Sparks from the Fire

I’m in Los Angeles on Watchfire Music business, a wall-to-wall meeting blitz with my partner, Jim Birch and LA staff planning out the coming year.  While on the plane coming out I once again considered the possibility of death – something that I don’t do with much regularity, but have certainly done a lot more of lately.

No, I’m not about to die, I’m healthy and productive, but the CD project I’m producing and writing now has got me pretty focused on the inevitabilities of life on Planet Earth.  When I got on the plane, I had to chuckle at myself as I considered the danger of what I was about to do for a moment.  I was about to fly through the air – for 3000 miles and then come down at just the right place – smoothly.

The CD project is called Goin’ Home, A Gospel Cantata — Reflections on Crossing Over and Beyond.  It’s a joyous look at death and heaven through the eyes of a number of classic Gospel traditional songs and an equal number of originals.

As I sat on the plane as it taxied down the runway, I went through my usual protective prayers knowing with complete positivity that God was over, under around and throughout that airplane, my mind turned once again to my beloved project as I faced the same danger that millions of people face every day now.  The question, “Could this be it?” came to mind for one fleeting instant and then was drowned out in a rash of denials and better focused positive thought.

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I have started a new and deeply personal Inspirational album project for Watchfire Music. It’s about death. It’s about heaven. It’s about the transition that I face. And it’s about ascension.

I’m not about to die. I’m not about to ascend. And I’m not really sure about the meaning of the word “heaven”. But I feel that it’s time in my life to put a little extra thought into the whole set of ideas and what better way to do it than in my favorite form of expression – music and lyrics.

“Is death and heaven musical”, you might ask? You bet. The concept of dying and going to heaven has historically transfixed the writers of the Spiritual songbook for centuries. Slaves had, simply put, a rough life. They had obviously lost faith in life in this world for good reason, so they fixed their dreams on the next.

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I don’t get it. I know, it’s the $64 question, but I must not have the $64 in my pocket, because I can’t figure it out. If we are, in fact, spiritual man, right here and now, and if we are one with our Maker in His image and likeness, which I deeply believe, then how did I get here, sitting in this chair on this material earth still struggling with my mortality in the first place? Why do we need to go through this earthly experience at all?

I can’t opt in to the “be a good boy and when you die, you’ll go to heaven and live with the angels” concept. It’s just a little too human-fairytale an explanation for me in this digital age. I’m more for the “we have our own opportunity to make our own heaven here on earth and it’s up to us to work our way up the ladder (proverbial) back to our original (and ever-present) state of grace.” Whew!

I believe in a God of pure goodness, not a punishing God. I believe in a God of love and the Bible supports that when John says, “God is Love”.  So I figure if God is love, He, She or It is just that, love.  So I tap into that source whenever I can.

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