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

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 

Here is the video of my talk and the song, "HOME,"created for TEDx WALDEN POND.

Song Audio is clearer on this mp3 audio than on the video:

I have always LOVED Ted Talks and was so honored to be invited to participate in the first TEDx to take place in my hometown of Concord, MA. It was a rare and special experience to get to stand up and share my story and this song, created specifically for this occasion. ENJOY! 

Well, loyal fans, as I write, it is the end of summer, and I thought before we waded into yet another heavy and life-altering topic, (as we will next month), I ought to cut you some slack, and throw you a light-hearted song. A downright silly song, actually. Definitely one of my silliest. This song was commissioned by a Mr. Jameson Willington Smirthington (not his real name) to help answer the question "How can I learn about FUN?" (not his real question).   I think his real question was more like, "How can I use a song to TRANSITION myself into a more happy-go-lucky state of mind?" So this song, "I Wanna Have Some Fun," is our answer to that. I had a ridiculous amount of fun recording this song, and if you choose to listen to it, make SURE you listen all the way to the END of the song, because that is where all the JUICY STUFF IS. 

Three years ago I wrote a song for a village in Ghana, Africa. From that day to this, the song has been sung by children in the village each morning, in school, right after they salute their flag.  Just this month, a music video has been created to commemorate this song,which has now been performed live by a children's choir in Australiaand has been shared as a recording in churches and at retreats all throughout the US, many times over.

I have become rather transfixed with a non-profit organization that teaches at-risk girls to find their voice, to step forward from a centered and considered place, and to believe in themselves anew.  The organization is called Girls' LEAP, and it very specifically helps girls develop a diverse set of responses to violence, beyond the extremes of passivity and escalation. Every time I get near any kind of LEAP event, I find something astonishing happening. And I find tears welling up in me, in response to it.

A SONG FOR ALL MOMS
I l-o-v-e to crank this song at top volume and feel it course through my veins.

I think this song is one of my proudest accomplishments.

Which is funny because I didn't even do all the work!

This song comes from someplace else, and I can sense my connection to that place, every time I play it. 

This song is dedicated to You, if you are a mom. To your Mom if you have one (everybody does!) It is also dedicated to my own mom. And, most importantly, it is dedicated to Erika Whitmore Godwin and Susan Godwin who collaborated together with me across the spans of time and, well...consciousness...to bring this song to you. 

A SONG FOR A TRIBE IN GHANA!
So how DOES a song for a tribe in Ghana Africa come to be, exactly? In this case, Diane visited my website and wrote a one-line email: “I’M SOLD!”  and with that we were on our way. Diane discovered the small Village of Trom while she was in Ghana working on a project with Bentley College and HUGS International to build a school in a remote village. She noticed young children regularly walking into the village to gather water, and soon learned that they were walking an hour each day to deliver water to their even more remote village, called Trom. Their tribe consisted mainly of children orphaned by AIDS and their surviving grandparents, most of whom suffered from River Blindness (due to infested water).  Diane arranged for a visit to the Village of Trom (no small feat) and there she met and fell in love with the villagers. She then decided to spearhead a personal project in which she and her siblings would donate all the resources required to dig a fresh water well right in the village of Trom. (Diane grew up on a farm in Utah where a well was the centerpiece, and upon the very recent death of her father, felt compelled to coordinate with her siblings an honorary “McKinny Well” for this small, struggling tribe of lovely, buoyant children and elders.) As Diane began working on her project, the idea of a song, to be written for and sung at the dedication, came into her head, and she reached out to me. The project took on some surprising new turns from there!

Many of you may remember this story because it was so unusual and incredible: a father dying of Lou Gehrig's disease (ALS) who could no longer speak, commissioned a song for his young daughter. The CEO of the ALS Associoation heard the song and had me perform it live for his Board of Directors and then flew me to Washington DC to perform it for the larget-ever gathering of ALS pateints and their families. 

Two years later, the girl for whom this song was commissioned, now a teenager, has comissioned a response song for her father. He is now completely immobile and kept alive by respirator. Her song, and her fahter's original song to her, are both here in music-video format, and below that you can see me interviewed on TV about the intense journey I made with this family on these two songs.