I wrote this song in a joyful moment after many months of healing.  It's a long story, which perhaps I will post at some point.  But the way I got well was through slowing way down and meditating a lot.  In that process I learned that connecting with gravity in a deep way, relaxing the body, and watching the breath is a doorway to awareness of the deep peace, joy and love at our core.  This song was a celebration of that peace which is always available when we turn our awareness in the direction, as Adyashanti says, of "that which is not thought". 

Got Enough Socks
© K Hannan 2003
Got enough socks, got enough shoes
Got enough reasons to sing the blues
What I need, you can't buy in a store
Found a little nothing on a back road
And I want a little bit more

Nothin' on my mind, no fear in my heart
Nothin' to finish, and nothin' to start
When I get nowhere, no reason to leave
I'll just sit down there, on the grass and breathe

Got enough shirts, got enough hats
Got enough info-mercials, and enough talk radio facts
What I need, any fool would choose
Found a little nothin' at midnight now
I got nothin' to lose

Nothin' to say, nothin' to prove
I got nothin' in the way of a real slow groove
When I get a lot of nothing saved up gonna share it with you
Gonna throw a party, and give y'all
Nothin' to do
 

Although spring has not yet sprung fully in the PIedmont of North Carolina, we are feeling it starting with jonquils and forsythia and tulips and flowering trees and some little tiny leaves peeking out.  All this excitement has gotten me singing this song, about the truth of who we are.  

In the spring of 2003 I discovered, in a deep meditation, my own heart.  As I walked around in the world, I saw that the same heart is at the core of everyone and everything.   When the next Christmas season rolled around, I saw the Christmas story in a new way.  The baby Jesus brought love into the world, the same way every child does, because the divine heart of Jesus is the same divine heart we all share.   I wrote this song to express the joy of that One heart in every child, and in every grownup too, and in every tree, river, rock, earthworm.  The baby in the photo above is my sister Meg, and I am the toddler checking her out in amazement.  Where did this creature come from?  Meg was born in summertime, June 7th, 1951.

The picture above is of the very first Human to Human Circle Dance and Sing outdoor meetup, in Downtown Durham. Although we did not sing the song below, the lyrics to which are a poem by Rumi, I feel this song captures the spirit of what it was like.  People we had not met joined us in song and dance, and it was a truly joyful experience to, as Rumi says, "move outside the tangle of our minds" together. Our next meetup will probably be the last Saturday in October.  If you'd like to be on the mailing list for Human to Human meetup notifications, please visit www.humantohumancircledanceandsing.weebly.com 

A friend wrote to me this week and asked for this song, for a Queen of Heaven celebration she was doing for Beltane.  So I'm posting it here with wishes to everyone for a beautiful Beltane season of green and passion and reclaimed feminine power.  The Maria in this song is an embodied Goddess.  She is passionate, sensual, an activist, a lover.  She is Tara, Kali, Oshun, Venus, Mary. She is you and me.  She is all women  around the world, speaking out, standing up, and creating with the natural compassion and understanding that comes from being mothers, daughters, sisters, grandmothers, aunts. She is also men of course, and children,  and every rock, tree, river and earthworm.. May we all trust, live and create from the limitless freedom within each of our hearts.  Blessed Be. 

This song came through many years ago while I was lying on a huge rock next to the Schuylkill River in Fairmount Park in Philadelphia, crying my heart out over a relationship that was transforming.  A beautiful oak tree was growing out of the rock, and as the song was born my sorrowful feelings washed through with the sound of the river, and I was left feeling whole, and at peace with the way things were.  

Of the songs I've written in my lifetime, this is the one that has truly entered the folk stream. People sing this song in Vermont, Maine, Virginia, New York, Massachusetts, North Carolina, and Florida, and possibly places in between. It has travelled to places I have not been, and met people I have not met.    Having grown up singing traditional songs, I love that this song has a life of it's own, and I hope that it will be one of many songs honoring Earth and honoring the Mother  that will continue to thrive in our country.  

I wrote this song many years ago, and we usually sing it in Bodies, Voices & Spirit Chorus  just one night of the year. After seeing daffodils and trout lillies blooming on Tuesday, I knew this is the week to sing it! One thing I love about this song is that people tend to want to dance while they're singing it. Imagine a room full of the Faerie people flitting about, and you'll see what I saw the past couple of nights as the Choristas celebrated this moment out of time.  

You can purchase Seen & Unseen on this website  Order Seen & Unseen CD
And you can purchase KIVA's recording through their website www.kivasong.com

This recording was made at Unity Center of Peace in April of 2017. The musicians and singers are the Bodies, Voices & Spirit Chorus and Band, along with the congregation at Unity, with whom we love to sing because they love to sing!    
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Who Makes The Grass Grow?
© K Hannan 2017

Who makes the grass grow?
Who makes the wind blow?
Who are you without the stories that you tell?
There's just one thing happening
We see it shine in everything
Only One, and that One is your Heart

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This song came through with deep gratitude to Byron Katie for the gift of her 4 questions and turnarounds, known at The Work.  

To discover who you are without one of your stories,
take any stressful thought and put it up to these questions:

1. Is it true?
2. Can you absolutely know that it's true?
3. How do you react when you believe that thought?
4. Who would you be without the thought?

Now take your original thought and turn it to as many opposites as you can find.  Then find genuine examples of where each turnaround could be as true or truer than your original thought.

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To watch Byron Katie doing the Work with people,
and to find out how to do the Work yourself,
check out Katie's website  www.thework.com 

​You can also learn how to do the Work 
by reading Byron Katie's first book, Loving What Is

And there are many videos of Katie on YouTube as well.