"Sing me Alive"

What is the purpose of this Wake and Bake? Why do you return each week for this slice of life? Your companionship, through the good and bad, sometimes sweet and sometimes heavy on the cream, motivates me to share one man’s daily struggle to make sense of our lives. This is going to be the 172nd edition of Wake and Bake. My Jungian therapist says 180 is a good place to pause and find other work. There is not much time for this old engine to keep running and showing up on time. This life is worth being the eagle every day and that means there is more to do. Keep making this planet better, two baby steps at a time, seeking sweet harmony, doing the work that good humans do.

The purpose of all this has always been to create a place where music and words are in harmony. It was a place for the reader to feel comfortable, an old pair of slippers, a familiar pillow, where one can explore one’s personal thoughts for a short moment. That is an indulgence in our busy world but necessary for critical thinking. That might mean the words might make you uneasy but that is how one grows their own branches on the giant oak tree we call humanity. Thank you for joining me on this glorious coaster ride we call life.

What are the joys that take up the time in your day? Are you moving or are you sedentary? Are you creating or are you absorbing? My greatest fear, moving into the seventies will be the loss of mobility. Some of my greatest personal joys have come at the intersection of movement and athletics. The diving catch, the perfect ultimate throw, and the hike up Breakneck Mountain are memories that will never leave. Like the day of your marriage or first born. You remember the details. As the sunsets added up changes that were made. Gave up playing Ultimate and Hoops. Took up biking and hiking. And luckily my skis have never failed me.

This was a week to remember the joys of spontaneous speed and surprise. Keep your head up and see the sights for fifty miles in every direction. Let your body bend and swing to the waves of your mind. Add a little I’m With Her to the mix and let your spirit fly free. Three days of beautiful white light, blue bird days, and hillsides with snow pastures. As you flow effortlessly, past boughs of evergreens and bare branches decorated with snow stripes, the beauty moves through me. There is a feeling where everything is in tune as your body, mind and soul lets go. That is the moment when everything seems perfect in the universe.

Then you pull up to a chariot, waiting to take you to the top of the hill. Can you imagine the awe in your children when they see that chariot climb up into the ‘wild, clear and blue”. We are an amazing species that could conceive of such foolishness. Hey, Let us build steel pillars that can carry people safely one mile directly uphill over billion year old rock. We will cut down all these trees and let the snow fill the space. And then the fun begins. Let us strap these two pieces of wood to our feet, point yourself downhill and let gravity do the rest. Imagine chasing that much fun and imagine how wonderful and crazy our species has always been.

There were many trips up that amazing steel chariot over three days. Most were alone and spent listening to the brilliant album “Wild, Clear and Blue” by I’m With Her. I left it on replay the first day, because it was so cold, so I listened to the entire album three consecutive times. That has not happened in fifty years. It is that good and that musically satisfying. The songs tell real stories. Listen to Standing on the Fault Line. about the Californians who live there for generations. They stand there “on the fault line, waiting for the ground to crack; Just put one foot in front of the other.. Don’t look back.”

The music paints pictures one can see. From Rhododendron. “Dogwoods are blazing crimson, glory all around Smoke is thickening o’er mountain. Wrens scatter as the cold moves in. Underneath the brush, I see a lonely rhododendron.” Their rhythm changes can change the mood like the light changes as it tucks behind fast moving clouds. And then the light returns. “Moon is on the water. I am an only daughter. Thinking of my mother and father. Dusk hits the bay”…. The lyrics bring you joy when the words are right. “Sister, Sing me alive. Sing me alive….Your life is what you make of it, You are a fighter, Mother Eagle. Sing me Alive”. The words bring tears as the sun streamed through the glistening branches. We all have to go to the other side. Live like that eagle until you can do no more. When I get to the other side “we will be swimming in the ancient light”.

Peace to Everyone.. Ski to 80.

If there is one Wake and Bake recommendation you follow make it this one.. Listen to this album…. Mother Eagle from two days ago in Atlanta and Ancient Light (official music video) for your pleasure….

PS>. The best croissant in the NORTHEAST is still in Housatonic, Mass. The Berkshire Mountain Bakery.. Tell me another and I will find a way to compare them… BTW. You can mail order croissants.. That is what the sign says….

I’m With Her is Sara Watkins, Sara Jarosz and Aoife O’Donovan. They won two Grammys last Sunday night for best folk album and best folk single. They have won high praise and are wonderful to see in concert. They are exceptionally gifted musicians. Truly it is the best folk/roots album I have heard since the 1970’s. One man’s opinion! Sara W is from California. Sara Jarosz from Texas and Aoife O’Donovan is originally from Western Massachusetts.