I can’t imagine never knowing,
Jesus came for me.
I can’t imagine never knowing,
That He died for me.
Of all the things that we can know,
I think that this is best.
This is the thing I need to know,
And I can live without the rest.
I’m sorry if I never told you,
What He means to me.
I’m sorry if I never told you,
How He set me free.
I can’t imagine never knowing,
Jesus came for me.
I can’t imagine never knowing,
How He loves us perfectly.
~FS
The sun is shining over me,
A dove is singing from the tree,
Got a shih tzu in my lap,
He looks ready for a nap.
I sit with my eyes upon the sky,
Wondering if it’s true, or just a lie,
Can’t know for sure, but I feel hope stirring,
‘Cause I’ve got these tidings, of great things coming.
It smells like a promise on the wind,
Of a land and a life free from sin.
All around us the world is joy,
Losing everything here’s just a ploy,
There ain’t no keeping what’s gone and lost,
Just trusting in the One hanging on the cross.
If you’ve got something better?
Can you show me someone better?
We’re all dying here, and suffering,
But placebos are all they’re offering.
Redeeming the time with a song, and a prayer.
What else can I do but just sing, and then prayer?
While time is this burden I’m carrying,
The sun does its rising and falling.
It smells like a promise on the wind,
Of a land and a life free from sin.
~FS
We used to play in the streets,
We used to dance with bare feet,
All of the songs that we sang,
Love was our common refrain.
Why have we rolled over,
In our lives?
Why have we believed,
All the lies?
When will we wake from,
Our self-styled sleep?
When will we lift ourselves,
Up from the deep?
How I miss our songs together,
Sung in every kind of weather,
We sang at the top of our voices,
Harmony at the top of our choices.
Why have we rolled over,
In our lives?
Why have we believed,
All the lies?
When will we wake from,
Our self-styled sleep?
When will we lift ourselves,
Up from the deep?
When we believed in ourselves,
We believed in each other,
We believed what we saw,
We believed what we knew,
I still believe in us, I still believe in you.
I still believe what’s true, I still believe in you.
~FS
Honeybee,
In my ear,
Honeybee,
Please come nearer,
Honeybee,
Collecting pollen,
Honeybee,
I am fallin’,
For the love,
You’re speaking of,
Right here.
My honeybee.
Honeybee,
I still love you,
Honeybee,
Always thinking of you,
Honeybee,
Love like honey,
Honeybee,
You’ll always be,
Honeybee,
My honeybee.
Please don’t take your time,
But I’ll still be waiting,
Buzzing through my mind,
I’m an old heart prating,
Want to hold you close,
Hold you in my hands,
But I promise you’ll be free,
I won’t impose demands.
We’ll always be,
Wild,
You and me,
Like two honeybees~
My honeybee.
~FS
Lilly has the softest sweater,
It keeps her feeling good,
Every morning on her way, to the ferry~
Piper is an Irish Setter,
Old man of the neighborhood,
Watching squirrels dance down the road, makes him merry~
Planes crossing the sky,
People wave “Hi”,
Asking you, “How you doin?”
We’re out on a ride,
Then come on inside,
Having some pie…
La, la-la-la-la,
La-la-la-la,
La-la-la-la.
La-la-la.
(Repeat)
We’re all having daydreams in the park at Apple Tree Cove,
Sleeping under the sun, feeling like life’s just begun,
Butterflies glide through the air, sea otters, sea otters…
Sea otters playing in the waves without a care…
La, la-la-la-la,
La-la-la-la,
La-la-la-la.
La-la-la.
(Repeat)
Tina likes to tease her brother,
His name and Sara’s written in the sand,
A big heart around them, she thinks it’s funny~
In the park sits her mother,
Playing trombone in the city band,
Sometimes she plays in the rain, but now its sunny~
Planes crossing the sky,
People wave “Hi”,
Asking you, “How you doin?”
We’re out on a ride,
Then come on inside,
Having some pie…
Mm, mm-mm-mm-mm,
Mm, mm-mm-mm,
Mm, mm-mm-mm,
Mm, mm-mm.
~FS
Dandelion,
For a season,
Bright as sunshine,
Bold and free.
With a mane,
Of tender reason,
Brass-fire dewdrops,
Shine on me.
She’s a golden child of morning,
She’s the echo on the wind,
Dandelion’s bloom so full of burning,
This life’s beauty and its end.
Dandelion,
For a season,
Bright as sunshine,
Bold and free.
Rays of hope,
Beyond my reason,
Life’s pure kisses,
Made for me.
She’s a golden child of morning,
She’s the echo on the wind,
Dandelion’s bloom so full of burning,
This life’s beauty and its end.
~FS
In a forest, deeply sighing, sits a songbird, silently~
All around him, creatures crying, not this songbird, in his tree.
In a moment, in an hour, won’t the songbird, ever sing?
Not for glory, not for power, will that songbird, ever sing.
Songbird sang, at the dawning of the morning~
Songbird sings, at the laying down of warring~
Songbird sings, for the unity of all men~
But will Songbird, ever sing again?
Was about this time, last winter, that the songbird, came to me~
Like an angel, from a picture, with a warning, in my sleep.
I would tell you, if he let me, what he told me, while I slept~
The truths, that songbird told me, are all things, for which I’ve wept.
Songbird sang, at the dawning of the morning~
Songbird sings, at the laying down of warring~
Songbird sings, for the unity of all men~
But will Songbird, ever sing again?
There’s a fault line, running through us, right through every human heart~
With a power, to consume us, or a love, for a fresh start.
There’s a songbird, in the forest, and he waits there patiently~
Will he sing again, there for us, or will he sit there, silently?
Songbird sang, at the dawning of the morning~
Songbird sings, at the laying down of warring~
Songbird sings, for the unity of all men~
But will Songbird, ever sing again?
But will Songbird, ever sing again?
But will Songbird, ever sing again?
Will Songbird, ever sing again?
~FS
Years ago I met a man who described himself to me as being an albino-negro. We struck up an interesting and memorable conversation. I don’t know all the details about his being albino-negro, although he did look it, and that is how he described himself, so I took him at his word, and I respected his self-designation. We enjoyed our conversation together and became acquaintances or friends. One thing that we bonded around was our shared human experience: our particular difficulties of living in this world. We developed a camaraderie based on our shared pain in the human experience. I mentioned to him that various times I had been made fun of for being too skinny, or having a long nose, or being weird, (this was prior to the time in my life when deeper sorrows began to enter my experience, things like deaths and diseases), and we laughed together about these things, and I admitted to him that while those were painful for me, it was likely more difficult for him, being albino. Nevertheless, no life is without its traumas.
I bring up this story, including the details I chose to share, because it came into my mind today when I saw a sign that read: ‘trans rights are human rights’ and I thought about this albino-negro friend of mine from so many years ago. He was also in a relatively super-minority, similar to trans-people, and I could imagine him telling me that ‘albino-negro rights are human rights’ and I would have agreed with him and said of course they are. If I would have told my friend that people with long noses have a right too, just like anyone else, I think he would have agreed with me. In fact, can any of us honestly think of a human group, large or very small, that we would say don’t have human rights? I hope not. But conversely, why must we single out one very small, particular group for special status to the exclusion of everyone else? Or worse, in place of everyone else’s rights? This is what has happened and everyone knows it, everyone in the majority, and everyone in other minorities (girls come to mind) who have now been forced to compete against the trans-minority.
Later in the day I passed a restaurant that had a progress-pride flag in the window, the kind with a triangle of white, pink, blue, brown and black near the pole and the rainbow running across the banner, and it struck me what a contradiction that flag has become, between what it was intended to symbolize and what it actually has come to stand for. In word it is supposed to stand for inclusion and diversity however, sadly, in practice it has come to represent very nearly the opposite. Under that flag we’ve seen small businesses ruined, families impoverished, girls and boys abused, mutilated and even in some cases killed, people have lost their jobs for citing simple biological facts, and the list can go on and on, but we all know the truth, we don’t need more examples, we likely know some of them personally.
The methods which the progress-pride flag stands for now aren’t accomplishing what the people that the flag represents supposedly intend. They aren’t fostering inclusion by their actions. Like the saying goes: believe what they do, not what they say. The acts taken under that banner have become meanness, aggressiveness and destruction for anyone not represented by those colors, and even for many included in the rainbow. DEI doesn’t produce the fruits that it says it does, but rather it is divisive, exclusionary and intimidating. Everyone knows this, except possibly the few that it is enriching. Yet, even they know it, but they also know who butters their bread.
This isn’t to say we couldn’t defend these minorities, the actual people who need defending, in a good and kind way, in a way that really does produce the good fruit that we all want, that of unity and inclusion. But it requires a different strategy. The old flag needs to be retired. Even as one who is sympathetic with the people for whom the colors of the flag represent, I can’t sympathize with the methods employed by those who wave that flag. It has come to be a symbol of aggression, selfish disregard of others, and even cruelty.
I’m not the first person to point these things out, but when anyone does, they are almost always met with anger, attack and some sort of violence, either by word or action. Doesn’t this simply confirm the point we are making? Of course it does.
So why would any of us support that? Why would anyone hang that flag in their window? If we support people, all people, then we should support something other than that, we should hang something else, something that truly is inclusive and respectful and symbolizes all of us. Find a new symbol, or an old one, that defends the rights of minorities, and doesn’t trample on the right of majorities, nor trample on the rights of other minorities. A good cause is a just cause if it is has integrity woven into its ends and its means, so that it treats everyone with equal love and respect. Not favoring some colors, or people, to the exclusion of others.
~FS
Molly O’Shea was a bonny lass,
And the pride of the Emerald Isle.
With long flowing locks which fell ‘pon her breasts,
And a face that made every man smile.
Molly was wild from the time she was a child,
Untamed as the wind running free.
But it were my foolish heart, right from the start,
That were captured when Molly smiled at me.
For a lifetime I’d chased her, and caught her, and lost her,
Once I’d hold her then I’m left all alone.
Well, that’s what I get from Molly’s body made of flesh,
But her heart which is surely made of stone.
Oh hey, Molly O’Shea.
Hey ho, please don’t go!
Oh hey, Molly O’Shea.
Hey hey, why won’t you stay?
Molly; she’s granite to me now, boys,
She’s just like granite to me now.
When Molly reached the marrying age,
I asked her to be my bride.
We drove into the country, she leaned over to kiss me,
Swiped my wallet and most of my pride.
Years later we finally met at the altar,
Her Pa said she must settle down.
We exchanged our vows, moved into town,
Then she left me and my head spinning round.
Oh hey, Molly O’Shea.
Hey ho, why did you go?
Oh hey, Molly O’Shea.
Hey hey, why won’t you stay?
Molly; she’s granite to me now, boys,
She’s just like granite to me now.
After raising three kids, can you believe it, we had ’em,
Molly told me that she loved me a lot.
Her words brightened my day and lightened my heart,
Then she left me again right on the spot.
Time passed, it were very late in the day,
While Molly sat by my side.
She said it was time she’d be going away,
She smiled at me, then went and died.
Oh hey, Molly O’Shea.
Hey ho, please don’t go!
Oh hey, Molly O’Shea.
Hey hey, I wish you could stay!
Molly; she’s granite to me now, boys,
She’s just like granite to me now.
Then they came and they carried away,
My sweet lovely Molly O’Shea.
They buried her, and placed a stone on her head,
Always leaving me when she’s alive or she’s dead.
Molly; she’s granite to me now, boys,
She’s just like granite to me now.
~FS
Some days seem rough before they start, my father used to say~
Son drag your bum up off that couch, before it gets away.
This world can be right cruel it’s true, the rest is up to you~
Lace up your boots, put on a smile, it’s time to see it through.
Stand strong my son,
God’s will be done,
It’s only for a day.
The evils of this present age~
Shall soon be swept away.
So when this world appears too much,
Too much to carry on~
Step back, stop and breathe,
And chat a while~
And have a cup of tea.
Sit and have a cup of tea.
Ah, sit and have a cup of tea…
Just have a cup of tea.
~FS
Prayerful Life 