song: A Line Runs Through

+ how to look at an ugly world

i’m out of the country this week, but as i’ll be headed home on Saturday it seemed right to share this song with you:

this one is a straight-shooter, but it holds something in song that i need to hear and to be reminded of, when the bleakness of the world seems to be crowding out everything else…

LYRICS

well, it’s all done now
I’m headed home
and when I see you again
we’ll both be grown
into the things we long to be
and if not all the way, then partially

I have a rock I stole from the river
it’s black and lumpy
but there’s a sliver of white across it—
a perfect line
I try to hold that image in my mind

when I look out across the world
and see the broken mess my little girls
will inherit
yeah, it could be scary
but a line runs through it
and it helps me bear it

I try to listen when it gets quiet
try not to struggle against
that empty silence
sometimes it’s awkward
but if I’m patient
a song comes to me,
head low tail wagging

but other times it’s just myself
try hard to listen
for that voice of help, out of the quiet—a perfect line
a word of comfort
that helps me change my mind  

[i don’t know if i can get a picture of that rock before this is posted, but if i can it’ll be right here… here’s the day i found it anyway…]

i’ve heard kinder and wiser people than myself say to “look for the gold” in others. what a generous thing to say. charitable. magnanimous even. i want to be magnanimous. does a magnanimous person see the bad and call out the bad? heavens no!

i wonder—how many times i have been moved to challenge or call out someone’s negative attributes… out of love?

(i would guess it to be a low number.)

but regardless—how can i become more charitable and magnanimous in the way i see others, and in my words and actions?

probably practice.

sometimes i wonder if i am too critical of myself. and that maybe if i practice that kindness towards myself, i could offer the same to others.

i do know that at some point years ago in my journey, that the words “we love, because he first loved us” really hit home.

perhaps before i can be magnanimous, it might be helpful to have my heart rooted in a deeper love. to accept an invitation to receive a greater love than i can muster. to know myself to be the object of the love of God.

i don’t know what all that means for the destiny of my river rock. i just know that little stone is a reminder that slips me into this stream of thinking. a reminder i am sorely in need of. a means of extending grace towards a dark and lumpy world, and towards my dark and lumpy self.

sorry if this is your first exposure to the word “lumpy” in a song. but might i suggest this song? [insert link to “Lump” by the Presidents of the United States of America]

well that was pure stream of consciousness. i hope you enjoy the song.

Q: are there any thoughts, quotes or reminders that help you be kind to others, to your view of the world, or to yourself? i’ll share one of mine in the comments.

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thanks for being here. I write weekly sharing poetry, songs, musings, thoughts on creative life, and hopefully some encouragement… my first collection of poetry, Snowmelt to Roots, is available here at my shop, (or on Amazon—leave a review!). and my music is available here.

peace,

Z