Friday, March 27, 2009

what seems like our weakness is our strength

It’s very possible I’ve mentioned this track before but I’d happily recommend it every day.

This could so easily be the anthem of the Inner Path therapeutic retreats I was on in the fall. It sums up their philosophy so well. It always brings the faces of the folks I shared those weeks with to my mind... their stories, their pain and their desire to change their lives for the better and the struggle we all experienced to get over the top. Like running in concrete shoes… you either keep pushing forward, or you stop and you take off those damn things… the chains that bound them to the past, the brutality experienced, the confusion of not being able to stop the events that brought them to their knees…

I’m ending a three year relationship this week. A terrifying and liberating experience. The only relationshup I’ve ever had that had built in the permission to walk away with no guilt or regret. Sad but also a very necessary part of the relationship. That one day I’d leave to safety of the sacred room we share.

This is for friends who are struggling to get what they need… with it’s nothingshortofexquisite chord changes that make me choke up every time, I hear these words and feel deep sense of love for those I wish I could communicate with better, or indeed at all. because it reminds me of what it means to forgive myself and everyone else for not always getting it right...


Welcome to the ocean
And welcome to the sand
And say hello to water and
goodbye to your dry land
‘Cause I know that you’re thirsty
But don’t know how to drink
And I know that you want to swim
but you know that you’ll sink

but Break the chains
And break the chains
that hold you here
and Face the change
and Face the change
You’ve come to fear
And you’ll will see
How to be free
From the gravity
That holds you down
And keeps your feet firmly planted underground

Welcome to this mountain
Of things you don’t perceive
And soon you’ll find your peace of mind
as you soon as you can leave
‘Cause change may take persistence
But it can be done
‘Cause Itsy Bitsy had it right
depending on the sun

Break the chains
Break the chains
that hold you here
and Face the change
face the change
you’ve come to fear
And you will see
How to be free
From the gravity
That holds you down
And keeps your feet firmly planted underground

The Ocean and The Mountain – from already, not yet CD by aaron roche– available for purchase on aaron's myspace.

LB

7 comments:

  1. i so love this song. aaron's set was the best thing about greenbelt last year IMHO. and julie's.

    wishing you lots of the best things as you make the changes. xx

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  2. Thanks. :) there's an embryonic shape forming for the next year. With some interesting elements to it. Had good productive meetings with jonny and pete at the beginning of the week. The result of which, willow tells me, has been posted on the ikon forum. I guess that's me signed up so. :) hoping we'll be able to be at a meeting or two at the same time in the next 6 months. Xxx

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  3. hmmm. nothing on the ikon forums yet as far as i can tell. looking forward to hearing about it though!

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  4. Yes. That's my bad. I was clearly muddled. Where I heard forum, it Must've been cyndicate mail. Further, it was chris not willow who said it. Let's put it down to a morning of much back-to-back conversation that merged in my brain and not enough coffee. :) Regardless, news was: Jonny pinned me down in a wrestling lock and forced me to help with gb09. Pete tickled the soles of my feet for several days while reciting Derrida 'til I relented.

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  5. haha! well glad their torture has paid off! :) see ya soon!

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  6. weakness as our strength.... humbling and illuminating. I read your piece and went away to chew on it a bit.... some of my convoluted thoughts....

    When we see it or feel it from others...when they inadvertently OR purposefully push that trigger in us we learn new things about ourselves dont we? I'm thinking of the feeling of rejection. If one has experienced rejection over and over to a point where one considers it a weak point, we can either allow the pain of it to keep us with our "feet planted underground" or we can see it is something we need to nurture. THEN, the more aware we become of this little trigger button, the more attuned we are of choosing to see the reaction in others and to possibly make the decision that acceptance rather than rejection is the approach we put out there for others.

    I really like the lyrics of this song and will check out his website. Very moving.... he performed at Greenbelt? I hope to attend this summer....working on it.

    Good luck to you as you move forward.

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  7. that's not convoluted at all. in fact that's one the best descriptions i've read yet of that inner-dynamic.
    thank you for chewing on it and bringing that back. i'm grateful for it.

    and yes, he performed at greenbelt08... it was a witness to a deep kind of integrity, both human and artistic. which i guess is really the same thing. or should be. it was a gift of a gig.

    LB

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