Second Chance Dance: John Hiatt

Showing posts with label John Hiatt. Show all posts

Monday, May 31, 2021

In Troibo ad altare Dei: The Continuing Bloomsday Ballad Pt 49

"We can do no great things; only small things with great love"

- Mother Teresa

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In Troibo ad altare Dei: The Continuing Bloomsday Ballad Pt 49

"Stately, plump ..." , so it began

No purpose or map in mind

That mystical GPS guiding gently

As loosed random thoughts and plans meandered

A rudderless boat trusted the sacred wind.

First mates usually know more than they let on.

The sails set and they were off.

June 16 , the day in infamy that changed everything-

Watergate and James' Bloomsday always top of mind, right?

Not being noble the Pilgrim had some perspective

As to the truth about a hill of beans

And the significance of the problems of pilgrims

As the crazy world was crumbling around them.

Regardless, they proclaimed "I do ."

Friends, family and themselves

Remain surprised they actually did

And continue to do so.

Hibbing's homely hobo troubadour reminds those who listen,

" You don't need a weatherman to know

Which way the winds blow."

Navigators and mystics alike ponder

"How did we come up with the idea

To blame poor and sick people

and those of different color or religions

For all the world's problems ?

How many wars , how many acts of violence,

How many pandemics , and how many natural disasters

Before we return to the essence of love, compassion,

Kindness, selflessness, hope, peace and mercy?"

And yet we sail on...

The white collared companion of Jesus pronounced how decisions

Confirm the psychotherapeutic observation how decisions

Are born from emotions and then justified by the rational.

"Real sacraments are a mystery.

Who knows where this road will take you?

Trust in each other and that great divine essence.

Take a deep grateful centering breath and

Top it all off with a glass or two of wine."

His voice raised up in song as it should

On holy occasions -

"To everything there is a season,

Turn! Turn! Turn! A time for every

purpose under heaven"

- JF Sobecki

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June 16,1972

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A Bloomsday Epilogue

https://youtu.be/zspro2od5zY

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

https://youtu.be/4sui9f3ahzw

Stolen Moments - John Hiatt

https://youtu.be/16EcHP4mpWc

No Hard Feelings - The Avett Brothers

https://youtu.be/Agc1gc6jqVE

This is Us - Emmy Lou Harris and Mark Knopfler

https://youtu.be/3DLR7dviLVE

Farther On - Jackson Browne

https://youtu.be/JwN_FbwWpjM

Family - Joe Walsh

https://youtu.be/XbQLhjOrfmE

Turn!Turn! Turn! - The Byrds

https://youtu.be/W4ga_M5Zdn4

Amdg

Monday, October 1, 2018

Trying and Being

" For us there is only the trying.The rest is not our business."
- T.S. Eliot

" vanity of vanities! All thing are vanity!
Vanity of human toil.
What profit it have we from all the toil
which we toil under the sun?"
- Eccl 1:2-4

"What do you want? " St. Augustine said that all our desires are really a longing for God in disguise; where there is real desire , there is prayer. So, be at peace in your desire, you are already praying."
- Sacred Space , Novena Day 2

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Trying and Being

Sometimes it takes a spark to light the fire.

Sometimes the lighting is sourced from the love fueled

by an encouraging voice who has more faith

in you than you have in yourself.

The battle between vanity, ego, pride and humility

rages on ever since the spirit was illuminated

by the difference. Fantasies of grandiosity attempt

to drown any considerations of raw reality or neurotic insecurity.

Coaches shout “Shoot the god dammed ball!

You don’t score points if you don’t shoot and we don’t

win the game if we don’t get any points!”

Your inner voice asks “Is all this about playing and winning a game

by accumulating points?

What if one just wanted to play - you know no points, no rewards -

just being ?”

Sometimes simplicity of letting go completely…

is the success…

the authenticity of truth, just trying and trust.

- JF Sobecki

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Slow Turning - J. Hiatt

https://youtu.be/2L22C5IJTfE

Roll with it Baby - S. Winwood

https://youtu.be/u_vkKozA8OI

Its all up to what you value - G. Harrison

https://youtu.be/JtzPtDxy1ic

“A tree gives glory to God
by being a tree. For in
being what God means it
to be it is obeying [God].
It “consents,” so to speak,
to [God’s] creative love.
It is expressing an idea
which is in God and
which is not distinct from
the essence of God,
and therefore a tree imitates
God by being a tree.”

–Thomas Merton

My Lord God,

I have no idea where I am going.

I do not see the road ahead of me.

I cannot know for certain where it will end.

nor do I really know myself,

and the fact that I think I am following your will

does not mean that I am actually doing so.

But I believe that the desire to please you

does in fact please you.

And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.

I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.

And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road,

though I may know nothing about it.

Therefore will I trust you always though

I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.

I will not fear, for you are ever with me,

and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.
- T. Merton

amdg

“One day I will find the right words and they will be simple”

- Jack Kerouac

“The only truth is music”

- Jack Kerouac

Sunday, July 1, 2018

Scrantchum

Martians used to preach

Of days they’d reach

The earth

Now they’ve given up

Discovering what it is worth

- JF Sobecki ( !967)

Inspired by the nonsense word “Scrantchum” coined by the late DJ Dan Ingram

“If you comprehend it, it is not God”

- St. Augustine

_____________

Witness the wonder.

The sun rising illuminating everything beneath.

The fresh springs leading to streams , the streams to rivers and

The rivers pouring life into the great sea of mercy.

Mountains majestically reach to kiss the the passing clouds

Just below the virgin blue canopy of heaven.

Oliver’s mockingbirds’ voices sound soulful

Singing sweet psalms.

Leaves and swamp reeds sway sweetly

Left and right gently moved by a breeze

Born a continent away by a cocoon birthed butterfly

Testing her new wings in flight

As hawks and robins soar sharing the remaining pure air.

What is this solemnity, this deep holiest of the most holy solace,

The peace that passeth all understanding?

Is any of this creation benefited or better off because of the presence

Of the two legged sentient beings gifted with reason and creative arts?

Is that natural magnificence made any more peaceful or beautiful by these landlocked spirits?

Do they help any of that which was gifted to the universe breathe any easier

Or grow in genuine purity as a result of their efforts?

Was it the same divine artist that started this universe

With the most incredible hues of love , beauty , compassion , peace and mercy

Who also devised the distorted colors of greed , violence, selfishness, ownership and control to share on the same canvas together?

Did something go array with the grand plan

Or is it all really a matter of faith and belief that in the end it all works out?

How?

It’s a mystery

- JF Sobecki

____________________________________

“I do believe; help my unbelief.”

Mark 9:24

Treat a stranger right - Ry Cooder

https://youtu.be/CbQ83HM8C_A

Have a little Faith in Me - John Hiatt

https://youtu.be/7aYxMuLb3h8

Give Me Love , Give Me Peace - G. Harrison

https://youtu.be/s-KAvPbO8JY

Autumn Poem by Mary Oliver

In the last jovial, clear-sky days of autumn
the mockingbird
in his monk-gray coat
and his arrowy wings

flies
from the hedge to the top of the pine
and begins to sing — but it's neither loose, nor lilting, nor lovely —

it's more like whistles and truck brakes and dry hinges.
All birds are birds of heaven
but this one, especially, adores the earth so well
he would imitate, for half the day and on into the
evening,

its ticks and wheezings,
and so I have to wait a long time
for the soft, true voice
of his own glossy life

to come through,
and of course I do.
I don't know what it is that makes him, finally, look
inward

to the sweet spring of himself, that mirror of heaven,
but when it happens —
when he lifts his head
and the feathers of his throat tremble,

and he begins, like Saint Francis,
little flutterings and leapings from the pine's forelock,
resettling his strong feet each time among the branches,
I am recalled,

from so many wrong paths I can't count them,
simply to stand, and listen.
All my life I have lived in a kind of haste and darkness
of desire, ambition, accomplishment.

Now the bird is singing, but not anymore of this world.
And something inside myself is fluttering and leaping, is
trying

to type it down, in lumped-up language,
in outcry, in patience, in music, in a snow-white book.

“One day I will find the right words and they will be simple”

- Jack Kerouac

“The only truth is music”

- Jack Kerouac

amdg

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