TOPIC: A song that celebrates NOT holding yourself back!
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO TRULY "DIVE IN"?
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This is a song about what it means to really and truly turn yourself over to what you want: to DIVE IN. I got to share it on a TV show about "Using Your Gifts" recently, and here is a little more to the story behind the song. While I was working on this song I found myself asking myself, "Are there areas where I am holding myself back? Are there ways in which I identify something I really want to come to pass, and then hover around the edges of letting it become so? And, maybe more importatly, when I look back over the course of my life at times when I really HAVE let myself DIVE IN, have I been glad I took the plunge? My answer to this last question was a strong, powerful, life-affirming YES!
Anna Huckabee Tull and Anne, "Diving In" on Mini-Golfing (Anne won)
ANNE: THE EPITOME OF DIVING IN
Every once in awhile, I get commissioned to do a song for a dear friend. Anne is like family to me, and when her husband Glenn called wanting to work together on a song for her birthday, I jumped at the chance. Anne is about as fine an example as you'll ever find of someone who dares to DIVE IN, fully, totally, and completely. When she gets behind an idea, LOOK OUT. It was a fun project to find a way in song to capture the essence of Anne and her endless springboards of energy and belief for the things she is passionate about, and to do so in a way that brought to life the way she appears through Glenn's eyes. The phone message she left upon receiving the song was among my favorites ever. Anne laughed, cried, and touched my heart all in one little phone message.
THREE THINGS I LOVE ABOUT THIS SONG
1. THE POWER OF A FIRST MEETING - I learned that the first time Glenn laid eyes on Anne, her face was covered in a bandanna and she was covered head to toe in mold. He could barely make out her face, but something in him changed right in that moment. This song may have the strangest opening line of them all: "Covered in grit--knee-deep in stuff no one else would touch--that was my first view of you." But it's my way of celebrating how the essence of someone is always there for the seeing, if only we will look.
2. THE IDEA OF BEING WITH SOMEONE "WHEREVER THEY ARE" - This is a love song, above and beyond anything else. In the interview, Glenn talked about wanting to create a song that would let Anne feel his presence beside her no matter where she was. I was really taken by that idea and did my very best to bring it alive in the chorus, in a slightly different way, each time. I think this sentiment is a really powerful one, and can be taken literally ("I am with you even when we are apart") and also on a whole other level ("no matter what emotion comes forward, no matter how stuck or bored or down either one of us might feel, I believe I can get to wherever you are.") THAT, I think, is a fascinating expression of love.
2. PASSING ON THE ABILITY TO "DIVE IN" TO OUR KIDS - This song looks, too, at what it means for any of us who have kids, to not so much dive in on their behalf, but rather to teach them to dive in, on their OWN passions, and to cheer them on from the sidelines as they go. I try to learn a little bit more about how to do this every day. Anne is one of my best teachers on that front.
This song was recorded in it entirety at Straight Up Music in Arlington, MA. Anna on vocals and acoustic guitar, Paul Lenart on additional guitar, Larry Luddecke on piano. Anna Huckabee Tull is a Psychologist and Life Coach, and she creates songs and videos on commission to help individuals mark meaningful transitions, passages, and moments of celebration. Anna lives with her two boys and her husband in the woods of Concord, Massachusetts.
ANNE: THE EPITOME OF DIVING IN
Every once in awhile, I get commissioned to do a song for a dear friend. Anne is like family to me, and when her husband Glenn called wanting to work together on a song for her birthday, I jumped at the chance. Anne is about as fine an example as you'll ever find of someone who dares to DIVE IN, fully, totally, and completely. When she gets behind an idea, LOOK OUT. It was a fun project to find a way in song to capture the essence of Anne and her endless springboards of energy and belief for the things she is passionate about, and to do so in a way that brought to life the way she appears through Glenn's eyes. The phone message she left upon receiving the song was among my favorites ever. Anne laughed, cried, and touched my heart all in one little phone message.
THREE THINGS I LOVE ABOUT THIS SONG
1. THE POWER OF A FIRST MEETING - I learned that the first time Glenn laid eyes on Anne, her face was covered in a bandanna and she was covered head to toe in mold. He could barely make out her face, but something in him changed right in that moment. This song may have the strangest opening line of them all: "Covered in grit--knee-deep in stuff no one else would touch--that was my first view of you." But it's my way of celebrating how the essence of someone is always there for the seeing, if only we will look.
2. THE IDEA OF BEING WITH SOMEONE "WHEREVER THEY ARE" - This is a love song, above and beyond anything else. In the interview, Glenn talked about wanting to create a song that would let Anne feel his presence beside her no matter where she was. I was really taken by that idea and did my very best to bring it alive in the chorus, in a slightly different way, each time. I think this sentiment is a really powerful one, and can be taken literally ("I am with you even when we are apart") and also on a whole other level ("no matter what emotion comes forward, no matter how stuck or bored or down either one of us might feel, I believe I can get to wherever you are.") THAT, I think, is a fascinating expression of love.
2. PASSING ON THE ABILITY TO "DIVE IN" TO OUR KIDS - This song looks, too, at what it means for any of us who have kids, to not so much dive in on their behalf, but rather to teach them to dive in, on their OWN passions, and to cheer them on from the sidelines as they go. I try to learn a little bit more about how to do this every day. Anne is one of my best teachers on that front.
This song was recorded in it entirety at Straight Up Music in Arlington, MA. Anna on vocals and acoustic guitar, Paul Lenart on additional guitar, Larry Luddecke on piano. Anna Huckabee Tull is a Psychologist and Life Coach, and she creates songs and videos on commission to help individuals mark meaningful transitions, passages, and moments of celebration. Anna lives with her two boys and her husband in the woods of Concord, Massachusetts.
Dive In
To Anne on Your Birthday with Love from Glenn
Covered in grit
Knee deep in stuff no one else would touch
That was my first view of you
Covered in it
Couldn’t even see your face
But something in me changed when I felt you
To watch you dive in,
Fearless, wide open
Ready, steady strong
I see all of me turning
Following my heart
To wherever you are
Listen to this
Listen carefully to all of it
This is all my love of you
This is the sound
Of love coming down in big happy clouds
All around you
So come on, dive in
Fearless, wide open
And I will dive in too
Valleys and mountains
Align all around us
And I am with you
Wherever you are
Then there were three
Love comes alive, there are four, there are five
This is all my love of you
Look who you are
Kids gathered around you like bright blazing stars
This is how your love
Shines through
And soon, we will
Watch each one dive in
Fearless, wide open
Ready, steady, strong
Their lives opening wide
With me cheering beside you
‘Cause I will always come along
To wherever you are
(c) Anna Huckabee Tull/CustomCraftedSongs.com
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