Garden of the Light
Published by Grace Gardener
Copyright 2012 by Grace Gardener
Words from the
Garden of the Light
by Grace Gardener
Words of inspiration.
Quotes I like.
Photographs of my travels for the past five years.
Poetry about my life. Some artwork.
Essays that are still mysteries.
I’m publishing this because I’m running out of ideas on how to get through to Adam Levine, Joni Mitchell and Paul Simon.
I’ve included stories of me in my teens, writing with Paul Simon and Joni Mitchell.
Please read my eBook, Babble On, for information on how all of the statements in this book could possibly be true.
Dedication:
Dedicated to my daughters, who are still prisoners.
With this sword - with these words - I hope to free them.
Dedicated to anyone wishing to turn the world in a righteous direction.
Dedicated to all prisoners without walls.
Poems Dedicated to Adam Levine -
I wrote Dream Robbers because of Adam Levine. I had regained many memories but once I remembered Adam I understood how devastating the people I profile in my eBook, Babble On, had been to my life and to everyone around me.
I wrote, Easy to Love; and, Good Morning, Love; when I had no memory of Adam, only the memory of the feeling.
Once I realized it was going to be impossible to reach Adam, I wrote -
Out of My Reach; Remember But Wait; In Your Eyes; OD on Creativity; Your Touch; and We’re Only Seven Miles from the Sun -
Dedicated to Paul Simon and Joni Mitchell - someday I hope to see you again.
Knowledge
We are like deer caught in the headlights of Evil.
Deer jumping in the path of those who would harm us.
Drawn to the oncoming collision because we don’t have the knowledge to fear it. gg
See No Evil
If all you look for is the good in people - all you will see is good.
If we see no evil, then evil has the advantage.
We must recognize evil to defeat it. gg
I wrote Dream Robbers about my jailor and ex-husband, Lloyd, and his accomplice and beloved princess Deeta. I was their prisoner and slave all my life. I sent this poem to Adam Levine, along with a letter explaining what happened to me, but he didn’t receive it. Perhaps he received it and Lloyd and Deeta changed his mind about me. I need to know the truth. I fear my former captors have it. I’m claiming it now - this poem is mine!
I feel very vulnerable in this area since so many of my poems have become songs whose proceeds benefit my former owners who are murderers, rapists and child pornographers.
Dream Robbers
Steal my dreams
Turn me into someone I’m not.
Fetch my family away to never-never land.
Thieve my youth, rob my health, embezzle my mind, take my soul, pilfer my privacy
Strip me naked - then take the skin from my bones
And when I seemingly have nothing left
You come like foxes after doves in the night
And steal my memories.
My memories - the thing that defines me
My humanity - gone!
Everything taken from me.
Take my money - I don’t need it
But don’t slaughter my love, my joy, my life.
You scoundrels
You bastards
You snakes
You didn’t need my memories
What good were they to you?
You stole me
from me.
Nobody’s Perfect!
There’s no such thing as perfection. God told me, “There’s no such thing as perfection.”
I bought a quilted jacket at a thrift store recently. It's perfect. It fits well, and I can wear it on chilly mornings inside my home. It's just the right weight and it's cute. I see it, I put it on, and I think - ‘this is just perfect.’
Perfect is a totally subjective identifier. Someone didn't want that little quilted jacket and gave it to the thrift store. Perhaps it didn't fit, perhaps it was a gift they didn't like. Perhaps they had no thought of when they could wear it since it's so simple and hand-made.
Same jacket - to one person is not wearable, and to another - it's perfect.
How can there be any such thing as perfection? It was God who pointed that out to me.
When I say there's no such thing as perfection, people always correct me and say, "Except for God, God is perfect." That's not correct.
God can’t be perfect, because, He asks, "By whose definition? "
We tend to want God to be a meddling magician. We want God to fix everything all the time. God, on the other hand, doesn't see things that way. He is the benevolent Creator who has rules that differ from our ideas.
God and His favorite creation, an Angel named Beelzebub, agreed to let souls begin their journey in a place outside of Heaven so they could choose Heaven or Hell without interference. That was God’s incentive for creating time, earth and humans. Because of Free Will God couldn’t know the future. The Devil didn’t hold up his end of the bargain. The Devil cheats. God won’t cheat. Because of Free Will God can help only when we ask Him, otherwise He’d be interfering with our lives and that wasn’t part of the bargain. So by our definition God can’t be perfect. If God can’t be perfect, people can’t be perfect either.
That can be a life changing concept. gg
I hope someday I’ll know what this is like, so far in my life, it hasn’t happened.
For Adam
Good Morning, Love
The envelope of warm air that surrounds my body perceives you
You stir
Your breathing harmonizes with mine
My sleepy arms navigate the covers
To touch the moist tenderness of your morning skin
I kiss your eyelids
Your arms cradle my waking body
My forehead finds its place between your neck and shoulder
Your heart beats with mine
I breathe you in and kiss your chest
“Good morning, Love”
Easy to Love
(I wrote this after I met Adam but before I remembered him.)
I could love you so easily
all I would need is a word from you
all I need is to feel your touch
all I need is to feel you wanting me.
I could love you so easily
if only you would let me
if only I would let myself.
I could love you so easily
because I love who you are
I love the way we connect.
There’s so much between us
I feel it
we have a force between us
I feel it
a current
I feel it
a rhythm
I feel it
Synchronicity.
Do you feel it?
I could give myself to you
Completely
With no effort at all
You know me so well
I know you so well
And still
And because of that
I will love you so easily.
Out of My Reach
I wrote this for Adam when I remembered Deeta said I’d never be able to get through to him. gg
Reams of pain
Hollowness, emptiness.
I can’t reach you
Your body glistens in the distant hallways of my mind.
My heart forgets to beat searching for you.
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So close I can’t breathe.
You’re locked away.
Where are you?
My mouth longs for your taste
Yearns to inhale you.
My neck craves the sweet sultry sensation
Of your breath.
It was you who breathed life into my soul
Reminding me to live
Defining who I am.
You alone made me feel alive
wanted and wonderful.
I know what Heaven looks and feels like through you
beautiful and blissful.
I’m blessed to have met you, known you, loved you.
When will my fingers trace your exquisite face again?
I’m scared we’ll fade away once more.
I need to tell you, I love you.
I need to tell you, I owe you my life.
Please let me find you again.
Thank you, thank you for rescuing me.
Please read my ebook, Babble On, for more about Christ’s message and how I know what He said.
Happiness comes from within. We make our own happiness!
This is how -
Show kindness and respect always, with no thought of reward or even gratitude. Do it because it creates happiness.
Show love because that’s what you want to do. Your reward will be within you. Your good karma will increase, making your life on earth more pleasant.
When you honor, respect and love yourself and those around you, your aura will shine white and gold. Your aura is the energy you put out; it’s a reflection of your soul. It’s your vibe. You’ll have a good vibe. People will respond to you and be drawn to you so they can be around your positive energy.
The more love you put out – the more you will be surrounded by love. The more you’re surrounded by love – the easier it is to love yourself. The more you love yourself the happier you’ll be, because you’ll be at peace with yourself.
You were born with Original Love - NOT Original Sin. You can wrap yourself up in a blanket of love.
On earth we can achieve something close to Heaven - called Nirvana - by giving away love, joy and happiness. Just by doing that, a feeling of love, joy and happiness will be given back to you by the universe, God, the Angels, and others, making your life on earth much more pleasurable. Your positive vibe, your bright aura and your good karma will make you very attractive.
Other people, people whose hearts are evil, will try to take those things away from you. Try not to let them get you down. Remember this is earth. Forgive them and move on to someone who will willingly accept your love, honor and respect. Don’t stop giving just because one or two or more refuse your kindness or call you a fool. Theirs is a different agenda.
God allows Free Will. We can listen to our Guardian Angels or to the Dark Angels. If an individual listens to a Dark Angel the result is hate, anger, fear, mistrust, pain and suffering.
Always remember - It is NEVER too late to switch teams.
Bryce Canyon
Special Quotes I like and the Poetry of Others
Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. The fearful are caught as often as the bold.
- Helen Keller 1880 – 1968 American writer
(This is so true. Bear this in mind over the next few years. Fear is used against us by Fox News and so many others every day. Don’t succumb. gg)
If you have made mistakes... there is another chance for you... you may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing we call "failure" is not the falling down, but the staying down.
- Mary Pickford 1893 - 1979 American actress
(I use that quote a lot. Everyone makes mistakes. I know I do. We can learn from them and should not be embarrassed by them. We are all afraid of ridicule and judgment. People who judge and ridicule are evil. gg)
It is hard to fight an enemy who has outposts in your head.
- Sally Kempton 1943 American writer
(We are our own worst enemy. Our only limitations are in our mind. gg)
Unity and Community
This symbol advocates Unity and Community.
I painted this as a Universal Spirituality Symbol, for all Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Native People, Christians and all spiritually inclined God-loving and peace-loving people everywhere .
It represents the phases of the moon going around the sun. Feathers and Calah lillies, representing animals and plants, hold up the moons. The center is the sun. The two blues are the sky and the water.
I am never afraid of what I know.
- Anne Sewell 1820 - 1878 English writer
There are no more thorough prudes than those who have some little secret to hide.
- George Sand 1804 - 1876 French writer
Judgment is nothing but exhausting and evil. gg
It is very painful for you to criticize your friends -- you're safe in doing it. But if you take the slightest pleasure in it -- that's the time to hold your tongue. - Alice Duer Miller 1874 - 1942 American writer
(The best person to criticize you is a friend. If they take delight in it, they are NOT friends. gg)
Balboa Park in San Diego California.
The mind, once expanded to the dimensions of larger ideas, never returns to its original size.
- Oliver Wendell Holmes
(Let’s hope not. gg)
“The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.”
- Albert Einstein
(I like a lot of Albert Einstein’s philosophy. gg)
Speaking of Einstein, the character Russell Crowe played in Beautiful Mind was tormented by the same people I define in Babble On. They wanted to keep him from making the world a better place, just as they would like to stop me. These people are real and they mean to do us harm.
Don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness.
Mathew 6.33 – 6.34
Bodega Bay, California.
“You are the light of the world. Your light must shine in the sight of men.”
-- Matthew 5:14
The power that you gain by pursuing your interest will give you the ability to take upon yourself a greater challenge than you have taken on so far. We gain in power by pursuing our purpose in life.
- Hazrat Inayat Khan
As five fingered humans we are given the gift of thought and life into our hands. As five fingered humans, we are all the same.
- Linda Dee of the Dine’ Nation
Cochise Stronghold in Benson, AZ. Picture this while watching 3:10 to Yuma. (Starring my favorite actor, Russell Crowe. He’s amazing in the movie!) I don’t know why they didn’t send a camera crew to shoot some of this!? It makes everything more believable. Native Americans could easily hide in the shadows of those rocky cliffs. Three or four men could hide in that one large shadow on the lower left of the picture. Probably eight men could hide in the shadows in this one picture and that’s just one tiny area. The formations cover at least 20 square miles. gg
God and I have become like two giant fat people living in a tiny boat. We keep bumping into each other and laughing.
- Hafiz
(Me, too. gg)
Every time we walk down the street, we are preceded by hosts of Angels singing, “Make way. Make way. Make way for the image of God.”
- Hasidic saying
(This is one reason for pride. Pride is a good thing, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. It is narcissism that is evil. We should take care of ourselves, our weight, our health, and our appearance because we are made in the image of God, and that’s something to be proud of. gg)
The trouble with trying to change the world is that weeks can go by and nothing happens.
-- Rev. Carol Carnes
&n
bsp; (No shit. gg)
Please join me in trying to change the world for the better. Join team righteous! gg
Roadrunner, New Mexico, USA
Those who don’t feel this life pulling them like a river, those who don’t drink dawn like a cup of springwater, or take in sunset like supper. Those who don’t want to change, let them sleep.
- Rumi
(The purpose of life is to choose Heaven or Hell. Beyond that we should have fun, as long as we don’t hurt anyone else. We have to remember to live life while we are alive!
Remember - No change can occur if we always do things the way we’ve always done them. gg)
Coronado Island, California, USA
Art is the only way to run away without leaving home.
– Twyla Tharp 1941 American choreographer
(Art is Godlike. God is the ultimate creative spirit. He is still creating us and this earth. Any pursuit in the field of the arts brings us closer to God. I hate to hear of people who were told as children that art is a waste of time! Art is dance, music, drama, sculpture, photography, creative thinking, painting, drawing, cooking and the appreciation of beauty. gg)
Imagination is the highest kite one can fly.
-- Lauren Bacall 1924 American actress
Gibsons, BC - Government dock
The most popular labor-saving device is still money.
- Phyllis George 1949 American sportscaster
Weeding
A difference of taste in jokes is a great strain on the affections.
- George Eliot 1819 - 1880 English writer
(Ridicule is NEVER funny. gg)
That is best -- to laugh with someone because you both think the same things are funny.
- Gloria Vanderbilt 1924 - American designer
2 year old Baby Bear on the Sunshine Coast in British Columbia. He comes way too close to civilization. He broke into my neighbor’s porch refrigerator. There are three others who come around regularly.