Second Chance Dance: May 2022

Tuesday, May 31, 2022

Twenty Six Million Two Hundred and Eighty Thousand Minutes. (6/16/1972)

"The Love you take is equal to the love you make."

- The End , Lennon and McCartney

June 16 , 1972

" Life is what happens when you're busy making plans"

- John Lennon

-------

Twenty six million two hundred and eighty thousand minutes.

As they sat at the hotel right across the street from the Watergate in Washington, DC

Little did the know the significance of that evening 50 years ago,

It was Bloomsday and they should have not been surprised

As on their first night thieves broke into the Democratic Party Headquarters.

The prospect of thieves at their door would be

An on and off again perpetual threat.

No matter one's dreams or plans life follows it's own course.

Scientists conclude even with the falling of dominoes seeming aligned perfectly

The pieces may just not fall the way one anticipates.

They should have known this as five years earlier

A greater hand brought their hungry hearts to the same place at the same time.

Introduced by an unexpected friend their eyes met

The conversation began and continues to this moment.

"Every thing has a purpose under heaven."

"Coincidence is God's way of remaining anonymous"

Isn't the journey one big series of accidents and coincidences?

They set sail hoping for the best. They didn't realize the work they would need .

Through the fair weather and storms they slowly learned

The gift of being - mindful and letting go .

Their Obe Wan advised "Love one another as they are

And not how we want them to be," adding ,

" The greatest way that you can teach your children love

Is to love each other,"

As they were blessed with two children

Who would grow to be two loving mothers in their own right.

The officiant at the wedding ceremonies of their daughters

Reminded all gathered that life itself is a sacrament...

One of trust and faith each other and in the future.

Another wayward passenger volunteered to the first one

That the purpose of existence is not accumulation of worldly possessions,

It is living in relationships , living in authenticity ,

Peace , selflessness, compassion and trust.

As their Camino reaches the Finisterre their passage together is remembered

and they are humbled and gifted with blank pages yet to be filled .

- JF Sobecki

-------

Soneto De La Noche - Pablo Neruda

https://youtu.be/K3nYUQH2pWU

When I die I want your hands on my eyes:

I want the light and the wheat of your beloved hands
to pass their freshness over me one more time
to feel the smoothness that changed my destiny.

I want you to live while I wait for you, asleep,
I want for your ears to go on hearing the wind,
for you to smell the sea that we loved together
and for you to go on walking the sand where we walked.

I want for what I love to go on living
and as for you I loved you and sang you above everything,
for that, go on flowering, flowery one,

so that you reach all that my love orders for you,
so that my shadow passes through your hair,
so that they know by this the reason for my song.

Translation by Nicholas Luridness

The Wedding Song - Peter Paul and Mary

https://youtu.be/xxxsTYHvWa4

She Chose Me - R. Newman

https://youtu.be/vW76Sw925rI

Until I Gain Control Again - JF Sobecki (R. Crowell)

https://youtu.be/4sui9f3ahzw

The Island - P. Brady

https://youtu.be/CD4eS2Xb6Ls

If I Should Fall Behind - JF Sobecki (B. Springsteen)

_____________

admg

Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)

New Blog - Rain and Rivers Revisited: A Journey of a Lost Weekend

Well you may recall I have been working on a piece of fiction for a while now. It is still a work in progress. However, I decided

to release drafts of the first few episodes ( chapters.) Much of the work is completed but I am always cutting and editing.

http://rainandriversrevisited.blogspot.com/

It is difficult to release just pieces at a time as they are created as independent episodes they are also all parts of a larger piece (and picture .) I could share more but I am curious to read or hear your feedback.

I want to thank those friends and supporters who have already provided feedback ...and of course all the folks who have been following my Second Chance Dance Blog ( by the way that will continue.)

The material in the Blog is all copyrighted and cannot be reproduced in any form. Though, I welcome you to share the link and this blog with others .So please when you have a few minutes take a read and let me know what you think. I expect to be posting a series of subsequent episodes shortly.

Thanks....

News of Death

(This is for Coach)

Last night they came with news of death
not knowing what I would say.
I wanted to say,"The green wind is running through the fields making the grass lie flat."
I wanted to say,"The apple blossom flakes like ash covering the orchard wall."
I wanted to say,"the fish float belly up in the slow stream,stepping stones to the dead."

They asked if I would sleep that night,
I said I did not know.
For this loss I could not speak,the tongue lay idle in a great darkness,the heart was strangely open,the moon had gone,and it was then when I said, "He is no longer here"
that the night put its arms around me
and all the white stars turned bitter with grief.
- David Whyte

What Work is

We stand in the rain in a long line

waiting at Ford Highland Park. For work.

You know what work is--if you're

old enough to read this you know what

work is, although you may not do it.

Forget you. This is about waiting,

shifting from one foot to another.

Feeling the light rain falling like mist

into your hair, blurring your vision

until you think you see your own brother

ahead of you, maybe ten places.

You rub your glasses with your fingers,

and of course it's someone else's brother,

narrower across the shoulders than

yours but with the same sad slouch, the grin

that does not hide the stubbornness,

the sad refusal to give in to

rain, to the hours wasted waiting,

to the knowledge that somewhere ahead

a man is waiting who will say, "No,

we're not hiring today," for any

reason he wants. You love your brother,

now suddenly you can hardly stand

the love flooding you for your brother,

who's not beside you or behind or

ahead because he's home trying to

sleep off a miserable night shift

at Cadillac so he can get up

before noon to study his German.

Works eight hours a night so he can sing

Wagner, the opera you hate most,

the worst music ever invented.

How long has it been since you told him

you loved him, held his wide shoulders,

opened your eyes wide and said those words,

and maybe kissed his cheek? You've never

done something so simple, so obvious,

not because you're too young or too dumb,

not because you're jealous or even mean

or incapable of crying in

the presence of another man, no,

just because you don't know what work is.

Philip Levine

On Marriage - Kahil Gibran

You were born together, and together you shall be forevermore.You shall be together when the white wings of death scatter your days.Ay, you shall be together even in the silent memory of God.

But let there be spaces in your togetherness,And let the winds of the heavens dance between you. Love one another, but make not a bond of love:Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.

Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup.Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loafSing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone,Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.

Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping.For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts.And stand together yet not too near together:For the pillars of the temple stand apart,And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow.

A favorite "Journey" poem from a favorite poet

The Journey

One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice--
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
"Mend my life!"
each voice cried.
But you didn't stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do--
determined to save
the only life you could save.
-- Mary Oliver

Send or post one of your favorites! They can be lyrics to a song!

Playing For Change

Please see the current music video from "Playing for Change" at the bottom of this page. It is a movement. Enjoy!

"Playing for Change" is a multimedia movement created to inspire, connect, and bring peace to the world through music. The idea for this project arose from a common belief that music has the power to break down boundaries and overcome distances between people. No matter whether people come from different geographic, political, economic, spiritual or ideological backgrounds, music has the universal power to transcend and unite us as one human race. And with this truth firmly fixed in our minds, we set out to share it with the world

Fall in Love

“Nothing is more practical than finding God, that is, than falling in a love in a quite absolute, final way. What you are in love with, what seizes your imagination will affect everything. It will decide what will get you out of bed in the mornings, what you will do with your evenings, how you spend your weekends, what you read, who you know, what breaks your heart, and what amazes you with joy and gratitude. Fall in love, stay in love, and it will decide everything.” --- Pedro Arrupe SJ