Musing: The Civil Wars

My cousin is a singer/songwriter whose first mainstream album was just released to rave reviews this week. I love what she and her co-writer/singer are doing with their music! Honesty in art is so powerful. With songs like "Poison and Wine" and "Barton Hollow," they gently, even joyfully lift the veil from the insatiable thirst that is at the core of what it means to be human...the "intractable vulnerability of what it means to be human," to quote CS Lewis. Their art is an invitation to experience human relationships honestly, to see them for what they are...glorious, frightening, full of promise, pain, and never quite enough. For each one, beloved as may be, is merely a signpost showing us that we have not quite found the One we look for.

Http://www.thecivilwars.com

Sent from my iPod

First Story 3

"Elyssa!" an urgent whisper jerked the little girl awake, wide-eyed.

 "Elyssa, we have to get up. The sky is starting to get light." Blond hair tousled, small hands the color of honey clutching a dilapidated rag doll, Elyssa's short legs kicked from underneath the thin blanket. There was a faint rustling as she tumbled upright next to the small straw pallet on the floor.

A bundle of dark hair lay like a tangled shadow on the pallet just above the blanket. A thin knee poked out from beneath the blanket where Elyssa had kicked it aside. The youth who'd called Elyssa poked his finger through the hair and wiggled it until he found skin. The knee jerked a little, and stilled. He did it again, harder, and the hair tossed up, revealing dark eyelashes and a pout.

"You too, Ruby!" he whispered, a little louder this time.

Grace

Grace in Mercy goes

a kitten on the backs of chairs I set in rows

to keep the wonder out.

From backs to seats to backs again

she L-E-A-P-S---

a grace of laughter

that embraces

all

my

woes