Ballad of the Refugee Pt 1

Everything is Waiting for You - David Whyte

audio link -
https://soundcloud.com/onbeing/david-whyte-everything-is-waiting-for-you

Your great mistake is to act the drama

 as if you were alone. As if life

 were a progressive and cunning crime

 with no witness to the tiny hidden

 transgressions. To feel abandoned is to deny

 the intimacy of your surroundings. Surely,

 even you, at times, have felt the grand array;

 the swelling presence, and the chorus, crowding

 out your solo voice. You must note

 the way the soap dish enables you,

 or the window latch grants you freedom.

 Alertness is the hidden discipline of familiarity.

 The stairs are your mentor of things

 to come, the doors have always been there

 to frighten you and invite you,

 and the tiny speaker in the phone

 is your dream-ladder to divinity.

Put down the weight of your aloneness and ease into the

 conversation. The kettle is singing

 even as it pours you a drink, the cooking pots

 have left their arrogant aloofness and

 seen the good in you at last. All the birds

 and creatures of the world are unutterably

 themselves. Everything is waiting for you.

Too Long in Exile - Van Morrison

https://youtu.be/A9gRbpe7LUU

The Ballad of the Refugee

Nervous and fidgety , sweat slowly dripping from his brow,

harshly rubbing his hands against his pant legs

before grabbing for the tattered worn wallet,

scrambling to secure frayed folded pieces of paper

from private hidden compartments that everyone knew about.

He secretly glanced down hoping that no one was looking

at his information.

The worry grew as the sweat increased in volume with each 

tempered step further up the line . 

Glancing up forward he witnessed how some on the line

were being separated into separate groups. 

The anxiety and blood pressure built up like

some volcano ready to blow. Another step, more pressure,

 more sweat. Surely they would find out! He didn’t know 

what they would find but he believed that they would find something. 

There was probably some great secret

from his past that even he forgot about.

He was aware of his imperfection but he also knew he

wasn’t evil. Loved sinner?He abandoned conjuring an escape plan 

as he was aware he had nowhere to run. This was it. 

This was the day of truth, the great reckoning.

Was this long journey all for naught?

Maybe it was his credit score?Maybe it is his skin 

color or ethnicity? Maybe it was his not getting that

 job promotion? Maybe it was not being able to provide 

his family with all the things they desired? Maybe his wife 

reported some secret about him? Maybe the local 

priest turned him in for not frequenting services or turning in his 
weekly envelopes after the allegations of sexual abuse by the
clergy hit thepapers and courtroom?He even thought about how 

his doctor may have turned him in for not following 

the recommended diet and medical regimens. He didn’t

 need anyone to tell him he was too long in exile,

A perpetual refugee.

Was he as good a person as he could have been? 

How did his family ,friends and neighbors really feel 

about him and did that really matter? He thought he tried 
to live an unselfish life and tried to avoid behaving or doing 

things just to get recognized or rewarded. He often 

thought it a little narcissistic to behave this way or 

that in order just to get a reward at the end.He wrote 

somewhere , “I don’t think one loves others just to

so one can be loved in return.” 

Did he remember to leave that letter in the desk?
 Did he update the list? 

Maybe he should have thought more about scoring 

more points and making sure he had achieved more and 

received the proper recognition. He finally turned

 his head in humble grateful prayer. No one knows 

what he whispered to the divine but rumor has it 

that mystical universe knew precisely what was in his heart.

The time then arrived where everything would be answered.

Another surprise surfaced that there was no real 

wall or massive gathering of armed guards at a gate .

He worried that maybe this was all a dream. As a matter

of fact there was no one there who was separating 

and screening the hungry souls, who were now also gone. 

A soft gentle consoling voice from an unseen source 

whispered in the silence...

“Welcome. We have been waiting for you.”

- JF Sobecki

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Murder in the City - Avett Brothers

https://youtu.be/cr420Jwr14U

(… Make sure my girls and grandchildren know I love them..

  Always remember, there was nothing worth sharing

  Like the love that lets us share our name.)

Deportee - Ani De Franco and Ry Cooder

https://youtu.be/fCCgtRy5vYE

amdg

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

        - Jack Kerouac

“The only truth is music”

       - Jack Kerouac

Copyright 2018 JF Sobecki LLC All Rights Reserved

Chesapeake Prayer – 70 ( Holy Longing)

I Heard the word

Wonderful Thing!

A children's song

A children's song, have you listened as they play?

Their song is love and the children know the way.

 - Surfs Up , Brian Wilson & Van Dyke Parks

                                        

                                       No Hard Feelings – The Avett Brothers

                            

                                         https://youtu.be/Agc1gc6jqVE

Where Many Rivers Meet

All the water below me came from above
All the clouds living in the mountains
gave it to the rivers
who gave it to the sea, which was their dying.

And so I float on cloud become water,
central sea surrounded by white mountains,
the water salt, once fresh,
cloud fall and stream rush, tree root and tide bank
leading to the rivers' mouths
and the mouths of the rivers sing into the sea,
the stories buried in the mountains
give out into the sea
and the sea remembers
and sings back
from the depths
where nothing is forgotten.

- David Whyte

Chesapeake Prayer - 70

Where did that first drop of rain come from?

What was the source of that wind-

That moved the clouds onward?

Kerouac’s rivers filled rush pointing the way

To that promised ocean of mercy.

Am I Goethe’s butterfly insane for the light?

Wisdom says this light at the end of the tunnel

Grows with each step and passing breath.

It’s glow and warmth has been ever-present.

She also says silence is the mystery that miraculously transforms the composer’s notes into music,

Consoling pilgrims seeking the love and laughter

Recalled in the play of the innocence of children.

Song lyrics and poems shine that same light back

On the great mysteries of the universe,

They are the truthful sanctified gifts of all that is divine.

Calendar days are crossed off as if to indicate

Something purposeful has been completed.

Pure beauty and the peace that encompasses and fills

Every living thing speaks with authority and without words

Of the proper purpose and intention.

No beginning and no end for the forever spark of love 

As she continues to illuminate

And we are reminded of where the true treasure resides

And the teacher’s last instruction to

“Make yourself a light.”

    - JF Sobecki

Faith – David Whyte

https://youtu.be/hRhrO97yOMA

Faith

I want to write about faith,
about the way the moon rises
over cold snow, night after night,

faithful even as it fades from fullness,
slowly becoming that last curving and impossible
sliver of light before the final darkness.

But I have no faith myself
I refuse it even the smallest entry.

Let this then, my small poem,
like a new moon, slender and barely open,
be the first prayer that opens me to faith.

- David Whyte

                                                               The Holy Longing

Tell a wise person, or else keep silent,

because the mass man will mock it right away.

I praise what is truly alive,

what longs to be burned to death.

In the calm water of the love-nights,

where you were begotten, where you have begotten,

a strange feeling comes over you,

when you see the silent candle burning.

Now you are no longer caught in the obsession with darkness,

and a desire for higher love-making sweeps you upward.

Distance does not make you falter.

Now, arriving in magic, flying,

and finally, insane for the light,

you are the butterfly and you are gone.

And so long as you haven't experienced this: to die and so to grow,

you are only a troubled guest on the dark earth.

 by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Translated from the German by Robert Bly

"I keep traveling around the bend

There was no beginning, there is no end

It wasn't born and never dies

There are no edges, there are no sides

Oh yea, you just don't win

It's so far out - the way out is in..."

 - Any Road , George Harrison

Surfs Up – B. Wilson, Van Dyke Parks

https://youtu.be/R8IfQUyMxPQ

Love is The Answer – T. Rundgren

https://youtu.be/1uCaIuPg-Fk

Hymns to The Silence – Van Morrison

https://youtu.be/3xbvq2c98nY

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

        - Jack Kerouac

“The only truth is music”

       - Jack Kerouac

For our children and our grandchildren
 "you got the music in you!"

You Get What you Give – New Radicals

https://youtu.be/cPAEFnVZVOs

amdg

Copyright 2018 All Rights Reserved JF Sobecki LLC

The Zen of Baseball

“The game of (base) ball is glorious”

                         – Walt Whitman.             

Ted Williams with Red Ormsby the Umpire

“…Baseball is a lot like religion.

Its followers put their faith and hope in uncontrollable forces in search of fulfillment and inner joy….

Baseball is about coming home. The whole point of the game is to finish where you begin – home plate – and once you are home you are finally safe."

 - James Penrice, The Spiritual Lessons of    

                            Baseball

“In my beginning is my end…

Home is where one starts from…

In my end is my beginning.”

       

               -T. S. Eliot, “East Coker”

“Your grandfather once told me it was ok to think about what you want to do until it was time to start doing what you were meant to do.”

          

                 - The Rookie

So where does one get the authentic sense of purpose and identity? What event during one’s younger years sparks that flame to burn and cast a true light as to where one should be headed. Who created that spark? What was the point of this spark in the first place? Why does this flame make everything crystal clear and yet still muddy the waters of one’s own desires and notions about what and where one should be? Could there be more than one flame or more than one source? Would another flame appear if one burned out? Is there any end to the sparks?

Was that youth recreation baseball coach some angelic spirit in human disguise? How did he get here? What was his purpose? Why did he busy himself with encouraging his young charges to be authentic, free to be one’s self, joyful and be in the moment? How did time become no time? Seizing the day, the moment never seemed to be so real did it? How did winning and losing evaporate and get carried away by some sacred breeze?

Who would have thought that the smell of linseed oil on leather would replace that of incense? Who would have believed that the 108 stitches on a baseball would coincidentally be the same number as Buddhist prayer beads or two mysteries of the Catholic Rosary?

Was this the great lesson that could not be taught or understood in school and churches? Were the players who were selected identified by some greater spirit as needing to learn the lesson of unconditional love for self and others, truth, authenticity, faith and integrity by playing this game for this coach ?

And by the way when did the last two words of the National Anthem become “Play Ball?”

Can I hear an "Amen?"

                                         Game is called - Grantland Rice

                                           https://youtu.be/NbN5Q-Na66U

Game Called

Game Called. Across the field of play


the dusk has come, the hour is late.


The fight is done and lost or won,


the player files out through the gate.


The tumult dies, the cheer is hushed,


the stands are bare, the park is still.


But through the night there shines the light,


home beyond the silent hill.

Game Called. Where in the golden light


the bugle rolled the reveille.


The shadows creep where night falls deep,


and taps has called the end of play.
T

he game is done, the score is in,


the final cheer and jeer have passed.

But in the night, beyond the fight,


the player finds his rest at last.

Game Called. Upon the field of life


the darkness gathers far and wide,


the dream is done, the score is spun


that stands forever in the guide.

Nor victory, nor yet defeat


is chalked against the players name.

But down the roll, the final scroll,

shows only how he played the game

 - Grantland Rice

  

                                         People will come – Field of Dreams

                                           https://youtu.be/7SB16il97yw

                                         Docs Dream- Field of Dreams

                                          https://youtu.be/Y9yrupye7B0

                                          Farewell Moonlight – Fields of Dreams

                                         https://youtu.be/v6bD23vEigE

                                        Hey Dad Wanna Catch? – Field of Dreams

                                          https://youtu.be/lXjz-M_6eN8

                                         For the love of the game-  Just Throw

             https://youtu.be/QYTadlooH7o?list=PLeG0OVxY34arKyc0H6tQAlEyjH2v5rKnW

                                       The Natural - Ending

                                          https://youtu.be/i94ldGNNSQ0

                 

( Dedicated to Coach B who taught me to let go , be present and be myself - to live , work and play with joy and love. I still have my youth baseball glove at hand to help me remember to remember.

I always loved having a catch with my daughters. You ladies are the best! Get out your gloves for our next get together.)

amdg

Copyright all Rights Reserved JF Sobecki LLC 2017

Peace on Earth

"Let There be Peace on Earth !"

                                                     https://youtu.be/vXFeeJ6LSMc








amdg















Copyright JF Sobecki 2015

The Emmaus Dialogue: Act Three, Part Three “ Goin’ to The End of The Line”

The two pilgrims who have been trying to make their escape to a place called Paradise. Suddenly the two do not recognize anything on their passage. Most things and people they encounter are unfamiliar. Pilgrim One starts to show signs of anxiety while Pilgrim Two starts to flip through a book he has in is knapsack.

Pilgrim One: What the heck are you doing? How can you begin to think about reading when we are at the precipice of self-demise? Can’t you take anything seriously?

Pilgrim Two: I am quite serious and this is just not any book.

Pilgrim One: Oh, I expect that this book is the one and only “ Good Book?”

Pilgrim Two: Well, it is a good book in a way. It is one of the journals I have been keeping. As a matter of fact this particular journal is one in a long line of meditation and reflection filled pages.

Pilgrim One: So, do you have a map in there or some great insight that will put us on the right path again?

Pilgrim Two: Well, yes and no. Years ago I met a wise man from the Big East who gave me some advice.

Pilgrim One: Don’t tell me you took that “Course on Miracles” and these are your notes! Don’t you realize that …

Pilgrim Two puts up his hand to signal, “stop” as he interrupts the wound up Pilgrim One’s queries and confrontation….

Pilgrim Two: Hold on a minute will ya! No, this is not that text on “The Course in Miracles: To Find Peace and Happiness” but in a way it is an elementary method of discerning one’s blessings and being mindful of the sacred in all things. This wise man I spent some time with used to quote Einstein for me , “ There are two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” So, years ago I started to try o be aware of all the miracles and blessings in my life. Then I started to write about these observations and meditations in a journal.

Pilgrim One: What are you talking about? How does this help anything? How does this help us now?

Pilgrim Two: If you let me finish I will tell you. Every morning I sit in wonder and am overwhelmed with humility that the great grace is filling all things in the universe. This wonder-filled canvas of pure peace and love surrounds us and it fills up my spirit.

Pilgrim One: A little simplistic isn’t it? You are not going to lecture me about God, heaven and all that again.

Pilgrim Two: I really don’t care what you label that energy of great love that has caused all existence through magnificent peace and love. By the way, for the record, I don’t believe in your concept that heaven is really the same as some theme park at Disney world or grand resort on the Riviera located above the stars. All one needs to do is look, see and feel. No thinking is required, you know.

Pilgrim One flailing his arms screams out

Pilgrim One: Where are you going with this? How is this going to help us get to where we need to go? I don’t understand.

Pilgrim Two: In the pages of this journal I have tried to write what I am sensing or experienced when I attempt to be present. Sometimes I feel as though great secrets of the universe are revealed. Sometimes I experience a consolation so great that I believe I am a part of the expansive canvas of pure peace. Sometimes the tranquility comes from the stars. Sometimes I can hear to sweet serenity in the songs of the pre-dawn birds welcoming the sun. Sometimes the waft of salt air form the sea along with the lapping waves on the beach are all part of the harmonious symphony of serenity.

Then sometimes I drift and contemplate to wonder of existence : Love, intimacy, compassion and mercy. The miracle of conception and birth comes to mind. Where does that spark come from that initiates all life? How does that happen, really?

I think of how there are no accidents.  Einstein was to have said that,

“ Coincidence is God’s way of remaining anonymous.” Whoever and whatever God is I don’t think that this universal magnificence is passive at all.

Then sometimes I drift again and write about true happiness. I reflect on how I have never read a story or poem or heard a song or have seen a movie where the one who has the most possessions or biggest bank account has found authentic happiness or peace.

Pilgrim One now with his face in his hands whimpers

Pilgrim One: I don’t understand. I don’t understand. How is this book and all this going to help us get to where we need to go?

Pilgrim Two:  You see I believe that the help, this gift is all about love. Love is the origin of everything. Love is the reason for existence. Love is that which fills the universe and every moment we love we are experiencing the sacred. We become the divine when we love, as all that is love is divine.

So, we really do not need to get anywhere. We really don’t need to own anything. If I feel lost or feel alone and can’t connect with that which is truly important I look into my journal’s writings and discover that I have witnessed true peace and that miracle of love. And, in this witnessing I realize somehow mysteriously with all my imperfections I am participating of this miracle. Heaven is not a destination. Heaven is where love is. Heaven is here and now.

Pilgrim One: I guess I know what you mean. In the movie “Field of Dreams” the main character meets the spirit of his father who asks

‘Is this heaven?’ and the main character responds that it is Iowa and asks his father’s spirit if there is a heaven and the father says ‘ Oh, yeh, it is the place dreams come true” and the main character looks at his wife and daughter on the porch of their farm house next to a ball field in the middle of his cornfield and smiles saying “Maybe this is heaven.”

The two find a half finished bottle of Merlot and a baguette in their sole knapsack and the companions begin to celebrate.

"Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is God's gift, that's why we call it the present."

(Final Scene Field of Dreams- smart phone click link)

http://youtu.be/b_wnD6jxREU

( Awaiting on you All - G. Harrison - smart phone click on link)

http://youtu.be/QGI3RWBhuUo

(Looking for My Life - G. Harrison- smart phone click on link)

http://youtu.be/SBov2x9L3UQ

( The End of the Line - Traveling Wilburys - smart phone click on link)

http://youtu.be/cwqhdRs4jyA

 amdg