This a time of year that I rarely sleep well. It's as if the length of night leaves me without clear enough parameters as to know when to sleep.
Thursday morning, around 2:00 AM I gave up and put on an interview with Carrie Newcomer to listen to. About half way through, still listening, but not quite attentive, a few words caught my attention "Geography of light," and "lean into the light." Going back later to look closer I found:
"It's all shadow and light. You know, there's a lot of sorrows in this world. And, maybe that's part of how I negotiate that. I think when you're sensitive to the sorrows of this world and you've experienced shadows in your own life that you can do different things with it. You can despair. You can shut down or you kind of lean into the light. Without denying or placing in a compartment or making small this idea of shadow, it's just there. It's life. It's all of it. It's all of the above." Carrie Newcomer
And this song, "Bare to the Bone," (lyrics are typed out at the link) which is just beautiful...
And a little bit more of the interview...
But something happens, the room shifts when people sing together. And they sing out loud things, words and phrases, that touch something deep and human and hopeful.
And I wanted to write a song that talked about hope, but not in a greeting card kind of way. You know, there's the kind of hope that's like wishful thinking. And then there's like a hope that's kind of gritty. It's like, the kind of hope that gets up every morning and chooses to try to make the world just a little kinder place in your own way.
Going back to listen again. How wonderful that we can do that.
Feild notes: Rain hard enough to hear it striking the chimney (flood watch again), wind 21-29 MPH SSE. Sunrise: 8:00 Sunset 4:15.