Sunday, April 19, 2020

Wildflowers (Tom Petty, cover by The Wailin' Jennys)

I first discovered Glennon Doyle (she dropped the Melton a few years ago) in January 2012, when I was doing research for a UU church service I was presenting, based on the theme of my singer-songwriter friend Nick Annis, whose new composition of You Can’t Be the Good Guy If You Do What the Bad Guys Do was my new favorite of his.  Inspired by Nick's musical conundrum, I contemplated exactly what "good guys" do, from ethical buying to considerate interactions to compassionate politics.  I read the story of Ferdinand, I quoted from Dar Williams' song Buzzer (based on the Stanley Milgram Experiment in the early ‘60’s), I mentioned The Paradoxical Commandments by Kent Keith (often falsely attributed to Mother Teresa), and I quoted Martin Niemöller's "When the Nazis came for the communists".

I then went on to say that I was turned on to the coolest blog by none other than Tracey, our former RE Director, and I quoted from the website:

“Although our meeting place is a Momastery (www.momastery.com), we’re no monks. We’re Monkees. And we’re too busy singing to put anybody down.  The Monkees are a group of women with nothing in common other than these beliefs:

1.    We Belong To Each Other
2.    We Can Do Hard Things
3.    Love Wins

We are Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, and atheists… but we are kin, so we are kind. Our goals are to be careful with each other… to pay attention and look closely and think hard and pray and feel and wake up and care and connect. So we can become braver and live bigger and truer on this Earth.”


At that point, I was hooked, read each new blog entry as soon as it posted, bought both of her books as soon as they were published, contributed to her Love Flash Mobs (up to a $25 maximum, raising millions of dollars), witnessed her Compassion Collective collaboration with Brené Brown, Cheryl Strayed, Elizabeth Gilbert, and Rob Bell, and even had the chance to see/hear her speak a few years ago.  She's been married and divorced, has three children by her former husband, and is now life-partnered with Abby Wambach, the soccer player.  Glennon continues to face life with humor, wisdom, and compassion, and I could not wait to buy her newest book, Untamed, pre-ordering it months ago through Barnes & Noble so I could get an autographed copy.

Well, even though we moved from our suburban home to our 55+ condo community almost two years ago, I never changed my address through B&N, so the book was sent there last month and then, through a crazy set of well-intentioned circumstances but ultimately life glitches, when I finally figured out why I hadn't received it yet, the book had been sent back.  Oh [three-second pause] well.  I could order another one via Amazon, right?  First world problems.

I was planning to blog about this today anyway, and mid-afternoon yesterday I received a text from my friend Michele, asking if I had the book and, if not, she'd be glad to send me her copy.  Wow.  Synchronicity strikes again, and I am beyond grateful, as well as amazed, that The Universe always seems to have my back.  Thanks, MW.  Can't wait to read it...  💖



SONG:  Wildflowers by Tom Petty (cover by The Wailin' Jennys)

BOOK:  Untamed by Glennon Doyle

POEM:  The Sea by David Whyte

The pull is so strong we will not believe
the drawing tide is meant for us,
I mean the gift, the sea,
the place where all the rivers meet.

Easy to forget,
how the great receiving depth
untamed by what we need
needs only what will flow its way.

Easy to feel so far away
and the body so old
it might not even stand the touch.

But what would that be like
feeling the tide rise
out of the numbness inside
toward the place to which we go
washing over our worries of money,
the illusion of being ahead,
the grief of being behind,
our limbs young
rising from such a depth?

What would that be like
even in this century
driving toward work with the others,
moving down the roads
among the thousands swimming upstream,
as if growing toward arrival,
feeling the currents of the great desire,
carrying time toward tomorrow?

Tomorrow seen today, for itself,
the sea where all the rivers meet, unbound,
unbroken for a thousand miles, the surface
of a great silence, the movement of a moment
left completely to itself, to find ourselves adrift,
safe in our unknowing, our very own,
our great tide, our great receiving, our
wordless, fiery, unspoken,
hardly remembered, gift of true longing.

QUOTE:  "You can be very wild and still be very wise." ~ Yoko Ono

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