Hard Living: Song Writing Venture part 1

A friend of mine, Josh Bronleewe, encouraged me to start writing in May of 2009.  We started meeting on Sundays after church to write the next big country hit :) . I remember being so anxious one Sunday because Josh had told me to bring basic lyrics to a song and we'd start from there - my mind was completely blank.  I remembered my brother telling me about a songwriter he had seen play recently and when asked how he was able to make a living out of writing songs, his response was "I started writing about things that meant something to me".  About ten minutes after I got a call from my mom that my grandfather was not doing well I jotted down the initial structure of this song and took it to Josh that Sunday afternoon. Four hours later we had this song. My grandfather has been battling Alzheimer's disease for 7 years. What I remember most about him was that he was a hard worker and though most would say he was dealt a difficult hand - he did the best he could with what he had.

The song is titled Hard Living, written & performed by Josh Bronleewe & SarahJane Madole.

Pictured is my grandfather, Edgar "Red" Watts, in his younger years.

Enjoy. Comments welcome.

***Update : I had some problems with video working, so I've posted the song on my Facebook page.

You Can't Dig 200,000 Graves

I was reading an interview of a U.S. rescuer who was working with a search party in Haiti just after the 7.0 earthquake struck this poverty ridden nation.  He said "You can't dig 50,000 graves". Well here we are a week later and bodies have littered the streets...and many more than 50,000.  As the death toll has soared, I think of all the people who have lost a loved one and will never see them again. No goodbye, No funeral, No sweet words, No flowers....rather a mass grave in a vacant lot piled with 200 other bodies.

You can't dig 200,000 graves...And equally, you can't ignore 200,000 deaths, or you shouldn't. What has occurred in Haiti is a true tragedy. I don't really care what Pat Robertson has to say about it...What's happening is a tragedy and God's heart is broken too. These were His children. I feel that many American's think they are better than everyone else. Tragedy overseas feels unimportant, it is distant and the closest most American's will come to it is watching the six o'clock news tonight.  I feel differently on the subject. I weep at seeing pictures of bodies in the street. I rejoice, again weeping, as I watch them pull a child from the rubble 10 days after the earthquake. The country of Haiti didn't have room for more problems...more than 80% of the population was already below the poverty line.  But now here they are at their lowest of lows, and again they are kicked while they're down. So whose responsibility is it to help them get back up? 

I listen to the Big 98 with Jerry House every morning on the way to work. This week the phone lines were filled with calls of angry Americans stating "How could we give them 100 Million dollars when we have so much national debt?"...."This isn't  our problem!"....... "We are losing jobs left and right! We can't afford to help them!".....I literally became nauseous while listening to call after call from lazy, selfish, spoiled American's who have no agenda other than themselves.  Is our culture really this disgusting? I mean people are walking diseased streets, littered with dead bodies, with no food and water ... they have abruptly lost their families, their homes, their businesses, their everything and some Americans still feel that we should turn our eyes elsewhere. I'm ashamed for these people. I pity them because they are so blinded to how blessed the United States of America is. They have been spoon fed for so long that they don't really know that there is a world of hungry, cold, hurting people out there beyond the national borders.

Well the answer to the questions above is simple. WE ARE RESPONSIBLE. We are responsible for helping Haiti get back on their feet. We are responsible for helping them find homes for the hundreds of children orphaned by this earthquake. We are responsible for feeding and clothing and comforting them. We are all children of God. We are all brothers and sisters. We are all equal. And again, we ARE responsible.

"Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins" James 4:17

This week I read this verse and felt totally convicted of the times I have seen an opportunity to help and didn't. Whether it was inconvenience or vanity that held me from carrying out action - it doesn't really matter....it was wrong altogether. God doesn't instruct us to "Do good for others if its comfortable and fits nicely in our planner". The honest truth is that we are so blessed to be ABLE to help others...and this fact alone paints a perfect picture of why we are responsible for caring "for the least of these".  Close your eyes and imagine yourself in the middle of this tragedy, what if it were you?  It very easily could have been...but it wasn't....so get off your insanely blessed tush and get to work in whatever way you can to help out.

Matthew 25:40 

 ⁴⁰"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'

photo above from Logan Abassi/AFP/Getty Images, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/17/haiti-earthquake-humanitarian-disaster

A Song For Today

I've been repeatedly inspired by this song we sing in church a lot. I thought I'd post this today because It has been a great reminder for me of the life we were designed to live. This song brings to light the social injustice of our world & our responsibility to "GIVE with the life we've been GIVEN & go BEYOND religion to see the world be changed". I try to listen to it every day. I send thanks to Josh Bronleewee for introducing me to it AND for telling me that the piano in the intro was played by Lincoln's grandmother & the heartbeat in the intro was that of Lincoln's unborn child from an early ultrasound. I love hearing about the inspiration behind an amazing song. Every line of this song melts my heart and brings OUR true purpose to the forefront of my mind. How blessed am I today? Very. 

If you'd like to sample the song before purchasing it in iTunes, you can see parts of it here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CEfrzTN28o . But I recommend spending the 99 cents. :) Enjoy.

The Power Of Your Name 

written by Lincoln Brewster & Mia Fields

Surely children weren't made for the streets

And Fathers were not made to leave

Surely this isn't how it should be

Let your kingdom come

Surely nations were not made for war

Or the broken meant to be ignored

Surely this couldn't be what You saw

Let Your kingdom come

Here in my heart

And I will live to carry your compassion

To love a world that's broken

To be your hands and feet

And I will give with the life that I've been given

And go beyond religion to see the world be changed

By the power of Your Name

Surely life wasn't made to regret

And the lost were not made to forget

Surely faith without action is dead

Let Your Kingdom come

Lord break this heart

Jesus Your Name

Is a shelter for the hurting

Your Name

Is a refuge the weak

Only Your Name

Can take the undeserving

Jesus Your Name

Holds everything I need

Wake Up - It's 2010

Well, It's been quite a ride since my last post about getting involved in the community.  It seems my world has flipped upside down....in a good way. I have started a new job, which I am so grateful for. It allows for more time at home, less stress, and an emotionally warm work environment. I've started spending time on Monday nights with a group called People Loving Nashville, it's a small organization that fixes 150+ meals and feeds the homeless, both physically & spiritually. (www.peoplelovingnashville.com) Through spending time with these folks I have become much more aware of the needs of our community. My husband & I have also been blessed with an unbelievable small group that meets once a week. Through this group we have formed many new friends and have joined together to work as a team in showing the love of Christ in tangible ways to our community. I can't tell you how enriched my life has become since stepping out of my comfort zone and getting my hands dirty. I have asked God to burden my heart with the needs of people around me, and this has led to forming relationships with people I would have never otherwise known. God has had me knocking on doors of complete strangers, working New Year's Eve with friends rebuilding a bathroom & revamping a home for a family in need, and hugging new homeless friends on Blair Avenue after telling them how much love Jesus has for them.  My world has not changed, but my perspective has. These needs have been there all along but I'm acknowledging them for the first time.  I'm ashamed at the people I've walked by in the past and avoided eye contact, and the times I haven't cut someone slack and thought about what might be going on in their life.  The truth is - it doesn't matter.  It doesn't matter that I've wasted 23 years worrying about what outfit to wear or how much money I don't have to spend on something I probably didn't need in the first place. What matters is that I am still breathing and it's 2010.  My slate is clean, my eyes feel fresh, and my heart is ultimately vulnerable and burdened by the needs of our world....and our world essentially needs wholehearted unconditional love.  And whatever that entails, whatever route it takes to get it there, however much time it takes to create, I'm up for it.  


Deut. 15:7. If there is a poor man among you, one of your brothers, in any of the towns of the land which the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart, nor close your hand to your poor brother; but you shall freely open your hand to him, and generously lend him sufficient for his need in whatever he lacks.

Is. 58:10. "And if you give yourself to the hungry, and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then your light will rise in darkness, and your gloom will become like midday. And the LORD will continually guide you, and satisfy your desire in scorched places, and give strength to your bones; and you will be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose waters do not fail."

Is Community as Important to Us as It Should Be?

I read a book a while back called "Same Kind of Difference as Me". It is the true story of the intersecting lives of a multi-millionaire art dealer  & a homeless man. This book crushed the common concept of homelessness & laziness going hand in hand. It renewed in me the desire to give people the benefit of the doubt....a trait that is easy to forget for an ER nurse who frankly...deals with alot of bullcrap.  Recently a sequel to the book was released with additional stories from these two incredible people, titled "What Difference Do it Make?"...and yes there aren't any typos there.  This book is yet another treasure that gives me reason to believe again in the importance of being involved in your community. This short passage reminded me, again, of the community we should fight for. This particular passage was written by Denver Moore, an illiterate African American who lived homeless for years but now gives hope to those whose shoes he has walked in....

If all the Christians - and I mean all of 'em-- got outta the pews on Sundays and into the streets, we'd shut the city down. We'd shut down hunger. We'd shut down loneliness. We'd shut down any notion that there is any such of a thing as a person that don't deserve a kind word and a second chance.  

                                                 (What Difference Do it Make?, Ron Hall & Denver Moore)

In my quazi quarter-life crisis I feel a certain emptiness & disconnect from my community. Recently at church our pastor spoke about how insanely important it is to be involved in your community. Funny, (or not at all) I had kinda overlooked the importance since graduating from college a few years ago.  My focus has been more concerned with what my community has to offer me....rather than what I can do for my community. (sorry for the inevitable Kennedy reference). I just wonder if we all took Denver's idea to heart and focused one day a week on giving ourselves to our community - what kind of change we would see.  Could we end homeless for the most part? Could we change thousands of lives? Are we willing to give up our time to see that our neighbors aren't in need of an open ear or a warm meal?  I'm challenging myself to commit to my community and I hope those of you who are reading this will hold me accountable of this pledge. (Yes, you.) And...I'm hoping maybe some of you will want to join me in my efforts to create change and affect the lives of those who haven't heard a kind word lately & haven't been given a second chance.

September

Isn't it crazy how fast life happens? It seems like yesterday I was in line at CY Market buying a sausage biscuit and a Coke Icee during a Saturday morning outing. The older I get the faster life goes by. It seems like the sweetness and simplicity that used to be so evident in everyday life has now been trampled by the need for speed. Recently I've had a "chance" to slow down and enjoy home life because I've only been working 2 days a week. I got re-acclimated with the familiarity of home and how much I enjoy spending time there. Since graduating from college I haven't had a lot of time to spend at home, unless of course it involved my days off that revolved around getting things back in order, doing laundry, paying bills, etc.

My work schedule was minimized a few weeks ago...I recall my 3rd day off in a row I was sitting in my house and my chores were completed, no bills to pay, dog was walked & fed, house spotless, closet organized, meals prepared for the next 2 days....there was essentially nothing "to do". As I sat in the music room in our house I thought to myself "I haven't had a quiet moment like this in over 2 years...and now I simply don't know what to do with it". It took me over an hour to figure out how do enjoyable things again....write a note to a friend & put it in the mailbox, sit outside on the swing and scribble down 2 verses to a song, look at wedding photos that I haven't looked at in a while, realize that September was sneaking up on me and leaves would soon be falling...

I realized that God always has a plan for us, even when we don't understand the hows and whys of it all. When I was told my work schedule would be shortened I immediately worried about finances and how it would affect Craig and I....But it turns out that this "opportunity" opened several doors that I wouldn't have even considered without the extra nudge. Life is unpredictable....but it is also sweet and simplistic if we choose to see it that way.

Moving On

There's nothing like figuring out that you don't have it figured out. Sometimes things just have a way of sneaking up on you when you least expect it. There is something to be said for those who are doing exactly what they have always dreamed of. Sometimes I can't even figure out what I dream of doing...maybe I just can't remember it upon waking. I love to sing. I don't want to be a star, I just want to enjoy myself. It is liberating to sing someone else's song...its like stepping out of reality, or clocking out of life for three minutes. I have always wanted to learn to write songs but I completely suck at it, I'm okay with that. As long as somebody else has that talent, I can take care of the vocals. I recently applied to grad school to pursue a master's in nursing...but I'm not sure I'm ready for that yet. Sometimes I think I make choices based on how the end result will affect my life...instead of living out my life the way I want to. So far my method has paid off, but I'm not sure I'm totally content with where I am. I don't make enough time for what makes me feel alive. Work pushes everything else aside. I become so obsessed with ensuring my future security that I forget I may not even get the chance to enjoy it. In my line of work you see how fast life can be stripped from you...whether your 16 or 62. So today starts a new take on life for me....I'm going to love what I do.