Next Five Minutes
It is common to worry about the future; we often lament our past; the universal truth is that we must live in the present. The only moment I have is right now. What will I do with it? Emily Dickinson once said, “Forever is composed of nows.” Adam Anders wrote a song that conveys this…
Continue readingIt’s Me Again
In the song, “It’s Me Again,” I have never been quite sure whether Wayne Kirkpatrick is addressing the lyrics to a friend or to God. I suspect that it may be both. Kirkpatrick tends to do this with his songs. Regardless, from my time spent coaching others, and from my own life, I am convinced…
Continue readingPictures in the Mud
When Hurricane Sandy unleashed her force on Atlantic coastlines, and particularly New Jersey and New York states, there was much media coverage of the destruction and several heart-breaking stories that arose. Mike Charko read one of the stories regarding a woman who lost her Staten Island home and caught the inspiration for a song. Mike…
Continue readingFollow-up to Robert Burns Day 2013
One stanza from “To A Louse” by Robert Burns: O wad some Power the giftie gie us To see oursels as ithers see us! It wad frae mony a blunder free us, An’ foolish notion: What airs in dress an’ gait wad lea’e us, An’ ev’n devotion! My English translation: Oh, if only God would…
Continue readingValdy MM-MM-MM-MM
Paul Valdemar Horsdal, known professionally as Valdy, is a Canadian folk musician who has been writing songs and performing for more than forty years. I remember discovering his “Country Man” album in the seventies and the couple of times I saw him in concert I was amazed with how this one man and his guitar…
Continue readingAmerican Idol Expectations
“American Idol” and “Survivor” were certainly not the source of the concept but we can recognize that they have contributed to a sense of quick and easy fame in our culture. These television programs and many more “reality” shows have made household names out of ordinary people. Generations ago, if a person desired to become…
Continue readingWhat Every Creative Person Needs to Hear
“Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.” ― C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
Continue readingWaiting In The Weeds
The last few days of August always make me think of the lyrics of this song. It is a beautiful masterpiece of lyric and melody on the Eagles Long Road Out of Eden album. It is a song of longing, loneliness and loss. Perhaps it is also an indictment of the music industry and culture…
Continue readingHope in You
Regardless of one’s philosophical or spiritual perspective, the words found in the middle of 1 Peter 3:15 in the Bible are helpful. There we read that we are to “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.” As a follower of…
Continue readingThe Tin Man and Oz
“But Oz never did give nothing to the Tin Man that he didn’t, didn’t already have. . . . So please believe in me. . .” (“Tin Man” by America; written in 1974 by Dewey Bunnell.) The Tin Man is a fictional character in the American fairy-tale, The Wizard of Oz. The Tin Man is…
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