May Music for The Second One (2016)

 

 

Nothing is more practical than   

finding God, than

falling in 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 morning,

what you do with your evenings,

how you spend your weekends,

what you read, whom 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.

-  Fr. Pedro Arrupe, SJ

Well the seasons go round and round

Captive on a carousel .

They say it’s our birthday

It’s his birthday too, yeah.

Would you like to dance?

Trouble melts like lemon drops

Bluebirds fly freely

And the blue skies

Shows the world the end of the rainbow.

It had been a long and lonely winter

But here would come the sun.

She would defy gravity

as I was limited

Leaving hand prints on hearts.

I  am changed for the better,

Because I knew you.

She no longer calls for daddy,

Her momma looks in wonder and she doesn’t know how

“Our baby escaped, no more cuddling now

She’s a big girl now

Our baby’s gone.”

She earned the chance

Counting on every bead with a prayer

Keeping all the hopes in her heart.

She went from spikes to ruby shoes

She’s a woman you all should know,

Singing soft and low to babies,

A daisy-ed nightingale in training.

Oh brown-eyed girl,

Do you remember when we used to sing?

She was just waiting for this moment to be free.

She would begin to travel on to

Where she will be one with another

And there is love.

This marriage of their spirits

Has caused Him to remain

For wherever two or more are gathered

In His name

There is love , there is love.

If we could have one wish

Darling, it would be this

“Love and happiness….to you.”

Love and happiness – Emmy Lou and mark Knopfler

 

https://youtu.be/-7KhB7uJ_TE

Our Baby’s Gone – Herb Pederson

 

https://youtu.be/tfFlKXeQGm8

For Good - From Wicked

https://youtu.be/CQJaZO2nfGg

Wedding Song – Peter , Paul and Mary

 

You can click through right to You tube in the video
or on this link
https://youtu.be/aZbhrO4IEtI

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

 

https://youtu.be/fahr069-fzE

Amdg

 

Copyright JF Sobecki 2016 All Rights Reserved

40th Anniversary Waltz

                                                June 16 , 1972

^“ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, and it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, and always perseveres.

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.”

                                             1 Corinthians 13:4-8

“There's nothing you can know that isn't known. 

Nothing you can see that isn't shown.

Nowhere you can be that isn't where you're meant to be.

It's easy. 

All you need is love, all you need is love…”

                                          -  Lennon and McCartney

He had a smoke and fell into a dream and recalled the day she packed her bags for leaving home. It was forty plus years ago and they have been going in and out of style ever since. Trying not to sing out of key the duet still gets by with a little help from their friends.  Now they hope for Valentines, birthday greetings and bottles of wine and being needed and fed.  It was getting better every day. On their boat on the river everyone seemed to smile.

He read the news that day after the fates had finished the first phase of a series of events that would change everything .His intuition said something greater than them both was going on within and without as the two had relaxed in their room the night before at the Howard Johnsons across from the Watergate Plaza.

“5 Held in Plot to Bug Democrats' Office Here”

 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2002/05/31/AR2005111001227.html

   

                                        

She said

“ Good morning. We’ll have many more important memories to make and collect ”

and she discarded the newspaper while the taxi waited on the shore.

He pondered this article and the date and wondered about what he had read somewhere in another life

“… the power of love will always raise up all that is good and neutralize any evil in the universe.”

Now their memories stretch out longer than the winding road ahead. Life happened as they busied themselves making other plans. They are on their way back home. Grateful.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14nD-QMjFvI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XI5aD6m7ub0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4p8qxGbpOk

amdg

Songs of Sixty-Four

                                                                       When I'm 64

Images of valentines , birthday greetings and bottles of wine

swirled inside and out and all over again. Wondering if the door was locked, as the clock hadn’t struck a quarter to ten P.M.  That post card with a well crafted stated point of view was hidden away so well that it might never be found. Worried that there is nothing really handy, not even doing gardens or pulling weeds to prove one’s worthiness. No Vera, Chuck or Dave to reinvigorate affections. The question of being needed or fed was completed in the form that was filled out a lifetime ago.  Is the answer ‘yes’ a true or false memory?

Uninspired, dried up and panicked Ernest only got to 62. One blast and it was over. Dad’s heart was shattered days before retirement eligibility but at least his spirit lives on.  Each day this vessel makes it beyond those buoy markers becomes another victory. A few friends are like leaves from Neil’s maple…. some falling finished, some weak would be blown this way and that some still are brighter and greener than ever. 

                                                         One of These Days - Neil Young
                                                      (Song appropriate - video inspirational)

Meanwhile an original member of the band, finally flying up and out of his cocoon, casually intentionally inspires nurturing the return of what might be considered modest dormant gifts. Dreams of a house much like the one of an older ageless Daryl slowly mitigate the anxiety about the light at the tunnel’s end getting larger. A new wrecking ball has made room for awareness that one can believe in a promised land on this side of Highway 9 and live the dream now, or at least a form of it.

“The cool kids become cool adults, ” the headlines read, as the distant cousin, a Jersey shore troubadour, revealed the map home thundering down the road of a land of hope and dreams through a city of ruins. (A celebration - a rock and roll revival sing-a-long.) Those once in charge considered playing music a frivolous childish exercise. Contemporary music has come with a warning label since it’s conception as the best example of irresponsible immaturity. 

                      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31tgD-JVpIc&feature=related

                                                         

“No one over thirty years old who is in their right mind would be serious about popular music or poetry. Where is the responsibility to the family, or to yourself?” they said. “What about the real world?” they questioned.

“But it’s the music that brought and continues to deliver joy. Music soothes the pain. It is at the root of all experience. There is that proverbial individuated soundtrack to the journey and the set-list evolves day-to-day, year-to-year. The words in songs and the poetry crack open the window to the soul and the heart, and everything miraculously becomes clear “ the pilgrim called out.

                                                    

Now that the second half is in full swing it is hoped that it’s not too late to tap into the flow and be precisely what God intended all along. It is not about fame or fortune but rather just being. Humble gratitude overflows the cup with the awareness of another breath and another beat of the heart. Well, you never know there might be a song or poem in all of this.   

                                                             

“Our tradition teaches us that sound is God. That is, musical sound and the musical experience are steps to the realization of the self. We view music as a kind of spiritual discipline that raises one’s inner being to divine peacefulness and bliss. We are taught that one of the fundamental goals a person works towards in his lifetime is knowledge of the true meaning of the universe - its unchanging, eternal essence…. The highest aim of our music is to reveal the essence of the universe it reflects, and the ragas are among the means by which this essence can be apprehended.”

-       Ravi Shankar

“Poetry, music and dance are all expressions of a living God.”

-       Rumi

“And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.”

                            ― Friedrich Nietzsche (source: David Arn’s tweet)   
                                                                        http://www.davidarn.com/

** Gratitude Moments. 64.3.9, 64.3.27. and 64.3.29

 A day was celebrated with number two at the Philadelphia Museum of Art getting our spirit tanks filled with each with the art of Van Gogh.  

Sunflowers- Van Gogh

Philadelphia Museum of Art - Photo by Leigh

                                                          

Sound Check Party At Bruce Concert

While on another evening it is reported that the first one and I were seen dancing in the darkness on the edge of town singing “We take care of our Own” with the Boss and the E-Streeters while connecting with the BFF and his crew.

Otis Redding !

                                         

Of course there is no coincidence that a new companion joined the clan bearing the name “Otis Redding.” Story has it that as a young pup he used to "sit on the dock of the bay” and thus the name. (And, his birthday being two days after his predecessor, Dylan,  and 7 days before George Harrison’s ....and my own.)

                                                       









amdg

A Leap Year Meditation: The Gift / February 29, 2012

                                                                              (   Click image)

He woke to the soft silent stately scintillating sun slipping through the creases in the blinds that had sealed out the cold dark of night from an unwelcomed entrance. Radiance. Consolation. Nurturing. Illumination!The Buddha heart within was opened. The unexpected gift was becoming clear with each breath. His eyes confirmed what his spirit had whispered in the first blink of the dawn. He was in receipt of a potential extra one thousand four hundred and forty. The sanctifying surgeon was at work again.

The mind nascarred itself harder and faster than it had ever done before. Faster. Faster. A wreck about to happen.

“There must be an answer! There must be a reason! What was done to earn such a gift? What does this mean? What shall I do?”

Rumi must have visited and converted him while in a dream! Whirling, whirling dhikr. He felt more dizzy than holy. But that was not unusual. The blackbird was singing like the first bird on the first morning. Everything was new again as if everything and every creature was reborn with him.

Jonah, the Prophet of Second Chances, watched from a distance with a smile.

“You need to listen.”

The great Greek chorus of his earthly angels raised their voices in harmonious gratitude.

“Amen! Amen! Amen!”

It was obvious to his simple frail human mind that all this was all a well-planned intervention…. or…. maybe it was some lost grace that finally found an empty soul to save. He had never expected to make it this far down the yellow brick road.

Little did he know that this was business as usual.  The universe delighted in immersing wandering spirits into a sea of love and wonder. No reward for any great deed or heroic effort is needed or required. No mystical slight of hand magic is ever involved. Sometimes just trying is enough. Sometimes the truth and just being is sufficient. Love just is and sometimes bonuses happen. 

http://www.panhala.net/Archive/Buddhas_Last_Instruction.html

                                                               (Click link above)

                                                                 ( Click image to play)

“…And when you feel afraid, love one another
When you’ve lost your way, love one another
When you’re all alone, love one another
When you’re far from home, love one another
When you’re down and out, love one another
All your hopes run out, love one another
When you need a friend, love one another
When you’re near the end, love one another
We got to love one another

Light of the world, you got to shine
Love will be a means, yeah, yeah
Shine on us all
Know that love can save the day
Just give it one more chance
Lord you just cant let it stop lord
Love is the answer
Got to be free to let love into your life
Let it shine…”

                                                 ( Just One Victory -Click image to play)

amdg