Saturday morning, and there is much to do.  There’s just not the spark to launch myself into a “to do” list.  My quotient of energy is at low ebb.  On account of many concerns, there does not seems to be a lot “left in the tank.”  Is not every genuine concern a personal concern?

I read of severe drought conditions in California, Washington state and much of the West.  I have never lived in California, but the conditions there affect me.  In the future I expect to receive news of out-of-control wild fires in California.   Year after year of drought means the soil is depleted of moisture.  The snow melt from the mountains is absorbed into the thirsty ground, rather than running off into the rivers to resupply shrinking lakes and reservoirs.  The fire season will come.  Are sections of California to become uninhabitable?  The fate of California’s residents is my concern.

And there are many other such concerns having to do with Nature, with the Earth that is our home.  The temptation is to allow a shock wave of fear to trigger an improvident act, or a series of actions which do nothing but exacerbate our condition.  Is pausing to do nothing, pausing to assess, to observe what is happening, from a place of inner calm, —  the first step to a remedy?  Is the pause, nothing less than a movement of love, of recognizing what we took for granted?

What do you think?

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There is always music, rhythm, rhyme, and harmony to say what is impossible to say or write in discursive speech.  This magnificent tune by Survivor, The Search Is Over, is one such tune.  On the face of the lyric, the song is about a “taken for granted” relationship that turns out to be the love of a lifetime.  There is no denying this truth.  How often do we take for granted all manner of things that are worthy of our love, of our solicitude?  I think that most if not all of the fractures between humankind and Nature fall into this category.

Let’s just listen….

The Search Is Over

By Survivor

How can I convince you
What you see is real
Who am I to blame you
For doubting what you feel

I was always reachin’
You were just a girl I knew
I took for granted
The friend I had in you

I was living for a dream
Loving for a moment
Taking on the world
That was just my style
Now I look into your eyes
I can see forever
The search is over
You were with me all the while

Can we last forever
Will we fall apart
At times it’s so confusing
The questions of the heart

You followed me through changes
And patiently you’d wait
‘Till I came to my senses through
Some miracle of fate

I was living for a dream
Loving for a moment
Taking on the world
That was just my style
Now I look into your eyes
I can see forever
The search is over
You were with me all the while

Now the miles stretch out behind me
Loves that I have lost
Broken hearts lie, victims of the game
Then good luck, it finally struck
Like lighting from the blue
Every highway’s leading me back to you

Now at last I hold you
Now all is said and done
The search has come full circle
Our destinies are one

So if you ever loved me
Show me that you give a damn
You’ll know for certain
The man I really am

I was living for a dream
Loving for a moment
Taking on the world
That was just my style
Then I touched your hand
I could hear you whisper
The search is over
Love was right before my eyes

Lyrics composed by Jim Peterik, Frank Micheal Sullivan III