At the Close of the Day

He is your son, he is your brother,
He is your friend, and now you wonder,
Did you ever really know him?
Did you ever understand him?
And how can you watch him being treated this way?
How much do you love him at the close of the day?

You gave him life in Bethlehem,
You watched him grow into a man,
When he spoke in the temple you were proud,
Now the tide has turned; they've brought him down.
Did you think it would come to this
Did you honestly think it would come to this?

He told you peace would come from love,
The perfect world your're dreaming of,
When he touched your hands your heart was glad,
Now the tide has turned to fulfill the plan.
Did you think it would come to this?
Did you honestly think it would come to this?

You followed him from town to town,
You vowed you'd never let him down,
When the crowds were cheering you were there,
But the tide has turned and now you're scared.
Did you think it would come to this?
Did you honestly think it would come to this?

He walks up that hill alone
Knowing just how it must be done,
He takes your shame, the gift he gives,
His blood was shed so you can live.
Did you think it would come to this?
Did you honestly think it would come to this?

He is your son, he is your brother,
He is your friend, and now you wonder,
Did you ever really know him?
Did you ever understand him?
And how can you watch him being treated this way?
How much do you love him at the close of the day?

Good Friday

Good Friday, good vibrations.  You wouldn't think those would go together, but they do.  The Good Friday Service at Albury Church was amazing.  All of the readings, prayers, and songs fit perfectly.  One of the women in my choir, Julie, wrote a very poignant song, In the Dark.  We also did a reggae version of When I Survey the Wondrous Cross, At the Close of the Day, which I wrote for the choir last year, and ended with my solo version of the powerful and moving Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen.  I'm sure there was not a more moving service anywhere in the world today.  Sometimes you just really do get the "magic".

A lot of things are opening up for me these days, and that, too, is amazing.  I have two harp gigs in May, I'm the pianist in the Little Shop of Horrors pit band at the high school where I work, and I am doing a symposium on domestic violence called WAIT (What Am I Thinking).  Plus, May brings Mothers' Day and the birthdays of my two lovely daughters.  I am going to put the words to At the Close of the Day in another post.  I'm also working on a song to include in my presentation at WAIT. 

I love being busy doing the things I love.  I think much of it is coming about because I have learned to be grateful for everything, and to love life, and be positive always.  Sometimes it's rough, but, you have to believe, believe, believe.  It's a Christmas song that Josh Groban does, but the words are true for every day:

Believe in what your heart is saying
Hear the melody that's playing
There's no time to waste
There's so much to celebrate
Believe in what you feel inside
And give your dreams the wings to fly
you have an inner beuaty
If you just believe

Doin' the Rave, at least trying to

Since my oldest daughter started learning about the RAVE diet and healing cancer from the inside out, I've been becoming even more thoughtful about my food choices.  I have gone from pesscetarian(not sure of the spelling) , to vegetarian, back to pesscetarian, back to vegetarian, and now vegan.  I recently ordered some Dr.Cow cheeses, which are made with nuts, but they were disappointing.  They just tasted like fermented nuts.  So, I'm stopping thinking about animal product substitutes and just going with the vegan thing.  There are so many flavours in the plant food diet, who needs substitutes? 

My eye, with whatever it is that has caused the blurriness, is improving every day.  Today was an especially good day.  I go back for a checkup on May 9 to see if the procedure is going to be necessary.  I am counting on diet and belief (aka The Secret and The Power) to heal. In reality, my body will heal itself, given a healthy diet and belief.  I've seen it happen personally throughout my life, so am still believing. 

Life is truly amazing, if you start each day with gratitude for what you have.  I have so much - two lovely grown-up daughters, the ability to sing and play music, good friends, family that loves me, and one very special person who loves me and believes in me.  Everything else is icing on the cake.

When you have a busy weekend, and then it looks as thought maybe your next month will be really busy, everyone says, how will you manage it?  I have a lot of musical commitments right now, but, it's great being busy doing what you love the most.  If I could just do the music and theatre stuff, I'd be one very happy person, but I still have the "other" job. 

When I was saying to a friend that, knowing the "other" job is only 30 hours a week of my time, makes it easy not to get caught up in the politics or whether it's good or bad, she responded with this thought: "Think of all the good you do there, and how you help kids so much".  I hadn't thought of it that way, but she is right.  So, even the "other" job is something I can do and am good at. 

Life is so good and so rich in so many ways.  Someone once asked me, if I could choose any time in my life I would want to go back to, or any age I wanted to back to, what would it be?  I answered, I like right now, this minute.  It may look to some as though I don't have a lot of things, but I have this day, this minute, and I choose to be happy and grateful for that.  What lies around the bend will be new and exciting.  What is in the past is in the past, and I have grown and learned from all of it.  No regrets. 

Live for today.  Yesterday is gone.  Tomorrow will take care of itself.

The Road Not Taken

This has always been a favourite poem of mine, and today, on my 59th birthday, I am re-reading it.  Life is good; life is beautiful.  Your choices, not your chances, determine your destiny.

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

Another Amazing Day

After a week of a comedy of errors, I finally found out that I don't need to see the cornea specialist until the first of next month, and, if my eye has continued to improve by then, no procedure will be necessary.  I've been using diet and supplements plus the drops and medication the doctor prescribed, but most of all just believing.  I know everything will be all right. 

I am waking up every day thankful that life is good.  It makes a huge difference.  Things are going well - my eye is not only getting better, but I am able to help a very special friend keep his business going.  Pit Band rehearsals for Little Shop of Horrors are going really well.  It's a high school production, and it's the first time I have been involved with the high school shows.  I've worked there for several years, but, until this year, no one asked for my help. 

Did I mention that life is good?  Oh, it really is.  You just have to see it that way, no matter what.  Wake up every morning and give thanks.  Give thanks when you lay down to sleep at night. 

"Walk cheerfully over the world, answering that of God in everyone." (a Quaker philosophy...I love it)

An Amazing Day

I just added two of my songs to my website.  It's always hard to choose which ones that someone might like or be inspired by.  There are so many good songs in the world, and who am I to add to them, but, when you are inspired, you just can't not create. 
Someone I care for very much also inspired me today -  an amazing friend, well, more than a friend, even though he is physically far away.  He holds my heart.
I am reading The Power.  I read The Secret a couple of years ago, but so many people told me it was a bunch of lies that I almost believed them. Yet, something has brought me back to this whole new, but really old, philosophy.  I have to believe.
A quote from The Power that really spoke to me this week is:  "Life isn't happening to you; life is responding to you.  Life is your call!"  More and more, I know that is true.
My wish for everyone is that they will discover this power and heal their lives.  It's really very simple, maybe too simple.  All I know is that it works.  I'm already seeing it work in my own life.
So, as the minister of my church says at the close of every service, "Go in peace, go in faith, but most of all, go in love."