A new Discovery

I’m feeling very inspired right now as I have discovered the lovely Melanie Safka who sang a host of very familiar songs but WHY ON EARTH HAVE I NEVER HEARD OF HER BEFORE!!!!!

One of my favourites is this one; Lay down (candles in the rain)

I first heard of this song in the 90’s when Max Sharam brought it out. The amazing timing of this, was when it came out I had written a song with the same melody just weeks before.

Today I was reminded of this song and the connection that I have with it. I was pleased to discover a beautiful songstress and now I am utterly inspired.

I feel like I am bubbling with excitement and creativity, I am not the best song writer or guitar player but I have passion, I am not polished but I am roar, I am not tidy but I am very interesting and I am a dreamer but I am grounded.

I had dreams that seemed to have gotten lost in the crowd of life, yet somehow I think they may come alive again? I really don’t know everything that I want to say. I’m just excited and feel a release of some sort. I hope that I am making sense lol

Here is a picture of what I looked like when I wrote my song. I think that I was 22.

Cat Stevens DID NOT Sing Cats in The Cradle

I have always been fond of the song Cats in the cradle and when it was released by Ugly Kid Joe back in the 90’s somewhere, I was one of the many people who thought it was a Cat Stevens original.

I was corrected from this mistake when I went to an exhibition somewhere in Toowoomba and there was an art work inspired by Harry Chapin, the actual original singer of Cats in the cradle. This information somehow fed my soul with satisfaction and then questions. Why does everyone insists that this song was sung by Cat Stevens???

Mmmm intriguing.

I was reminded of this quirky conundrum the other day when at the garden a radio was playing and cats in the cradle came on. Everyone that was present thought that Cat Stevens was the original singer!!! I quietly corrected everyone by declaring that it was indeed Harry Chapin.

Here is the original

So, why is this a common error that people make? Was it because they are both from the same decade and had a song with a similar theme? This is Cat Stevens AKA  Yusuf Islam singing about a Father and Son.

I guess it’s just one of those things that muddle people’s heads and now here I am some smarty bum bringing correction to the masses. (Not really masses as I don’t have that many followers). Nevertheless, I hope you are all well informed and when you hear someone innocently make this mistake you can bring correction!!!

Learning about emotions

It can take a life time to learn how to deal with our emotions and as we cognitively develop we become wiser about them.

As a parent we teach our children about so many things and when they play with other children more lessons are being learnt through play. However when a child has a disability of some sort, learning about the emotional stuff can be a bit tricky.

My son who was born with VCFS knows all about the happy feelings, yet can still be inappropriate about when to be happy. He knows how to express anger by chucking a big tantrums or annoyance by whinging and getting on our nerves and of course he also  experiences sadness.

What has inspired me to write this post?

Well recently my son’s tantrums were getting a bit out of control and prior to us coming up with an awesome strategy we would say “WILL YOU STOP WHINGING!!!! or “ENOUGH SIT ON YOUR BED……….BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH”……ARHHHHH BLAH BLAH BLAH ARHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

Cough cough I have a sore throat now and I am feeling quite traumatized!!

So, with a bit of gained wisdom and prayers we came up with the sticker chart and it has been working a treat. When Zachy begins to chuck a tantrum we say that is a bad choice and I am doing to ban the ipad. When he makes really good choices we reward him with a sticker that goes towards something he really loves, like a watch.

This has been successful now for a few weeks and has made a huge difference in the way Zachy has been interacting with us and others. Yet, something happened on Sunday that alerted me that somewhere along the line we have failed to teach Zachy that sadness is okay.

A song was being played at church and suddenly he said “I don’t like this song” “turn it off turn it off this is a sad song” He then started bawling his eyes out. This was not a tantrum or a kid just wanting his own way, this was sad emotion pouring out of him. I bent down and said “it’s okay” then he said “I don’t want to whinge”

I then realised that he was confused about what he was feeling and thought how on earth am I going to explain this one to him???

Again, last night I was watching The Voice when there was this amazing performance  by Mitchell and Fatai I could feel the deep emotions of it and was really enjoying when I heard a little voice coming from his bedroom say “I don’t like this song” “why??” “It’s sad”

Once again this is not a child just wanting his own way but someone who is experiencing real emotions. Lately he has been talking a lot about his two deceased grandparents and I am sure that he is missing them. Children whether typical developing or those with a disability experience the pain of sadness and it is us adult people, who need the wisdom to teach our little ones all about emotions.

30 day song challenge 21-30

day 21 – a song you listen to when you’re happy – Bubble toes by Jack Johnson / This whole album has full of happy memories as we bought it when on the road working in North Queensland packing mangoes. I also love listening to this album when I paint, it’s just so happy 🙂
day 22- a song you listen to when you’re sad – Why does my soul feel so bad by Moby / I discovered the power of this lamenting song when I had some inconsolable heart ache quite a few years ago. The song seems to sooth the pain in a way I just can’t explain.
day 23 – a song that you want to play at your wedding – Get up offa  that thing by James Brown / well, I am already married and I can proudly announce that this James Brown classic was our bridal waltz!!
day 24 – a song that you want to play at your funeral – Amazing Grace bag pipes / oh so stirring and powerful and hopefully will put a chill up everyone’s spine and make everyone bawl their eyes out!!!!! Yes, I want people to feel strong emotions at my funeral and then afterwards play a happy song , love each other and remember what was important to me!!
day 25 – a song that makes you laugh – Anything from Bob Downe!! Yeh yeh!!! / Bob just makes me laugh every time!!!!
day 26 – a song that you can play on an instrument Jesus never threw the first stone by Tamar Stanford/ Yes I chose my own song. I really don’t play the guitar all that well even my own song, my husband made it sound better!!!
day 27 – a song that you wish you could play –  After all these years by Silver chair/ I really love the complicated sound of this song. It’s not to easy to sing and I’m sure it would be a bit tricky to play. I love the result!!!
day 28 – a song that makes you feel guilty – Maxine by Sharon O’Neill / this may seem like a strange choice but there is a reason. This song came out when I was a kid, back then I was very selective about who I spoke to. I came across as a very ignorant child but most of the time it was just good discernment. On one occasion when I refused to speak to (in my mind at the time) a scary adult the person said to me “what’s wrong with you?? Cat got your tongue??” So after that every time I heard this song which has the line “cat got your tongue” I would feel incredibly guilty about being an ignorant child!!!!….gosh, that was long-winded!!!
day 29- a song from your childhood –  Butterfly ball by Roger Glover / Now this one takes me back, it was one of many songs that were used as a fill in between shows on the ABC. I fondly recall The Goodies  as a part of this nice memory…..I miss those days!!!
day 30- your favorite song at this time last year – Winter winds by Mumford & Sons / Did this song come out last year???? I’m getting older (notice how I didn’t say “I’m getting old”) it would seem time goes so fast as when I was younger I could tell you exactly what my favorite song was this time last year!!!

30 day song challenge 1-10

I’ve decided to do the 30 day song challenge on facebook and I’m finding a very interesting exercise to do. here are challenges and my song choices. I’ve broken up the challenge by 10’s!!!

• day 01 – your Favorite song – Pick you up by Powderfinger/ I’ve loved this song the moment I heard it and I never tire of it. It’s such a simple song yet it strikes me in the heart!!!!!
• day 02- your least favorite song- The Helen Keller song / who cares who wrote it, I hate it and have a very powerful negative response to it. It’s such a pathetic message using disability to describe someone wanting to get their rocks off!!!!……..I hate it!!!!!…btw I’m not even bothering with a link for this song!!
• day 03- a song that makes you happy- Feeling Groovy by Simon and Garfunkel / oh such a happy little ditty, I can remember a time of stress in my life where I really needed to slow down and this was the song that I kept singing to myself!!!! 🙂
• day 04 -a song that makes you sad – Forever Autumn by Justin Hayward / a song from War of the Worlds a total classic!!!! Full of sad emotion, love it!!
• day 05 -a song that reminds you of someone – The Queen and the Soldier by Suzanne Vaga / this amazing song reminds me of my bff Amanda. She used to always play this on her guitar for us and we’d all be in awe listening!!!!
•  day 06 – a song that reminds you of  somewhere –  What the world needs now by Burt Bacharach / How can I not share this story? There is fancy toilet in Toowoomba that is electronic and speaks order’s to you like “now put your hands under the water faucet” and when you’re sitting on the toilet you are pleasured with the tunes of Burt Bacharach!!!!!…I can not listen to this song without thinking of that toilet in Toowoomba!!!!
• day 07 – a song that reminds you of a certain event – Under pressure by David Bowie and Queen / When I gave birth to my Son the radio was playing, I remember a few of the songs that the playing but this one seemed the most apt to choose!!! It’s a lot of pressure to push a baby out!!!!!!
• day 08 – a song that you know all the words to- Doctor who by Doctorin’ the Tardis / Well the reason this song got chosen is simply because I’m totally crap at remembering song lyrics!!!!…enough said!!!
• day 09 – a song that you can dance to – Come on Children by the Small Faces / this one is a very hard one. Perhaps the rule should say a song I can’t dance too. So in keeping with the rule I have chosen this rockin song by the Small Faces!!!
• day 10 -a song that makes you fall asleep to – The Lonely Shepard by Gheorghe Zamfir / Well I really can’t say this song makes me want to fall asleep but it’s very soothing, relaxing and quite haunting….oooohhh I love it it’s beautiful!!!

A Fest of sad songs!!!

I’ve decided to do the 30 day song challenge on Facebook and I’ve been going through the rules having a big think about which songs to choose on a particular day. On the 4th day the rule is a song that makes you sad. I didn’t realise this but there are a lot of songs out there that make me sad and I really like them all.

It was really hard to choose so I thought I’d write a blog to mention just a few of the songs that reach deep down and make me have sad feelings.

Angie by the Rolling Stones

Lightning Crashes by Live

Burn Anastasia ft Ben Moony

Behind blue eyes Limp Bizkit

Vincent (starry starry night) Don McLean

Mr Bojangles Nitty Gritty Dirt Band

Cats in the Cradle  Harry Chapin

Time in a bottle Jim Croce

Forever Autumn Justin Hayward

I hope I never Split Enz

Everyone has something to say

I was thinking about a wonderful  documentary I watched about Paul Simon, he was in Africa conducting song writing work shops. One of the significant things he spoke about was, that every one has something to say.  He talked about how we tell our selves that we have nothing to say but he was insistent that this was not true at all . Some times what we have to say is not pleasant or we think our thoughts are insignificant.

I agree with Paul Simon, we all have our bit to contribute and there are many ways one can express what’s inside of us. I have the privilege of being an artist that allows me to express all sorts of things without too much articulation. Often I will do a painting and when I stand back and look I see the painting says a lot more than what I intended. I don’t know if many of us are afraid to say what we think or perhaps we are just being polite because that’s an expected social law?

I suggest have a journal ready and write down your uncensored thoughts and ideas. You will find with that process you will discover  that indeed you have something worthwhile to say. Okay there are times to keep a lid on it!! but just have confidence to know that we all have something to say.

cafe journaling……taking me to an interesting place!!

Today I did my cafe journaling and I had a lot of things to write about. One of the things I penned was about the creative conference that I attended last week. I am an artist who loves to teach other’s about art  especially children as they have an untainted view of art.  I found the speaker’s to be very inspiring and very much in sync with the opinions that I hold in regard to teaching children anything creative.

However I did have a little sadness within me as my Son has an intellectual disability and his creativity has been somewhat limited. I know this because as a playgroup volunteer I do lots of creative activity’s with young children all the time. My Son’s participation and engagement is very different as his concentration does differ a lot from children his own age.

After being inspired from this creativity conference I tried to get Zachy to draw using a big charcoal stick, he wanted nothing to do with it. Well I did make him get off the X box!!!! I was left feeling somewhat disappointed so I said a little prayer to God and asked The Lord for a strategy. After a moment of tantrum throwing Zachy then said to me that he wanted to go to the park.

So off we went for a walk to the park and this is where I got my idea. I would stop him, pick up a leaf and got him to look at the straight lines that were on the leaf. It was a little challenging at first, as  sometimes it’s  hard to get him to stop and look at something for more than a second. I then made him do a straight line in the air with his finger in which he participated in. We continued to walk and I continued to stop and encouraged him look at anything that was a straight line. We looked at a blade of grass, power lines, the foot path and the stem of a flower. This exercise in observation was a success and I was encouraged that digging a little deeper for my Son is important and rewarding.

I also thought about the things that interest him, such as music. He has a wonderful ability to hear bird calls and imitate them. He likes to make abstract sounds where I then have to whistle in response, he loves to rhyme and he does love to belt out a song on the top of his lungs. Can you see where I’m headed? I realised that my Son’s artistic vocabulary is different to mine, however it’s  just as rich .

As I was writing these reflections in my journal I was feeling excited about my Son’s creativity. One should not underestimate those with an intellectual disability. I feel that I’m called to dig deeper so my Son can have the same opportunity as the children I share my artistic ability with.