We Can Find a Better Way

“Come and Stand Beside Us…. We Can Find a Better Way.” 

I created this video in 2011 in honor of the 10th anniversary of 9/11.  I still vividly recall the moment that this song came on my car stereo just days after that tragic world changing event…..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7oeTFzHEsc&list=FLRIGlJyYgLx1tBbla80zOIA&index=12

On that day in September 2001, I was contemplating the fear we were all struggling with in the wake of this horrific event. I was in the midst of driving home from a Montessori teachers workshop and recognizing the resonance of Dr. Maria Montessori‘s visionary belief that “Hope Lies Within the Child.” All of That was on my mind and heart as John Denver’s “Rhymes and Reasons” began singing out over my car stereo. His voice of optimism gave me hope and filled my heart in that moment…. And then, I was flooded with chills as the line “Though the cities start to crumble.. And the towers fall around us” called out…. That very event had just shockingly happened in our world and John Denver wrote and sang of it in 1969!

It still sings so strongly….

May we continue learning that The Power of Love can overcome the fears in this world. Hope does lie in the children and we can come together. “Come and stand beside us. We can find a better way” 

DeAnneConscious Connections NOW
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Rhymes and Reasons ~ John Denver

So you speak to me of sadness
And the coming of the winter
Fear that is within you now
It seems to never end
And the dreams that have escaped you
And the hope that youve forgotten
You tell me that you need me now
You want to be my friend

And you wonder where were going
Wheres the rhyme and wheres the reason
And its you cannot accept
It is here we must begin
To seek the wisdom of the children
And the graceful way of flowers in the wind

For the children and the flowers
Are my sisters and my brothers
Their laughter and their loveliness
Could clear a cloudy day

Like the music of the mountains
And the colours of the rainbow
Theyre a promise of the future
And a blessing for today
Though the cities start to crumble
And the towers fall around us
The sun is slowly fading
And its colder than the sea

It is written from the desert
To the mountains they shall lead us
By the hand and by the heart
They will comfort you and me
In their innocence and trusting
They will teach us to be free

For the children and the flowers
Are my sisters and my brothers
Their laughter and their loveliness
Could clear a cloudy day

And the song that I am singing
Is a prayer to non believers
Come and stand beside us
We can find a better way

Words and music by John Denver

 

Beloved One

Image
Beloved One,
Living Light,
Spirit of All That Is,
we give thanks.
Thank you for welcoming us
to this sacred circle.

We come from everywhere,
and we find you wherever we are:
inside the holy houses of each of the world’s faiths,
and out in the wild places of the earth;
shoulder to shoulder in the mosque,
bending to press our hearts to the ground in surrender;
in the haunting Hebrew melodies of our ancestors
as we call on the Shekinah to infuse us
with her indwelling feminine spirit;
in the communion bread and wine,
which we take in remembrance
of the Prince of Peace.

We hear your voice joining with ours when we chant the Divine Names
in Sanskrit and Tibetan, Tiwa and Maya and Maori.
We meet you high on alpine trails,
where we stop to rest among fragrant wild herbs,
beside a stream rushing with melted snow.
We feel you holding us when we float in the arms of the ocean
and she sways us with her breath.
We kiss you when we are making love;
we mourn you when an elder releases her final exhalation;
we soothe you when we rock a tired child in our arms. 

We look for you in the pulsating emptiness,
search for your true form in the heart of formlessness,
unexpectedly recognize you when we give up and turn away.
You shine through the ecstatic stanzas of the poets and mystics,
each one singing your praises in a different language.
You well up in our aching hearts
when we cry out for the pain of the world.

You are the call to justice,
and the answering response of mercy.
You are in the wounding of the earth
and you are the only hope for mending her.

Oh Great Spirit,
Father-Mother God,
True Self and No-Self,
Invisible animating energy of Life:
We claim our place at your table
and find ourselves home at last.
Here may we eat and be filled,
drink and become unbridled,
lay down our burdens and take refuge,
drop into your sacred silence and remember.
And let us take this remembrance back out into our lives,
That we may truly be of service
in this broken and beautiful world.

AMEN.

Mirabai Starr

(Opening interspiritual invocation
delivered by Mirabai Starr at the
Sounds True Wake Up Festival,
August 14 – 19, 2013,
Estes Park, Colorado.)

image: “A Moment of Oneness”, DeAnne Wolfgram 2007
Conscious Connections NOW

Thanks to Joss BurnelCrowing Crone Woman of Wisdom for inspiring the sharing of this message today.

— with DeAnne Wolfgram