I Need You

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I Need You – Performed by Act of Congress 2006

Somewhere around 2006 I had a winery.  Not the one I have mentioned before but a different one.  It was called the Winery on Main.  It was located in the heart of a small town close to the Courthouse and the First Baptist Church. (That is a whole “nuther” story.)  We did live music on occasion and through a friend of a friend I met some guys fresh out of college who for a few hundred dollars would come and fill the winery with the beauty of their craft.  I had written a few songs and hired them to record them for me.  I Need You is one of them.  Over the years we have remained in contact at least with Chris and Adam and I have watched them become professionals of the highest caliber.  They draw large crowds and play all over the world.  One of the coolest creative things they have done is integrate their music with live symphony.  Their name is Act of Congress.  They named it that because it was taking so long for their dreams to be realized.  But now as men they command respect, attention, and a whole lot more money than I ever gave them.  But we are related by history and love now not dollars.  I was remembering those times this morning and thought to introduce them to you.  Their music is amazing!  Deep and rich and authentic and intelligent and filled with love, are some ways I describe what they do.  Visit them at Act of Congress, learn of them, support them, and by all means if you get a chance to see them live be there.  They will blow you away!  There are many samples of them on YouTube.

Bards and Brews

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This event was held at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens.  It is a beautiful place and draws a rich mixture of people.  It was similar  here tonight.  A Poetry Slam I learned is an odd mixture of hip artsy folks and folks that just want to be around those folks.  There is a particular vibe and energy and rhythm about it.  It is kinda like the Gong Show but kinder.  The themes generally are urban or cutting edge progressive.  It is as much about emotions that are elicited than the actual poetry in a sense.  But the spoken word and the live performance creates emotional fields to provide the context for what the artists are attempting to accomplish.  It is a particular genre that I discovered is not where I am most fluent.  I will return and continue to do me there but don’t have any ambition of winning a competition of this type.  But I did not go to win.  I went to test and stretch my Self, to risk and discover new aspects of being alive.  It is amazing to me that I would be doing something like this.  It is something that was completely foreign to me just a few months ago when I was young (only 51).  I accomplished what I intended.  First and foremost I did something I was afraid (well afraid is too strong a word) of doing.  I only risked my ego and survived. Not that big a deal.   I also met some new people and sowed new seeds that may produce fruit unforeseen down the road a bit.  I guess part of what I am doing is providing an example of stepping out.  I have found that sometimes it is not all that sexy and exciting. . . but sometimes it is. 🙂

I used to call what I do Spoken Word but after hearing it I realise that is not me. I am not urban.  I have plenty of soul but it comes out of different roots.  Louisiana rural, country, jazz, R&B, with a little Funk thrown in the mix was the context of my groove.  Maybe Spoken Jazz or something along that line would be more correct.  If anybody has any ideas holla.  Here is a recording of me doing my thing.  A kind soul recorded it on their phone.  I like the poem better with the music but that is just me.  It is slow to load here so if you have come this far and still want to hear it you may let it go ahead and load before trying to listen. It is an mp4 file if some of you know what that is.  I selected the option to imbed the media player.  I use Windows if any of that matters.  Maybe it will be better where you are.  Be Groovy! 🙂

 

 

Home

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Joie De Vivre at The Art of Being you posted I Need to see Home in your Eyes.  It reminded me of something I wrote a long time ago about Home. So I went and dug it out. I have longed for something most of my life that I think can best be described as Home. It is a major theme in most deep spirituality.  It has been associated with people and places and things.  I think there are a few people we can share it with because they seek that too.  But in the end I think it is about discovering that the answer is not out there somewhere but in finding Home in ourselves.  Seek out these rare people who understand the Romance of the Beloved.

Someone asked me recently what “Home” referred to in the Michael Buble’ song.  They asked me “Where is Home?”

To me the answer was apparent and came as easily as remembering my own name.

I said, “Home is wherever She is.”  Geography, space, time, and circumstance is irrelevant.

Wherever He may wander, whatever His circumstance, His heart will forever turn toward Her.

Just as the compass will seek the North so too will He be drawn to Her.

She is Home.  She is rest.  She is the answer to the question of his spirit.

So when Michael sings of Home he sings of Her and to Her and from a place in Him that will only and can only be whole when He is with Her.

I know of which he sings.

He needs to breathe.

Garden Update – Too Much Green

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I got to the garden Saturday and the tomatoes were so overgrown that I could not see to pick the fruit.  The vines were all tangled and were producing so many stems and leaves that air could not circulate. Not really problems, just the result of healthy plants doing what they do.  So I set about to untangle and trim what was not needed, again.

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Whew!  Now I can see and it was like the plants took a long slow deep breath.  I got about ten pounds of Tomatoes and three Eggplants.  The grape ones are sweet like sugar.  Perfect fruit produced within that tangled mess.  It is kinda how I am feeling lately.  I am busy reaching out to the artsy folk in our area. It is a different world for me.  For the last 20 years or so I have worked as “Redneck Headshrink” in a rural county in Alabama.  I do individual and family therapy.  My multicultural specialities are crackheads, convicts, and Baptists. I am in private practice and contract with the Courts and Schools and Family/Child Services. Typically the referrals are abuse/neglect cases involving drugs, sex and/or rock and roll.  I handle most of the domestic violence and drug cases related to children.  The cool thing is that one can find perfect fruit growing, even there.  But like with the tomatoes they can be easily missed if the overgrowth is not cleared frequently.  I have been in that county now long enough that I am on the third generation of some of these families.  Along with the ugliness and pain I have witnessed the miraculous in the power of life and hope to overcome what many only know about in theory or the Lifetime channel.  These people have taught me poetry as I do it.  I have always thought of poetry as the dire urgent need to bring some kind of order and beauty out of ugliness and chaos.  I understand real therapy as entering into another’s world with my own imperfections and together creating some meaning, some hope, some beauty.

It is similar with my new jazzy experiments.  Me and the guys have been getting together every week to explore our creative combinations.  There are different people each week and every week it is different.  There are so many different ways it can go.  Like with growth in therapy or life in general there is always the ambiguity, anxiety, risk, and then discovering what is groovy, what works.  There is a since of “yes” that is the truth.  It feels right and alive.  If one manages the anxiety then beauty emerges from the unknown, the chaotic on its own.  It is not created, it is found or discovered.  I am currently reminded to quit trying to figure it out and just go. Explore the unknown cause if the known contained what was needed there would already be rest.  In that we still desire there is more to discover.  The groove can not be predicted and planned only discovered as we go out not knowing.

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One other little thing.  Brace up and spend time on what is producing.  The Eggplants and Peppers were leaning over because of all the fruit on them.  What is working for you right now?  Make sure and give it some attention and it will continue to produce in its season.  Cut back the overgrowth.  Let go of busyness and hangers on and that which is in the way.  Remember that perfection may not look perfect and can emerge from what seems to be chaotic if given room to breathe.  Tend your garden but remember ultimately there are powerful friendly forces at work which have plans for your good and not evil.  Be Groovy!

Bards and Brews