Gratitude is a quality similar to electricity: it must be produced and discharged and used up in order to exist at all. ~William Faulkner
The good part of cancer is the best part of life; it is being grateful. Yesterday I recieved the most wonderful gift and it was a gift that went on for 6 hours! I was showered with words of encouragement, song and funds. A large contingency of Memphis music songwriters got together and did a benefit for Cecil and I to help with our battle with cancer.
Memphis musicians are a community, a tribe, and a family. We share experiences like stolen instruments, parking tickets, little or no tips and the loud drunk who thinks your music sucks or maybe even worse, who thinks your music is SO GOOD that he wants to get on stage and help you with it!!
We also share our illnesses. Even more so because so many of us are living on the edge financially. It breaks my heart to consider how many of our community have suffered illness with no insurance or little funds in the bank.
And it is in times of illness that this family of musicians really band together.
They say that " #feeling blessed " is the most overused hashtag on the net right now. So I am not going there. But let me share a verse that describes my feelings right now.
Luke 6:38--Give, and it will be given to you; a good measure-pressed down, shaken together, and running over-will be poured into your lap.
There are too many to thank properly but I do want to thank folks like Frank McClellan, Mark Parsell, Cyndi Bothwell, Bart Mathews, Danny Day, and good grief sooo many of the beautiful musicians that GAVE of their talent and time to bring us their precious gift of music. Cecil and I came home last night in a sort of daze.
One thing that cancer has done for me is slow my frantic behind down. I have to stop. I don't have the energy to keep up that pace. And when you slow down, you begin to take the time to think about your life a bit. If I ever wondered about my life being one of connection, then yesterday I got a bit of closure on that one.
As each and every one of the folks that performed got on the stage they began to tell stories of how they met Cecil and I, or how we touched their lives. I was blown away.
Yesterday I was Jimmy Stewart, and I reached into my pocket to find Zuzu's petals still there, and my friends around me, and I was rich.
So thank you my songwriting family. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
We will be leaving on Tuesday to go to the Cancer Treatment Center of America. I will recieve treatments to hopefully heal the cancer, but the healing started with the love shown to me and the love still to come.
Whatever be the depth of woe
Along the path that I must go,
I'll sing my song—
My song of joy for all the love
That's lavished on us from above,
And count no loss of treasure-trove
When things go wrong.
I'll sing the sunlight, and the bright
Soft smiling stars that gem the night;
For gifts of good
That God hath spread along my way,
The lilt of birds in tuneful play,
The harvests full and flowers gay,
The whole day long
I'll sing my song
Of gratitude!
~John Kendrick Bangs (1862-1922), "My Song" (October Twenty-sixth)
The Cheery Way:A Bit of Verse For Every Day, 1920
No comments:
Post a Comment