“Healing Appalachia” “Kathy Mattea” – “Mary Did You Know?”

“this Child that you delivered will soon deliver you..did you know..when you kissed your little baby, you kissed the face of God.”

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Who Is A Good Marriage Partner?

“Who Is A Good Marriage Partner?”
(c) 2011 Owen Joseph/shannan suzzette

“marry the one person made for you, who brings you closer to God, for that Holy Love is the Essence, Spirit, and Divine Flame that will bind you or separate you. in choosing a life-partner you must be equally yoked in your faith and values or your wagon will never move forward into the Light of Eternal Love and Happiness. Love is knowing God within your heart. your true mate will illuminate your own divinity within and you will never fear again. a long life is only as good as the love you share it with. wait for the real thing and you will know it to be true as the light in your hearts beating as one will illuminate your whole world and nothing will be the same ever again. God lives in the center of the sacred heart of marriage and as long as you both are committed to God first, you will remain committed to one another forever.” -Owen Joseph/shannan suzzette

The apostle Paul wrote the saints in Corinth, “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion hath light with darkness?” (2 Cor. 6:14)

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seed of greatness…

seed of greatness…

“there is the seed of greatness in all of us….yet only the Light of Love can bring that seed to life.” -Owen Joseph/Shannan Suzzette

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Gathering Paradise: Bill Murray Reads to Construction Workers at Poets House NYC

Members of the construction team which built Poets House’s new home joined actor Bill Murray in May 2009 for the first poetry reading at 10 River Terrace. Produced for Poets House by Limey Films, Inc.

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love is forever

love is forever…. once you have and know real absolute devoted love in your heart, it truly is the only thing that matters…love is the only thing worth holding….forever.-sst

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learning to love the sweetness of the wind…

the only thing I ever wanted to be when I grew up was a good faithful devoted wife and mother, a decent creative writer, a valuable member of my community and my extended family and a great explorer and lover of life and all its wonders. the rest has been so insignificant to my soul except for the onerous duty of cleaning karma I suppose. it’s so easy to get lost in the woods of other people’s ideas of how you should be or what you should want. our culture has been on the spin cycle for so long I can hardly remember what standing still felt like. but as a child I knew there was something magical that happened when you stood still in the middle of nature and just listened….that’s when you really feel connected to the awe of life flowing through you….when you know you are part of a bigger plan and divine purpose just by being alive. when you get away from the flashing lights and the loud noise of the circus world you come to understand, the great plan of life is not about the spin…it is about learning to love the sweetness of the wind. -sst

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Mother Teresa: How to Love God

Mother Teresa: How to Love God

spiritual beauty is in the hand of grace that touches a soul with love and ignites the light of God within.

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love is the gold..

love is the gold you mine with the sweat of your life…that’s the real treasure most are unwilling to work hard to discover. only the most dedicated miner will truly prosper in authentic wealth. going deep into the mine is only for the brave of heart..as most are content with panning for flakes in a shallow river bed. reward is measured by effort and risk. when you risk everything…you get all the gold you were after and more. that’s love. real authentic love.-sst

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my christmas dream

MY CHRISTMAS DREAM
(c) 2008 shannan suzzette taylor

My Christmas dream is to hold you close to me
Until you fall into a deep sleep
After the day has spent its time through you
Making smiles cross every face
Gives you sweet sighs of relief
Giving your all to those you love
Day in and day out
Leaving no space for your thoughts or dreams
Or what is too impossible to be
A life so full and incomplete
I wish this holy night would find you still
In my arms safe and sound
At peace with life
At peace with love
At peace with us

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in the hand of God

In The Hand Of God
copyright 2009 Shannan Suzzette Taylor

There is a great joy in allowing ourselves to live in the hand of God. Walking by faith and not by sight is often the most difficult thing we can learn to do. Many of us are not accustomed to surrendering control of our lives to God on a daily basis but that is what is being asked of us during these uncertain economic times. Daily surrender.

All over the country people are having to become more aware of their “real value” and their “real values.” The status symbols of houses and cars are being sold at foreclosure sales or towed away in the night. Some jobs are disappearing just as others are being created. It is the dawn of a new era. It is the opening of our collective heart of God that is allowing us to see these things not as bad or depressing situations but of a necessary elimination, cleansing, and purification process of what is not of true authentic value in our lives.

We must have asked a question of God in unison, “God, why are we here? What is the meaning and purpose of our lives? What is being on this little planet at this time in history together supposed to teach us about You? Are we meant to suffer our entire lives or can we be forgiven and brought into the light of peace and love now?”

As I say my daily prayers, and I have to say that I pray constantly all day long these days, I am brought into a greater lightness than I have ever known. I feel the presence of God in my heart and in my life. I am seeing miraculous changes all around me. Miracles are all around you too if you look. God has lifted the veils of illusions and shown us the reality of our own beauty in the simple ways of life. Smiles, laughter, hugs. There is no price that can be put on a hug or a smile or a great big sparkling bout of laughter.

What is happening all around us is the bounty of God’s grace raining down on us and through us as if we were all beneath a great and magnificent waterfall. We are being freed from the bonds and false values that more is better. We are being freed from the illusions that love is just a physical act. We are being freed from the myths that have been passed down from generation to generation that we are not good enough or worthy of goodness and light. We have asked sincere questions in our hearts and we are being given God’s answer in our lives.

What is most important cannot be seen or owned or taken by anyone. What is most important in life is the way we give and receive love in communion with God and one another. A holy life is not a restricted life, it is an empowered life full of potential and possibilities of greatness at every turn. Not monetary greatness. A holy life is full of opportunities for noble greatness. The value of great kings rests not in their treasure but in their hearts. This is what we are beginning to understand as a generation.

What has made us empty is the dance with darkness that we have all encountered. Depression is the work of darkness not the work of God. If we think of darkness as a forest that is meant to be entered with caution for the main purpose of being forced by our soul to face all of our deepest subconscious fears and to experience the depth of narcissism and physical ecstasy through detached emotions then we will see that it is only a test. A test of personal will. A test of moral strength. A test of moral courage.
God tests us and we test ourselves, yet sometimes we find ourselves falling into the illusions and forgetting who we were, who we are, and that we are never lost in the light of love. Love and forgiveness are always available, yet still we fall prey to the illusions that we are inherently bad and being punished by being stuck in a world of chaos, fear, dread, and lack of love and financial security for the rest of our lives. That is the hell of our own mental landscape that we create and live out through the days and nights of depression yet it is only an illusion based on an early program from childhood that needs to be deleted from our mind, body, and psyche.

The walk through the forest of our own hell and fear of the ghosts of our own remembered actions and actions forced upon us is God’s way of saying to us, “Be fearless in the face of your demons. You are strong. I have made you in My own image but you must be able to know that in your own heart you have the power to move mountains and create life like Me. I gave you free will so that you would find your way back to Me by your choice alone. I gave you free will to learn that love is the only reality and the only value in this world or not. It is your choice to choose love or eternal fear. Yet, I am always here and waiting for you to call out to Me for guidance. I am always here in your heart of Faith.”

This journey of walking by faith not by sight has been a difficult one for me. I have done things that make no logical sense yet these very irrational actions and movements have opened new worlds of beauty, love, and enchantment in my heart. My eyes have been brightened as well as my heart’s burdens lightened from the bounty of God’s grace and forgiveness. I had to be willing to go into the unknown and seek to know my deepest fears and face the tyrants of my own soul. The battle has been a long and treacherous dark night, yet this new found freedom of truth and the noble grace of knowing authentic love is the greatest gift of being alive.

At this time in our history we are losing what is superficial and gaining what is eternal by having the courage to look deeply into the eyes of our soul to see our own truth and own the wholeness of who we are and who we have come here at this time to be. Enlightened not through the selfish authority of a guru state, but through the deep love and grace of God.

It is our gift of grace to love and be loved for who we are, not as we wish ourselves to be but for who we are at this very moment. It is our gift of grace to others to see the value of the small or great rays of light in their soul and nourish the seeds of love in our community. It is our gift of grace to learn the value of our own heart and expand our bounty by sharing love with others and not taking more than we need by not honoring the needs of others.

This depression or economic downturn has provided us a useful door to a world that we may begin to love with all our heart and soul and our inheritance of a deep emotional poverty will be erased through the grace of God and our gardens will once again rise to nourish all people with our open heart. Only love is real and that is God’s authentic gift to us and the reason we are here together at this time. We are all beginning to understand the value of active faith as it leads us out of darkness and into the light of love forever and always. Amen.

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