Dear family, friends, and fellow travelers,
The tune this cycle is Hold on O Tender Heart, recorded yesterday at a Boxer's Day musical gathering at our friends', Maurie and Patricia's, house. It's a sort of sea shanty for these turbulent times.
One of Gandhi's sorrows in living in modern times was the "hardness of heart of the educated class", particularly cruel in India in his times but the observation certainly speaks to the great dilemma we face as humans, how to keep our absolute innate tenderness amidst the trials, triumphs, blur and ennui of day to day life.
Pammy and I were recently remembering the day our eldest was born. After the harrowing earthquake of birth, here was new life among us, and, for a few days, the lifting of the veil to see life's powerful channel through mothers bringing Love into being. Looking out the window as people passed on the street, all we could see was God amongst us, the Great Spirit and Source manifest in each and every. It still comes back in sudden waves.
A New Year's hope is to keep that reckoning close to heart. Hold on, O Tender Heart!
Happy New Year to all. Love and Courage,
Brian
I recently started putting some songs up on music streaming platforms - all of them already published here. There's several now, organized as "albums" - Just a Little Rain, Late July and Crow. Take a listen there and add me to your playlist, if you so desire! I listen on Deezer.
I'm sending you a monthly offering from original music I've been writing over many years. I've been so bold as to add your email to my newsletter list. You can unsubscribe at any time (link at the bottom of the email).
Play your favorites!
I've also added a Favorites feature so that, as the playlists grow, you can mark those songs you particularly like and just listen to those, again from using the drop down filter at the top of the playlist. Right now it's a two-step process. You have to click on the song you want to mark on the playlist and then go to the side bar (bottom on phone) and click the gray heart so select; click again to deselect.
On the technical side, the favorites function relies on you not clearing your cookies, often the default setting. Favorites will be lost if cookies are cleared. I hope to add a login feature that would allow you to keep your selections without cookies.
Finally, realizing that many people no longer have a CD player, Leonore and I made our three albums available for free here on the site in playlists. There's a tab, Albums, on the top menu. Select the album you want to hear from the dropdown and enjoy. Songs are free to download as well. We will make some CDs for those who may want that medium - if that is your desire, feel free to contact me.
