Bag For Life

Well, death is looming large in this column at the moment.

Bag For Life is a tongue in cheek song that I wrote about me being not particularly bothered about what happens to my remains when I’m gone.

When we buried Luna it was simple. It was just him, a deepish hole in the garden, a covering of earth, and a few words spoken in memory. It felt right.

For some reason there is a lot more pomp, ceremony, money, materials, and energy put into the death of us grand humans. It’s expected.

But I don’t expect it or desire it. Though it’s hard to avoid it. There are laws to be kept. And perhaps people will need it as a way of dealing with their own grief. I don’t know.

As I said …. I’m not bothered. As long as I’m actually deid. ;-)

The Moon Will Be Big Tonight

Our cat, Luna, got hit by a car a couple of days ago and died.

I am not a pet person. We got Luna (strange how we talk about “owning” pets, but we do) for our foster son Aiden. Looking after a pet is a big responsibility. Like having a child. And we’ve had many of those kind of responsibilities as you’re probably aware. When we’ve had pets, I’ve tended to see them as a necessary nuisance.

So I was surprised by how emotional I felt when I heard about Luna’s death. Then when I went to pick him up. It was a hit and run, but someone had placed him in a better place after the accident, and kindly covered him with a piece of cloth to protect from the flies and the crows. And then when we buried him. It felt like a sacred moment. The sweat of digging the grave, mixed with a tear or two.

I didn’t expect that.

Yesterday I was playing a wee gig at the library. Someone, without knowing, read a poem called Moon. Again, I was moved.

And I finished that session with a song called The Moon Will Be Big Tonight.

Rest in peace Luna. You shone brighter than I noticed at the time.

Change

Change is here to stay
Crooned the green Chameleon
And then she turned blue.

These Savage Seas

So, there are people to blame for my week long absence from these pages. And, happily, I call those people friends.

I’ve mentioned, far more than once, the group of songwriters who I meet up with on a twice yearly basis. This year it was our Twentieth anniversary, and so it felt extra special. We had a wonderful time, and I know there will be more to come. I am a very lucky and privileged songwriter, and I genuinely wouldn’t dream of swapping a number one album success or international stardom (LOL) for these friendships.

This weeks Sunday Song(s) is a double header. Firstly, it’s my ongoing monthly release. This ones called These Savage Seas. It’s a hopeful song about flying above the struggles we all face in life. And I particularly want to dedicate it to two of the friends mentioned above. Fran and Darren have both been fighting cancer over the last year. They have done so with dignity and grace, and I love them dearly, and feel very proud to know them.

Fran has just had the all clear which is absolutely brilliant news. And Darren has just had an op to clear the last of the cancer. Remarkably, the day after the op he released a single Not My War which was all getting sorted in the midst of his own battles. It is a very powerful and poignant song, and I hope you will give it a listen and a download to put a massive smile on his handsomely chiselled Welsh jawline (just kidding…he’s an ugly bugger ;-).

And thanks, once again, for listening to my own ramblings.

Gravity Is Calling

My daughter in law got in touch a while ago. Today’s song, Gravity Is Calling had come up on my son’s Spotify while they were driving. She hadn’t heard it before, and told me how brilliant she thought it was.

So it’s official. I’m brilliant! Who doesn’t want to hear that? Of course, like everything, brilliance is often in the eye of the beholder. One person’s “brilliant!” is another persons “meh!”. But you can’t deny it … I’m still brilliant.

And yet ….. how much credit do I actually deserve for that “brilliance”, as much as it’s nice to hear it said?

I don’t think very much at all. In fact none. I’m of the belief that when that song was written, I couldn’t have done anything other than write that song. It was the culmination of everything that had gone before. Everything. And I didn’t have any control over it. was just the vessel through which that present happening was happening. I didn’t know I would do it, until I did it.

And you may well disagree. But tell me … what’s the next thought that is going to come into your head? And where is the point at which you are in control of any of that?

Aren’t I The Lucky One

Chances are, when you read this, I’ll be taking a dip in swimming pool on a warm day in the south west of England, in the company of friends.

Aren’t I The Lucky One?

Yes, I am. But even if my prediction is wrong, and the rain pours down, and the swimming pool is waterless, and my friends don’t turn up, the same will be true. Because there will be someone who would happily swap places with me. Somebody who is in a worse situation. That’s always the case. And it’s always useful to have that perspective.

Because in this light every situation is potentially, at least, something we can appreciate to a degree.

Having said that, I can’t wait for that sunshine swim! Glad I’m not in YOUR situation right now… ;-)

When I Come Back To Earth

“When I Come Back To Earth…

…I’ll have some stories to tell!”

- Said the man about to take a short flight to Bristol.

Wounded Soldier

Everyone of us is a Wounded Soldier to some degree. It’s impossible to be alive without being damaged along the way. And even those who appear to have an easy ride will still suffer at some point.

If we help to ease someone’s suffering, that kindness will usually be appreciated. So it’s a very simple way of making the world a better place, without any need for compromise.

And it is almost certain that today we will get the opportunity to do just that.

Even if it is we ourselves who are the, still worthy, subjects of our own help.

We’re All Doomed

Expertise, while not quite a dead dodo, is definitely on life support at the moment.

A lot of people, far too many, are more likely to believe an eloquent, populist conspiracy theorist, who plays to their particular cultural bias, than an actual expert. This is happening even in areas of science, where the whole concept of vaccines is questioned by, at the very least, large minorities, simply because some errors were inevitably made, some misinformation spread, by experts working, on the hoof, during the Covid times.

But we call people “experts” not because they are always right, but because they have done an amount and type of training, that makes them reliable. You’re not going to put your life in the hands of a pilot who has read a few books about flying, or even one who has spent many hours on a flight simulator. You want a pilot who has had many, many hours of time flying a plane under different conditions, and doing so safely.

Still there are occasionally plane crashes. But the vast majority of the time, we get there.

And yet, in this era, all sorts of unqualified people are holding court in areas that they shouldn’t have been allowed to get anywhere near. Ever. And some of them are world leaders.

Does this mean We’re All Doomed? After all, there are a lot of very important threats the world is facing right now. Environmental, technological, political, religious, and potentially more of the biological ones. And yet, in many places, we are being led by nincompoops and/or very badly intentioned eejuts.

I’m an optimist, who is not seeing an awful lot of cause of optimism at the moment. But, still, I am. Because every empire ends at some point, usually collapsing in on itself.

I’m very grateful to have lived so far in a safe place at a safe time. If that changes, and we shouldn’t pretend it can’t, I believe we will find our way through once again.

Tulips

I became curious about how Tulips propagate. As you know, they grow from bulbs and will continue to do so each year. But how do they spread in the wild, I wondered? I’m not much of a gardener, but I did wonder.

Apparently the flowers produce seeds. And it turns out that the seeds, wherever they happen to land, will eventually become mature bulbs. But this can take up to seven years.

We humans are often impatient, and we find ways to speed up these processes. Seven years seemed too long, to somebody. And now we can get our tulips a mere year after planting a bulb. Forget about the seeds.

It’s a result of a kind. And I’m not for putting any ethical quality onto buying and planting a tulip bulb. I’m just as likely to do that as the next impatient human. And I regularly buy Ineke a bunch from the Co-op.

But in general, I’m slowly moving towards slowing down. When it isn’t about my immediate survival, I think I need to learn to wait a little bit more than I do. To develop patience. Which also takes time. But I think it can be a super-power. And I think lack of it is what has possibly turned us, too often, into a destructive force in the world.

And that is my impatient way of hacking a life lesson out of a song title.

Everything I Ever Wanted

Everything I Ever Wanted? Everything?

Well, now I think about it, yes.

Mainly because my desires are unfathomable. They change all the time. And the person who is having those desires, ME, is not even sure what they might be right now.

And yet everything, that ever happened, or might ever happen, or that I might ever want or desire, is here in my consciousness as we speak. And all of the suffering and potential suffering too. It’s the ONLY place any of that can be. It can’t be Out There. Because “Out There”, all of it, is all In Here. In my head. Including what’s in your head.

And the same is true for you.

Sorry. This does sound like weird psycho babble when I play it back. But, I’m finding it incredibly fun and interesting to look at the weird reality of our privileged predicament head on. And this, the psycho babble above, is how it’s starting to look to me, as at least a small part of “how things are”.

But, and it’s a big BUTT, the ground beneath my feet is as solid as it’s ever been.

These two realities, it seems to me, can both be true.

Pretty Amazing Grace

As you probably know I was a Christian and now am not, but my wife still is. Nothing has changed.

At our recent family get together, we had a really fun Karaoke evening as part of a double birthday celebration. At it, Ineke, my wife, sang, very prettily, a later written Neil Diamond song. It seems to be a story of Diamond’s personal experience of faith, and it is called Pretty Amazing Grace.

The tune is a really stunner, I think, and though I’m not on board with the message as far as the dogma goes, I think it’s still a lovely and moving Sunday Song.

The Book

Consider the days I’ve missed doing the blog while I was away (I was away) I could have had time to write The Book. I’m tending to be away a lot more at the moment, and this year particularly so.

The being away is not necessarily the reason, but this “daily” blog, continues to be not quite daily at times. Some people get down if they lose their “streak” of doing something lots of times, and the not doing it, once or twice.

But the only answer, ever, is to start again. No self judgement. No sighs. No thoughts of “What’s the point…I might as well not do it at all”.

Those are feeling I’ve had before, but that I don’t have anymore. Good riddance to them.

And already, we’re on our way again. Lots of things change for the better when we don’t attach guilt and blame to our inevitable failures.

Now The Summer Has Gone

Now The Summer Has Gone. Such an almost appropriate title. We’ve had a lovely couple of weeks of sunshine and bright skies. And now the rain has returned.

It’s Springtime in fact. We hang our coats on the changing seasons in the UK. Even though each season tends to be very changeable in itself. Change is perhaps a part of the British psychology. Probably helps us to be a little bit adaptable. Like a flexible friend, on our good days.

I’m betting that my Australian cousin, living in an Outback where the main issue to be dealt with is heat and a lack of water, is going to have different characteristics to me. Possibly tougher and hardier. Like a pair of old leather gardening gloves. Possibly.

We carry the weather with us. The environment we grow up in affecting us as much as our genes.

I’m at a Costa Coffee in Bishops Briggs, a new environment for me, while writing this, as I get needed work done on the car while travelling down to a family get together in the peak district of Derbyshire later today. Ach, it’s all part of the ride.

And it doesn’t look like we’ll be getting much Summertime, when we eventually get to our destination. But one things for certain. We’ll be getting some sort of weather.

If My Eyes Were Blind

Sunday Song - If My Eyes Were Blind by David Olney

David Olney was one of those notorious Songwriters Songwriters. Not famous, but revered by many who were. But, famously, he died on stage. Quietly apologising in the middle of a song, he dropped his head and passed away while sitting on his chair, still holding his guitar.

That is, as they say, the way to do it.

Lift Me Up (Hold Me Up)

When parents are gone it can be the case that a lot of “What If’s?” remain.

That was certainly true in my case. I don’t think I ever really knew my mum and dad. But mostly, as is often and understandably the case with children (including adult ones) my focus was generally more on the fact that they didn’t know me.

None of this is an open wound for me, and hasn’t been for a long time. I made peace with it all well before they died. Albeit, regrets do occasionally surface.

It is, and was, what it is, and was. As they say.

Lift Me Up (Hold Me Up) was written as a response to my mum’s long period at the end with dementia. For many years she didn’t seem to recognise us, let alone “know” us. It was incredibly sad to see, and most of the grieving happened, as people who have had this experience will know, well before she died.

We all need to be held up at some point in our lives. Hopefully we have someone to do that for us. I wish that for you.

The Gathering

The Gathering was a song inspired by a tale of wolves.

When this apex predator (not to be confused with ya recently prevalent oligarch predator - apex predators are actually worth preserving) was re-introduced to Yellowstone Park in the U.S.A. many thing changed for the better.

The reduction in the number of Elks helped to allow the vegetation and fauna to thrive in areas it hadn’t previously. This in turn helped to stabilise the river banks, improve the quality of the water, and even changed the course of the rivers. And all of that helped a more varied number and type of creatures thrive. Overall it was seen as a great success.

Predation is a part of the world we live in. We ourselves are predators. Some, one of my sons included, would argue that we should grow out of that particular custom in regard to meat based products. But never the less, so much of the world we have grown up in has become what it is, because of this feature of our ecosystem.

As hinted at earlier, things can get out of hand. Some sorts of human predator are more like cancer cells, destroying and damaging everything except, in their own scheming, their own well being. Although undoubtedly that too.

It might be time, in this developing scenario, for the human elks to start fighting back. In one way or another. I don’t know how that might manifest itself on a personal level, but it’s coming to that. Otherwise I don’t see a great outcome for the human race in our global Yellowstone. There is too much shit hitting too many fans at the moment.

But I do think we’ll find a way through. When the loud voices are booming, that is sometimes all we can hear. But the biggest changes, for the better, still happen, are still happening, away from the spotlight.

The Gathering is usually in a quiet valley.

That Engagement Ring

When I saw today’s song title, That Engagement Ring, I started to think about the middle word.

I’ve only heard it regularly used in two contexts now I come to think about it. The first one being in regard to the decision to get married and the period prior to the wedding. Then, secondly, as a reference to the engagement with an enemy during times of war.

And much hilarity ensued. War and Marriage! Lollity LOL.

But despite the chuckles, I’m glad to say that, after the initial engagement and the subsequent wars between myself and my partner in crime, Ineke, it has proven possible, over many years, to lay down our weapons (most of them) and build a strong and fairly stable peace.

There is hope for us all ;-)

You’re welcome.

Blow The Flame

We asked the Grand-weans which was their favourite bit of our recent camping trip. All answers involved the time spent around the wood fire.

Mine too. If you’ve ever made a fire outside, you know, you KNOW, that it really is the only distraction needed of an evening. Just staring into that orange glow is enough. It puts most of everything in perspective. And it beats the hell out of the black box in the living room. Or the one in our pockets.

The simple pleasures, as they say. Weird creatures that we are.

So, anyway. It’s a review of a kind.

And the recommendation is … Blow The Flame.

ps. Happy Birthday to three of our boys, Joel, Eryn and Michael over the next four days.

Droom Je Al?

Droom Je Al?

All the right letters, but not necessarily in the right order?

Well, that’s true, If you’re English. But not if you’re Dutch.

The letters, when we use the secret code, now come to mean - “Are you dreaming already?”

This song was my first attempt at writing in a foreign language. It’s a lullaby, and I thought it might be a way to let our grandchildren hear a bit of their Oma’s native tongue, when we weren’t around. Our daughter-in-law used to play it to them when they were settling down at night. And they do sleep well. So, in that respect, job done. Also the two older boys are now making a concerted effort at learning some Dutch on Duolingo. That makes me happy.

It’s a source of wonder that these letters on our keyboard, the simple ABC’s of our alphabet, have got such endless possibilities. They open doors of knowledge. New worlds and civilisations. A way of understanding our fellow humans. An almost limitless well of creativity.

And sometimes, they can simply send us to sleep.

I must admit, I hope that doesn’t happen too often with mine.

Though it is hard to get them in the right order every time.