And it's another Sunday; they do come around, like some of those questions, like so many memories. Truth is, I've had any number of worst days, yet I've also had myriad best ones! Yesterday I was able to walk on land held by my 10th great-grandfather for the first time. His descendants moved on. He was said to be a restless man, yet he lived on that place for the rest of his life. And I've never lived anywhere for even ten years! Now in my 70s, I do hope to settle down. And yes, I certainly have left places I have loved. What a joy it is to still love those places, so many places, so many beautiful places.
I love that song, and from the first time I heard it I have been asking myself if I’ve made peace with my worst day, almost 10 years ago when I lost my precious father, making the medical decisions- it was what he would have wanted, he wrote his dissertation on medical ethics for God’s sake! Remembering his bad jokes, singing his favorite song, Mary Don’t you weep don’t you Mourn, getting his Picture with my old dog in Carrie’s video, I felt his strong presence at my daughter’s wedding last week. I think I’ve made peace. Great question!
"did you love a place and have to leave?" Despite all odds I love Iowa or at least the place I am in near Des Moines. There are hills to climb, rivers and creeks, woods and prairie. Most importantly, I love "my people". In just a short time, I have grown friendships deep and real. I will shed a tear when the moving truck leaves. I will cry as I get on the highway to head West old woman. I will note the 'welcome to..." signs. I will look forward to starting again. It is what I do it is who I am.
Did you walk before you crawled? No, but I crawled after I walked, quite a bit. I think for a while there I preferred it as a mode of transportation. It was easier to sneak around and crawl under furniture. Also, I climbed furniture, chairs, cabinets, tables, whatever. (I was two and three years old.) My mother and grandmother would be talking at the kitchen table. Suddenly, they'd hear a Boom come from the living room. Flustered, my grandmother would ask, "What was that?" My mother would reply, "Oh, that's just Michael falling off the furniture." But failure didn't deter me. I was determined to keep climbing. Of course, finally I outgrew the impulse, at least with furniture.
I absolutely love this song Carrie. One of my favourites on your new album. I love the idea of questions that leave us with our thoughts. I could answer several of them.
Are there things you feel, but you still don't know how to say?
I wrestle with depression and it’s hard to explain how you feel to someone who has never experienced mental health. I find it difficult to talk about it as I think why bother, they just won’t understand.
Did you lose a lover or friend?
Yes. I lost the one I love the most, my mom a year ago and two months after my mom passed I unexpectedly lost my best friend in the whole world. We were childhood friends and cancer took her very quickly from this world.
Was it not what you planned,
But right where you needed to be?
I don’t think anyone plans to be a caregiver for a loved one but for me it was right where I needed to be. It was very difficult but I cherished every moment of it.
Are there things that you don’t do anymore?
The older I get I look back to the things I could do when I was young but now can’t do, health changed a lot of things. I was very active in sports, baseball, ringette( a sport for girls similar to hockey), cross country running, and cross country skiing. How life has changed. I lived my sporting days through my daughter but now she’s grown and taking different paths in her life.
Thank you Carrie for this wonderful song. I love being able to listen to it over and over and being able to reflect over and over as well. Bless you, you are amazing.
My answer to one of the questions…”did you walk before you crawled?” I actually did pull myself up and began walking at six months. I never crawl as a baby. My mother always told me it was significant, and I didn’t realize what it meant until I had a friend who was the mother of a six month walker. It’s kind of tough because a little one that age doesn’t yet understand things like “don’t touch that it’s hot.” So all you can do is pretty much follow them around for several months until they do :-). There is the reality, but also the metaphor. There have been times when I’ve gotten impatient with my own growth. I want to walk before I crawl, get to the end of the book before I’ve read the middle part. And there is so much life and living and important “being” that happens on the way.
As someone who has their first glimpse of my spouse on a train platform,and we will celebrate 22 years married (VT civil union) this week, the questions make me smile inside
Ive been traveling and performing today, so I’m circling back with these questions and oh my, such thoughtful rich reflections my friends. I so appreciate which line from the full song folks are choosing, and the beautiful way you are all holding the space here. You inspire me!
I’m loving reading the comments. They’re so rich. I feel like we all have the same spirit-a simple living and awareness of relationships and beautiful natural places. I had 2 lines that spoke to me:”questions that come before dark at the end of the day” and “Did you ever love a place that you still had to leave?” At night I have to remind myself that it’s night and my questioning is not a reality, but a time of day. Leaving a place I love happens frequently for me-always places of natural beauty, my “sanctuary”. Most recently the Smokies, a place that continually fills my soul. Thank you Carrie and All of you for speaking from your soul.
Yes...there are things that I feel but still don't know how to say....particularly when I see/feel my friend grieving for the loss(death) of their loved one. Happens every time at a memorial service. Partner visably shaken, looking so vulnerable. A hug or a statement of sorrow isn't enough to convey the compassion, love, or desire to help them in this moment. Truth is they/we are vulnerable but I still want to put a cloak of love around them to protect them just a little.
A beautiful song, thoughtful questions. I'd like to elaborate on this one:
"Did make it through, but it was such a close call?"
Haven't you (you - anyone from the community of readers) ever wondered, that waking up in the morning is not granted, that it is a miracle, a "close call" that happens daily, for decades, until, one day, it will not?
***
Have you thanked that you are alive?
That a bomb didn't destroy your home?
That your children are healthy and safe?
For your work which keeps you sustained?
For food, water, warmth and light?
Do you feel all this is a gift, not a right?
***
Today I've read in "The Guardian" about Palestinian children so scared of incoming jets and falling bombs, that they were saying: "Let them just kill us for this to end." Can you imagine a child, an epitome of liveliness, saying this ?!
So many questions and so many to ponder. Three I have . Lost a friend or lover. At 90 in May, I lost lost more than I have wanted to die.
left Green Valley , Az. A place were I lived for 17 years. Some of the most meaningful years of my adult years. I no longer could do the volunteer work with migrants and etc. I met you at the Good Shepherd Church with Parker. You two have so enriched my life. I would walk in the park near my home .listening to the monthly podcast.I can’t wander in the desert any more.
Nor I can’t do all I use to do, yet my life here in TX is another fruitful journey. I live with my son, and all my family live in TX. So as they say “Life is what you make of it.” With the said I am loving this journey also. I am in May 90 YOUNG
When I first heard this song in Carrie's concert in Bloomington a year ago or so, the question that just got me was the "Have you ever loved a place you still had to leave?" and it connected me to a previous job that I loved so much of it but there was also so much that was toxic and unhealthy. But a year or so later, the question that spoke to me was the "are there things you feel but still don't know how to say?" I remembered a mentor of mine giving me a book years ago called "Feelings: What Are They?" An an enneagram 5 I so often struggle with understanding what it is that I am feeling and then expressing what is there. So yeah, there's a lot of feelings but I often have no idea what to do with them or how to share them (my poor wife having to deal with me on this)
And it's another Sunday; they do come around, like some of those questions, like so many memories. Truth is, I've had any number of worst days, yet I've also had myriad best ones! Yesterday I was able to walk on land held by my 10th great-grandfather for the first time. His descendants moved on. He was said to be a restless man, yet he lived on that place for the rest of his life. And I've never lived anywhere for even ten years! Now in my 70s, I do hope to settle down. And yes, I certainly have left places I have loved. What a joy it is to still love those places, so many places, so many beautiful places.
I love that song, and from the first time I heard it I have been asking myself if I’ve made peace with my worst day, almost 10 years ago when I lost my precious father, making the medical decisions- it was what he would have wanted, he wrote his dissertation on medical ethics for God’s sake! Remembering his bad jokes, singing his favorite song, Mary Don’t you weep don’t you Mourn, getting his Picture with my old dog in Carrie’s video, I felt his strong presence at my daughter’s wedding last week. I think I’ve made peace. Great question!
"did you love a place and have to leave?" Despite all odds I love Iowa or at least the place I am in near Des Moines. There are hills to climb, rivers and creeks, woods and prairie. Most importantly, I love "my people". In just a short time, I have grown friendships deep and real. I will shed a tear when the moving truck leaves. I will cry as I get on the highway to head West old woman. I will note the 'welcome to..." signs. I will look forward to starting again. It is what I do it is who I am.
You have a very beautiful and unique perspective in your lyrical subject matter.
I am always looking for ways to widen my own kinds of lyrical content.
Thank you,
Be well
Do you put honey in your tea?
My haiku offering:
honey in your tea?
that gooey, sticky, sweet stuff?
absolutely, please!
Did you walk before you crawled? No, but I crawled after I walked, quite a bit. I think for a while there I preferred it as a mode of transportation. It was easier to sneak around and crawl under furniture. Also, I climbed furniture, chairs, cabinets, tables, whatever. (I was two and three years old.) My mother and grandmother would be talking at the kitchen table. Suddenly, they'd hear a Boom come from the living room. Flustered, my grandmother would ask, "What was that?" My mother would reply, "Oh, that's just Michael falling off the furniture." But failure didn't deter me. I was determined to keep climbing. Of course, finally I outgrew the impulse, at least with furniture.
I absolutely love this song Carrie. One of my favourites on your new album. I love the idea of questions that leave us with our thoughts. I could answer several of them.
Are there things you feel, but you still don't know how to say?
I wrestle with depression and it’s hard to explain how you feel to someone who has never experienced mental health. I find it difficult to talk about it as I think why bother, they just won’t understand.
Did you lose a lover or friend?
Yes. I lost the one I love the most, my mom a year ago and two months after my mom passed I unexpectedly lost my best friend in the whole world. We were childhood friends and cancer took her very quickly from this world.
Was it not what you planned,
But right where you needed to be?
I don’t think anyone plans to be a caregiver for a loved one but for me it was right where I needed to be. It was very difficult but I cherished every moment of it.
Are there things that you don’t do anymore?
The older I get I look back to the things I could do when I was young but now can’t do, health changed a lot of things. I was very active in sports, baseball, ringette( a sport for girls similar to hockey), cross country running, and cross country skiing. How life has changed. I lived my sporting days through my daughter but now she’s grown and taking different paths in her life.
Thank you Carrie for this wonderful song. I love being able to listen to it over and over and being able to reflect over and over as well. Bless you, you are amazing.
Thank you again for your deeply kind and caring thoughts. They are so helpful right now 💞
My answer to one of the questions…”did you walk before you crawled?” I actually did pull myself up and began walking at six months. I never crawl as a baby. My mother always told me it was significant, and I didn’t realize what it meant until I had a friend who was the mother of a six month walker. It’s kind of tough because a little one that age doesn’t yet understand things like “don’t touch that it’s hot.” So all you can do is pretty much follow them around for several months until they do :-). There is the reality, but also the metaphor. There have been times when I’ve gotten impatient with my own growth. I want to walk before I crawl, get to the end of the book before I’ve read the middle part. And there is so much life and living and important “being” that happens on the way.
As someone who has their first glimpse of my spouse on a train platform,and we will celebrate 22 years married (VT civil union) this week, the questions make me smile inside
And that picture is gorgeous
Ive been traveling and performing today, so I’m circling back with these questions and oh my, such thoughtful rich reflections my friends. I so appreciate which line from the full song folks are choosing, and the beautiful way you are all holding the space here. You inspire me!
I’m loving reading the comments. They’re so rich. I feel like we all have the same spirit-a simple living and awareness of relationships and beautiful natural places. I had 2 lines that spoke to me:”questions that come before dark at the end of the day” and “Did you ever love a place that you still had to leave?” At night I have to remind myself that it’s night and my questioning is not a reality, but a time of day. Leaving a place I love happens frequently for me-always places of natural beauty, my “sanctuary”. Most recently the Smokies, a place that continually fills my soul. Thank you Carrie and All of you for speaking from your soul.
Yes...there are things that I feel but still don't know how to say....particularly when I see/feel my friend grieving for the loss(death) of their loved one. Happens every time at a memorial service. Partner visably shaken, looking so vulnerable. A hug or a statement of sorrow isn't enough to convey the compassion, love, or desire to help them in this moment. Truth is they/we are vulnerable but I still want to put a cloak of love around them to protect them just a little.
A beautiful song, thoughtful questions. I'd like to elaborate on this one:
"Did make it through, but it was such a close call?"
Haven't you (you - anyone from the community of readers) ever wondered, that waking up in the morning is not granted, that it is a miracle, a "close call" that happens daily, for decades, until, one day, it will not?
***
Have you thanked that you are alive?
That a bomb didn't destroy your home?
That your children are healthy and safe?
For your work which keeps you sustained?
For food, water, warmth and light?
Do you feel all this is a gift, not a right?
***
Today I've read in "The Guardian" about Palestinian children so scared of incoming jets and falling bombs, that they were saying: "Let them just kill us for this to end." Can you imagine a child, an epitome of liveliness, saying this ?!
Have we lost our way?
Beyond a point of return?
So many questions and so many to ponder. Three I have . Lost a friend or lover. At 90 in May, I lost lost more than I have wanted to die.
left Green Valley , Az. A place were I lived for 17 years. Some of the most meaningful years of my adult years. I no longer could do the volunteer work with migrants and etc. I met you at the Good Shepherd Church with Parker. You two have so enriched my life. I would walk in the park near my home .listening to the monthly podcast.I can’t wander in the desert any more.
Nor I can’t do all I use to do, yet my life here in TX is another fruitful journey. I live with my son, and all my family live in TX. So as they say “Life is what you make of it.” With the said I am loving this journey also. I am in May 90 YOUNG
When I first heard this song in Carrie's concert in Bloomington a year ago or so, the question that just got me was the "Have you ever loved a place you still had to leave?" and it connected me to a previous job that I loved so much of it but there was also so much that was toxic and unhealthy. But a year or so later, the question that spoke to me was the "are there things you feel but still don't know how to say?" I remembered a mentor of mine giving me a book years ago called "Feelings: What Are They?" An an enneagram 5 I so often struggle with understanding what it is that I am feeling and then expressing what is there. So yeah, there's a lot of feelings but I often have no idea what to do with them or how to share them (my poor wife having to deal with me on this)