-flame,
Mid-numbered He in three of the thunder-throne!
Not a dooms-day dazzle in his coming nor dark as he came;
Kind, but royally reclaiming his own;
A released shower, let flash to the shire, not a lightning of fire hard-hurled.
– Gerald Manley Hopkins

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Posted in awareness, Beliefs, Blessing, Choice, compassion, Faith, find art at pinterest, Freedom, Happy Holiday!, Hope, kindness, Life, Love, Miracles, Peace, Poetry, soul and spirit, strength, Vulnerability, Winning | Leave a comment

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