Alabama Boy

Sweet Alabama boy, you filled my heart with joy

The first time you came running down the road

You claimed you loved me true, and I know I loved you too

As you ran barefoot with a heart that overflowed

Imagine the surprise in my starry lovestruck eyes

When you sealed the deal by handing me a toad

Chorus:

I ran straight inside and for hours I just cried

I sobbed and my heart you did destroy

My pa said don't you worry and don't be in no hurry

He is just a boy from Alabam

Right now your heart is sore, but don't you cry no more

Someday you'll find an Alabama man

A few years past by when by now we both were ten

This time you came carrying a box

You gave it one more shot with that confidence you've got

I twisted up my golden sun-kissed locks

Imagine my displeasure when opened up the treasure

Baseball cards, bubble gum and river rocks

(Chorus)

When we were seventeen I was the county queen

And you were still a scrawny scruffy kid

So imagine my delight when I looked into the night

And you caught me with the next thing that you did

You lit up the night skies with a hundred jars of fireflies

My heart took flight when you opened up the lids

When you were twenty four, you volunteered for war

I cried and wrote you every day

The day you didn't write me back my whole world turned to black

I fell to my knees and I did pray

Just bring me back my joy, my Alabama boy

Just bring him home and keep him here to stay

Then you knocked on the door and I nearly hit the floor

I could not believe that you were right before my eyes

You knelt down on your wounded knee to say please marry me

With a diamond like a star plucked from the skies

Your eyes were filled with tears but after all these years

Sweet Alabama man, you won me after all your tries.

Dusty Songs

Get out your dusty songs

And I'll bring my words along

Bring your dusty melodies of old

It could be that we spin some works of gold

Could be in the end

We might write a few in pen

Or maybe we'll just let them float on by

Either way it'd sure be fun to try

They say to leap and the net will just appear

And if it don't well it's not far to fall from here.

So sit on the porch and play

And we might just find a way

To strike a chord that sounds the way it should

And if we don't we could laugh and quit for good

Get a washboard and a jug

And we'll play to the lightning bugs

Those critters dance to almost any tune

The air is sweet underneath the August moon

So bring your dusty songs

They've been on the shelf too long

Bring 'em out to see the light of day

We can start any time you want to play

All Creation Groans

“Did you read what they said about me in the paper?”

“Yes.”

“Why do people have to be so cruel. The world is so negative.”

“Don't worry about it. Besides it's not all negative. Some people love you.”

“Maybe once. Not any more.”I'm so tired of being criticized.”

“You'll get over it. Just go do your job.”

“My job is useless; I wanted to do something with my life.”

“You are doing something. You're having a huge impact and you're doing a lot of good.”

“I'm so depressed”

“Look, you change the world in small ways; you just don't see it because the change is gradual. People really do like you. Just do your best and everything will work out.”

“I feel like I'm exploding inside.”

“You need to relax. Go to bed a few minutes earlier each night an you'll see the difference it makes.”

“I feel like I'm burning out. I don't have the same energy that used to. “

“Come on. It's almost sunrise. It's time for you to get to work. People are depending on you to be there."

“Ok. I'll do it, but just today. Then tomorrow I'll quit.”

“You're not going to quit."

"I might."

"No, you'll carry on. You're the sun. I've given you everything you need. Just be yourself and you'll be fine. I created you, and you are mine. If I didn't think you could do what I made you to do, I wouldn't have put you where you are. I'm the one who comes to wake you every morning, just so that you can participate in my plan. I have chosen you, even if you haven't chosen me. Remember, I am the creator, you are the work of my hands.”

Such protests sound absurd coming from the sun; how much more ridiculous must they sound coming from us, created just a little lower than the angels. You have a purpose and even if you don't quite know what it is yet, God has a plan for you. Patiently wait as it unfolds. Be thankful in the morning and know that whatever comes to you today, you can handle it with grace. Those obstacles that seem to block your way are no more than clouds in the face of the sun. If the sun rose today to do its job, you can too.

The same creator who woke up the sun, who kept the sea in it's place and mountains in theirs is the one who created you. If your problems are too much for you to handle, remember they're not too much for him. Life is not always about over coming obstacles; sometimes it's about radiating God's gifts to us so that they may burn away the clouds. How sweet must the sound of praise be in the morning when all creation groans.

Purse of Words

My purse of words teams full
Like the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow
It spills over with treasures I did not merit on my own
Today I was going to take that purse and move away
But it was too heavy, and leaving it behind did not seem right

I decided then to sit here for a while

Next to this treasure and share it with the world
Perhaps in doing so, someone might be made the richer
And my burden might be lightened sufficiently to move on

It is good to pause before a journey

To take stock of what has happened
Since arriving in this place
Good to collect one's thoughts and share those gifts
That still have value to someone, but that are too big to carry all alone

My gift is not in earning wealth through toil,

My gift is in knowing that wide expanse of opportunity
Found between this disappointment and the next
My gift is understanding the vastness of the space
Between two ordinary things

The subtle distance between the drops of rain
The space between the beads where one could decide
To throw it all away, or move forward to the next state of grace
It is in these forgotten places that that life and hope emerge
It is here that the soul lives freely, but here that men fear to dwell

When the angels weep for what we've done, or failed to do
When the heavens cannot contain those sorrowful tears
When in a deluge of grief they fall from the sky,
The space is known more fully

It is that space the sun fills up with ease to produce a rainbow

Seeing those millions of tiny spaces lit up
With colour and beauty and grace,
Men feel joy and say there is hope! There is treasure! There is love!

I feel that same rejuvenation in this one tiny space before me

I feel it in the countless empty spaces of my life
Today I shine if for no other reason than to light that space
That others too many know the beauty to be found here
If the rain should fall, I will still shine and the s p a c e will still exist

And on that rainy day you may find a rainbow
If you dare to raise your head toward the heavens, follow it.

Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also
My treasure is here amid the words
If I could keep one Word for myself,
I would happily dispense with all the rest