Music Monday: California Honeydrops

Love in Pittsburgh

This is what Love looks like.  

Love NOTICES when someone disappears from our lives.  But Love goes even further and SEEKS OUT those who have vanished.  Love doesn't ASSUME or DISMISS or BRUSH ASIDE.  Love isn't too busy to DO something.

Love seeks.   Love pursues.  Love rescues.  Love protects.  Love CARES.

Tears

Tears

by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Thank God, bless God, all ye who suffer not

More grief than ye can weep for.  That is well - 

That is light grieving!  lighter, none befell

Since Adam forfeited the primal lot.

Tears! what are tears?  The babe weeps in his cot,

The mother singing, at her marriage bell

The bride weeps, and before the oracle

Of high-famed hills the poet has forgot

Such moisture on his cheeks.  Thank God for grace,

Ye who weep only!  If, as some have done, 

Ye grope tear-blinded in a desert place 

And touch but tombs, - look up! those tears will run

Soon in long rivers down the lifted face,

And leave the vision clear for stars and sun.

Music Monday: Emmylou

                Those lives were mine to love and cherish.

To guard and guide along life's way.
Oh God forbid that one should perish.
That one alas should go astray.

Back in the years with all together,
Around the place we'd romp and play.
So lonely now and oft' times wonder,
Oh will they come back home some day.

I'm lonesome for my precious children,
They live so far away.
Oh may they hear my calling...calling..and come back home some day.

I gave my all for my dear children,
Their problems still with love I share,
I'd brave life's storm, defy the tempest
To bring them home from anywhere.

I lived my life my love
I gave them, to guide them through this world of strife,
I hope and pray we'll live together,
In that great glad here after life.

I'm lonesome for my precious children,
They live so far away.
Oh may they hear my calling...calling..and come back home some day.

The Sonnet

The Sonnet

by Dante Gabriel Rossetti 

A sonnet is a moment’s monument,

Memorial from the Soul’s eternity

To one dead deathless hour.  Look that it be,

Whether for lustral rite or dire portent,

Of its own arduous fullness reverent:

Carve it in ivory or in ebony.

As Day or Night may rule; and let Time see

Its flowering crest impearled and orient.

A Sonnet is a coin: its face reveals

The soul, - its converse, to what Power ‘tis due: -

Whether for tribute to the august appeals

Of Life, or dower in Love’s high retinue

It serve; or, ‘mid the dark wharf’s cavernous breath,

In Charon’s palm it pay the toll of Death.

 

Music Monday: Red Molly Sing To Me

My Town

Composed Upon Westminster Bridge
by William Wordsworth

Earth has not anything to show more fair:
Dull would he be of soul who could pass by
A sight so touching in its majesty:
This City now doth, like a garment, wear
The beauty of the morning; silent, bare,
Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples lie
Open unto the fields, and to the sky;
All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.
Never did sun more beautifully steep
In his first splendor, valley, rock, or hill;
Ne'er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!
The river glideth at his own sweet will:
Dear God! the very houses seem asleep;
And all that mighty heart is lying still!

 

Girl Wonder

I first saw this video more than 2 years ago, and it STILL blows my mind.

I've played Cranium and I humbly acknowledge that I pretty much (AKA: TOTALLY) ROCK at the      "Gnilleps" category where the contestant is required to spell a word backwards.  Even this can be a challenge at times, though.    In order to do this, I have to mentally "see" the word spelled out, then hold it in my mental vision while I carefully and deliberately spell it backwards...does that make sense?  That's the process I go through anyway.   Success is largely predicated on the ability to spell a word correctly in the first place and then the discipline to hold it in view while intentionally (and with some effort), reversing the letters.  The phenomenon in the video is light years beyond that!

Not only must she be a stellar speller (sequoia? kaleidoscope?), who visually "sees" the word spelled backwards, but her brain immediately coheres those letters into phonetic pronunciations which do NOT correspond to their forward pronunciation.  In other words, she isn't "listening" to the word and then "pronouncing" it in reverse sounds.  Words with 2 syllables have a backward pronunciation of 3 or 4 whose SOUNDS have no correspondence to the original pronunciation.    It is nothing short of baffling that her mind can instantly and simultaneously transpose the visual, as well as audibly interpret that visual.  

AMAZING.  The brain is AMAZING.

Music Monday: Nigerian Choir

Lord, Make us Instruments of Your Peace

Music Monday: Shakey Graves

Singer, Songwriter, One-Man Band:  Shakey Graves

Axis

One thousand five hundred seventy three 
Turns of the earth ago,
You left 
Carrying the sunrise with you.

What Storytellers Do

George Banks will be honored.
George Banks will be redeemed.
George Banks and all he stands for will be saved. 

Maybe not in life…but in imagination.  

Because that's what we storytellers do.  We restore order with imagination.

We instill hope.  Again.  And again.  And again.

Music Monday: Lennon & Maisy

Musically-talented sisters singing an irresistible version of Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros, That's What's Up:

Music Monday: JT

It's been 22 years since I heard JT live.  Tomorrow night I return to the same venue to hear him again.  Here's hoping he's still got it.  

P.S.  He's still got it…BIG TIME.  A thoroughly charming and energetic performance.

I've Got This Friend

She's been around for a while now.  50 years to be exact.  I'm sure she'd be thrilled about my drawing attention to that fact, but since she doesn't read my blog, I can say so with impunity. 

We were thrust together as neighbors who happened to go to the same church, otherwise we might never have been drawn to one another.  You see, we're different.  I'm outspoken and opinionated and independent and adventurous.  She holds her opinions close, knows how to look to others for help, and is acrophobic.  And that's just the beginning.  We're very, very different.

And yet…we're very much alike.  We are both devoted to loving our children and to serving Christ's church.  We are both teachers and lovers of literature and good food and wine and music.  She has expanded my horizons in all of those shared loves.  Above all, the foundational commitments of our hearts are the same and that ultimately led us to understand one another.

This friendship began out of convenience and necessity, but eventually grew to a friendship of choice and a different kind of necessity.  We need each other.  I especially need her.  She has taught me what true friendship looks like.  

She has sat for hours upon hours upon hours listening to my heart - my hurts, my confessions, my bewilderment, my anger, my devastation.  She has laughed at my antics and wept with me in my grief.  There must have been times when she was weary of my neediness and of helping to shoulder my burdens, yet she stayed by me and made herself always available.

She even stood by me when I made some difficult choices and she risked (and received) judgement and alienation from others for doing so.  When I could no longer imagine that my life held any value, she stayed by my side and supported me and made sure my needs were met in both tangible and intangible ways. 

I thank God for her and trust that he will bless her for her sacrificial love and friendship.  

Happiest of birthdays to you, My Friend.  I hope to return the favor of faithful friendship for the next 50 (or 30…that sounds like plenty, doesn't it?)  My current effort to return the favor is not posting a picture of you on here!

The Lord bless you and keep you in his care.

The Mind of the Maker: Resource Furniture

The innovation.  The simplicity.  The functionality.  The aesthetics.  The ingenuity.    I am in awe of minds that think like this.  

Music Monday: Steeldrivers

Coming to The Old Rock House in September:

Steady as the Sun

The very first time I heard this song I thought of my Daddy.  It captures some of the foundational strengths of his character:

Rock solid inside out…

Somebody you can trust…

Steady as the sun…

When my world was spinning out of orbit, he offered a steady hand…steady truth…steady love.  Steady as the sun.  They say we learn the love of God the Father through the love of our earthly fathers.  Mine has made it easier for me to  trust the Father's love because he has loved me well through thick and thin.  He has defended, provided for, taught, instructed.  And he has spoken words of love and blessing over and over and over again.  I am blessed that God chose him for me.  

I love you, Papa. 

Music Monday: Old Crow Medicine Show

How did I not know who these guys were until last month?!?  Their music is right up my alley…enjoy.

In the Image of God: Making Old Things New

Kudos to The Lawrence Group for their stunning renovation of St. Louis's historic Sun Theater.  And thanks to Michael Kelley for the photo documentation.