For a long time now, I’ve had challenges around answers in general and labels in particular. In fact, when we moved back to Atlanta in 1999, and I was beginning my work at the Atlanta Center for Counseling and Development, I needed a business card.
It was hard! My name was complex enough because it was still legally hyphenated in those days. (Talk about a pain!) Then, I needed a title. None of the choices seemed big enough.
Finally, with some help from a talented friend, I just listed a whole bunch of things I did, with variations in font and saturation to break things up. Oh, and a phone number!
One of the things in that list – in fact it may have been the first one – was Questions that make all the difference.
Here they are again! In fact, the one on my mind at the moment was borrowed from Stephen Colbert on Friday night, after a long day in virtual school.
The guest was a guy named Common, of whom I had never heard, probably because they introduced him as a rapper. The conversation with Colbert wandered a bit through a variety of intriguing experiences and awards.
Finally, my new friend was telling a story from his own journey when he asked all of us who were watching about the first song that touched our souls.
I had two immediate answers. Let me say, first, that I know there were other songs in my world before these two, but these are the ones that leaped at the question…
From the time I was 4 or 5, hanging out in a sort of pre-school program in a land without public kindergarten… Puff, the Magic Dragon. Really!
I vividly remember sitting in a circle in a basement-like room with all the lights off while our teacher played a 45 on one of those record players that looked like a typewriter case.
Wow, do I feel old!
We all sang along and I still know all the words!
The second one came from about a year later in an old-fashioned Sunday School assembly, where everybody sang together before going off to individual classes. We were visiting in that church and I didn’t know anybody and had been utterly convinced that I couldn’t/shouldn’t sing.
Then it started. All Things Bright and Beautiful. I sang. And cried. And cried. And sang. And, yes, I still know all the words.
Those songs still touch my soul. And I’d love to know your answers, too!
The surprise in this story, though, is not the songs or my singing. It’s the question, itself.
You see, I’ve been planning a workshop which will start in just a few weeks. And a big part of the process is a similar question about what matters to our souls. And what difference it makes to know. To claim it.
It will be, of course, a virtual workshop that anybody could do from anywhere and you can do from where you are. And there are lots of details to follow.
Soon!
For today, let’s all ponder a dragon named Puff, and open our hearts to the radical notion that our souls are already whispering about what touches them.
We just need to listen! And having some folks to listen with often helps!
Who knows? A dragon just might appear in my Legend painting!
ps… The lovely lady gazing at you today is a bit of What the World Needs Now. And, yes, she’s there for a reason!
pps… If you’d like to be on the first-to-know list for the upcoming workshop and for a whole lot of others jumping up and down in my head, just click on the big photo at the top of the blog and scroll down to leave a comment. Or email me: suesvoice@gmail.com
I WANT TO KNOW ABOUT YOUR WORKSHOP!
Count on it, friend! And thanks for reading. (This is the time…)
Sue, this truly weird! Yesterday I remembered the song that my father sang to me when I was a little girl and I wanted to share it with somebody but I didn’t know who might care about that. Anyhow the song was “Down by the seashore Mary Ann”.” And now today I get to share it. Strange. And another funny thing is my favorite song after that is Puff the Magic Dragon. I even played it while my grandkids were doing artwork in my basement. I really tried pushing this song on my own kids and my grandkids wishing someone would love it as much as me. I know funny. Lastly my Legend painting. My ally was a dragon which strangely enough I’ve always been afraid of this symbol because I was told by my shaman teacher that it was not good to even display them in your house. But in my journeying with Shiloh my dragon turned into a small cartoon dragon to go thru the cave and into the desert. I googled images of dragons and was going to include one in my painting which I may still do. Anyhow thanks for letting me share the first song I ever loved.
Thank you, Mary Ann, for sharing your song and your story and the possibility of your dragon. So glad to be a place for you to do that. And to have you here in this place. Hugs, sister!