Name:Phil Country:United States State:Michigan Metro:Grand Rapids Gender:Male
Interests:funk, drumming, funky drumming, mp3s & divx (& listening/watching them), music, kids, coffee, reading, Bible, devotionals, prayer, people (some times), birding! Expertise:funky drumming, watching beaucoup des films, a few specific computer games, making thick dark black coffee, daydreaming, typing, making omelettes (my specialty), doing nothing Occupation:Education
'Mid all the traffic of the ways, Turmoil's without, within, Make in my hear a quiet place, and come and dwell therein. A little shrine of quietness, all sacred to Thyself, Where Thou salt all my soul possess, And I may find myself.
A little shelter from life's stress, Where I may lay me prone, And bare my soul in loneliness, And know as I am known. A little place of mystic grace, of self and sin swept bare, Where I may look upon Thy face, And talk with Thee in prayer.
Alleluia, Alleluia to the Lamb! Alleluia, even if I do not understand. Alleluia, a Selah to the Son of Man. Alleluia, even if I do not understand.
"Alas! And Did My Savior Bleed?" Alas and did my Savior bleed and did my Sov'reign die! Would he devote that sacred head for such a worm as I?! Was it for crimes that I had done he groaned upon the tree! Amazing pity, grace unknown! And love beyond degree.
Well might the sun in darkness hide, and shut his glories in, When Christ the mighty Maker died for man, the creature's, sin. Thus might I hide my blushing face while his dear cross appears; Dissolve my heart in thankfulness, and melt my eyes in tears.
But drops of grief can ne'er repay the debt of love I owe; Here, LORD< I give myself away, 'tis all that I can do. Alas! and did my Savior bleed and did my Sov'reign die! Would he devote that sacred head for such a worm as I?!
"Great Is Thy Faithfulness" Great is thy faithfulness, O God my Father; there is no shadow of turning with thee; thou changest not, thy compassions, they fail not; as thou hast been thou forever wilt be.
Great is thy faithfulness! Great is thy faithfulness! Morning by morning new mercies I see; all I have needed thy hand hath provided. Great is thy faithfulness, LORD, unto me!
Summer and winter and spring-time and harvest, sun, moon, and stars in their courses above join with all nature in manifold witness to they great faithfulness, mercy, and love.
Great is thy faithfulness! Great is thy faithfulness! Morning by morning new mercies I see; all I have needed thy hand hath provided. Great is thy faithfulness, LORD, unto me!
Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth, thy own dear presence to cheer and to guide, strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow - blessings all mine, with then thousand beside!
Great is thy faithfulness! Great is thy faithfulness! Morning by morning new mercies I see; all I have needed thy hand hath provided. Great is thy faithfulness, LORD, unto me!
Oh my dear xanga site, it has been TOO LONG since I've poured my heart out here. This last month was a crazy one for sure, and I've been tempted so many times to write on here so much more. But it's been a facebook & email month, and not a stream-of-consciousness one. That, however, is just exactly what I need right now. It is time to share some of the songs that have been on my heart lately, and I hope that (with coffee) this will help the grieving process.
This morning I was so grateful for youth group's pancake breakfast...in particular, for a particular conversation with my father about four seasons. That's exactly how I've felt. You never know really someone until you can spend four seasons with them. This last relationship didn't even last a concert cycle. One month. I've never had so short a relationship. And it was only during (perhaps debateably) the most busy time of my year. Life takes ebb & flow, cold & heat, busyness & laziness, teardrops and laughter.
These first songs were on my head as soon as we started dating, and were some of my greatest fears. I never thought she was going to be the one to leave. I also never realize how often and how many of my heroes take the LORD's name in vain. It's throughout my music & my movies. :( Also, I wish I looked like Waylon Jennings. :)
This first one hit home. I do have to wonder if my need for ramblin freedom costs me from be free some times. I really believed that the problem would not be her dumping me, but me leaving her. She was that long-haired, young girl...I guess I need to get goin. I wish I'd made a fool of love before it made a fool of me...
"beautiful lady are you sure that you understand the chance that your takin in lovin a free-livin man? Are you really sure you really want what you see? Be careful of something that's just what you want it to be...I've always been crazy but it's kept me from goin insane."
were we to last, this is what we would have been:
I can't believe the number of Waylon Jennings songs that Elvis Presley covered. I certainly prefer the Waylon...I love his vocal range...this is one of the few songs that he goes above his break, usually it's one side or the other. "Knowing how much I love you, after all that I've gone through, I'd turn and walk away from you just because you asked me to (LORD, I hope you never do." I can't believe she did....
I won't embed my favorite three Waylon ramblin songs...we'll save those for a time I can ramble again (Ride Me Down Easy, Willy the Wanderin Gypsy And Me, and I'm A Ramblin Man)
OK, this song is just really really funny to me...especially now...and especially because I LONG TO BE MARRIED SO MUCH! Still, if this is the life I'm called lead for now...I will follow the Song of the King. Still, there's seasons for everything, and apparently this is the season for me to be a bachelor (and maybe till I die...) I'm quite ashamed of and do not promote in any way the website this video is hosted on...please only listen to it embedded.
Again, I thought this would be me..."I've been in the dog-house so dog-gone-long, that when I get a kiss I think that something's wrong!"
Hmmm. This is a new old Hank song for me, but perhaps we both felt similarly to this
And now these two are my mourning Hank songs, they sum me up so much right now. Soon I will be done & gone from them, but I needed a few days where these hurting songs rang through and through me: "I can't get you off of my mind, when I try I'm just wastin' my time, I tried and I tried, and all night long I cried, but I can't get you off of my mind...LORD, I tried and I tried, and all night long I cried, but I can't get you off of my mind."
This was the first Hank song I fell in love with. I should admit that I don't think that Whip-poor-will recordings sound lonesome...not so much as, say, a Common Pauraque. However, I have felt this sad so many times, and it perfectly describes me right now. Perfect.
Again, a perfect picture of The Way I Feel...this time from Gordy, of course. I wouldn't mind looking (and singing and pickin) like him either...though with full beard.... "The way I feel is like a robin/whose babes have flown to come no more; like a tall oak tree alone and cryin, when the birds have flown and the nest is bare. Now a woman, LORD, is like a young bird, and the tall oak tree is like a young man's heart, among it's boughs you'll find her nesting, when the nights are cool, she is warm and dry. Your coat of green it will protect her, her wings will grow, your love will too, but all too soon your mighty branches will cease to hold her: she'll fly from you. Now the way I feel is like a robin, whose babes have flown to come no more; like a tall oak tree, alone and cryin, when the birds have flown and the nest is bare, when the birds have flown and the nest is bare.
I love his honesty...and high vocal range
Warning...lyrics advisory...this next one has a swear word soon into it (3rd phrase). It is also one of the songs that inspired the TX trip 2 years ago. And the song that sticks in my head every time I read "Kingbird Highway" by Kenn Kaufman. It also is a beautiful, nostalgic, reminiscent song.
"Ribbon of darkness over me, since my true love walked out the door, tears I never had before, ribbon of darkness over me" (+Softly, +For Lovin Me)...the Gord's Gold version is the best though...with I'm Not Sayin/Ribbon of Darkness
I'm sad I can't find this one: "Try to understand I'm not your ordinary man, still I can't deny you go with me everywhere, when I'm dreaming you still share my lonely nights. Try to see my side, it's not your ordinary pride that keeps drivin me on, it's that's lonesome, restless feeling that you feel under the gun, and it leads me to the highway, but it keeps my body warm. And as I wander to the cities and the towns, I get so lonesome knowing you could be around, and when the show is over, there's a holiday motel, another empty bottle and another tale to tell.
Try to comprehend, I'm not your ordinary friend at the end of my life, I would pray that I could be returning to the shelter of your love. Try to see my side, it's not your ordinary pride that keeps driving me on, it's that lonesome, restless feeling that you feel under the gun, and it leads me to the highway, but it keeps my body warm. And as I wander to the cities and the towns, I get so lonesome knowin you could be around, and when the show is over, there's a holiday motel, and another empty bottle, and another tale to tell.
Try to understand, I'm not your ordinary man, still I can't deny, you go with me everywhere, like a shadow in the gloom, I remember all the good times, there's a ghost in every room."
Oh my goodness, gracious. I can't find an original of this either :*( That's such a shame. All kinds of covers, but they're not the same: "I'm on my second cup of coffee and I still can't face the day, I'm thinking of the lady who got lost along the way, and if I don't stop this tremblin hand from reachin for the phone, I'll be reachin for the bottle, LORD, before this day is done.
I'm on my second cup of coffee and I still can't face the day, the room was filled with laughs as we sang the night away, but my sleep was filled with the dreaming of the wrongs that I had done, and the gentle, sweet reminder of a daughter and a son.
Sittin alone, my friends have all gone home, you never know when they'll come droppin in, thinkin of girls with their fingers in my curls, too young to understand how love begins.
I'm on my second cup of coffee, and I still can't face the dawn. The radio is playin a soft, country song. And if I don't stop this tremblin hand from reachin for the phone, I'll be reachin for the bottle, LORD, before this day is done.
Sittin alone, my friends have all gone home, they never were around when I needed them, thinkin of girls with their fingers in my curls, too young to understand how love begins.
I'm on my second cup of coffee, and I still can't face the day, I'm thinkin of the lady who got lost along the way. And if I don't stop this tremblin hand from reachin for the phone, I'll be reachin for the bottle, LORD, before this day is done. And if I don't stop this tremblin hand from reachin for the phone, I'll be reachin for the bottle, LORD, before this day is done."
Here's the Jewel poem (yeah, there's a million of her songs that would work), but it always hits asap: "Too Many Nights" It's been too many nights of being with
to now be suddenly without.
And finally, a few hymns to take me back where I need to be: "Where Cross The Crowded Ways of Life" Where cross the crowded ways of life, where sound the cries of race and clan, above the noise of selfish strife, we hear thy voice, O Son of Man.
In haunts of wretchedness and need, on shadowed thresholds dark with fears, from paths where hide the lures of greed, we catch the vision of thy tears.
From tender childhood's helplessness, from woman's grief, man's burdened toil, from famished souls, from sorrow's stress, thy heart has never known recoil.
The cup of water given for thee still holds the freshness of thy grace; yet long these multitudes to see the sweet compassion of thy face.
O Master, from the mountainside, make haste to heal these hearts of pain; among these restless throngs abide, O tread the city's streets again;
Till all the world shall learn thy love, and follow where thy feet have trod; till glorious from thy heaven above shall come the city of our God.
"Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" Come Thou Fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing Thy grace; Streams of mercy, never ceasing, call for songs of loudest praise. Teach me some melodious sonnet, sung by flaming tongues above. Praise the mount! I'm fixed upon it, mount of Thy redeeming love.
Sorrowing I shall be in spirit, till released from flesh and sin, Yet from what I do inherit, here Thy praises I'll begin; Here I raise my Ebenezer; here by Thy great help I've come; And I hope, by Thy good pleasure, safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger, wandering from the fold of God; He, to rescue me from danger, interposed His precious blood; How His kindness yet pursues me mortal tongue can never tell, clothed in flesh, till death shall loose me I cannot proclaim it well.
O, to grace how great a debtor daily I'm constrained to be! Let They goodness, like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to Thee. Prone to wander, LORD, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love; Here's my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for Thy courts above.
"How Much I Owe" When I stand before the throne, dressed in beauty, not my own; When I see Thee as Thou art, love Thee with unsinning heart, then Lord, shall I fully know-- Not till then --how much I owe. Then Lord, shall I fully know-- not till then --how much I owe. Not till then --how much I owe.
When the praise of Heav'n I hear, loud as thunder to my ear; loud as many waters' noise, sweet as harp's melodious voice, Then, Lord, shall I fully know-- not till then--how much I owe. Then Lord, shall I fully know-- not till then --how much I owe, Not till then --how much I owe.
Chosen not for good in me, wakened up from wrath to flee; hidden in the Savior's side, by the Spirit sanctified. Then, Lord, shall I fully know-- not till then--how much I owe. Then Lord, shall I fully know-- not till then --how much I owe, Not till then --how much I owe. Teach me, Lord, on earth to show, by my love, how much I owe, by my love, how much I owe.
We turn away to face the cold, enduring chill as the day begs the night for mercy, love. The sun so bright it leaves no shadows, only scars carved into stone on the face of earth. The moon is up, and over One Tree Hill we see the sun go down in your eyes.
You run like a river, oh like the sea. You run like a river runs to the sea.
And in the world a heart of darkness a fire zone, where poets speak their heart then bleed for it. Jara sang - his song a weapon in the hands of one - you know his blood still cries from the ground.
It runs like a river runs to the sea. It runs like a river to the sea.
I don't believe in painted roses or bleeding hearts, while bullets rape the night of the merciful. I'll see you again when the stars fall from the sky, and the moon has turned red over One Tree Hill.
We run like a river runs to the sea. We run like a river to the sea. And when it's raining, raining hard, that's when the rain will break my heart.
Raining...raining in your heart Raining into your heart Raining...raining into your heart Raining, raining...raining Raining into your heart Raining... Raining into your heart into the sea.
Oh, great ocean Oh, great sea Run to the ocean. Run to the sea.
Grandpa: "That's right. When I was your age, television was called books. And this is a special book. It was the book my father used to read to me when I was sick, and I used to read it to your father. And today I'm gonna read it to you." The Grandson: "Has it got any sports in it?" Grandpa: "Are you kidding? Fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, true love, miracles..." The Grandson: "Doesn't sound too bad. I'll try to stay awake." Grandpa: "Oh, well, thank you very much, very nice of you. Your vote of confidence is overwhelming."
