Your heart’s desire; the fear of having it all ~ Dave Matthews & George Bernard Shaw

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Mythology began with just three muses, Aoidē (“song” or “voice”), Meletē (“practice” or “occasion”), and Mnēmē (“memory”), but overtime expanded to nine. While my three primary muses are music, movies and books, the people in my life often inspire creativity and creation, some more than others. Yesterday brought such a weaving of muses in a flurry of creation that produced Bound :: Unbound and also an intention to create something else.

In the day’s early hours, a friend posted a song on Facebook featuring a quote that stayed with me, continues to stay with me:
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Bif Naked is my bright mantra ~ Everyday

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A couple years ago, right about this time, my life was a process of transformations. Significant ones. Life changers. World changers. Personal, spiritual, career, love: you name it, it was changing. It seemed like Bif Naked had a song for every single transformation, every single condition I was experiencing. My Whole Life, Lucky, Violence, Hold On, That’s Life, Nothing Else Matters, I Love Myself Today, That’s Life With Me, Tell On You, Religion, Choking On The Truth. Hell, the titles themselves tell a story, don’t they? Bif was on my iPod in high rotation, and there were many days spent driving around town, or between Whistler and Vancouver on the gorgeous Sea-to-Sky highway, belting these songs out at the top of my lungs with her.

This one, though, Everyday, this was my bright mantra. This was my saviour.

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Dave Matthews ~ Minstrel of love, patience, perseverance in The Space Between

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I posted this song on our Facebook page where it received a few comments. One of them, “the lyrics do lend themselves to that “shiver down your spine” feeling…none of us want to be there.”

No, none of us do want to be in a relationship that’s broken, filled with hurt, pain, anguish. It’s the kind of relationship our well-meaning friends counsel us, get out, let it go and don’t look back. Yet love flourishes in the space between the spinning out, the wicked lies and crying pain. We hear again the consistent beat of its heart on the calm, gentle ride back to the top of the roller-coaster.

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Love, strength and courage ~ The greatest things you’ll ever learn

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Every now and again I post a status message on Facebook that generates a comment storm. And every now and again, that comment storm generates ideas good enough for a blog post, as it did with The Tao of Love and Light: Riffing on physics and faith.

Yesterday morning I posted the following couplet as a status message.

Being loved doesn’t make us stronger.
Loving is what makes us stronger.

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The divine, beautiful grace

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There’s a beauty that never fades, endures
           all time
 
There’s a divinity that pervades all beings,
           all things
 
There’s a grace that characterises all movement,
           all art
 
That divine, beautiful grace . . .
 
                    . . . is Love.

Amazing Grace comes in small packages ~ Rhema Marvanne

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‘Grace’ is among my favourite words. There is divinity in it, and poise, as there is in this little girl’s voice, and in her being. Rhema Marvanne is, apparently, all of 7 years old. An age of innocence, so there should be no surprise there’s not a hint of wretchedness in the performance. But whence comes the amazing grace in her sweet sound? I shiver with it.
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Get Miles Away to find your way home ~ Gomez, Thomas Moore and Tristan

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The year 2000 was an extraordinary one. It was the year I wrote and produced my play, Prisoners, which in itself marked several milestones on my spiritual path. And there was this girl. A dark beauty who rekindled my passion for music. Gomez was just one of the bands we caught live that year at a small venue in town known euphemistically as Dick’s on Dick’s. The combination of workshopping the play, getting the musical groove back and opening up the loving soul sparked a profound spiritual experience. Ironically, the spiritual connectedness I felt at that time marked the beginning of the end for my dark beauty and I.
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Cycling Mantras ~ Establishing Desert Rhythms

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Bicycling is among my passions, one of the ways I connect to the world, my body, my being. The rhythm of riding, the cyclical nature of cycling, of spinning the crank arms, to spin a cogset, to spin the chain, so that the wheels spin. Round and round and round in a circle game…the movement and frame of mind parallels a meditation practice known as Vipassana, the intention of which is to focus entirely on the physical aspect of a task. In China’s vast deserts, I could cycle for hour upon hour, my connection between bicycle, body and the endless desert interrupted only occasionally by a passing vehicle.
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I know why you’re crying ~ Orbison & lang know why too

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Music is a powerful muse for me, and words often flow from the imagery and emotion which rises as the melody plays out. Less often, the words I’ve written bring a song to mind. This poem was in my thoughts this morning and as the words of it washed over me a melody rose out of them. And out of a melody rose k.d. lang’s wail, Crying.

Roy Orbison wrote about a cry arising from reasons much different than those I wrote about in this poem, and yet the source is much the same. It’s a cry from the center of the soul. It’s the deepest lament for a separation, a divide, a seeminly uncrossable gap.
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Hearts traveling faster than the speed of love ~ the B-52s, Topaz

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A vivid memory of dancing solo on an Australian beach, the full moon intermittently obscured by racing clouds even as its rays glitterred off the cascading breakers pounding the beach. This song, Topaz, blasting at top volume from the small portable stereo speakers attached to my iPod. A breathless churning of limbs and heart and soul as the waves washed up and around my legs.
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