Intention

By Amanda Jenen

They say what you think about 
you bring about.
I’ve come to believe that is true.
Is it subconscious need,
That bring this about? 
Or a mysterious force out of the blue?
When we recognize gratitude, or conversely fear.
Do we welcome them into our hearts?
Do all of our efforts,
Our worry and strife.
Throw intention into the world like darts?
We should be more careful
With our thoughts,
If they can turn our dreams into reality?
We all take a spin
On the great wheel of life.
Yet, no matter where we land
We’re still free.
Regardless of the forces at play,
Whether by design or by intention.
Our choices are what we can control,
Our attitude despite the convention.
I think we keep searching for a cause. A purpose to keep apathy at bay.
But find it or not, time keeps us moving, Never really knowing the right way?
So think of the beauty,
Instead of the sorrow.
Live for today,
Not the unknown tomorrow.
Make sure that your purpose
Is clear and directed.
So those dart of intention,
Are not easily deflected.
Bring about the good you want to see in your life.
By centering your thoughts on joy, Instead of strife.
Keep your own magic bright and alive.

by choosing to do more than merely survive.
Since we all end up who we intend to be,
I’ll intend to be only,
The best version of me.

Gratitude

By Amanda Jenen

Gratitude is such a simple thing, just recognizing joy.
So why is it difficult to explain, without feeling coy.
The more you see, the more happiness fills your heart.
It overflows, reaches out, seeping into every part.
Yet really feeling it, basking in its light,
Is sometimes frightening, like a moonless night.
It removes all walls, all masks of superficiality,
and leaves you open to the stark reality.
Gratitude makes us vulnerable, it’s so terribly hard to explain.
For how do you describe a feeling, an impact, a true gain?
To be truly grateful you must set aside your pride.
Place yourself in the heart of another so you can understand their mind.
Then you can recognize the sacrifice, and see the true intent.
Recognition then is easy, from the new perspective you’ve been lent.
It sounds so easy, yet in practice immeasurably hard.
For to set aside our pride, we have to first let down our guard.

Rays of Empathy

By Amanda Jenen

When you are feeling helpless, your heart aching for someone’s pain.
All you want to do is fix it, yet the problem has no name.
An unsolvable puzzle, the only thing to do, is offer your support,
and help light the way through.
Since you can not relate, only imagine the sorrow.
Your paralyzed by what to do, there is nothing to beg, steal or borrow.
There is only service, and love freely given.
Which helps to ease their heartache, it can help them feel forgiven.
What could help make their burden lighter?
What could you do to make their world a little brighter?
Since you can’t solve or fix this, let your love find a way, to help bring relief on those darkest of days.

Currents

By Amanda Jenen

Ever onward we drift, not knowing what’s around the bend.
Sometimes slow, sometimes swift, carried on without end.
At the mercy of the current, whether fast or slow, or standing still.
The whirlpools and the eddies, have you at their will.
Do you work with the current, or do you fight and thrash?
Can you avoid the obstacles before you, or suffer each new lash?
Will you let the time you have, race by before your eyes?
Or will you maneuver through the currents of life
with courage and excitement, and joyful surprise.

Euphoria

By Amanda Jenen

I’m buoyant and light, my heart filled with love.
I feel as if I could float, and touch the clouds up above.
Relaxed in a way that leaves my body replete.
My expression unguarded, my world tidy and neat.
No worry or care can dampen this mood.
For my soul has just feasted on the finest of food.
How long can this euphoria possibly last?
It matters not in this moment, no future, no past.
I sigh and inhale feeling the air deep in my core.
While I blissfully drift on this incredible shore.

A Moment of Kindness

By Amanda Jenen

A moment of kindness can break the toughest of walls.
Empathy cannot be measured, but is unmistakable, a siren’s call.
Sometimes all you need is for someone to listen, too really understand.
Tell you that you’ll make it, and help you come up with a plan.
They make your burden lighter, because you know you’re not alone.
They stop the transformation of your heart turning to stone.
Like magic the pressure lessens, the problems easier to solve.
You know you’re going to make it now, because they won’t let you fall.

Wishes For A Friend

By Amanda Jenen

Always the victim, the world’s got you down.
When nothing’s your fault, you can’t turn it around.
Pretending to grow, but never owning the change.
In a cycle of wandering, alone and afraid.
You’re trapped and you wonder why you can’t just break free.
Your blind, because you can’t take responsibility.
Expectations always lead to pain.
A victim cannot tolerate Shame.
Without the pain to help you grow,
You will only learn, what you already know.
When someone’s been kind, don’t throw it back in their face.
Or, take more, then pretend, and then try to save face.
I hope for your sake you can grow from this pain.
That you’ll look back and be grateful, that you’re no longer the same.

Between Breaths

By Amanda Jenen

There is a place inside the mind,
A place where the soul resides.
An eternity in a moment, apart from space and time.
A single drop of water, removed from the torrent of life.
No pain can exist here, no misery or strife.
The unfiltered beauty is almost painful to behold.
The brilliance of the light and joy, combined with mysteries untold.
This quiet place inside is not impossible to find.
It requires that we silence, the cacophony in our mind.
Let go of all the worries, the discomfort and the pain.
Accept, but do not hold to, all the love we have to gain.
Let nothing distract your awareness, and in the moments between breaths,
You’ll catch glimpses of the magic, held within those depths.

Stop and Think

By Amanda Jenen

Just take a moment to stop and think.
So much damage done in the space of a blink.
Are we seeing the full story, or just a glimpse of the truth?
Do we fill in the blanks based on what we would do?
If we stop just a moment, breath through the sting of rejection.
Can we hear past the pain, can we resolve the intention?
Are we reacting, or deciding? The difference is subtle to be sure.
The motives we assign others are either tainted or pure.
If we stop to question, if we stop and listen.
The head so much clearer, with a bit of reflection.
Looking now from a different perspective, the story has changed, love becomes our objective.

Winter Magic

By Amanda Jenen

It’s magical when the world is covered in white.
The dampened sound of snowfall combined with reflected light.
The air is fresh and freezing, it’s almost hard to breath.
It’s filled with so much energy, so bright and pure and clean.
The flakes fall slowly down to earth, unique until they meet.
They meld together, impossible to distinguish, as they glisten at our feet.
The sun will come and with its rays, remove the white and cold.
A new magic will fill the absence, new life as spring unfolds.
Yet, caught in winter’s beauty, stark, colorless, but somehow true.
The feeling of it crystallizes into a memory with no hue.

Wanting or Having

By Amanda Jenen

What is more painful?
To want or to have?
Wanting is an aching, needy thing
Wanting makes you obsessive and unsatisfied.
Wanting fuels the imagination, and dreams and turns us into idealists.
Having tears down ideals and brings reality into stark focus.
Having is satisfying at first, then quickly fades into normality.
Having takes work to maintain, effort to keep, having is hard.
Wanting is easy, fueled by our desires and our needs.
Wanting is motivating, for it drives us to completion.
Once our desire is attained, a new want naturally takes its place.
When does wanting go away? Where is the balance point between wanting and having? Is there such a point? Can there ever be a balance?
Wanting’s pain comes from absence.
Having’s pain comes from maintenance.
Can we sincerely want what we already have? Is this the balance we all seek?
Or is it the opposite? Having what we sincerely want, and not some substitute to fill the need.
I know the pain of both having and wanting, I know the joy that comes from both as well.
The difference between is too subtle to tell.