How to: Saturday Coffee Thoughts on HeALING with Music!

Saturday Morning

You gonna need more than ONE CUP today~

"This Was One of The Many Photos Considered"

for the cover of Healing Heartaches

With thoughts of spring, Healing, Hope, those of you the readers, those of loved ones, and that of springing forward ~ it comes to mind, all the many and wonderful things and doings, and the power in music.
Art shows, The Citrus Festival in Palm Harbor, The Strawberry Festival in Plant City; Tarpon Springs Art and Crafts Festival; times on the water, the music on the beaches, looking for miracles, looking for new growth in plants and trees, in ourselves in others…. Friends Sandy and Stewart have azaeleas blooming now even weathering this cold with their promise of spring in lavender ~



Remembering, savoring, loving and living each day to its fullest. I've spent so much time with dear friends. Enjoying the aroma and the taste of mornings coffee with reflection and mindfulness as the morning says, "here I am" ~ I am grateful.




OK… Quiz time:


Who nurtured my soul so very often on Lake Tarpon many a time?

What is one sentence that brought you hope in reading Healing Heartaches?

Can you believe that a book club in Asheville NC would not want to read Healing Heartaches because of thinking it depressing or better yet because they only read books on the bestsellers list?

♥  ♥  ♥  ♥  ♥  ♥

There are times when you need to relax; times to just “sit with it” to “be" at one and times to play, to enjoy life in its entire splendor!

And then are times to take action; to be pro-active; times to do battle and/or to rally your support for and around others.


Today is that time: today one of our community is headed on a plane to New York, ready to see family and prepared to meet her new Oncologist and to find out about her newly diagnosed Breast Cancer and the treatment plan; the options and her course of action. Today is the day for all of us to wrap our arms around Chris, to send healing energy to her and once again send her our thoughts on the winds headed to New York to meet her there as she steps off that plane… Thoughts that will nurture and hold her and bolster her fighting spirit as she faces the challenges ahead. So to you Chris I say, Go to New York with your warpaint on, rest assured that you are in the arms of some powerful angels from all over the world, all in and around the Universe... We are with you, loving and supporting you each step of the journey... We too have our warpaint on and we are ready... we are here... Rumor has it you have the new generation "Bearly Bear" with ya! and you do know that Bearly Bear has some pretty tough little ones who will fight battles for "Bearly Bear" right? haha, rest assured dear one, you have some power with you today and all days on that you can look at Bearly Bear and know!

♪  ♥  ♫

Perhaps it’s time to send her a song! Maybe it’s time to sing for and with her; I’m singing Sara McLachlan’s “Arms of the Angels” this morning and I know she “will find comfort there” ~ {wow, I sound pretty good with this cold of mine, sort of a cross between Kermit the frog and Katherine Hepburn} heehe






I can remember sitting on a hot day with cherished friends out in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico, and on Lake Tarpon; the music loud, the laughter loud… the days long. Taking it all in, loving it all; watching and listening to a bluesy rendition as a friend sang, Jodi Messina’s “My Give A Damn’s broken” and then without warning she allowed those feelings to be washed away as she just stood up and took the plunge from the side of the boat!


Allowing the healing waters of the gulf to take it all away; the stress of the week, the heartaches of loss, grief, pain . . . and then emerging with a smile and a renewed sense of self, yep just like that!


Returning topside laughing, drying off a bit, only then to then join in with Martina McBride singing , “With her broken wing, man she carries her dream… and you ought to seeeee her fly”…. Oh “sweet memories” another great song indeed. And as one reader said yesterday, she just couldn't help but think of "Amazing Grace" as her face was wet from tears! But I think that perhaps there were others who had their "Eye on The Sparrow" oh that reminds me, was the name Sparrow ever used in the book Healing Heartaches, or was that another book?
Perhaps "Rolling Thunder" is the name of a song, but could it be the name of something famous, or maybe it is the name of something that we should all know about... hmmm, definately deeper than that which we hear and that which we know are the spirits drumming and the lightning beings playing ~






Some days are brilliant that way; healing heartaches one beat at a time; good friends, unconditional love and great music that speaks to the heart of the matter; music that gets right to where you live in your emotional, physical and spiritual self.

REady for a re-fill on your tea/coffee???

I am NOT done yet!

* ~ *

I also remember taking the family to SeaWorld a couple of years ago, saving the music for right when we approached the gate; then getting their attention and telling them I had a special gift for them! With the volume beyond what is most days tolerable, I turned on the CD to these words and music, “You’re Gonna Miss This, You’re gonna Want This Back ~ you’re gonna wish these Days hadn’t gone by so fast… These are some good times… so take a good look around, you may not know it now………… but you’re gonna miss this”! By the end of our time at SeaWorld the 8 and 15 year old were asking for it to play over and over! The whole family was singing along with the artist; we had it as ringtones, on answering machines; it became another family memory; another wonderful reality; yes, we will all miss this and we will want it back… Thanks to Trace Atkins for that one, it’s a keeper in my home!

Then, there’s Patti LaBelle singing “New Attitude I'm feelin' good from my head to my shoes / Know where I'm goin' and I know what to do / I tidied up my point of view / I got a new attitude”, is one that will get your body moving whether or not the rest of you wants to join in on any given day; and what a message to be certain, one that we all need from time to time!


Hearing an all time favorite like “You Are Always On My Mind” by Willie Nelson will make you know that you are never really alone, not really…. And while “maybe I didn’t love you quite as good as I should have, I just never took the time… you are always on my mind” is sometimes the most important thing when you get right down to it. And that we are only human!

But when Patti sings, “When You’ve Been Blessed, Feels Like Heaven; so pass it on, just pass it on ”, you know its real, you don’t question it; it comes from the heart ~


Speaking of Patti LaBelle, and I do so love me some Patti: If you haven’t seen her perform, you just haven’t seen and felt …. Well never mind... You just don't know what you don't know... wonder who said that? 


But, I can’t list the many many songs that Patti fills my heart and soul with, but I do think you will love her singing, “You Are My Friend”… Did I mention I once attended three nights of Patti LaBelle concerts … can you say “3 in a row nights in DC with Patti”, back stage and all! Patti will get right down to “matters of the heart” and she will put her soul out there when she performs for the whole world to see… and she is no stranger to grief/loss and heartaches. Blessings to you Sister Patti, “you are my friend”, which has a line that goes like this: “I’ve been lookin’ around and you were here all the time!” You see, sometimes it is in the talking it through my dear friends, through therapy, through time (and you my dear M. Graff; that, you realize when you are ready to receive the message: he was NOT alone when he died, Snickers was there with him, your precious adult child and who better to be there than our beloved four-legged who will greet us with such pure and unconditional love to escort Brandon to the other side) ~ Like Pattie LaBelle said in her song, “I’ve been lookin around and YOU were here all the time!!!” May you find peace now in the knowledge that he was NOT ALONE, know it in your heart, make it your truth...

A young woman in the book Healing Heartaches who I have come to know well and love much . . . I won't mention her name here, but if you read Healing Heartaches you will know her, she was not alone either; she was escorted, met quickly by her Grandmother. Grabbed quickly to be spared the horror, the pain and engulfed in her beloved Grandma's arms; a wonderful welcoming I am sure... NOT ALONE....  "Somewhere Over The Rainbow . . . " Reggae style is great, but boy oh boy, oughta see Ms. Patti sing that one, whew, it just fills my nuwati ~

Ah, but the music, remember the series of blogs written after I saw “This Is It”?


Michael Jackson is surely dancing in the lights of heaven with all those great musical genius’s we have loved and known…


When you look at the “Man/Woman In The Mirror” what are you seeing, look deep, look straight into the eyes; into the soul…


Listen to his brilliance in that song and the others that too are with messages to be found; forget about the tabloids, about the rumor mills and the ugliness; just listen to the music the intensity; the wonderment and the energy ~ ~ ~






Then there is always Faith Hill ~ sometimes after attending a death, or a very emotional support group I would find myself listening to her song, “Cry A Little” to volumes that make the windows in the car shake… it just went right to my core. Of course I had to change many of the words, but the music, and certain lines in that song just seemed right at the time. “Could you cry a little, for me, pretend that you feel a little more pain, I must .…”

Are you with me, do you get where I’m going with this?
Are you feelin' me here?  Keepin' it real, through the music, the messages, the healing ways ~  hope in healing ~

Music is a powerful healer through the ages, a powerful vessel for touching the nuwati ~ for getting right to it. I have used music in therapy, in groups and in life as a vessel to healing; I would often rather give the gift of music than silver or gold! Not as sure the recipient wouldn't’t rather receive the gold though! heehe



Someone recently asked that the flute be played for her as she was having some difficult days. I didn’t comment or reply to that request, choosing instead to “sit with it” for awhile. Now that I have done that, I will reply by saying this, “You don’t ask for someone to play for you until you really know that you can hear the music and until you really really know that you can dance… I can teach you the steps, but you must find your own ability to hear the music and find your own dance.”

Ah, but have you heard Dolly Parton and Whitney Houston sing, “I will Always Love You”? Now that is a song that will take you to your knees at times! Power in the music, power in the messages, power that you can harness and make your own… again choices we all have to make, all choosing the genre, the timing and the desire.

Then sweet Dolly gave us “Hard Candy Christmas” a song that I just love, one that I used to play on music night at every group I’ve ever facilitated… “I’ll be fine and dandy, lord it’s like a Hard Candy Christmas, I’m barely getting through tomorrow, but still I won’t let sorrow bring me way down”.


Now what else is left to say after that I ask you?


OK, more thoughts about this later… You just don’t get me started and expect that I can be short when it comes to this, as it is, I am having the dogs to unplug me now!  I had to just laugh and end with M.C. Hammer, "YOU Can't Touch This" as I think of the dogs taking my computer away and my thoughts of today as well!

I close these thoughts by saying; give a listen to “I hope you dance” by Lee Ann Womack and then you will know my truest hopes for each of you.


Continual prayers on the wind to Wilma Mankiller, Always chief of the Cherokee, friend of all peoples and a woman who has allowed little girls to dream large.

I wish you enough.



Walk In Beauty


DRSES


Healing Heartaches, Stories of Loss & Life
http://www.healingheartaches.com/