Talking 37th Dream With Rainbow (rumors of peace)

OBOE BEFORE DAWN

2009-11-23T07:00:00.000-08:00

Listen.

Lyrics.

I'm trying to love my neighbor and do good unto others
But oh, mother, things ain't going well

(Bob Dylan, lyrics from "Ain't Talkin'")

OBOE LOOKING OUTSIDE AT THE TRAIL

2009-11-22T17:31:00.000-08:00

solvitur ambulando (it is solved by walking)

-- St. Augustine

AS THE CRESCENT MOON WAXES / NASRUDDIN MEETS THE CHRISTMAS IN THE HEART SUTRA , TALES OF THE HASIDIM, KEN KESEY, AND BOB DYLAN PLAYING GEORGE BURNS

2009-11-21T07:31:00.000-08:00

I keep thinking about the anonymous young man who jumps out the window and runs off into the night at the end of Bob Dylan's "Must Be Santa" video, directed by Nash Edgerton.

If you've not seen Bob Dylan's horrifying "Beyond Here Lies Nothing" video, also directed by Nash Edgerton, I don't recommend it. I repeat. I don't recommend it.

However, it did give me a terrifying and sobering and ultimately cathartic and healing glimpse into a scene that could have been from my life in 1971 after Richard returned from Vietnam. What was so distressing to me in the first moments of the "Beyond Here Lies Nothing" video was that I had loved the song "Beyond Here Lies Nothing" until then. Hearing what I thought of as a sweet love song as the soundtrack to scenes of domestic violence broke my broken heart but also freed me from years of denial of what had happened to me and to Richard.

It is in that discordant light that I see and hear and feel "Must Be Santa."

When I woke up this morning, it occured to me that "Must Be Santa" could have had Bob Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower" for its soundtrack:

"No reason to get excited," the thief, he kindly spoke
"There are many here among us who feel that life is but a joke
But you and I, we've been through that, and this is not our fate
So let us not talk falsely now, the hour is getting late."

What starts out as a silly joking video is shattered for me by the fleeting image of an anonymous man lying outside on the steps of the large white house and then the image of another anonymous young man being chased down the stairs, throwing glasses, keeping people at a distance with a fireplace tool, swinging from the chandelier and jumping out the window. The man jumping through the window and running made me think of the final scene in the movie "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest."

Bob Dylan may be playing Santa Claus and George Burns in "Must Be Santa," but I wonder if the young man who dives out into the night is playing the role of Bob Dylan.

"Human beings are alone with their secrets. Masked and Anonymous. No one truly knows them."

(from the words of Val Kilmer's character in Bob Dylan's film "Masked and Anonymous")

SNOW IN THE FOOTHILLS / MEDITATION

2009-11-18T11:37:00.000-08:00

From:

the "Who laughs this way: Ho Ho Ho" koan on:

Must Be Santa

to the "O Little Town of Bethlehem" koan:

How silently, oh how silently,
The wondrous gift is given!
So God imparts to human hearts
The blessings of his heaven.
No ear may hear his coming,
But in this world of sin,
Where meek souls will receive him, still
The dear Christ enters in.

(Bob sings "Amen" after this, the last song on the CD)

It's all there on "Christmas in the Heart."

"The mind creates the abyss, and the heart crosses it."
(Sri Nisargadatta)

UNIVERSE AT PLAY INSIDE YOUR DNA / YOU'RE A BILLION YEARS OLD TODAY

2009-11-15T14:49:00.000-08:00

Listen.

Red duck
luck
where's my paint

AFTER THE THUNDERSTORM

2009-11-14T19:14:00.000-08:00

“Our religion keeps reminding us that we aren't just will and thoughts. We're also sand and wind and thunder. Rain. The seasons. All those things. You learn to respect everything because you are everything. If you respect yourself, you respect all things.”

(William Least Heat Moon)

MORNING WALK / SOUTH BAY TRAIL

2009-11-12T14:58:00.000-08:00

Listen.

VETERANS DAY 2009

2009-11-11T06:59:00.000-08:00

May all veterans of war find peace today and always.

THAT LUCKY OLD SUN

2009-11-06T16:11:00.000-08:00

Listen.

LOOKING NORTH / LISTENING

2009-11-04T12:34:00.000-08:00

Listen.

AND THAT'S THE WAY IT IS / SUNRISE

2009-11-02T09:14:00.000-08:00

Listen

More often than not, ever since I was 14 years old, Bob Dylan's music has affected me in the way it affected Kyle Theiss. Bob Dylan's music brought me back to life again and again. It's good medicine.

"So bitter and so sweet."
(Joni Mitchell)

CLOUD ILLUSIONS / CELTIC NEW YEAR

2009-11-01T07:54:00.001-08:00

See post by Solitary Walker for more about the Celtic New Year and "endless renewal and other things."

Listen.

As she said, "Life is for learning."

New Year!
The sun rose above those clouds today!
New Morning!

SHELTER FROM THE STORM

2009-10-30T06:25:00.001-07:00

As I was thinking about having heard my nephew sing "Woodstock" in an "American Rock" performance in Seattle last Sunday, these later lyrics by Joni Mitchell came to me.

"All we ever wanted was just to come in from the cold."

"THE VOICE OF MAHALIA JACKSON CAME THROUGH THE ETHER" (VAN MORRISON)

2009-10-27T14:30:00.001-07:00

Sometime between 1954 and 1956, which was the year that I turned 7 years old, I was playing quietly in the living room of my family's rented home in Taft, California. The television was on, but I wasn't paying attention to it until I heard a powerful voice that moved my young heart and soul. I looked up, and there was Mahalia Jackson on the small black-and-white screen. Unforgettable.

"It is easy to be independent when you've got money. But to be independent when you haven't got a thing -- that's the Lord's test."
(Mahalia Jackson)

"I DON'T KNOW WHO I AM, BUT LIFE IS FOR LEARNING" / LEE BARRIENTOS

2009-10-26T12:19:00.000-07:00

Yesterday afternoon I drove to Seattle to hear my 16-year-old (almost 17-year-old) nephew sing in a Vocalpoint! Seattle performance at the Broadway Performance Hall at Broadway and Pine. Imagine how moving it was to hear him sing "Woodstock" with the Crosby, Stills, Nash, Young, Taylor, Reeves musical accompaniment, with three other young men doing back-up vocals. My nephew's voice is strong and expressive. In another song I didn't recognize, he sang solo while everyone else from Vocalpoint! Seattle danced behind him. I understand that there will be a DVD of the performance. Maybe it will show up on YouTube!

EIST / LISTEN

2009-10-24T07:42:00.001-07:00

Brian Bowers sings this song on his CD titled "Bristlecone Pine." He refers to John Spillane in the liner notes. Keep listening until John Spillane sings (1:20).

42 years: a book of changes

2009-10-23T06:55:00.000-07:00

About a month ago, I had a limited edition of 25 copies of my book of art and poetry printed up. A few days ago, Bellingham's independent bookstore, Village Books, took three of my books on consignment, with a retail price of $31.00 per copy. I will not be making a profit on this limited edition but do want to make it available for those who are interested. For those readers who would like to purchase a copy and who live in the United States or Canada, try calling Village Books at 1-800-392-BOOK and asking for:

42 years: a book of changes
(by Amanda Wald Rachie)

If that doesn't work, email me at:

ellamuir@msn.com

For those who don't live in the United States or Canada, email me if you'd like to buy a copy.

OBAMA, CAN THIS REALLY BE THE END?

2009-10-22T06:50:00.000-07:00

"... We are at the end of the beginning, the hard work starts now ..."
(from President Obama's speech on October 20, 2009)

"An' here I sit so patiently
Waiting to find out what price
You have to pay to get out of
Going through all these things twice

Oh, Mama, can this really be the end
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again"

(Bob Dylan)

*

"What science finds to be nonexistent, we must accept as nonexistent, but what science merely does not find is a completely different matter.

... It is quite clear that there are many, many, mysterious things."

(Dalai Lama)

*

"Om, Mama, can this really be the end?"
(Margaret Hibbing aka Oboe)

"CHRISTMAS IN THE HEART" / "YOU LOSE YOURSELF, YOU REAPPEAR"

2009-10-19T11:47:00.000-07:00

Watch and listen to this song from 1965 by Bob Dylan, as he sung it about a year ago. The lyrics are here.

Bob Dylan's recently released "Christmas in the Heart" CD opens with "Here Comes Santa Claus" and closes with these words from "O Little Town of Bethlehem":

How silently, how silently
The wondrous gift is given!
So God imparts to human hearts
The blessings of His heaven.
No ear may hear His coming,
But in this world of sin,
Where meek souls will receive him still,
The dear Christ enters in.

Reinhold Niebuhr said, "Humor is a prelude to faith and
Laughter is the beginning of prayer."

I laughed when I heard Bob Dylan singing "Here Comes Santa Claus" and laughed at various places throughout the CD. He is funny, and he knows it. He is also apparently a man of unconventional faith. The CD alternates between popular Christmas songs (many of which I have never liked, even in childhood, because they depressed me -- I still can smell alcohol on their breath and they make me wary of adults) and traditional Christmas hymms and ends with Bob Dylan singing a solemn "Amen," as is done at the end of prayers in Jewish, Christian and Islamic tradition.

Although I was raised as a Christian, I began to question what I had been taught at church at about the time I first heard Bob Dylan -- when I was 14 years old. I knew then that I wasn't alone with my questions. I am not a member of any organized religious or spiritual community, but I am still not alone with my questions either. As a woman of unconventional faith, I've got to say that I like Bob Dylan's Christmas CD. It's got heart, levity and gravity. It's not a sermon. He's not preaching. It's not that far from "It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)," a song he continues to sing in concert:

"It's easy to see without looking too far
That not much is really sacred"
(Bob Dylan, 1965)

He didn't say that nothing is sacred.

And you've got to hear him sing at the speed of light in "Must Be Santa":

Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen
Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon
Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen
Carter, Reagan, Bush and Clinton

(Scroll down to my "Feeding America Christmas in the Heart" post and click on the triangle next to "Must be Santa" in the donation widget)

To my ears, "Christmas in the Heart" is a meditation on the oneness of the absurd and the sacred, which ends enigmatically in the manner of a prayer.

I RECOMMEND THIS BOOK

2009-10-19T09:27:00.000-07:00

"You can only go halfway into the darkest forest; then you're coming out on the other side."

-- Chinese proverb

(from Trauma Stewardship: An Everyday Guide to Caring for Self While Caring for Others)

Click here to learn more about a book well worth reading.

BLACK ELK SAW A FLAMING RAINBOW

2009-10-18T04:39:00.000-07:00

From Black Elk Speaks:

Then they all stopped short, rearing, and were standing in a great hoop about their black chief at the center, and were still. And as they stood, four virgins, more beautiful than women of the earth can be, came through the circle, dressed in scarlet, one from each of the four quarters, and stood about the great black stallion in their places; and one held the wooden cup of water, and one the white wing, and one the pipe, and one the nation's hoop. All the universe was silent, listening; and then the great black stallion raised his voice and sang. The song he sang was this:

My horses, prancing they are coming.

My horses, neighing they are coming;

Prancing. they are coming.

All over the universe they come.

They will dance; may you behold them.

(4 times)

A horse nation, they will dance.

May you behold them. (4 times)

His voice was not loud, but it went all over the universe and filled it. There was nothing that did not hear, and it was more beautiful than anything can be. It was so beautiful that nothing anywhere could keep from dancing. The virgins danced, and all the circled horses. The leaves on the trees, the grasses on the hills and in the valleys, the water in the creeks and in the rivers and the lakes, the four-legged and the two-legged and the wings of the air--all danced together to the music of the stallion's song.

And when I looked down upon my people yonder, the cloud passed over, blessing them with friendly rain, and stood in the east with a flaming rainbow over it.

(Many thanks to the art farmer, who left me a phone message saying, "Look outside at the rainbow!")

Feeding America "Christmas In the Heart"

2009-10-18T04:33:00.001-07:00

Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen
Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon
Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen
Carter, Reagan, Bush and Clinton

(From "Must Be Santa" -- new lyrics by Bob Dylan)

Click on "Must Be Santa" in the image above to hear the entire song

Then click on this quote:

"The SILENT NIGHT will shatter from the sounds inside my mind" -- Bob Dylan.

WELCOMED BY LIGHT

2009-10-14T20:05:00.000-07:00

Click on image to enlarge for full effect of light.

IN THE BEGINNING, LONG TIME AGO

2009-10-10T18:04:00.000-07:00

Listen.

Update: The "Listen" link above was changed today due to copyright restrictions that weren't in place when I linked it yesterday.

LATE AFTERNOON WALK BY WHATCOM CREEK

2009-10-08T18:02:00.000-07:00

Listen.