Category: Overcoming

My Dad's Song

3/20/2018

From son to father

This is a song from a son in California, and his extended family, to a father with ALS disease in East Germany.

There are three sections of the song, representing three different phases:

Section 1 = A simple piano tune arose in son Torsten's mind, and stayed with him as he thought about his father, far across the sea, struggling with ALS

Section 2 = A short movement to represent the pain of separation and great loss

Section 3 = A weaving together of all of the pieces of a life, family members, love, old memories understood in new ways, and a gathering of love and gratitude for a beloved father. If you listen carefully you'll hear the trumpet--Torsten's father's instrument, interwoven with some electric guitar, a more youthful sound--the sounds of the father and the son. A song to lift everyone up and prepare for whatever is next in the great journey of life.

MY DAD'S SONG

All of our love to you
All of our love to you
All of our love to you...

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Out of the Blue

11/3/2016

20 Comments

Alzheimer's: Losing my dad

Me and my dad, in his final hours

Two months ago, my dad died. The experience of losing him was slow and gradual, because he had Alzheimer's Disease. It was also quick, because the difference between near-death and actual death turns out to be pretty sudden and profound. But above all, my dad's death felt magical to me, because loving my dad was always a magical experience, from the time I was tiny and he was creating birthday magic shows, Halloween haunted houses, treasure hunts to the town dump and movies starring us kids, until the very late stages of his life with this challenging disease when he was asking me deep and caring questions about my view of the world. His death felt magical because it ended with singing. My mom, sister, brother and I all held hands around his bedside and sang "Dona Nobes Pacem" ("Bring Us Peace") - a favorite round in my family - in his final hours. What follows is one song about my dad and mom, in honor of National Alzheimer's Disease Awareness Month, and two others to round out the story of my dad and my family's journey with Alzheimer's.

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Beauty In Me

9/9/2013

2 Comments

TOPIC: Navigating Through Pain into Self-Discovery

Waking Up to Your Own Beauty

There is magic all OVER the story of this song.

When Rose approached me at the end of a yoga class where I had been playing interpretive guitar, neither of us could have imagined the journey we were about to take, together and separately, in the bringing to life of this song. Rose says, "It feels so good to FEEL again," with an acknowledgement that this song helped that to happen in her life. There have been 4 (!!) magical things that have occurred already (!!) regarding this song and its short life. And probably more to come, we if keep our eyes open, now that it is "out there" and ready to meet the world...

"Beauty In Me" - Free Download
File Size:	5860 kb
File Type:	mp3

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Of Grace and Gratitude

3/15/2013

4 Comments

TOPIC: WAKING UP INSIDE YOURSELF

A Journey Into a Deeper Place of Gratitude From Within

This week I completed the 200th song I've written and recorded in the studio! And I wanted to share with you that I've discovered that the one song I listen to the most of all, out of all of those two hundred--the one I am moved by, on a regular basis, is one I created just last year, entitled, "Of Grace and Gratitude."

"Of Grace and Gratitude" - Free Download
File Size:	5990 kb
File Type:	mp3

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4 Comments

Angels On Us

2/13/2013

6 Comments

TOPIC: Anna in a Blinding Snowstorm, Driving Toward the One She Loves

Love, After Taking a Breath and Entering Back In

"Angels On Us" - Free Download
File Size:	4236 kb
File Type:	mp3

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Anna Huckabee Tull: Love All Over the Place

This month I am sending you a song of LOVE that starts in a BLIZZARD of "nothing but white" and celebrates what it means to keep on reminding ourselves to REACH FORWARD, even when we find ourselves pulling back from love and connection. Read on to learn the story.

6 Comments

Bright Eyes - An Update

1/30/2013

3 Comments

TOPIC: A Father Dies of Lou Gehrig's Disease and Leaves Behind a Song for his Daughter

A Fond Farewell From A Father "Locked In" With ALS

Yesterday at 1:30 PM Andy Eddowes gave up his long struggle with ALS/Lou Gehrig's Disease and quietly passed away.

Today I want to share with you the song Andy created with me for his 12-year-old daughter, despite the fact that he was unable to speak or move, because of his disease.

"Bright Eyes" - Free Download
File Size:	4018 kb
File Type:	mp3

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3 Comments

Dare to Rise

1/23/2013

11 Comments

TOPIC: A Song That Invites You to See Life All Around You, Anew

What Would Happen if You Dared to Rise?

I once heard a woman speak, and what she had to say was so powerful that it it instantaneously and dramatically changed almost everything about the way I eat, that very day. And I have deeply, meaningfully stayed with this shift, two full years later.

Not long after that, I was asked by this same woman to partner with her to create a song that honors the Unitarian Universalist principal, "Honor All Beings." It took longer for me to write this song than any song I have ever written in my life - months and months and months.

But from the moment it was finally created, this song started spreading to new places. It made its way all the

"Dare to Rise" - Free Download
File Size:	7687 kb
File Type:	mp3

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Tell the Truth

6/6/2012

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TOPIC: Coming to grips with being honest with self

"Tell the Truth" - Free Download
File Size:	3950 kb
File Type:	mp3

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TELL THE TRUTH
Anna Huckabee Tull & Ksenia Mack

I've been being held hostage by my desire to tell you
Something other than what's been going down
And I believe this is costing me just a little bit more than
I believe I need to charge myself this time around

I been messing with the pieces
Trying to get myself to believe this (tell)
Tell the truth now (oh, tell)
Tell the truth now.

I've been being held hostage by my desire to paint some
Oil on canvas of me farther down the road than I am
And I believe this is robbing me of my ability
To just explore the good fortune of all that I can

I've been measuring relief out
With an eye-drop and a tweezer, now (tell)
Tell the truth now (I got to, got to, got to tell)
Tell the truth now.

And I don't have to wait 'till someone asks me
And I don't have to wait for catastrophe to comes to pass here
And I don't need a crisis in order to come forth
And I don't need to be the one I 'm waiting for (tell)
I can tell the truth now (I can tell)
I can tell the truth now.

And I don't have to wait 'till someone asks me
And I don't have to wait for catastrophe to come to pass here
And I don't need a crisis just to come forth
And I can go if I'm the only one I was...waiting for
To tell the truth now...I'll tell the tell the tell the tell
I can tell the truth now.
Tell!

(c) Anna Huckabee Tull & Ksenia Mack

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Cynthia

6/6/2012

0 Comments

TOPIC: Grieving the loss of a sister who struggled with mental illness and died early

"Cynthia" - Free Download
File Size:	8894 kb
File Type:	mp3

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The Blessing

1/1/2012

1 Comment

A Mother Copes with the Loss of Her Unborn Baby

TOPIC: Miscarriage

"The Blessing" - Free Download
File Size:	6261 kb
File Type:	mp3

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The flower: Daphne

THE STORY
I get invited along on some pretty intense journeys with commissioned songwriting. This one took me to a place few people even talk about beyond the boundaries of quiet whispers and private family conversations. Jen came to me two years ago asking for a song to help her heal. She and her husband Dan had one child and were in the process of trying to conceive another. But they had been beset by a painful miscarriage which seemed both to stand in the way of Jen's moving forward toward conception again, and, too, of Jen's ability to feel the support of Dan. Jen brought her journals and the one book I have ever seen containing poetry about miscarriage to the song-interview. It was at that point that it hit me how very "unspoken" this kind of loss can be in our culture. She described to me the circumstances of her miscarriage, the shock, the sadness, the confusion, the doubt. And then she told me of how she had made the decision to plant some flowers--called daphnes--in her garden as a way of commemorating the life that was lost. I was particularly struck by the image of a flower rising up each year come spring, and that image became a central piece of the song.

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<<Previous

My Dad's Song

From son to father

Out of the Blue

Alzheimer's: Losing my dad

Beauty In Me

Waking Up to Your Own Beauty

Of Grace and Gratitude

A Journey Into a Deeper Place of Gratitude From Within

Angels On Us

Love, After Taking a Breath and Entering Back In

Bright Eyes - An Update

A Fond Farewell From A Father "Locked In" With ALS

Dare to Rise

What Would Happen if You Dared to Rise?

Tell the Truth

Cynthia

The Blessing

A Mother Copes with the Loss of Her Unborn Baby

Song of the Month

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