There’s pits you never might get to the bottom of There’s rivers flowing any which way but love There’s words nobody with breath ever should have said Reverberating inside your head
All is falling, falling down Falling down on the ground of God
There’s peaks you never might wish to descend from There’s roads going every direction home There’s songs of healing and joy about to be sung Vibrating on the tip of your tongue
All is rising, rising up Rising up from the ground of God
Be still children be still Breathe the breath of life Be not afraid To give it back
There’s no beginning or end to the question There’s battles around you and war within There’s hope that hits you like a bolt from the blue Obliterating what you thought you knew
All is falling, falling down Falling down on the ground of God All is rising, rising up Rising up from the ground of God
One thing pandemic life has taught me is how to write a song at a moment’s notice. Today my afternoon brought me an unexpected two hours to myself, so I set everything aside and started writing just a few minutes after the door closed and I was alone in the house. It’s become almost a habit now, to sit down and write till I get stuck, then take the dog for a walk and try to work out the rest of it. Which is how I finished this one.
The prompt for #songaweek2021’s week 14 is “inside there’s a fire” which was in front of me as I was writing this one, and I liked it enough to take my title from it too.
This week I have a cold so I got to use my low notes. Also I’ve upgraded my blog so I can now directly embed audio files here, rather than linking to Soundcloud. I didn’t make a video this week since I’m not feeling the greatest, wanted the recording process to be low-hassle.
Oh, maybe you can tell I’ve been hearing a lot of U2 lately thanks to my daughter having newly discovered them and playing their music pretty much exclusively all the time. I think some of Bono’s vocalizing influenced me 🙂
I’m sitting on the back steps on an April afternoon Just minding my own business, making up a little tune Nothing’s wrong In this song Sun shining and the birds are singing and the rain falls now and then Grass growing, little buds are showing on the ends of waking stems Everything Is breathing
My heart keeps beating at the bars Of this bony cage
I’m lying on my back one summer night when I was young Eyes gazing through the blackness at a million sparkling suns Up is down Lost is found Hand of another holding mine and fingers intertwined Just-blossomed lovers coming close in body and in mind So damn true So brand new
My heart is pulsing with the stars Through this eager flesh
I’m looking for the way back to the best that’s yet to come I’m jumping in the river just to find out where it runs Sink or swim I’m all in My heart perpetually starts And starts again
Every year for Good Friday my church puts out a call to artists to choose one of the seven last words of Christ and share something based on the particular last words they chose. For now our church is doing everything online – mostly Facebook Live – including the upcoming Good Friday service. I was getting ready to sign up for “Into your hands I commend my spirit,” and started writing the words to this song, before I realized our family’s plan to go camping that weekend will negate my ability to do any livestreaming that day.
Still, I liked what I had started and decided to go ahead and make it my song for week 11 of #songaweek2021.
Every winter I think I’m dying Come the spring I feel like trying Trying again In the summer I know I’m living Go to fall it all starts giving Giving out, gone On and on and on and on
Chasing down the speed of light Face pressed up to window staring out of my existence Back against the wall of furious insistence Into your hands Into your hands I commend my spirit
Every night’s an invitation To a sweet obliteration Of all that I think I should be In the morning I remember Dreams that fade like dying embers Light as dry leaves Leaving, left, and lost
Chasing down the speed of light Face pressed up to window staring out of my existence Back against the wall of furious insistence Into your hands Into your hands I commend my spirit
“A man’s got to do what a man’s got to do” randomly popped into my head this week, along with a tune. So I followed it out and wrote this song for week 10 of #songaweek2021. Recorded on a rainy day in March in my basement studio, the perfect kind of day to spend in a basement studio!
“A man’s got to do what a man’s got to do” That’s what you said but i don’t think it’s true Somebody somewhere’s been lying to you All your living life
Drop what you’re fighting and give me your hand Let’s just relax for now Follow me down where the waves meet the land You’ve been waiting all your life somehow
“The bigger they are the harder they fall” But that don’t seem right cause I’m feeling so small I don’t know if you can hear me at all All my living life
It’s never been easy for me to explain Let’s just go somewhere new Follow me hard like a runaway train I’ve been waiting all of my life too
Out of the frying pan into the fire Let’s just keep breathing now Over the limit and under the wire We’ve been broken open anyhow
Something about you, something about me Something about the wind in the trees Nothing much out of the ordinary All our living lives
Come with me, run with me, under the sun Let’s just embrace the day Follow me close and I’ll try to keep up Life is for the living anyway
This week’s weather in Minnesota – and even Texas!! – am I right?! It’s nothing worse than I expect for living here and if there’s one thing I’ve learned about the coldest winter days, when it’s too cold to snow and you can practically feel your nose getting ready to bleed when you step out your front door; it’s that with the intense cold comes intense sunshine and bluebird skies. And I’ve decided after all these years that there’s something to love about sunny and cold.
I wrote most of the lyrics for this week’s song while out on walks with Cody (my dog) in the sunny and cold. This is a one-take live video and audio recording made about an hour after I brought my jumble of lyric ideas into my studio today and hashed it all out into a song. I rarely write, record and publish all on the same day but time was running short this week so here we are.
Sunny and cold still cheers my soul It’s the sparkle of the light on the satin snow It’s the red geranium in the windowsill On a golden afternoon
Cold and sunny like a jar of honey Amber glow Sleepy flow Sunny and cold like a twelve-year-old All the fire of youth All the chill of give me the truth
Sunny and cold still warms my heart It’s a parka wrapped around my tender parts It’s the people in the park walking happy dogs And the smiles in our eyes
Cold and sunny like a wad of money Burning a hole Freezing your soul Sunny and cold like a secret told Flaming passion Cooling ashes
*Note – I’ve gone off Facebook for Lent and so instead of posting my weekly songs there as I have been doing the past couple years, I’ll be posting them here on my blog. I’m secretly hoping that doing this will motivate me to *keep* posting on my blog each week even when (if?) I go back to the big FB.
Julia Bloom 