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Songs for Our Journey 35

6/8/2019

I watched a beautiful and moving video of the man in the photo above doing The Work inquiry with Byron Katie on his thoughts about his alcoholic mom. The beauty that shone from this man's face and heart as he connected with a truth deeper than his long-held beliefs inspired this song. Click here to see the video:
My Mother Abandoned Me For Alcohol

Never Injured
© K Hannan 2019

Never injured
Indivisible
Always here
No matter what you think about it
Turn around and find what you've always known
Love can never leave you, Love is what you are

Like a mountain
Like an ocean
Like a brilliant fire
Like an endless sky
Turn around and see what you've always known
Love can never leave you, Love is what you are

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Songs for Our Journey 34

6/5/2019

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It's the 50th anniversary of Stonewall! I'm posting this song and the next one with gratitude for the brave souls who found the self respect and courage to stand up for themselves in the fifties and sixties as GBLT people at a time when the general culture so viciously rejected them.

The first verse of this song refers to young man I met in Salt Lake City in the early nineties, whose parents had disowned him for being gay. The photo above is of a recent Utah Pride March. I just checked Wikipedia, which said that attendance in 2018 was 100,00 people.
I hope that young man, not so young by now, has been able to find reconciliation with his family as so many people have in the past 30 years.

The second verse is about an older man in Philadelphia who was speaking at a Methodist Church that had just become a "Welcoming Congregation", publicly opening it's doors to queer people for the first time, also in the early ninties. He told us that he had always known God loved him as he was, despite everything he had been told to the contrary. For me it was a pointer to an internal strength I didn't know anyone could even have!

If You've Ever Loved
© K Hannan 1993

John lives in Salt Lake City
Provo is his home town
And lately John can't seem to find a reason to go down
His dad won't speak his name
His mother says the devil's got his soul
But Christ said only one thing makes us whole

It's love that sets us free,
but love won't bring John home
And love needs friends and family
Love does not thrive alone
And if you listen with your heart, you'll understand
If you've ever loved a woman, if you've ever loved a man

I have heard truth spoken
I have seen true grace
An old man spoke of his childhood,
and tears rolled down my face
He said in my church, my school, my home
Everyone I knew said my love was a crime
But inside, I've always known, God blessed this love of mine

Cause love has set me free
Love has always been my home
And I've found friends and family
I do not live alone
And if you listen with your heart, you'll understand
If you've ever loved a woman, if you've ever loved a man

Now Christ spoke of love for everyone
That's really all he said
He terrified the mighty,
they did not rest till he was dead
But you say that Jesus lives for you
I say it's a shame
Can't you see Love flows through everyone, the same

You think that God speaks only
You think that God speaks only
You think that God speaks only to you
Well God speaks to me too

Cause love can set us free
Love can bring us all home
And love makes friends and family
Love does not thrive alone
So when you listen with your heart you'll understand
If you've ever loved a woman, if you've ever loved a man
If you've ever loved a woman
If you've ever loved a man

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Songs for Our Journey 33

6/5/2019

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This month being the 50 anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall Riots which were such an important moment in the LGBTQ liberation movement in the US, I'm posting this slide show which I made back when Amendment One, banning Gay marriage, passed in North Carolina. The law was later struck down by the US 4th Circuit and then by the Supreme Court.

I wrote this song before gay marriage was on the horizon, in 1993. I post it tonight with deep gratitude to all those who came before us in the movements for not only LGBTQ rights, but the movements for the civil rights of African Americans and of women and the anti-war movement which all inspired the gay rights movement. Nowadays we call it intersectionality, the fact that all of our issues are as interconnected as are all the ecosystems of the planet, and all the galaxies of all the universes. Although we are living through very challenging times, remembering the history of all these movements has been inspiring me tonight. I know that what is true and good in human beings cannot be destroyed, and will rise and rise and rise again for the liberation of all beings.

Been Here Forever
© K Hannan 1993
vocals - Kathleen Hannnan, Toddie Stewart, Sheila Fleming
bass - Toddie Stewart guitars - James Benson drums - Doug Karger

We've been here forever, we'll be here the same
You try to keep us away, by namin' us names
We live in your home town, with you born and bred
We come from your families, we're inside your head

Cause we're just like you, but we're different too
We're just like you, but we're different too

Throw us out of your churches
Kill us for being queer
Throw us out of your armies
Turn around look again and we're still here
We're still here, we're still here, we're still here

And our love is a miracle
Through the hatred we were taught to feel
Still our love comes, like a miracle
That's how we know it's real

We're in every nation across the whole earth
We cry at your funeral, you rejoice at our birth
We call to your spirit, minister to your health
You love us unless you're afraid of....afraid of yourself

Cause we're just like you, but we're different too
We're just like you, but we're different too
We're just like you, but we're different too
We're just like you, but we're different too
We're just like you, we're just like you!

The song is on the album Count My Heart, and can be purchased
as a download or with the whole album from cdbaby here:
https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/kathleenhannan

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Songs for Our Journey 35

Songs for Our Journey 34

Songs for Our Journey 33

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