hands on a miracle

having kids is one of the most earth-shattering, life-altering, turn-your-world-upside-down kind of experiences. it inspires this crazy dichotomy of feelings and emotions: utter amazement from something so innate, natural. intense pride while being humbled every single day. going from worrying about everything to caring about nothing else. having blinding hope for these little peoples' future, yet a longing to hold onto each precious moment now.

when dave grohl of the foo fighters had his first kid, he penned this song in honor of violet, his "miracle." i love the ultimate contrast of this indie rocker with a penchant for gutteral screams and spitting (we've seen them twice, and yes, i do swoon when he does both) singing poetically about how this baby changed his entire perspective on life.

"miracle"

crazy, but i believe this time

begging for sweet relief

a blessing in disguise

i'm dying behind these tired eyes

i've been losing sleep

please come to me tonight

hands on a miracle

i got my hands on a miracle

believe it or not

hands on a miracle

and there ain't no way, that you take it away

everything that we've survived

it's gonna be alright

just lucky we're alive

got no vision

i've been blind

searching everywhere

you're right there in my sight

hands on a miracle

i got my hands on a miracle

believe it or not

hands on a miracle

and there ain't no way, that you take it away

hands on a miracle

i got my hands on a miracle

believe it or not

hands on a miracle

i got my, hands on a miracle

and there ain't no way, that you take it away

take it away

kids.

reflections of us. yet different. unique. individuals. brilliant. silly. sponges. chatty. pure. sweetness. full of life. and light.

mine. to mold. to have. to hold. to fashion. to teach. to learn from. to squeeze. to grab onto. to pick up. to let go of...and to never let go.

sun and moon

have you ever heard something so beautiful, so chill-inducing that it moves you to tears? perhaps not, but i've already established in previous posts that i am an unabashed sap, so i thought i'd share a little gem that i discovered today.

with young kids, sleeping in on the weekends is sadly not an option. saturday mornings are an exercise in stealing tiny moments of "me" time in between firing up the coffee maker, feeding the baby, tuning out the cartoons, moving the next load of laundry to the dryer, and clearing up the week's clutter. but sometimes a moment is all you need to find a little nugget of inspiration.

while making breakfast this morning, we started talking about "saigon cinnamon"--how it's much more flavorful than regular cinnamon and how it would be perfect for the new banana walnut honey pancake recipe we're trying out. in typical stream of consciousness form, my mind meandered over to thoughts of "miss saigon," one of my favorite musicals. so off i went to youtube, to watch a little snippet of "sun and moon."

in my grey fleece bathrobe, with a ponytail and glasses on, sure, i belted it out along with kim and chris, the main characters. trust me, it was a sight to behold. but then i found the real gem: an audition clip of lea salonga trying out for the part of kim in front of claude-michel schonberg, nicholas hytner, cameron mackintosh and alain boublil, the writers and producers of the musical. it was astounding.

here was this sweet, simple girl, who asked for an autograph before she  started to sing, and happened to bring them to their knees after she  sang.

it was a great reminder that the people you admire, who have achieved fame and fortune, are still real people: chasing their dreams, pounding the pavement, and doing the best with the gifts they've been given. in her case, that gift just happens to be a voice like an angel, as ethereal as the sun and moon about which she sings.

the meaning of grace

when i was in grade school, one of the old school dogmas that i can recall vividly was having to memorize the baltimore catechism. yep, it was catholic school, and we had to take tests in which we would write down the meaning of the basic concepts of our faith.

somehow robotically spitting back the definitions of the "trinity" and "penance" doesn't seem like a surefire way to get people on the path to righteousness (at least for me), but there was always one concept that intrigued me: grace.

besides being, simply, a beautiful word (and the name of my sweet cousin), the concept has been running through my mind as of late. scary that i can still remember the definition buried deep in the recesses of my brain: "the state in which you are truly able to accept god's love." ok...but what if you don't believe in god.

well then you look to good ol' dictionary.com (what could be more agnostic than that!). "grace: -noun- elegance or beauty of form, manner, motion, or action." 

now i start to see why this word keeps hounding me...

seaglass is a quest for inspiration in the everyday. leave it to one of my all time heroes, bono, to give me the words to express it..."grace finds beauty in everything."

the power of anthems

last week, i wrote a post about an alan watts video that equated life to a symphony. it got me thinking about the role of music in expressing human emotion and, at the core, making us feel. love, hate, joy, sorrow, suspense, excitement, connection, loneliness, defeat, triumph—there are few things that can move us, that can truly capture our raw feelings, like music.

so this post is about anthems. what do i mean by "anthems"? not the songs they play on the radio ad infinitum, on ten different stations, nearly every minute of every day, so by default they are seared onto your brain, and your lips mouth the words, whether voluntarily or not ("p-p-p-po-ker-face...").

no i'm talking about songs that stir you. that make you stop in your tracks. that interrupt your pattern of daily existence and rock you...to the core.

anthems can be motivating, inspiring—but the true power lies in the fact that they're timeless: they are at once emblems of where you came from and the spark to get you where you're going. when you're in a funk, they can fuel your fire. when you're running out of gas and you can't run another minute, an anthem comes on and you can run another mile.

i could list off countless anthems that move me, in just about every genre from rock to pop to r&b and punk, but i'll pick one of my all time favorites, and it's not just because it was the sopranos' swan song (i was after all in the journey fan club back in the day). it's an oldie, but still such a goodie: "don't stop believing".

this song had all the essential ingredients for a killer anthem: great lyrics, a catchy hook, sweet guitar riffs, big hair and bad outfits. but just in case you'd beg to differ, that's another reason anthems rock: because they're personal.

they sum up you, your ethos, your call to arms...and they make great fodder for "best song ever" debates. so fire up your lighter, put your pinky, thumb and index finger in their best devil horn formation, or throw on your dancing shoes if that's your flavor...and rock on!