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Tag: music

  • lynnmurphymark

    Today’s blog

    03/03/2025

    Lynn Murphy Mark

    A golden thread

    In 1958 folk singer and activist Pete Seeger wrote a simple song that carried a sweet message: “Oh, had I a golden thread, and a needle so fine, I would weave a magic spell of rainbow design.”  He also recorded the hymn, “We shall overcome”. It became an iconic civil rights anthem.

    I first heard “golden thread” sung by Eva Cassidy, a songbird who made her transition at age 33, taken down by melanoma. A few decades ago, Katie introduced me to her. Katie heard her on a radio station, was taken by her clear, pure voice, and told me to look into her music. Not only did I look and listen, I was completely taken. Today I have a collection of three of her albums released after her untimely death.

    Eva Cassidy was a shy person and had to overcome her nerves each time she appeared to perform.  The magazine, Jazz Times, says this: “Cassidy was no diva, she didn’t overload the songs with vocal gymnastics and stratospheric notes. Quite the opposite, she detached the songs from their genre associations so each became a kind of folk-blues-jazz hybrid. She pared them down to their emotional core… As important as her calm, unfussy phrasing was the tone of her mezzo voice – so glowing and disarming that she seemed to be confiding in each individual listener.” 

    Yesterday I was at my weekly meeting. It has become a gem in my self-care jewelry box and I consider my companions to be a family of sorts. We are all gathered with the intention of improving ourselves and the hope that we each will make a difference in our respective worlds. 

    Every week we have a visitor or two. Sometimes it’s a person newly on a recovery track. Yesterday’s meeting was attended by a first-timer. I watched him as he appeared to absorb what people were saying – he looked very carefully at each speaker and nodded his head sometimes. We had a couple of visitors from other meetings who pledged to come back next week. 

    We are an unusual looking family. There is no resemblance among our physical features but we are brothers and sisters all the same. It is a meeting where sharing “experience, strength, and hope”  with each other is mostly the point. It is a place where all are accepted, regardless of circumstances. To quote another folk song, “you don’t need a ticket just to get on board”. Getting on board may be the greatest challenge someone has faced. There is no better, safer place to expose our inner workings, our troubles, and our triumphs.

    We are each held safely by the structure of a series of life-saving steps. The readings are the same every meeting and I have almost memorized some of them. The words are encouraging and hopeful, but there is definitely work involved to achieve them. There is an expectation that we will look at ourselves honestly and dispense with the behaviors we used to cover our afflictions. Part of the process is to give away the secrets that bind us so tightly. There is no better place to get out of harm’s way. There is no better place to feel a change coming over me.

    Yesterday our meeting was a mixture of the usual folks, some visitors, and a couple of new people. We come in all shapes and sizes. I looked around the room when the meeting was almost over and felt the presence of a “golden thread” reaching from heart to heart in that room. Eva Cassidy’s voice singing the song echoed in my musical midbrain and I know there is a precious connection with each person in the room. 

  • Today’s blog

    lynnmurphymark

    Lynn Murphy Mark       

    Spiritual sustenance

    Every day since January 20, 2025 there is a good chance that I will be amazed, and not in a good way, by what is happening to our government. I don’t mean for this to be a political post, but I have to admit that I am shocked on a daily basis by 47’s dangerous tactics. I understand very well that the point is to perform so many inappropriate and dangerous actions that I will become immune to their implications and give up the fight. I will do everything I can to prevent that from happening to me.

    I can withstand the social pressures by keeping informed, supporting my causes, and supporting the people who are front and center on the front lines. I have been watching Jasmine Crockett lately as she raises her voice in defiance of the dismantling of our government as we know it. When she speaks, she is passionate and deadly serious, and does not appear to be afraid of any repercussions. Her kind of energy lifts me up and I pray for her safety as I pray for all who are standing up to the ugly power that is manifested every day.

    But what I need to guard even more than my political opinions is my spiritual stamina. My world view is such that I cannot separate day to day happenings from the broader vision that there is order and beauty surrounding us all. No matter how ugly it gets I believe that my own spiritual energy will sustain me. There is a song that Sweet Honey in the Rock sings and its words are meaningful to me:

    “I don’t know how the angels woke me up this morning soon

    I don’t know how the blood still runs through my veins

    I don’t know how I rate to run another day

    Standing in a rainstorm I believe.

    My God calls me in the morning dew

    The power of the universe knows my name

    Gave me a song to sing and sent me on my way

    I raise my voice for justice I believe.”

    When lies are flying through the airwaves, I rely on spiritual fitness to keep them from taking root in my brain. Spiritual values tell me that I will withstand the barrage of ignorant, cruel steps being taken to dismantle the USA as we know it. I will keep up with what’s happening, but will not be put down by it. 

    The Universe’s message to me is clear. I must do what I can to maintain my soul’s wellbeing. For me that takes several different approaches to preserve sanity. One of them is to look for moments of joy wherever they are to be found. Yesterday my grandson turned 6 and a few minutes of Facetime with the New Jersey peeps lifted me up. They are a constant source of wonder and happiness. Ted and Sarah in Los Angeles are so precious to me I can hardly stand it.

    Then, next week I will be joining a community choir. I have loved singing in a choir since I was a kid in college and I cannot fully explain how this is such a powerful source of sustenance. It is sheer joy to me to lift my voice in a group and send music into the ether. We will be preparing for a concert in June and I look forward to it. This choir is directed by a woman who is a musical force to be reckoned with. She calls forth the best musicianship we can give.

    My work, while seriously engaged in the world’s busyness and complexity, gives me hope each time I talk to a client or to my colleagues. We can make a difference, although there will be many challenges coming from Washington, DC. My spiritual activity in this case is to speak at as many churches as will have me on the biblical sayings that are very clear about what our responsibility is to immigrants. So far I have three engagements lined up. 

    The other day my gift to myself arrived. It is a complex paint by number set of the Grand Canyon. I have relied on the message from that magnificent canyon since I encountered it in the late 1960’s. It’s depth and majesty have taught me that “this too shall pass”, and the work of wind and ice and water will keep carving beautiful places into the earth. This will be happening regardless of our foolish human moves, and will long outlast the good and evil of our lives.

    So, 47 and your minions, try as you will you will not wear me down. You may shock me by your methods, but I believe that good will prevail. And that makes all the difference.