I Will Show You Love–From God’s Heart to Yours

A beautiful song, “I Will Show You Love”, by Kendall Payne:

I will show you love like you’ve never loved before
I will go the distance and back for more if you just say the word

You will come alive again and all the trying times you felt,
the pain that you have suffered through, will never get the best of you
You will hope in something real that won’t depend on how you feel
When you call my name then I will answer, answer

I am on your side though the wind and waves beat against your faith
You were on my mind when the world was made
Trust in me my child, Trust in me my child

Walk out on the water where you have no control
So scared to death of failure you sacrifice your soul, please let that go

You have climbed an uphill road, You have worn a heavy load
You have cried through endless nights and nearly given up the fight
Watched your dreams like falling stars the heartaches made you who you are
Now looking back you see that I have always been there

Where you gonna hide? Where you gonna hide from Me?
Where you gonna go? Where you gonna go that I can’t see?

I have heard you cry and it breaks my heart for I love you so
I would never lie, this is not the end there is still a hope

Solitude and Loneliness

Happypizza: Here is an amazing collection of quotes on the subject of loneliness and solitude. Definitely worth a read, with some positive ways to look at the experience–and sometimes pain–of loneliness.

• All humans are frightened of their own solitude. But only in solitude can we learn to know ourselves, learn to handle our own eternal aloneness.–Han Suyin
• Be able to be alone. Lose not the advantage of solitude, and the society of thyself.–Thomas Browne
• Being solitary is being alone well: being alone luxuriously immersed in doings of your own choice, aware of the fullness of your won presence rather than of the absence of others. Because solitude is an achievement.–Alice Koller
• Do not rely completely on any other human being, however dear. We meet all life’s greatest tests alone.–Agnes Macphail
• Each of us is alone in the world. It takes great courage to meet the full force of your aloneness. … When you face your aloneness, something begins to happen. Gradually, the sense of bleakness changes into a sense of true belonging. This is a slow and open-ended transition but it is utterly vital in order to come into rhythm with your own individuality. –John O’Donohue (Eternal Echoes: Celtic Reflections on Our Yearning to Belong)
• I feel the same way about solitude as some people feel about the blessing of the church. It’s the light of grace for me. I never close my door behind me without the awareness that I am carrying out an act of mercy toward myself.–Peter Hoeg (Smilla’s Sense of Snow)
• I learned…that inspiration does not come like a bolt, nor is it kinetic, energetic striving, but it comes into us slowly and quietly and all the time, though we must regularly and every day give it a little chance to start flowing, prime it with a little solitude and idleness.–Brenda Ueland
• I live in that solitude which is painful in youth, but delicious in the years of maturity.–Albert Einstein
• I never found a companion that was so companionable as solitude.–Henry David Thoreau
• Inside myself is a place where I live all alone and that’s where you renew your springs that never dry up.–Pearl S. Buck
• Isolation is aloneness that feels forced upon you, like a punishment. Solitude is aloneness you choose and embrace. I think great things can come out of solitude, out of going to a place where all is quiet except the beating of your heart.–Jeanne Marie Laskas
• It is not necessary that you leave the house. Remain at your table and listen. Do not even listen, only wait. Do not even wait, be wholly still and alone. The world will present itself to you for its unmasking . . . in ecstasy it will writhe at your feet.–Franz Kafka
• It is well to be alone. It fertilizes the creative impulse.–Max Nordau
• Language has created the word “loneliness” to express the pain of being alone, and the word “solitude” to express the glory of being alone.–Paul Johannes Tillich
• Leisure is a form of silence, not noiselessness. It is the silence of contemplation such as occurs when we let our minds rest on a rosebud, a child at play, a Divine mystery, or a waterfall.–Bishop Fulton J. Sheen
• Like water which can clearly mirror the sky and the trees only so long as its surface is undisturbed, the mind can only reflect the true image of the Self when it is tranquil and wholly relaxed.–Indra Devi
• Man cannot survive without air, water and sleep. Next in importance comes food. And close on its heels, solitude.–Thomas Szasz
• One must learn an inner solitude, where or with whomsoever he may be. He must learn to penetrate things and find God there, to get a strong impression of God firmly fixed on his mind.–Meister Eckhart
• Only in quiet waters do thing mirror themselves undistorted. Only in a quiet mind is adequate perception of the world.–Hans Margolius
• Only when one is connected to one’s own core is one connected to others I am beginning to discover. And, for me, the core, the inner spring, can best be refound through solitude.–Anne Morrow Lindbergh (Gift from the Sea)
• The person who has not learned to be happy and content while completely alone for an hour a day, or a week has missed life’s greatest serenity.–H. Clay Tate (Building a Better Home Town)
• Solitude can be frightening because it invites us to meet a stranger we think we may not want to know–ourselves.–Melvyn Kinder
• Solitude can be used well by very few people. They who do must have a knowledge of the world to see the foolishness of it, and enough virtue to despise all the vanity.–Abraham Cowley
• Solitude gives birth to the original in us.–Thomas Mann
• Solitude is as needful to the imagination as society is wholesome for the character.–James Russell Lowell
• …solitude is such a potential thing. We hear voices in solitude, we never hear in the hurry and turmoil of life; we receive counsels and comforts, we get under no other condition…–Amelia Barr

Flatland

Watch on Youtube with this link

Is Your Grasp Slipping?

Happypizza: I first read this story (below) many years ago. Since then I’ve often been reminded of it especially during tough times–always thought it had a very unique “life lesson”. Sometimes I’ve found I just have to let go, and let God have His way in life….not matter how terrifying it may seem at first. As in the story below….you might be in for a surprise!

Holding on?

Trust Him….He will hold you up!

A story is told of a man who slid down a rope into a well. He supposed the rope to be of ample length, but to his dismay when he reached the end of it he could not touch the bottom of the well with his feet. He tried to climb back up the rope but could not. In vain he gripped, struggled and clawed at the rope hoping to get back to the top but a mixture of moisture, grease and his sweaty palms made the task all but impossible. Desperate, fearful and terrified he held on for dear life. He dared not let go knowing full well he would be dashed to pieces at the bottom. Eventually he reached his limit and could hold on no more. His strength and every bit of energy he had within him was gone. He finally gave in and let the rope slip from his grasp. He fell-just three inches!

Behind the Outside

Warning this post might exceed your comfort zones of sentimentalism and cheesiness but do understand that this was written from the depths of my heart at a particularly dark moment in time. –You’ve been warned. 😉

–HappyPizza

Behind the simple face
Lies a depth you cannot see

Behind the silent eyes
Lies a unique perspective

Behind the wrinkles
Lies memories rich and diverse

Behind the furrowed brow lines
Lies a willingness to understand

Behind the guarded lips
Lies an unsung heartsong

Behind the imperfect body
Lies a heart that wants to reach out

Behind the frail outer casing
Lies a spirit of strength

Behind the clumsy demeanor
Lies a loyalty that’s sincere

Behind the complexities
Lies a shatter of forgotten dreams

Behind the hearts locked chamber
Lies past heartbreaks overcomed

Behind the mediocre impression
Lies a sparkle of compassion

Behind the ordinary life
Lies a friendship that can last forever.

–HappyPizza (29/05/2006)