Life Savers (Let Me Hear From You!)

In the days following Gabe’s birth, six years ago on November 28th, I listened often to Carrie Newcomer’s CD “Regulars and Refugees.”  Gabe is our only winter baby, and lying in bed, holding him, with a clear, clean light coming through the big windows, I listened to that CD over and over.  The first song has a character named Gabriel Thomas in it and that is Gabe’s full name.  The music on that CD helped me find a part of myself that I recognized again, which was really welcome after the life-exploding event of giving birth to another human being.

That CD was a life saver for me–not because I was unhappy or in trouble, but just because it was one of those experiences that reminds you of your own center, makes you grateful your heart is still beating, lets you know you’re never alone.

I was having a really crap morning a few weeks ago and I got to work to find a YouTube link to a song from Carrie Newcomer’s new CD: “Everything is Everywhere.”  I watched, listened, laughed, was filled with awe, pleasure and gratitude.  It changed the course of my day.  A life saver.

So I’ve been thinking about the things that feel like life savers for me right now–not in a big huge way, but in a “what are the top 5 things that come to mind without pressure” way.  Here’s what came to mind:

• the CD of incredibly uplifting songs my sister sent me
• Gabe’s eyes (any part of him, really, though that sounds a little creepy)
• knowing, when I am stressed throughout the day, that each night I will be in my own bed with my own assortment of pillows and a book
• the single-decade rosary my mother sent me a few months ago that I carry in my purse
• a sweet and hilarious jar that Noah and his wonderful girlfriend Bre made for me

About the jar:  they took this blue vase I have and filled it with sweet, inspirational notes that I can reach in and grab when I need a little pick me up.  I don’t complain about my job a lot because I really like it and am grateful for so many things about it.  But I’m often pretty worn out at the end of the day, and sometimes I tell Noah and Bre “crazy student stories” from my advising work.  For example:

Student: “I would like to be exempted from taking the campus-wide required composition course.”

Me: “On what basis?”

Student: “I have already written a novel. I know if the Deans read it they would agree that I should not have to take the campus-wide required composition course that every single other freshman on campus has to take, unless they get a high enough ACT score to proficiency out of it (which I did not).”

Me: “Well, I sometimes pay for the person behind me in the drive-thru at Starbucks, and once I helped a man with a walker get out of his car, so I’d like to be considered for the Nobel Peace Prize.”

Situations like that.

Or like this one, which made me so angry I almost threw my phone through the window.

Yesterday, after writing the first post for this Advent blog, and thinking about the theme of “Love wins,” I reached into the jar and pulled out this note:

A life saver.

So, since we are all here together for Advent, and we are developing our theme of “Love wins,” please write in and share a few things that are life savers for you!  They can be anything at all, and even just the first one or two things that come to your mind.  Maybe one of yours will help someone else!

Here are the words to Carrie Newcomer’s “Throw Me a Line.”  I wish I could play it for you.  You can watch her video for “Everything is Everywhere” here.  It’s exquisite.

Throw Me a Line

Why do I worry so much, it can’t add a day or year?

It usually comes down to a matter of love or fear.

I really don’t know, and I can’t tell you why

One sparrow falls to the ground, and another one flies.

Could you throw me a line

Could you take me in?

The world’s spinning faster now

Than it ever has been.

And what used to be sure

Up and walked out the door

And the old ways I knew

Just don’t work anymore.

Some days I’m a bird, some days I am a song.

Some days I’m a storm, sometimes I’m just plain wrong.

But there is a still quiet voice and it sounds a little like mine,

Saying, “You’re right where you should be, it’s just going to take time.”

Could you throw me a line

Could you take me in?

The world’s spinning faster now

Than it ever has been.

And what used to be sure

Up and walked out the door

And the old ways I knew

Just don’t work anymore.

When it all breaks down

When they’re nothing to lose

When there’s no more to say and there is nothing to prove

Oh yeah bring it on, all things living in you.

You’re not just what happened, you can be something new.

But what you leave to the shadows, what stays in the dark,

Will grieve you and seize you and cripple your heart.

Could you throw me a line

Could you take me in?

The world’s spinning faster now

Than it ever has been.

And what used to be sure

Up and walked out the door

And the old ways I knew

Just don’t work anymore.

Carrie Newcomer