Listening Lately – Edwin McCain

This month, I’ve been on yet another Edwin McCain listening binge.  For ten years, this singer-songwriter has been a soundtrack to my life.  I’ve been playing his latest album, “Mercy Bound” on repeat, but today I share the very, very first song of his with which I fell in love, “The Rhythm of Life” (from 1997’s “Misguided Roses”):

The rhythm of life
Heaven withstanding and smiling we’re all swept away
The rhythm of life
Is not so demanding as some caught in narrows would say

Fragile as ships as we pass through Gibraltar
The sirens have long given way
Dark as the murky graveyard of sailors
Whispering secrets told in the crashing waves

The beating of hearts
Set walls to trembling the power of silence persuades
The stumbling feet
Stagger predestined we all end up wild eyed and crazed

And from the madness most jaded of vision
Reflections of horror invade
Running and falling relinquish your venom
The antidote surely will cause your affliction to fade

How little we know of what we are blessed with
Our shimmering island it turns
How little we look at what we see clearly
Of tragedy’s lessons not learned

Sleeping through classes we’ll make it up later
There’s still so much time left to go
Misguided roses we bloom in October
Emerging triumphant in time for the season’s first snow

Harry Potter Life Lesson

Sometimes life feels like this:

“Harry was now trying hard not to panic. According to the large clock over the arrivals board, he had 10 minutes left to get on the train to Hogwarts and he had no idea how to do it; he was stranded in the middle of the station with the trunk he could hardly lift, a pocket full of wizard money, and a large owl.”
(- Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone )

You’ve found a wonderful, new life, one that makes sense of those parts of your life that didn’t before, the transition to this new life may be painful, but in a very deep way, it fits. Then, the real test comes–you have to leave your old life behind & do something that seems very strange to the inhabitants of the world from which you came. You suspect the new world and life will be ever so much more fitting and good for you than the old one, but you don’t quite know yet. Then, on the precipice, you’re suddenly left alone between these worlds, holding the strange items (actions, convictions, perspective) that draw you to this new life, laughed at by those in your old life for these strange things to which you now ascribe.

I think someone said once, “Follow me.”

Quotation of the Day

“…when we are securely rooted in personal intimacy with the source of life, it will be possible to remain flexible without being relativistic, convinced without being rigid, willing to confront without being offensive, gentle and forgiving without being soft, and true witnesses without being manipulative.” Henri Nouwen on contemplative prayer & Christian leadership, from In the Name of Jesus

Quotation of the Day

“If only people applied as much labor in rooting out vices and planting virtues, as they do in raising controversial questions, there would neither be so much harm done nor so great scandal given to the world.” – Imitation of Christ

I’m confused.  1300s or 2010s?