24 February 2009

life calling

LET SOMETHING ESSENTIAL HAPPEN TO ME
=======================================
O God,
Let something essential happen to me,
something more than interesting
or entertaining,
or thoughtful.


O God,
Let something essential happen to me,
something awesome,
something real.
Speak to my condition Lord,
and change me somewhere inside where it matters,
a change that will burn and tremble and heal
and explode me into tears
or laughter
or love that throbs or screams
or keeps a terrible, cleansing silence
and dares the dangerous deeds...


Let something happen in me
which is my real self.
O God,
let something essential and passionate happen in me now.
Strip me of my illusions of self-sufficiency,
of my proud sophistications,
of my inflated assumptions of knowledge
and leave me shivering as Adam or Eve before the miracle of the natural -
the miracle of this earth
that nurtures me as a mother
and delights me as a lover;

the miracle of my body
that breathes and moves,
hungers and digests,
sees and hears,
that is creased and wrinkled and sexual,
shrinks in hurt,

and swells in pleasure;
that works by the most amazing messages
of what and when and how,
coded and curled in every
cell and that dares to speak the confronting
word.
O God,
Let something essential and joyful happen in me now.

Something like the blooming of hope and faith,
like a grateful heart,
like a surge of awareness
of how precious each moment is,
that now, not next time,
now is the occasion
to take off my shoes,
to see every bush fire,
to leap and whirl with neighbour,
to gulp the air as sweet as
wine
until I've drunk enough
to dare to speak the tender word:

"Thank you"
"I love you"
"You're beautiful";
"Let's live forever beginning now";
and "I'm a fool for Christ's
sake."


- Ted Loder

23 February 2009

as it is, as they are

i enjoy listening to mandarin songs even though my grades in the same language were nothing to be proud of. over these years, many songs have remained with me. they come back when i least expect it...on a long ride home, in the pool, reading at night, the rare day in a ktv pub... the quiet road tracing a journey's end.
half the time i do not always capture the full meaning of their lyrics. in my simplicity or rudimentary understanding (and sometimes with the patience and help of great bilingual friends), i receive a glimpse into the beauty of this language...i am no linguist but i feel some of these chinese songs capture & express a range of human experiences that find no equivalent to the types you hear in english songs (maybe except those sung in the 80s...then again, i am obviously biased). the phrasings and poetic nuances in some pieces express a depth that english cannot penetrate, let alone translate.
it's best to receive them as they are. again, i don't always understand what is written but it's sufficient to note i feel a tacit grasp for what they wanted to say...there's a story to this one. never has the theme of change been sung with so much loss, anger and anguish.




this piece is by kit chan. i heard her live, once in nus. the sound system went off but still she soared, her voice lifting the day. we came close to heaven.

22 February 2009

crossing

2000
Lord, it takes awhile to chart the distance crossed,
rediscovering
the first affections that anchored hearts to place.

2004
it mattered to you that i claim
my will to live
in all the choices
that life offered
2006

i do not know if sometimes the emptiness may be loved,

but there lies a treasure

hidden
on foreign field

2009

no one knows what may happen
in the next crossing.
i will do what a child does
knowing
you command a tree over man
give grace and shelter,
believing
your happiness protects us
now, this day
and
always

adapted:

writings & poems of paulo coelho and yehuda amichai



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