This year I’ve decided to share a song from one of my all-time favorite singer-songwriters, Kiki Dee.
It’s “The Long Ride Home,” the title track from Kiki’s fourth album of collaborations with longtime musical partner Carmelo Luggeri.
RetroPop notes that the album The Long Ride Home, released earlier this year, “once again brings together [Kiki’s] evocative storytelling with [Carmelo’s] rich soundscapes.” The website also notes:
Opening with its title track – a seven-minute sweeping Americana number that builds to a rousing climax – the record is heavy with mesmerising lyrics that lure you into a world of hope and optimism that comes as a welcome relief in ever uncertain times.
. . . Kiki’s legacy may be rooted in upbeat pop tracks like “Star” and “I’ve Got the Music in Me,” and love songs such as “Amoureuse,” “Loving and Free” and, of course, the Elton John collaboration “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart,” but now she makes a conscious effort to veer away from overtly loved-up lyrics, instead offering a more profound insight into her outlook on life that comes with age and maturity. . . . Six decades into her recording career, Kiki’s voice may have gone down an octave, but her vocals are impassioned and poignant, befitting the genre and evoking classics such as Emmylou Harris’ 1995 masterpiece Wrecking Ball.
So without further ado, here’s Kiki Dee and Carmelo Luggeri with “The Long Ride Home” . . .
People say
Nothing from today will still remain
Or be the same.
But I believe
The mystery runs deeper
The road ahead is calling me again.
I walk into the garden
I will not lose my way
A bed of roses is waiting for me there
At the autumn of each day.
You’d better stop
Think of what you’re saying
Think of all the power that bitter words define
Don’t ask the preacher man
Or the sinner man
The long ride home is yours alone to find.
People say
Nothing but the truth is on their side
And they see the light.
But I still believe
In a deeper understanding
Beyond the world that’s wired in black and white.
I walk into the silence
I hear the garden call my name
A bed of roses still waiting for me there
In the paradise we’ll make.
You’d better stop
Think of what you’re doing
Think of how the power controls your mind
Don’t ask the preacher man
Or the sinner man
The long ride home is yours alone to find.
So why am I drawn to share this song by Kiki and Carmelo?
Well, I guess it’s because of the deeper understandings I perceive in it, starting with its overall theme of journeying, of coming home, which, from a metaphysical perspective, is all about coming into awareness of oneself and one’s place and purpose in life. We can definitely be open to the insights and experiences of others when it comes to cultivating this awareness, but ultimately it’s a journey each one of us discerns and finds at the deepest level of our own soul. In many ways, it’s a journey upon which we embark on our own. The lyrics of “The Long Ride Home” certainly speak to this.
I also appreciate and resonate with the song’s reference to that “deeper understanding beyond the world that’s wired in black and white,” as well as to the “mystery” that “runs deeper” and which calls us to seek, find, and live from our deepest sense of Self, that part of us already and forever one with the Divine Presence within all things.
Another aspect of “The Long Ride Home” I appreciate is its beautiful invitation to trust: I walk into the garden / I will not lose my way / A bed of roses is waiting for me there / At the autumn of each day. These lyrics remind me of something author Marianne Williamson recently said: “The path unfolds when we are willing to walk it.” I love that pearl of wisdom, in part because it too conveys a measure of trust. And trust, I’m discovering with each passing year, is something I’m increasingly choosing to be part of my spiritual life.
And speaking of enjoyment and meaning, I’ve long sought to cultivate a balanced life through which I experience these life-giving qualities in times of solitude and in times of connecting with others. It’s a connecting which, as you’ll see, is already happening in relation to celebrating my 57th birthday.
Notes Heal Mpls’ website:
Heal Mpls is more than just a community cafe; it’s a place of exploration of self through intentional eating, comm(unity) healing experiences and personalized health goal support. Our goal is to create affordable options for our community to transition out of a diet that causes illnesses and food addictions while bringing awareness to God’s gift of natural medicine. Our intuitive healing cafe is 100% soy-free, msg-free, meat-free and dairy-free.
I had an early birthday celebration with Amy and my other wonderful colleagues on the interdisciplinary Palliative Care team at Mercy Hospital on Friday, October 21, 2022. I serve as the interfaith spiritual health provider (or chaplain) on this team.
Amy made the delicious pumpkin cake at left for me, along with an amazing ginger and apple cake. Thanks, Amy!
Above: Friends and work colleagues (from left) Maddie, Kate, Steph, and Jenna. This photo was actually taken on October 4 when we celebrated Steph’s birthday. . . . And, yes, we do like to party!
Above: With my dear friend Jane McDonald, CSJ. Jane is one of the inspirational McDonald Sisters, also known as the Sisters of Peace.
Right: Friends Rita and John – October 23, 2022.
The Solidarity Sunday 2022 homily at Spirit was delivered by community member Allison Connelly-Vetter and was entitled “Turning Towards Change.”
Following is an excerpt from Allison's homily.
This is what queer and trans people teach us – what queer and trans people know – every day: We are all capable of the change needed to be our fullest, deepest, and most authentic selves.
Today, on Solidarity Sunday . . . we hear a clear call throughout all our readings: our God of justice, our God who hears the cry of the poor, our God who accompanies us through all of our be-comings, considers worthy not the boastful and the dismissive, but rather the repentant, the one who is turning, turning, turning, towards God.
I hope, and I pray, that we are open, always, to making the changes needed to be our most authentic selves, to turning always towards who we are and who we are called to be. On this Solidarity Sunday, that is my prayer for all of us: that we may not be so confident and boastful that we miss our call to change, to turn, and to be-come all over again.
Back in 2009 I gave the Solidarity Sunday homily at Spirit. To read this homily, one entitled “Liberated to Be Together,” click here.
Above and below: A visit to the Prayer Tree on my 57th birthday – Sunday, October 23, 2022.
Above: The Prayer Tree, next to the totally dried-up Minnehaha Creek in south Minneapolis.
I was aware that much of Minnesota has for some time now been experiencing drought conditions, but I must admit I was shocked to see the dry bed of Minnehaha Creek. The last time I saw the creek in such a distressed state was in 2012.
As Christian Ærickson recently noted on Twitter:
Those who don’t live here maybe can’t appreciate how surreal this is, but . . . there is no Minnehaha Creek. There is no water. It’s like a dirt road. In case you wondered how serious the drought is in Minnesota this year.
Above: Autumn beauty – Sunday, October 23, 2022.
The following is from Marianne Williamson’s book, A Year of Miracles: Daily Devotions and Reflections.
May I see the beauty around me today.
Often I'm so lost in my illusions that I do not see the beauty of the world, or hear the music of the world, or feel the love in the world. Today I choose to be aware of them all.
How often I hide away from the gorgeous manifestations around me. From the beauties of nature to the tenderness of friendship, the miracles of the world often fade from my view without my really having seen them. Today may this not be so.
Today I see all the evidence that the world is a wonderful place. May I not fall asleep to the miracles around me. I embrace what the world has to give me, and I give thanks it is so.
Above: With Eddie, the “Wonder Dog” – Sunday, October 23, 2022.
Above: On the evening of my birthday, friends John and Noelle took me out to dinner at Everest on Grand, a restaurant that specializes in Nepalese, Tibetan, and North Indian cuisine. And, yes, it was delicious!
Above: A post-birthday breakfast with friends (from left) Calvin, Joseph, and Kathleen – Monday, October 24, 2022.
Oh, and that’s Frodo under the table.
Above: A post-birthday lunch at La Casita Mexican Restaurant in Coon Rapids with my friends and work colleagues – Wednesday, October 25, 2022.
From left: Kari, Amy, Jenna, Steph, me, Nikki, Maddie, and Kate. . . . Yes, we’re a great team!
One of my final birthday celebrations took place on Wednesday, November 2, when my friend Kathleen and I spent time with a number of our Sisters of St. Joseph friends at Carondelet Village in St. Paul, including three of the four inspiring McDonald Sisters – Rita, Kate, and Brigid.
Right: Friends Brigid, Liz, and Kathleen. Both Kathleen and I are consociates of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet.
Left: With my CSJ friend Carolyn – November 2, 2022.
Above: My dear friend Rita McDonald, CSJ, who turned 100 on October 8, 2022.
For more about Rita and her sisters, click here.
Above: What I consider my last 57th birthday celebration took place on Sunday, November 6, 2022 when my friends Rick and Brian took me out for lunch at Pizza Lucé in the Uptown area of Minneapolis. I tried the vegetarian butternut squash pizza. It was delicious! Thanks, guys!
* As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, it’s somewhat of a tradition to mark my birthday here at The Wild Reed by sharing a song or prayer or reflection that I find particularly meaningful. On my 44th birthday, for instance, I shared Stephan Gately’s performance of “No Matter What,” and when I turned 45 I shared “Where the Truth Lies” by the band Exchange.
In 2012, when I turned 47, I shared a prayer for balance at a very trying time, not only for myself, but for many of us here in Minnesota.
Seven years ago, on the first day of my fiftieth year, I shared a “guidepost on the journey,” and then one year later on the day of my 50th birthday, I shared Buffy Sainte-Marie’s rousing “It’s My Way.”
In 2017, when I turned 52, I shared a poem by John O’Donohue; while on my 53rd birthday I shared “Love Is,” a beautiful meditation on the mystery of love by my favorite male vocalist Carl Anderson.
The year I turned 54 I shared “This Is the Time,” a beautiful song by Senegalese singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Daby Touré, and when I turned 55 it was Black’s “Wonderful Life” that encapsulated much of what I found myself experiencing at that time.
When I turned 56 last year I shared Dusty Springfield’s reflective recording “Home to Myself.”
See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Home to Myself
• Moments of Wonder
• This Is the Time
• With Love Inside
• On This “Echoing-Day” of My Birth
• Turning 50
• A Guidepost on the Journey
• In the Eye of the Storm, a Tree of Living Flame
• Journeying Into the Truth . . . Valiantly, of Course
• No Matter What
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