Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world’s great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time.
On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops.
Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs.
One of our favourite poets, singers, and life-livers – Joni, in a video from 1967 or so….
Now comes the morning
Wet with the kiss of midnight
Shadows stayed sulking in the way
Sunshine for dreaming
Blackest magic to believe in
Spectrums and rainbows and days
I never saw a sky so free
Never so blue
Morning with mystic pageantry
Unveils a time for sharing love with you
Come to the sunshine
Share in the quiet of knowing
No need for telling you sometimes
When all the answers are
So plainly showing
Teach me to tell you
All the feelings I’ve been learning
Tell me to teach you my heart
New words are crazy
Old love words keep returning
All words seem wrong from the start
So I will tell with my eyes
Say it with a kiss
Silence that asks and looks so wise
And needs no answer on a day like this
Come to the sunshine
Share in the quiet of knowing
No need for telling you sometimes
When all the answers are
So plainly showing
If you’re already in a good mood & smiling about how cool the day after the full moon feels
& how neat it is that Solstice is upon us (days get longer from here on out – wahoo!)
and you got a chance to hug somebody today (or are looking forward to him hugging you later)
& the coffeehouse people smiled at you
& the sun made those grey skies pink
& all that….
then add this to the pile. Bet you smile twice.
Matt notes (he travels & puts this together each year):
The dancers in Syria are blurred for their safety.
I got into North Korea with Koryo Tours. It’s not difficult or dangerous.
This video was made without a sponsor. I don’t need you to buy anything. Just remember we need to take care of each other.
Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others – Cicero
Musicians Nimo Patel and Daniel Nahmod brought together dozens of people from around the world to create this beautiful, heart-opening melody. Inspired by the 21-Day Gratitude Challenge, the song is a celebration of our spirit and all that is a blessing in life.
For the 21 Days, over 11,000 participants from 118 countries learned that “gratefulness” is a habit cultivated consciously and a muscle built over time. As a famous Roman, Cicero, once said, “Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others.”
This soul-stirring music video, created within a week by a team of volunteers, shines the light on all the small things that make up the beautiful fabric of our lives.
Someday our souls will be one and
our union will be forever.
I know that everything I give you comes back to me.
So I give you my life , hoping that you will come back to me.
Ed Robertson from The Barenaked Ladies, the Wexford Gleeks, and the commander of the International Space Station Chris Hadfield sing, “Is Somebody Singing?”
Monks love stuff like this.
The Barenaked Ladies & Chris Hadfield (with the Wexford Gleeks) sang a song about a year ago with Chris singing from the International Space Station, hooked up to the studio in Toronto.
Put them together and what do you get? The first space-to-earth musical collaboration. The song, “I.S.S. (Is Somebody Singing) was commissioned by CBCMusic.ca and The Coalition for Music Education with the Canadian Space Agency to celebrate music education in schools across Canada.
Nature’s beauty can be easily missed — but not through Louie Schwartzberg‘s lens. His stunning time-lapse photography, accompanied by powerful words from Benedictine monk Brother David Steindl-Rast, serves as a meditation on being grateful for every day. (Filmed at TEDxSF.)
Louie Schwartzberg is an award-winning cinematographer, director and producer who captures breathtaking images that celebrate life — revealing connections, universal rhythms, patterns and beauty.
Louie’s notable career spans feature films, television shows, commercials and documentaries. He won two Clio Awards for TV advertising, including best environmental broadcast spot, an Emmy nomination for best cinematography and the Heartland Film Festival’s Truly Moving Picture Award for the feature film “America’s Heart & Soul.” Schwartzberg founded Moving Art to use the power of media to inspire and entertain through television programming, DVD products, and full-length motion picture and IMAX films. His new film “Wings of Life” will be released by Disneynature.
Beauty & seduction are nature’s tools to survival, because we protect what we fall in love with…
Sunset from the west side of San Juan Island in Washington State in the USA….photo by Jean Melbourne
Seems to me there are a couple of ways you can write a poem – take a photo that is memorable & beautiful & colourful & makes ya say, “Wow!”…or write a poem & set it to music, like Peter,Paul & Mary did in the song below, which has been part of my set over the years (I love it when everyone sings along!) Hope you had a great day – this is a beautiful way to end it!
Here’s a song I wrote years ago & sang with my friend Mary when we recorded this version – click here to listen & let me know what you think! (And you’re right, the lead part in the middle of the song is played on a bass….wahoo!)
It’s been a long long time Since I’ve sung a song that I could call mine Been lost in a fog, chasing after a joke Till the rain exploded all our dreams went up in smoke
Now all that’s over, it’s all been left behind
I’m here to serenade you, lemonade you all the time
Give you all I’ve got to give, sing you all I’ve got to say
Stay until the lights grow low, your eyes move slow and it’s time to go
Until it’s time to go
Many a song’s been sung & many a story told All the lessons, all the pain all the gravel in the road Behind every window there’s a door Stay up late & sing one more Until the time for leaving, I’m not gonna change the key
Now all that’s over, it’s all been left behind
I’m here to serenade you, lemonade you all the time
Give you all I’ve got to give, sing you all I’ve got to say
Stay until the lights grow low, your eyes move slow and it’s time to go
Until it’s time to go
The place is all empty & now it’s time to roll I pack up my guitar but I know I’m not alone When I come home to you & the things that you do You sweeten my coffee with an early morning kiss
Now all that’s over, it’s all been left behind
I’m here to serenade you, lemonade you all the time
Give you all I’ve got to give, sing you all I’ve got to say
Stay until the lights grow low, your eyes move slow and it’s time to go
Until it’s time to go
One of my favourite songs by The King, with gospel overtones & a refreshing belief in the power of dreams:
There must be lights burning brighter, somewhere
Got to be birds flying higher in a sky more blue
If I can dream of a better land
Where all my brothers walk hand in hand
Tell my why, oh why, oh why can’t my dream come true, oh why
There must be peace and understanding, sometime
Strong winds of promise that will blow away
All the doubt and fear
If I can dream of a warmer sun
Where hope keeps shining on everyone
Tell me why, oh why, oh why won’t that sun appear
We’re lost in a cloud
With too much rain
We’re trapped in a world
That’s troubled with pain
But as long as a man
Has the strength to dream
He can redeem his soul and fly
Deep in my heart, there’s a trembling question
Still I am sure that the answer gonna come, somehow
Out there in the dark, there’s a beckoning candle
And while I can think, while I can talk
while I can stand, while I can walk
While I can dream, please let my dream
Come true, right now
Let it come true right now
Turn off the other stuff & give this a listen, you’ll be glad you did.
When Jackson sings this song from the mid-1970s (recorded here in 2010 at the UK’s Glastonbury Festival), it echoes the hopes & fears we struggle with today, as he sings in the third verse:
Some of them were angry At the way the earth was abused By the men who learned how to forge her beauty into power And they struggled to protect her from them Only to be confused By the magnitude of her fury in the final hour And when the sand was gone and the time arrived In the naked dawn only a few survived And in attempts to understand a thing so simple and so huge Believed that they were meant to live after the deluge
Thought for the day…
"I would like to beg you dear Sir, as well as I can, to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don't search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer." -- Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet, 1903
About Brother Ian
Over the centuries, Brother Ian has been collecting stories & information & discourses for the purpose of elevating the human condition as needed, dissecting it when necessary, and building the case for hope.
In the spirit of noting that organized crime, organized baseball, organized labour, and organized religion tend to engender controversy & occasional discord, I promise to be neither organized or critical of those who are.
Over the centuries, Brother Ian has been collecting stories & information & discourses for the purpose of elevating the human condition as needed, dissecting it when necessary, and building the case for hope.