http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Flvuy5vC4vk
We've all had days like this. Here's hoping today isn't one of them.
If you know someone who is hurting, take a few minutes to reach out to them.
Calm your mind so you can hear your heart.
Faded. Fading.
6 years ago
Hi Jude--glad the blog is back. I book marked it and looked at it most days. Should have commented. I liked the piece about your father. Nice memories.
ReplyDeleteAs the internet and radio and television and newspapers and people’s conversations blare out bad news, I am grateful. Stormy weather on the way, prepare for the worst. Global health declining, the polar bears are dying. Economic catastrophe set to wipe out our prosperity. Terrorists everywhere. And I am grateful. I have not earned a living for a year. The bottom fell out of my partner’s business. And I am grateful. I have money in the bank, central heat, meat in the freezer, fruit and vegetables and beans on the shelf, cheese and eggs in the frig. This morning at my bird feeders were mated pairs of juncos, chickadees, gold finches, house finches, sparrows, hairy woodpeckers, nuthatches. I am a partner in a mated pair. I have a man to talk with, eat with, sleep next to, cluck over. Worry with, celebrate with. And I am grateful. I am not a Congolese refugee. I am not an Iraqi woman wondering if a bomb with kill me today as I shop. I am not homeless, I am not hungry. God has blessed me beyond all reason and understanding with good health, good friends, family, wit and intelligence and resourcefulness, a home where the roof doesn’t leak and where, from my windows, I can see a nature conservancy and a cornfield. And I am intensely grateful. How is it that I am so lucky and others struggle simply to survive? This is the Big Question. And I am grateful to not yet know the answer. Thanks be to God.
ReplyDeleteOh wow. This song has gotten me through some rough times, more then I could explain with this character limit! In short, the public school that I went to and loved had these biannual retreats. I hesistantly went to two because I thought they'd be one of those "lets stay up all night and talk about who's sinning in this room" which I was never comfortable with.
ReplyDeleteInstead, it was a group of 200 kids, some of which I grew up with, being completely honest and nonjudgemental. We hung out with kids out of our normal cliques and got the chance to share our life stories, and the stories were... inexplicable. I heard stories of kids I barely knew to always saw, stories of rape, of abuse, of sucide attempts, you name it. Bullies confessed their secret fears, geeks spoke out on their secret torments. Perfect girls with perfect hair admitted their eating disorders, boys who were always picked last admitted their talents. It was 24 hours of social hysteria, and while 200 teenagers cried and held each other, the advisor who ran it, Mr G, would say nothing. He'd simply get his little boom box, plug it, and play this song.
Gosh! This song takes me back. It sounds depressing and radical and all, but there is definitely a freedom in being honest. While few people stuck to the Rule of Confidentiality "What is said here stays here", etc, it didn't matter. Those that confessed were free, and those that listened learned.
Anyway, THANK YOU FOR SHARING!