King of Hearts (Kyrielle)

Do you believe that people wear masks? I remember when I was a teenager and full of insecurities. I would wear masks. Did I really know who I was? I don’t think so. Then again, who does when they’re young?

Adults wear masks too, in the hopes that people don’t see who they really are. They could also wear masks to try to be somebody special. Somebody that others expect them to be, or somebody they aren’t, but want to be. What they don’t know is that they already are special. It’s our individuality that makes us special. We’ve each been given a unique personality that no one else has.

I believe God created my inmost being. That I was thoughtfully and wonderfully made. I believe that there is absolutely no place where I can go to hide from his presence. He sees my every move and is in control of my every breath.

I used to wear masks, but they’ve all come off. I think I’ll just be Staci, because I’m the only one.

Do you wear masks? Do you believe that others do? Why do you think that is?

 

Music and Stars

I have taken the plunge and decided to do a mixed media art course online. This is the first art piece, which is actually the warm-up, where there was an introduction to colors and the color wheel. It’s just meant to be an intuitive piece and the words I came up with as my message to this piece are written within the hearts, “My heart is hidden away with you. You rejoice over me with singing.” Part of this comes from the Bible verse, “He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will renew you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing.” I love this verse. It makes me think about how God’s love for me is not far off and based on religious rituals, but He feels for me as an Earthly parent would feel for their young child.

Heart Change

Life is all about making choices. It’s also about living in the moment, because that’s all we really have. We need to notice the beauty in moments. Even the tough ones. One thing I’ve learned is that I am constantly changing, growing, learning and transforming. The other thing I’ve noticed is that it’s not of my own doing. I look to someone higher and greater than me for that transformation.

I’ve also learned that I don’t need to believe and accept what popular culture preaches. Actually, a lot of it I reject. This post I wrote a while back is an example of that. I used to believe so much, just because of what society and popular culture preaches. Allowing truth and light to enter my heart and mind, to transform me, to fashion me, to change me, and to heal me has been revolutionary. The great thing is that it hasn’t stopped. This tranformation is continual and will continue until the day I die.

Do you notice the beauty in moments, even the hard ones? Do you allow yourself to learn through life experience? What are your views on society and culture, and it’s effects on your thinking and actions?

Sun Love

 

Can you imagine what would happen to a tree if it didn’t get sunlight? The sun is absolutely necessary for most trees to grow and flourish. It is needed for photosynthesis to happen, and in turn sugar is produced, which feeds the tree oxygen and then is released into the air (source). We need oxygen to breathe – to live.

The above piece serves as a spiritual allegory for me. When the sun doesn’t shine, I’m weak and droopy. My colors aren’t vibrant, but more like monochrome and depressive. I need the sun. When I’m far from it I suffer depression. I get tired and fatigued. I get irritable.

I want to be that big, lush, tall, strong, mature, beautiful tree. I guess that means I need to keep turning my face toward the sun and allow it to do its work.

How about you?

 

Friendship Love (clogyrnach)

 

Philia is one of four ancient Greek words for love, and this specific word implies a love felt between friends. Thomas Jay Oord defines it as an intentional response to promote well-being when cooperating with or befriending others, and that it also gives humans authentic friendship (source). For Aristotle, the object of philia is “another oneself” because one must feel philia for oneself in order to feel the highest form of philia for another (source). CS Lewis describes it as  the least biological, organic, instinctive, gregarious and necessary of loves. It is a type of love that is freely chosen. He believed this type of love to be almost ‘a lost art’ and that modern society ignores friendship, in comparison with examples we have from the past (source).

What do you think? Do you agree with CS Lewis? Do you think that modern society ignores true, authentic ‘philia’? And if so, how do you think that has impacted western, and/or global culture today?

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Clogyrnach is a poetry form of 6 lines. The first two lines has 8 syllables each. Lines three and four have five syllables each. The last two lines have three syllables each. Lines one, two and six must rhyme, and lines three, four and five must rhyme.

Music of my Heart (Gogyohka)

My heart beats

to the rhythm of your drum

and sings

to the tune of your spirit

as I submit my all to you

————-

I fell in love with the various poetry forms a number of months ago, thanks to this girl. I started following her blog and was smitten by all the different poetry forms she used to write her own creations. Thanks to her, I have been challenging myself to push myself just that tad bit further with writing poems under the constraints of rules and order.

Is there something that your heart beats too? Would love to know….. 🙂

Poetry form: Gogyohka

Naked and Exposed

 

Are you a private person? Do you like to keep some things to yourself?

I used to be very open with others. In fact, I used to think of myself as somewhat of an open book. I was also younger, inexperienced, and maybe a little less wiser. I remember though, when I first made a decision to believe in God and to live for Him, I began to have a much stronger conscience. I would feel anxiety at times because I felt as though there were certain things I just may like to hide from Him. Things that I didn’t want him to know. Maybe thoughts that weren’t always the purest and morally correct. One day, however, I was walking home from school and it suddenly dawned on me. I can’t hide a single thing from my creator. He knows all of my thoughts. All of my actions. All of the motives of my heart. He even knows the words I’m going to speak before they reach my lips. Then I realized, that in Him knowing all, and that He still accepts me just as I am, there was great freedom and comfort in that. All the wrong that I had ever done, and would ever do, could be wiped away, simply because of His amazing mercy and grace.

How could I not surrender my all to Him.

Now back to you. Are you a private person or are you an open book? Do you ever wonder, or think about your motives, and if they are ever seen or known?

Wholeness

Last week I posted a poem called, “Words, Mind, Emotions“, and shared how sometimes I find it difficult to calm my mind. I read something today that just hit me: “The world is so complex and over stimulating that you can easily lose your sense of direction“. Do you find this to be true? I do.

I began writing the above recently. It’s a song and a prayer. When I get flustered, confused, worried, etc, I come to my secret place and meet with my creator, and He seems to have a special way of just breathing peace and new life into my heart. As if He’s saying, “I know you don’t understand it all. I know that the world bombards you, screaming their ideas and thoughts. My child, you will never understand it all. Rest in me and know that I have everything under control.”

Now that’s comforting. I wouldn’t change it for the world.

How about you? Do you find this world to be complex and over stimulating? Do you ever feel like you lose your sense of direction? What do you do about it?

*source: Jesus Calling: Enjoying Peace in His Presence by Sarah Young

I am not a machine

 

Step into my world

See into my heart

My mind and soul to grasp

I’ve been shaped by my past

A person I am

See

An individual

Unique

Questions needing answers

No formulas please

I am not a machine

My needs are for me

Have compassion and listen

With your ears and your heart

Not imposing your opinion

Then we can start

Have you ever had anyone try to push their opinions on you?  Try and persuade you to think as they do? Whether it be politics, religion, diet, culture – whatever? I think we all have.  I know I have.

As a Christian, I have a firm belief in a world-view based on the Bible.  I firmly believe in it, not as a ‘religion’, but as a historical document and love letter.  My faith, however is based on a relationship with God, not on rules.  And when I look at Jesus – the way he lived his life, treated people, taught – I don’t see a forcing of opinion. He never forced himself on anyone, nor did he debate and argue to try to persuade others of his opinion.  I see a humble, gentle, loving, compassionate peace-maker.  He led by example and walked what he talked.

So then, that’s what I want to do.  See people with eyes of compassion.  Listen to people’s hearts and maybe not even say a word, but just be there. Every person in an individual.  Everyone is unique.  We are not machines, but unique social individuals that hunger for relationship.

So back to you.  Have you had anyone try to push their opinions on you? How did it make you feel?  Did you feel like you weren’t being heard or understood? As if what you think and feel don’t matter?

Photo credit: http://www.osexoeaidade.com/2012/07/keep-in-mind-35_25.html (tumblr_m1k9p552k31r6g8ypo1_500)

 

Pare Pra Ouvir/Stop and Listen to Me

Pare Pra Ouvir/Stop and Listen to Me

Os dias vão, os dias vem
E não ha nada, nem ninguém
Que preenche o vazio em seu coração
O sol se põe, a noite vem
E o silencio não contem
Uma voz que não ouviu
Um grito de solidão

Deixe eu te falar
Pare pra ouvir
O Deus que eu conheço
Não quer te ver assim
Deixe eu te falar
Pare pra ouvir
O Deus que eu conheço
Quer te fazer feliz

The days they come, the days they go
There is nothing there’s no one
That can fill the void that lives inside of your heart
The sun it sets, the night it comes
Your loneliness continues on
Even in the silence I
Can hear the cry in your heart.

I have something to say
Stop and listen to me
The God that I know doesn’t want to see you like this
I have something to say
Stop and listen to me
The God that I know wants you to be at peace

And when the sun comes out
And a new day starts
You will realize
That he is here
And when the sun, it sets
You will remember
That even in the silence
God is here

E ao amanhecer
E vê o céu se abrir
Você vai perceber
Que ele está aqui
E quando o sol se por
Você vai se lembrar
Que mesmo no silencio
Deus contigo está

This song is actually not my own.  It was written by a very talented couple I know, Jonathan and Lara Valim.  They have a band here in Brazil and Jonathan is the young man who co-produced my CD in his studio.  They asked me to do an English version to this song and then allowed me to put it on my CD.  I have to confess, of all the songs on my CD, this one is my favorite.  And it’s not even mine.  Lara is the beautiful voice you hear singing in Portuguese, however I do sing a part in Portuguese at the end.

Photo credit: www.herworldplus.com