6 below

Improv Everywhere - Guerrilla Handbell Strikeforce

Very cool stuff from Improv Everywhere - love the expression on the volunteer for salvation army as more & more ringers keep joining the force.  Beautiful . . . Enjoy:

 

Miracle - Matisyahu Hanukkah Song

Here's a kind of poppy gem on Hanukkah from my favorite Orthodox Jewish Reggae Rapper from Brooklyn - Matisyahu.  The video is kind of cheesy on the surface - but dig a little & what emerges is a fun battle between faith & commercialization/secularization.  The hockey reference of course is a wonderful allusion to the miracle of the impossible . . .  Which of course references itself back to the miracle of the new emergence of reflective faith within a society crumbling beneath the weight of consumerism & greed. Good stuff.  Below are the lyrics . . . enjoy & Happy Hanukkah.

Just livin’ in the miracle, candles are my vehicle Eight nights, gonna shine invincible No longer be divisible, born through the struggle Keep on moving through all this hustle Head up, heads down through all of the bustle New York City wanna flex your muscle Look so down, look so puzzled Huddle ‘round your fire through all the rubble Bound to stumble and fall but my strength comes not from man at all Bound to stumble and fall but my strength comes not from man at all [Chorus] Do you believe in miracles Am I hearing you? Am I seeing you? Eight nights eight lights and these rites keep me right Bless me to the highest heights with your miracle Against all odds drive on till tomorrow Wipe away your tears and your sorrow Sunrise in the sky like an arrow No need to worry, no need to cry Light up your mind no longer be blind Him who searches will find Leave your problems behind you will shine like a fire in the sky what's the reason we’re alive – the reason we’re alive… Bound to stumble and fall but my strength comes not from man at all Bound to stumble and fall but my strength comes not from man at all [Chorus] Do you believe in miracles Am I hearing you? Am I seeing you? Eight nights eight lights and these rites keep me right Bless me to the highest heights with your miracle Eight is the number of infinity one more than what you know how to be And this is the light of festivity when your broken heart yearns to be free [Chorus] Do you believe in miracles Am I hearing you? Am I seeing you? Eight nights eight lights and these rites keep me right Bless me to the highest heights with your miracle

What's Your Art? II (A Skate Escalation - Kilian Martin & Brett Novak & Patrick Watson)

Art is canvas & paint.  Art is brush & pen.  Art is music & movement.  

The question we need to ask is what is my particular canvas?  What brush do I work with best?  And what music do I really move to - deeply & intimately. Or rather - what is the thing I do that I lose myself in entirely? That I get so far caught up into the "flow" & "zone" of this activity that hours become seconds & days become mere hours?

My daughter who is seven & can't help but move her legs & dance puts it this way - "I love to dance - I just have a song in my feet & it has to come out."

Beautiful.

And so then I must ask myself - what is the song in my feet that just has to come out?  And why I am so incessant at keeping that song unsung? 

The point is - we all have a song in our feet.  We've been to the promised land of having lost ourselves in something at some point in our living.  The greatest gift is finding our way back there.  To move out of the house of the mundane & to rhythm into the house of our art - our deepest calling.  

And there we must relentlessly guard the sacredness of that living.  This is not selfish. It is the unfolding of ourselves - of who we were meant to become.  And in that unfolding there exists great renewal not only for ourselves but for the universe at large.

God didn't make pawns - God made giants in the breath of love.  We simply need to wake up from our dogmatic slumber of the routine & the small. 

But here's the catch.  You will not get an official invitation in your inbox or mailbox asking you to risk into your art.  In fact the opposite is true: you'll receive a hundred invitations a day to live into the quick & the easy - and it's all junk mail.

Rather the great grand invitation from the King is inside of you.  And a response is inevitable.  You can deny it & give up the sacredness of your life.  You can accept it & embrace a journey that will lead into dark valleys & grand peaks.  Or you can ignore it (which I think many people do -religious & non-religious folk included) - and live reluctantly in the land of bitterness & regret.

The short films below are a meditation of sorts.  Initially we may be tempted to think that the only artist is the skater - indeed the art is in the choreography & power of the skating - but it is also exists in the colors & the shadows & angles of the film that the director captures, & it is in the music that underscores the depth & intimacy of the skater & his particular canvas.  Thanks to Dustin for giving me a heads up on these videos & cheers & blessings to him as he lives into his art in Antarctica starting tomorrow.

 

Homeless Veteran's Choir on America's Got Talent . . . It is worth the watch.

Okay . . . so I'm not a big fan of the tube that sucks our time & presence away from one another but this was sent to me today & I thought it powerful & beautiful enough to post.

Over the last year I've been meeting with & befriending a lot of homeless men & women - many of whom are veterans.  Many are addicts of one kind or another, some suffer from PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder), some have other mental diseases that completely sideline them into depression & eventual suicide attempts, and most all of them suffer from feelings & thoughts of utter unworthiness & guilt for past actions.

But when we enter into presence with one another as equals - recognizing the image of God in one another (whether we use those words or not) there is often a small shift in how we begin seeing the toothless, sun leathered skin men & women before us.  The question we must ask ourselves in the end - do we ultimately view strangers (especially the unattractive ones) as potential threats to our being & society or as potential allies & friends in a universe awash in love?

More thoughts on the homeless & marginal people later.  Be upended by this choir.