Blog Posts

Songs for Our Journey 46

8/13/2020

Photo © Lorie Hollar

Lately with the pandemic and the other big changes in our country, impermanence has been on my mind quite a bit, as I am sure it is for many of us. And reading the wonderful book In Love With The World: A Monk's Journey Through the Bardos of Living and Dying by Tibetan Monk Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche for the second time, I am more in love than ever with a phrase he uses to describe impermanence: the continuity of change.

Hearing the word "impermanence" my attention tends to go to what I don't want to lose. With "continuity of change" we see the truth of the world....that life is a river of always new always new always new again. And Yongey Mingyur points out that it is in seeing the impermanence of every "thing", including our thoughts, emotions, and bodies, we can notice that which is not a thing. That which does not change at all. The pristine empty awareness that is our true nature. I dedicate this song to the Buddhist tradition, and to Rinpoche Yongey Mingyur for the beautiful teachings he passes on in his book, especially that magical phrase, which I have of course included in the song.

Die Before You Die
© K Hannan 2020
Mutu Kabla Anta Mutu - Islamic phrase meaning Die Before You Die
La Illaha Il Allah - There is only one God, God

Mutu Kabla Anta Mutu
Mutu Kabla Anta Mutu
Mutu Kabla Anta Mutu
La Illaha Il Allah
Mmmm Hmmm

Die before your body dies
Leave all thoughts about yourself behind
In silence watch the continuity of change
La Illaha Il Allah
Mmmm Hmmm

La Illaha Il Allah
La Illaha Il Allah
La Illaha Il Allah
Die before you die
Die before you die

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Songs for Our Journey 45

8/6/2020

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The Tao Te Ching is my favorite book, and Stephen Mitchell's is my favorite translation. There is no run-around with Lao Tzu.
He goes straight to the essentials. And of all his verses
I think this one is my favorite; it sums up the truth so succinctly.

See The World As Yourself
lyrics Lao Tzu from translation by Stephen Mitchell
melody © K Hannan

See the world as yourself
Have faith in the way things are
See the world as yourself
Have faith in the way things are

Love the world as yourself
Love the world as yourself
Loving the world as you love Love itself

See how you shine in everything
Now you can care for all things
Now you can care for all things

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Songs for Our Journey 44

6/17/2020

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I wrote this song in 1994 after hearing a South African man and woman being interviewed on the radio. They were standing in line waiting to vote in the first free South African elections. The man said, "That this has finally happened in my lifetime, I am filled with joy, like a dreaming child." The woman followed, "We only know what has gone before, we can't say what's coming now."

I was struck by the balance between the visionary and the practical, even skeptical. Perhaps that balance is what is needed to create change.

June 13, 2020
In the Georgia primaries this week people stood for 4, 5, 6 hours, many of them wearing masks, to cast their votes during the pandemic. And Republicans in Iowa want to rescind universal voting by mail after the highest ever primary turnout thanks to universal voting by mail.

It seems like it's time to sing this song again.

May we vote out the people who do not want everyone to vote, towards the day when we will finally have truly democratic elections in the USA. Love, Kathleen

Count My Heart
© K Hannan 1994

"That this should finally happen in my lifetime,
I am filled with joy, like a dreaming child."
"We only know what has gone before,
can't say what is coming now."

But this has finally happened in our lifetime
We are filled with joy, like the mountainside
So we stand in line
Thousands at a time
To be counted

Count my heart, which is beating
Count my eyes, which are open
Count my children, my sisters, my brothers
whose hearts were once beating
Their voices once sang with us
Their spirits will always sing

Their spirits will always sing
Freedom is coming.... Freedom is coming
Freedom is coming.... Freedom is coming
Freedom is coming we paid with our lives
Because no one gives freedom away

Freedom is coming.... Freedom is coming
Freedom is coming.... Freedom is coming
Freedom is coming, we're coming to take it
'Cause no one gives freedom away
Because no one gives freedom way

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Songs for Our Journey 43

5/18/2020

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I wrote this song in 1979 in Hinesburg, Vermont, and sang it in a band called Witch One. Then in 1993, bandmates Deb Venn and Organa met me in Maryland to make this recording. The photos are from 2017 in Hillsborough, NC. I still love snow peas, and I still love this song, but I do sing it a bit slower now! . Blessings to you and to your gardens. Love, Kathleen

Peas
© K Hannan 1979

Well I know life isn't easy
And I've heard love doesn't last
Still I'm lookin' for some answers
As my days go rollin' past
It was late last Friday afternoon
I was down on my hands and knees...
Found the truth temporarily
In the garden pickin' peas

chorus
In the garden pickin' peas
By the twos and fours and threes
I found a sign in the grand design
Of the tendrils and the leaves
We'll steam some up for dinner
There'll be plenty left to freeze
Meantime I've found peace of mind
Pickin' edible pod snow peas

Well it's hard to explain what happened
As I crawled along that day
Mosquitos buzzed around my head
Stingin' nettles got in my way
And I wasn't thinkin' bout all that much
When it was suddenly clear to me
That hangin' there was a sweet truth
In each edible pod snow pea

chorus

Well I guess truth isn't permanent
And visions fade away
Cause where I once saw answers
There are only peas today
But I'm keepin' my eyes wide open
And I'm tryin' to be aware
Cause next month the watermelon's gettin' ripe
And there's bound to be some answers there

chorus

Yeah next month the watermelon's gettin' ripe
And there's bound...... to be some answers there!

One more story about this song. In 1980 I think it was, or 1979, Witch One played at a music festival called Getting To The Same Place. It was in New Hampshire as I recall, and Organa got us booked by telling the organizers that they did not have any Lesbian band booked yet, and they needed one. To their credit, they booked us, despite our lack of fame. So we were booked at the last minute and shared the stages with Paul Winter, Ram Dass and others. At the time I didn't know who Ram Dass was. I was pretty much a nervous wreck after we played our four song set on an outdoor stage, and I put on a poncho and a hat to try and disguise myself. Moments later, Ram Dass walked right up to me in the crowd and thanked me for the Peas song. He said that it was a match for where he was at, trying to see the sacred in everyday things like doing the dishes. Of course, finding the sacred in a patch of snow peas is quite a bit easier than in doing dishes, but I knew what he meant. And I was grateful for his kindness, which took the edge off my fear.

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Songs for Our Journey 42

5/13/2020

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Om Mane Pehme Hung
Om Mane Pehme Hung
Om Mane Pehme Hung
Om Mane Pehme Hung

This particular melody for the most well beloved chant in Tibetan Buddhism was taught to Darvesha MacDonald, one of the Sufis in the Dances of Universal Peace leadership, by a Tibetan monk named Lama Ngawang Tashi Bapu. He told her that when he was a child, his village would keep chanting this melody for days during festival times. Then when he went to join a monastery, at a young age, he felt lonely until soon after he arrived, when the monks all gathered and sang this same melody that he knew in his village. Then he knew he was at home.

The chant translates as "The Jewel is in the Lotus".
The awakened heart of the buddha is present in all of us.
I have read that in some Buddhist traditions people envision
a tiny little Avalokiteshvara (Buddha of Compassion)
in their heart as they sing this.

This recording is available on my CD,
Seen & Unseen, Songs from the Light of Midlife.
You can order/purchase that CD here.

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Songs for Our Journey 41

4/8/2020

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The moon was full tonight, which reminded me of this song.
I wrote it in Philly when I was a nanny for Max and Ben,
and then I sang it with Erdin from when she was younger
than she is in the picture. We signed in ASL as we sang it,
which makes the song extra beautiful. Then I sang it
with my nieces, and lots of kids in preschool music classes.
The song took on a new meaning
for me years later, when I learned that in many
Eastern traditions, the moon represents Consciousness.

The Moon Shines Over
© K Hannan circa 1990

The moon shines over the houses
The moon shines over the trees
Sometimes the moon gets very small
Sometimes the moon is round like a ball
Sometimes I can't even see the moon at all
But the moon always comes back.....to me!

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Songs for Our Journey 40

4/4/2020

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The Midst of Spring
© K Hannan 2020
(A couple of words have changed since I recorded this...
but I love the birds on this recording, so I am leaving it as is.
The lyrics below are the way I sing it now. )

Down by the creekside, in the midst of spring
We hear a little bird, lift her voice and sing
Lift her voice and lift her voice
Lift her voice and sing
We hear a little bird
Lift her voice and sing

Out by the roadside, bright sun upon their lace
Flowers of the Dogwood, sing Amazing Grace
Sing amazing sing amazing, sing Amazing Grace
Flowers of the Dogwood
Sing Amazing Grace

Love in the beginning, Love in the end
Love is the center, all of life's our friend
All of life and all of life, all of life's our friend
Love in the center
All of Life's our friend
Love in the center
All of Life's our friend

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Songs for Our Journey 39

11/20/2019

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This song came through on an evening when I fell into a triggered emotional state in which I was angry at someone else, angry at myself, and I felt very lost. When the friends who had been at my house went home, I went out and lay down on the ground to meditate, and to connect to my body, to the earth, to the night. In a very short timeless few moments, the feelings overflowed, the thoughts moved on, and I opened my eyes to see the brilliance of Orion above me in the sky, with Mars following close behind. The emotional turmoil was completely gone, and I felt deeply at peace. I went indoors to my piano, and within another few moments, this song had been born. Now, many years later, the song is a reminder that thoughts and feelings are always just passing through, and that just a few moments of turning inside can be profoundly liberating.

Like A Ruby
© K Hannan 2003

Sometimes I get lost and
Sometimes I can't see and
Sometimes I get lonely
I get lonely, and

Sometimes I forget and
Sometimes I can't feel and
Sometimes I get lonely
Still get lonely but

Sometimes I remember to
Fall down on the ground and
Watch Mars, shine like a ruby
Orion comin' up
Sorrow gone, gone
Sorrow gone

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Songs for Our Journey 38

10/30/2019

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These two songs were created a decade apart, but they became very good friends and are always sung together now. Sometime after hearing Joseph Campbell say that we should create new myths,
I noticed that Orion looks to me like a woman belly dancing,
and that Canis Major with it's bright star Sirius, is a little girl dancing with her mother, and the Orion song was born. Perhaps Sirius is the ringing of finger cymbals that the little girl is playing!

And Out Of The Dark, written ten years earlier, comes out of my love of the night, and of the creativity, music and joy that over, over and over comes out of the silence of the dark.

Orion
© K Hannan 1997
I will trade these chains for wings
across the hills I'll fly
I will trade these chains for wings
across these hills I'll fly
Orion reaches out her arms to me
Orion reaches out to dance with me
We are the lovers of the dark
We are the keepers of the night
We are the lovers of the dark
Keeping time in the winter sky
Keeping time in the winter sky
Keeping time in the winter sky
Keeping time
Orion
and I

Out Of The Dark
© K Hannan 1987
Out of the dark, the dancers come
Each one alone, we dance as One
Through all the changes, still we come
Dance into the morning!

Bird on the wing was born to fly
She will not stay, though we may cry
She sings a song up in the sky
Dance into the morning!

Sorrowful tears I cry today
Far from my home and I've lost my way
Somehow a voice inside will say
Dance into the morning!

In every land, by a different name,
There is a dance, One Dance the same
Leave all the reasons for fear and blame
You can dance into the morning!

Out of the dark the dancers come
Each one alone, we dance as One
Through all the change, change, change, change
Dance into the morning
Dance into the morning
Dance into the mor...........................ning!

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Songs for Our Journey 37

10/24/2019

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What The Baby Knows
© K Hannan 2000
Did you rock all night?
Did you hold her so close?
Did your heart fall open like a flower?
Did her breath rise sweet in between your breath?
Did you almost remember what the baby knows?

What the baby knows, the baby knows
The baby knows just where the love comes from

Did she draw you in to her eyes so deep?
Did she call you back to the beginning?
With no words to say, did she teach you to pray?
Did she light a candle in your temple?

What the baby knows, the baby knows
The baby knows just where the love comes from
***********************************************

When my niece Rose was born I went to visit in Chicago, and the What The Baby Knows song was born out of that sweet time of being with the miracle of a tiny new life. A few short years later Rose and I and her sister Celia recorded some songs in their basement. The photo above is from that session. I have posted three versions below of a song that we wrote that week. The first one is sung by Celia, who I believe was 2 at the time. The second one is the whole family, and the third one is Rose's improv on the tune!
This year, Rose started college!