A Strong Young Tree

Check out my 8-year-old singing a family favorite... (With big sis hosting the show.)

click me-----> The Tree Song








My blog post one year ago today...
Smile!

Come By the Hills

This song has become a part of who I am.

Bed el madhi

I just watched this Soaud Massi video on "Nat Geo Music" and was sucked in completely. The rhythms are intricate, the melody enchanting, and the singer so expressive that I couldn't look away. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Little Boxes

Let your freak flag fly.

Smells like Nirvana

I Kissed A Girl

Okay, so it's been awhile. But I heard this song on my road trip last week and it's been stuck in my head so I tracked it down to share. Not my usual style, but it's catchy. Anything related to kissing girls has to have some merit, right?

Hallelujah

So perfect that the wobbly last note was swallowed up in goosebumps.

Somewhere Over The Rainbow

I heart Jason Castro. This is his best performance since Hallelujah.

Don't dis the recorder

Recorder Music Fuge Around the Clock

The Voice

I'm thinking of you.

Shower the People You Love With Love

You can play the game and you can act out the part

Though you know it wasnt written for you

But tell me, how can you stand there with your broken heart

Ashamed of playing the fool

One thing can lead to another; it doesnt take any sacrifice

Oh, father and mother, sister and brother

If it feels nice, dont think twice



Just shower the people you love with love

Show them the way that you feel

Things are gonna work out fine if you only will

Shower the people you love with love

Show them the way you feel

Things are gonna be much better if you only will



You can run but you cannot hide

This is widely known

And what you plan to do with your foolish pride

When youre all by yourself alone

Once you tell somebody the way that you feel

You can feel it beginning to ease

I think its true what they say about the squeaky wheel

Always getting the grease.



Better to shower the people you love with love

Show them the way that you feel

Things are gonna be just fine if you only will

Shower the people you love with love

Show them the way that you feel

Things are gonna be much better if you only will



Shower the people you love with love

Show them the way that you feel



Youll feel better right away

Dont take much to do

Sell you pride

They say in every life

They say the rain must fall

Just like pouring rain

Make it rain

Make it rain

Love, love, love is sunshine.

Oh yes

Make it rain

Love, love, love is sunshine

Yeah, all right

Everybody, everybody

Shower the people you love with love

A Song From my Very Favorite CD

Picking favorite music is hard for me, but it's clear to me that my Sharon Burch CD is my favorite. It's my comfort music, my feel good music, my soothing music, my everything music.

Woman Sings While In Labor

Flight of the Bumblebee, a cappella. No, really.

A new favorite!

Eve

Tonight I answered the question, "In what ways are you strange?" and thought I'd share my answer here. This is what I wrote:

I'm a single work-at-home lesbian college student and mom of three kids whom I homeschool, and I drive a 17-year-old multicolored car with 260,000 miles and over 40 bumper stickers on it. I'm an eclectic nontheistic Taoist Pagan with Buddhist leanings and I attend a UU church every other Sunday (and lead the children's religious education program). I had an amicable divorce and my ex and I remained friends for a couple years afterward. There are currently 3 dogs and 17 cats in my house (10 of the cats are fosters). I volunteer at the animal shelter on a daily basis, and I'll be graduating with my Bachelor's degree 16 years after I graduated from high school. All the AP gentle parenting stuff, though with all the online support and the kids growing older, it doesn't really seem strange anymore. I can sometimes hear people's thoughts before they speak, I sometimes dream of future events before they happen, I often know who's calling on the phone without caller ID, and I've had contact with bodiless spirits. I'm learning and loving Tarot. I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up. I love being a single mom and don't feel that my lot in life is unfair. My hair grows abnormally fast. There's more, but this is getting really long.


Tonight is the eve of the winter solstice, Yule. Tonight we sang carols and read solstice stories while watching the sunset, then came home and the little ones watched Little Bear's winter solstice, while Marian wrapped presents, and I made our Favorites dinner. After dinner we finished watching Night at the Museum (that we started yesterday), and then each opened one small gift while having our hot chocolate. I read them some wintery books and sent them to bed.

Tomorrow we'll eat breakfast in the car while watching the sunrise (with lots of singing and storytelling) if the roads aren't too bad. Otherwise we'll sing to the sun from the porch. Then stockings and gifts, then the making of gingerbread house and people, then lunch at Chili's. Naptime, some family rituals, and a lot of playing it by ear will follow.


Some Yuletide Carols:
GOD REST YE MERRY PAGANFOLK

Oh rest ye merry, paganfolk,
Let nothing you dismay.
Remember that the Sun returns
Upon this Solstice day.
The growing dark is ending now
And Spring is on its way.

Oh, tidings of comfort and joy,
Comfort and joy!
Oh, tidings of comfort and joy.

Mother Nature rest ye merry, too,
And keep you safe from harm.
Remember that we live within
The circle of Her arms,
And may Her love give years to come
A very special charm.

Oh, tidings of comfort and joy,
Comfort and joy!
Oh, tidings of comfort and joy!


SHARE THE LIGHT
Tune: The First Noel

On this Winter holiday, let us stop and recall
That this season is holy to one and to all.
Unto some a Son is born, unto us comes a Sun,
And we know, if they don't that all paths are one.

Chorus:
Share the light, share the light!
Share the light, share the Light!
All paths are one on this holy night!

Be it Chanukah or Yule,
Christmas time or Solstice night,
All celebrate the eternal light.
Lighted tree or burning log,
Or eight candle flames.
All paths are one, whatever their names.


DECK THE HALLS
Traditional

Deck the halls with boughs of holly
Fa la la la la la la la la
Tis the season to be jolly
Fa la la la la la la la la
Don we now our gay apparel
Fa la la la la la la la la
Troll the ancient Yuletide carols
Fa la la la la la la la la

See the blazing Yule before us
Fa la la la la la la la la
Strike the harp and join the chorus
Fa la la la la la la la la
Follow me in merry measure
Fa la la la la la la la la
While I tell of Yuletide treasure
Fa la la la la la la la la

Fast away the old year passes
Fa la la la la la la la la
Hail the new, ye lads and lasses
Fa la la la la la la la la
Sing we joyous all together
Fa la la la la la la la la
Heedless of the wind and weather
Fa la la la la la la la la



Deck the Halls precedes Christianity, but the other two are borrowed tunes. I figure it's a nice trade when pagans share their decorations and Christians share their melodies. We have more carols that we sing, some original and some borrowed tunes, but the rest aren't easily accessible to copy and paste.

Happy Winter Solstice! I'll try to remember to take pictures tomorrow, but if I don't it because I was too caught up in the here and now to worry about capturing images for the future.

Dylan said it best

Big changes in my life, with an uncertain outcome and future. I lost one of my jobs yesterday and made some unpleasant discoveries about human nature. However, I feel something exciting on the horizon.


Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone.
If your time to you
Is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won't come again
And don't speak too soon
For the wheel's still in spin
And there's no tellin' who
That it's namin'.
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside
And it is ragin'.
It'll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don't criticize
What you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agin'.
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'.

The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin'.
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin'.

--Bob Dylan

Pink- Dear Mr President - Live

A song of our times. It touches me like no other.