Awake My Soul

A good many of us do-gooders can’t keep our minds from wandering through the world’s problems, can’t seem to stay fully present. Stopping to laugh or play or sit silently seems like a waste of time sometimes when I consider the never-ending list of things to get done, to fix, to fight and fight for.

There was a study in Denmark – I think it was – that found ruminators are much more likely to be mentally ill at some point in their life. Depression. Anxiety. Breakdown. A ruminator dwells on a thought, replaying it again and again, usually a negative thought: fear, worry, regret, a problem to be solved, an album to write and record and promote and release and…

Constant thought. No peace. And it piles up and eventually the mind crumbles under the weight, the emotions fray, the circuits break.

Ruminators are inventors, theologians, philosophers and writers. Sure. Sure. But they’ll also cut off their ear.

The cure? Notice.

That’s it, just notice – the pores on the back of my hand, the pitch of the car speeding past, the taste and texture of lunch, the song playing overhead, every syllable spoken to me. Notice. Every detail. Right here. Right now.

Noticing puts my mind on a leash and an odd thing happens when I’m still(ish) like that: I become grateful. The more I notice the more gifted I realize I am. The more alive. Awake. The day is rescued from the busy blur and becomes a more-vivid experience. Sometimes only slightly. But sometimes…

Could this be abundant life? Waking. Noticing. Thanking. Living.

Awake My Soul (first draft) from Shaun Groves on Vimeo.

Awake My Soul
Words & Music by Shaun Groves
(C)2010 Simplicity Street Music/ASCAP

Cathedral
Arches of reaching limbs
Crickets sing secret hymns
Over all of us

Fireflies
Tickle across our palms
Lit up like diamonds drawn
In the black above

Awake my soul
And live this moment
Awake my soul
Give thanks and hold it
Dear now
God is here now
Be here now

When day ends
Brown eyes smile back at me
Wipes my kiss from her cheek
After last Amen

Awake my soul
And live this moment
Awake my soul
Give thanks and hold it
Dear now
God is here now
Be here now

Hush away all hurry
Wash me clean of worry
Come to quell and quiet me
In this moment given
Slow and fully live it
Drink up all the passing peace

Awake my soul
And live this moment
Awake my soul
Give thanks and hold it
Dear now
God is here now
Be here now

UPDATE: AWAKE MY SOUL has been recorded and released on the album THird World Symphony. Click the banner below to listen!
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