Faith and doubt

Peace of My Mind

September 27, 2023 — 4 Comments

This song came at the right time for me. I needed to relax.

Somewhere in the past week someone called to my mind the story of the burning bush, where God says to Moses, “take off your shoes, you are on holy ground.” And for the first time in my life that idea hit me in a whole different way. Take off your shoes, sit a spell, take it easy. Holy ground is hallowed ground, is sacred space, is an invitation to just be.

Also in the past week I heard someone say, “I’ll give him the piece of my mind!” and the slipup of “the” instead of “a” halfway wrote this song.

Take off your shoes, this is holy ground
You can relax, stay awhile, stick around
I’ll give you the peace of my mind

Let down your guard, I’m just here with you
Nothing to sell, nothing you need to prove
I’ll give you the peace of my mind

Breathe in, breathe out
That’s about the gist of it
Breathe in breathe out
Live

Breathe in, breathe out
That’s about the gist of it
Breathe in breathe out
Live

Stay Alive With Me

July 31, 2023 — 2 Comments

Another last-day-of-the-month posting of my monthly song! This means my summer is keeping me busy with lots of fun and very little time home alone to write or record. But I got the song written last week and recorded today in some snatched moments.

You might recognize some of the influences in this song. One, repeated smoky days here in Minnesota from Canadian wildfires. On one of these days I was struck with how I could actually stare at the orange sun through the smoke with no ill effects on my eyes – and that’s a second influence – that U2 song. Three, the flooding in New England and specifically the destruction to downtown Montpelier, Vermont – we had just visited a friend there last summer, beautiful little city – and this summer, in my friend’s words, the town is totaled. Four, my love of gardening, one of the things I’ve been happily busy with this summer.

Even if this is all there ever is
I’m happy to be here now
This present moment so generous
And a big bright world all around

Stay alive with me
Take your time to breathe
Think your big ideas
Then toss them out like seeds and see what they become

Storms raging and the floods rise higher
We’re afraid of what’s to come
World burning and the smoke spreads wider
Now we can all stare at the sun

Stay alive with me
Take your time to breathe
Think your big ideas
Then toss them out like seeds and see what they become

Heart and hand and soul and skin are we
Dust of stars beyond our reach
Flowers of the field, dry dancing bones
Broken brilliant wondrous ones

Day keeps dawning and the night grows darker
We wake and sleep and dream and live
Memories soften and hope grows harder
We never know it like it is

Stay alive with me
Take your time to breathe
Think your big ideas
Then toss them out like seeds and see what they become

Love is Always Beginning

May 31, 2023 — 5 Comments

So I write a song a month this year instead of a song a week, and May’s two-minute song makes it in on the last day of the month! Busy times but love is always beginning and life starts over again (that’s about a third of the lyrics right there). In May I celebrated my 25th wedding anniversary with my beloved Nathan, who also celebrated his 50th birthday. This song does feel apropos for those things.

Love is always beginning
Love embraces the end
Life is constantly spinning
Life starts over again

Hold on to the truth that’s holding you
Make friends with the ever-changing view

The Hard Way

October 1, 2022 — 1 Comment

Everybody in my house has been sick the last week, but I still managed to get a song written. Turning in a quick and easy lo-fi laptop recording this week.

Nobody told you how to let the best ones go
Nobody told you so how were you to know?
There’s some things you can only learn the hard way

She looked so good until you saw the splinters in her eyes
Well ain’t it awful but you just won’t compromise
There’s some things you’ll just have to learn the hard way

Love has seen it all
Love’s heard everything
Love loves it all
Love learned the hard way

Don’t try to count up all the ways you got it wrong
All it amounts to is the will to carry on
There’s some things you can only learn the hard way

So don’t you fear now, just take each breath for what it is
And what it is is another unexpected gift
There’s some things you’ll just have to learn the hard way

Love has seen it all
Love’s heard everything
Love loves it all
Love learned the hard way

The Road the Day the Ground the Clouds

September 17, 2022 — 2 Comments

At last, my #songaweek2022 group used a photo for a prompt instead of a word or phrase. This felt like a game-changer to me in terms of connecting with a prompt for inspiration. I think the photo was of the Great Wall of China, but I thought of a road, then of the song from The Hobbit that starts, “the road goes ever on and on. . . ” and I went from there.

I felt like deliberately slowing down in the writing and playing of this song, and so I did.

If you listen closely and/or with headphones you might be able to hear the crickets singing along outside the open window.

The road goes ever on
And over it a song
That if you hear will draw you near
to where you never know where you might go

The day lies before you
And with it much to do
But there’s a song that draws you on
To where you always know you’re going home

The ground carries your load
The clouds catch evening’s glow
They’re changing you, and changed by you
Till everything will never be the same