Birthday Musings

I turn 59 today, and as has long been the tradition at The Wild Reed, I mark the occasion of my birthday by sharing a song, prayer and/or reflection that I find particularly meaningful; that says something about where I’m at on my journey and what’s most on my heart and mind.*

Last year, for instance, a shared Joyce Rupp’s beautiful “Prayer of Anchoring,” while the year before it was Kiki Dee and Carmelo Luggeri’s rousing song “The Long Ride Home” that I highlighted.

This year I’ve decided to share a song by singer-songwriter Loreena McKennitt, whose music I’ve had the pleasure of experiencing twice in concert, both times at the State Theatre in downtown Minneapolis – once in 1994 (my first year in the U.S.) and more recently last November with my friend Andrea (left). The song I share today is “Never-ending Road (Amhrán Duit),” from Loreena’s 2006 album An Ancient Muse.

I chose this song because I wanted something that returns me to what I know to be loving and true about both my own life and the shared life of humanity. I’m very much feeling the need for such grounding, especially given the profoundly troubling times we’re living through. They are times of genocide and a multitude of other forms of violence, of rapidly approaching climate catastrophe, and the undermining of democratic ideals and norms by both ongoing neoliberalism and rising fascism. And here in the U.S., I’m not alone in experiencing disheartenment and stress due to a presidential race dominated by two candidates dedicated to genocide, the “war machine” and oligarchy (hallmarks, it should be said, of the declining American empire).

I find myself daily needing to make time to quieten and still my mind so as to connect through prayer and/or silent meditation with the Divine Presence within and around me; to align with the Living Light of this presence and allow myself to be a conduit of its transforming love through my words and actions. I trust that this makes a difference, a positive difference, both in my life and in the world.

For me, Loreena McKennitt’s “Never-ending Road (Amhrán Duit)” brings to mind and heart all of these spiritual understandings and experiences I’ve come to trust. It does so through lyrics that reflect the two deepest of these understandings/experiences – the journey and the Beloved.

Years ago I described my spiritual journey as “spiralling forward with focus, direction, and energy.” I very consciously chose spiralling as I think it describes well the nature and trajectory of my journey. There’s often something circular, cyclical about it; yet I nevertheless discern and experience progress, a forward momentum. I also appreciate how spiralling brings to mind the graceful and focused movements of the whirling dervishes of the Sufi tradition, a mystic tradition with which I deeply resonate.

A hallmark of my journey to date is my ever-deepening embodiment of the mystic’s response to God as “the Beloved,” a response found within a range of mystical traditions – Christian, Sufi, Jewish – and one that often has erotic, including homo-erotic, overtones. I’m drawn to this type of universality, though to be sure, it’s a catholicity of religion rather than of church.

It’s also a universality reflected in “Never-ending Road (Amhrán Duit),” and one which Loreena acknowledges when talking about the song in the liner notes of An Ancient Muse.

No paticular time or place can be pinpointed as the inspiration of this piece. Instead, it has been one that has evolved over many years of reading the works of many poets, mystics from across the religious traditions, who sought to reflect the divine through love poetry: Rumi, Hafiz, Yunus Emre, Solomon ibn Gabirol, St. John of the Cross, St. Teresa of Ávila. The universal theme is one of love, and in this never-ending road of life and rebirth, surely this is the sentiment that must endure.

The road now leads onward ~ As far as can be
Winding lanes ~ And hedgerows in threes
By purple mountains ~ And round every bend
All roads lead to you ~ There is no journey’s end

Here is my heart, I give it to you
Take me with you across this land
These are my dreams, so simple and few
Dreams we hold in the palm of our hands

Deep in the winter ~ Amidst falling snow
High in the air ~ Where the bells they all toll
And now all around me ~ I feel you still here
Such is the journey ~ No mystery to fear

It now leads onward ~ I know not where
I feel in my heart ~ That you will be there
Whenever a storm comes ~ Whatever our fears
The journey goes on ~ With your love ever near

* 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 I shared Dusty Springfield’s reflective recording “Home to Myself,” while on my 57th birthday I explored some “deeper understandings” via Kiki Dee and Carmelo Luggeri’s rousing song “The Long Ride Home.”

And last year, when I turned 58, I shared Joyce Rupp’s “A Prayer of Anchoring.”


See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• The Onward Call
• A Sacred Journey, a Pilgrim Path
• In the Footsteps of Spring: Introduction | Part I | II | III | IV | V
• New Horizons
• What We Can Learn From the Story of the Magi
• Holy Encounters Where Two Worlds Meet
• The Soul’s Beloved
• Meeting (and Embodying) the Lover God
• Resting in the Presence of the Beloved
• You Are My Goal, Beloved One
• Be In My Mind, Beloved One
• Your Peace Is With Me, Beloved One
• Finding Balance in the Presence of the Beloved
• Beloved and Antlered

See also:
• A Prayer of Anchoring
• Deeper Understandings
• 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

Images 1-3 and 5: Michael J. Bayly.
Image 4: Subject and photographer unknown.