Category: David Wilcox Music

Slipping Through My Fist

Slipping Through My Fist

SimoneLipscomb (3)Lyrics from a David Wilcox song came to mind tonight. The words touch my heart deeply as I let go more deeply, surrender and see where this journey is taking me. Rather than say more I’ll simply share the lyrics. The song is called, Slipping Through My Fist and it’s from his Underneath album…probably my favorite of his.

I have drifted down a ways along the shoreline,
I just watched these ropes give way
where they were tied.
I could have reached out quick when the ropes first slipped, if I had tried,
but I was wondering
where the wind was trying to take me
overnight, if I never did resist, and
what strange breezes make a sailor want to
let it come to this,
with lines untied, slipping through my fist.
It is downhill all the way to the ocean,
so of course the river always wants to flow.
The river’s been here longer,
it’s older and stronger and knows where to go,
and I was wondering where the river’s
trying to take me
overnight, if I never did resist, and
what strange breezes make a sailor want to
let it come to this,
with lines untied, slipping through my fist.
This is where I played as a baby.
This is where I ran as a child.
This is where my dad took the last breath he had,
and smiled.
I guess I’m wondering
where this place is trying to take me
overnight, if I never did resist, and
what strange breezes make a sailor want to
let it come to this.

With lines untied…slipping through my fist.

Show the Way

Show the Way

I sat with tears rolling down my face as the words and music wound through the atmosphere of the open air pavilion. I arrived early to secure a good seat was was rewarded with a front-row seat less than ten feet from David and his magical guitar….and voice.

Having followed his music for years I was surprised I had missed this song and yet I fully believe that music and other tools of healing come to us when we are ready.

Auburn University Oak Tree Poisoned by a Deranged Man
Auburn University Oak Tree poisoned by a very sick man

Lyrics from Show the Way: “You say you see no hope, you say you see no reason we should dream that the world would ever change. You’re saying love is foolish to believe. ‘Cause there’ll always be some crazy with an army or a knife, To wake you from your day dream, put the fear back in your life.”

Gulf State Park during 2013 BP Deepwater Horizon Oilspill
Gulf State Park during 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon Oilspill

“Look, if someone wrote a play just to glorify what’s stronger than hate, would they not arrange the stage to look as if the hero came too late, he’s almost in defeat. It’s looking like the evil side will win, so on the edge of every seat, from the moment that the whole thing begins….”

Children at Akumal, Mexico
Children at Akumal, Mexico

“It is Love who makes the mortar and it’s love who stacked these stones. And it’s love who made the stage here, although it looks like we’re alone. In this scene set in shadow like the night is here to stay, There is evil cast around us, but it’s love that wrote the play. For in this darkness love can show the way.”

Sometimes I feel such grief about the state of humanity–the polarization of friends and families, of communities. The taking of sides against what we perceive is ‘the bad people’ but in reality we are fighting among ourselves when the evil goes unchecked….or so it seems.

Joanna Macy and Work That Reconnects group, Rowe, MA
Joanna Macy and Work That Reconnects group, Rowe, MA

I have come to believe that Love is the cosmic glue that holds us all together. Not romantic love or possessive love but the love that passes all understanding. We try to name it and it illudes us so I’ll simply say as I open my heart I find more love around me and within me. If I focus on being a channel for this love and constantly let it flow through me to others, the supply is endless and I always stay filled with it. The moment I try to stop it or hold on to it, I feel empty.

Our hearts are like blossoms, waiting to bloom
Our hearts are like blossoms, waiting to bloom

What a Great Mystery this Love is and yet I truly believe the key to our own and the planet’s healing is simply to open our hearts to love without judgment. Clearing away anger, judgment, opinions–even if for 15 minutes a day–can create vast change within our own lives. Once we see how good those 15 minutes felt, we will want to live in that space of open heartedness as much as possible. For that is our natural state of being.

To watch the video and listen to David Wilcox’s song please click on this sentence…. and enJOY!