A few nights ago, I was listening to Norah Jones' first CD, Come Away With Me. One song rang out: "Seven Years." Part of the lyric is this:

"...a little girl / with nothing wrong / is all alone".

It made me melt, recalling how I loved, as a child and pre-teen, to wander away from humans and into forests, fields, oceans, dunes, lakes...being alone in that way was not really being alone...I felt saturated with the life of our world. And strangely safe among other creatures, before the gaze of their eyes.

And speaking of safety...these songs are also for our warriors and veterans, our rescue personnel, our cops (I use the term with huge affection), all the cream of the human-integrity-and-courage crop...everyone who serves on a front line, a life-and-death line...

...ah! they're about all of us

In that spirit...I've thought of some songs that may touch you in a similar place...somewhere, despite all the wounding, that feels young, curious, engaged with the world and all its wonder...somewhere you belong. ...Somewhere you are safe.

Norah Jones, "Seven Years."

Lou Rawls, "God Bless the Child." Combine that velvet voice with an elegant jazz trio and some of the most ethically piercing lyrics I've ever heard. Will strike the core of anyone who came from a family that "had it all"...yet tossed you the crumbs. It's a song that sees so clearly...

George Michaels, "Mother's Pride." I weep with this song. For anyone who is, knows, loves a soldier...

Annie Lennox, "Into the West." This gorgeous lament is laced with light. It is a song that I've consoled myself with since my best friend died last year. She's woven through it... "Into the West" closes the Lord of the Rings film trilogy...

Loggins & Messina, "House at Pooh Corner." Now this is the sweet spot of childhood. "You'd be surprised / there's so much to be done / Count all the bees in the hive / Chase all the clouds from the sky..." I hope so much that we all had at least one moment like that...

Mark Isham, "Flames" (from the Crash soundtrack). "Flames" accompanies a harrowing, transcendent scene in the film...two characters collide, again...there is such turbulence...through which these two people are transformed. Every extreme of every emotion we can feel roars through them...and the music is everything a prayer can be...

John Lennon, "Imagine." What a child-sage John was at heart. So simple, so illumed. All you need is love... "Imagine" accompanied the final scene of the 1984 film The Killing Fields. You want to see the fullness of friendship? Go there.

...I've got some more songs, but right now the sun is bathing my balcony (and my cats ), and I must receive some rays...



What are your faves like this?...