This week I have another song to share, but I think I will just send out the lyrics first... I’ve spent a great deal of time on them, letting them ripen over the last 4-6 weeks, and letting this time continue its work in me- and it has, and it still does…
As we continue in the same way, mostly separated, yearning for contact in ways that might even surprise or catch us off guard, there are hints now of a softening of the measures we have observed. I wonder what you are now aware of as we imagine reaching for each other again in more tangible ways?
In a great conversation with a few dear friends online, an old friend of mine posed a question to the gathering, as is our custom when we talk together… but his question was somehow more vulnerable, it went something like this: “what parts of your socially constructed self have you found relieving or even nourishing to relinquish during this time? and do you hope that you might leave these aspects behind for good? or conversely, have you struggled as you are not able to be the self you have become, and the self with which you are deeply indentified, during this time of isolation? or is it both?” He invited us to share about how this has looked for each of us…
I love his question, and I also loved the vulnerability in his asking, because I could tell that it came from his experience of this time in a more heart-centered way than an intellectual one... He went on soon after as he responded to his own question, to speak of his hope during this time, and he asked if any of us still hoped that we each, or the world, might emerge from this self-reckoning moment, more deeply transformed… It is a vulnerable question, (not only because my dear friend is often very cerebral, and this went deeper,) but because we each did feel and respond differently to it. One said they weren’t hopeful, another said they were hopeful but not optimistic, and as we listened deeply and openly to the differences among us, we got closer to each other.
So friends, do not keep your hope to yourselves… or your questions. Risk speaking them. Even though they may not be shared by those listening, it is both powerful and vulnerable to hope, and we need more of that kind of thing…
Here is my song, the lyrics only… I will post a recording soon… maybe next week.
And the earth takes a deep breath;
and someone takes their last.
And we’re all here together;
And this dye has been cast.
Now I burn for a future…
where we learn from our past.
For this birth asks a deep death…
And this pain will not last.
Running through the trees…
And in the end we’re all just falling on our knees…
Longing now for ease…
And in this time we’re all just terrified to breathe;
Trying not to freeze.
With hopes whispered in the breeze,
How can I still believe?
And the earth takes a deep breath;
and someone takes their last.
And we’re all here together;
And this dye has been cast.
Now I burn for a future…
where we learn from our past.
For this birth asks a deep death…
And this pain will not last.
In all these many ways…
I find my mind has forced me deep inside a maze…
Emerging from a daze…
I find the house I’ve built is going up in flames;
I’m welcoming the blaze.
As grief billows from the haze,
My strength now sings and prays…
Let this birth bring its deep death;
Let the earth hold us fast!
If we’re all bound together.
Let no spell now be cast.
May we yearn for our future,
As we rise from our past.
Now let earth take a deep breath,
Let it not be Her last.