Sparks from the Fire

Note: The following is my response to a recent customer question.  Occasionally we print these to clarify to all what might be otherwise misunderstood.  The question from customer was, “Why can’t the sampled songs on your website be full songs instead of only part of the song?” The names have been changed to protect the innocent.

Dear Bart,

Your letter came to me this morning from our customer service department.  I’ve asked that these kinds of responses come to me occasionally so that I could help handle them and help clarify confusions.

As CEO of Watchfire Music and one of its composers I would love that you could hear a full sample of my music on the site, but unfortunately we, as well as the rest of the industry, have learned that if we were to put the full sample on the site, then three generations of people would then steal such and never actually purchase it.

Unfortunately I have to eat.  I’m working on overcoming that limitation in life, but I just haven’t gotten there yet.  As it is, we live in a world where now much of what we create as musicians and composers is either free or stolen because of file sharing and hacking.

Your short note came across to all of us here as critical.  We pride ourselves in our giving.  We sell songs that take tens of thousands of dollars to create for 99 cents in a world where music is now even becoming “free” — thereby reducing our much loved occupations to the level of hobbies.

I guess you got me on my soap box here, but when I come across moments like this of such misunderstanding, it usually, these days, puts me right back on that box.

We do offer every possible tool we can think of to help you discover and understand our music.  Perhaps you might rethink this in terms of going to the movies.  Let’s say they were forced to let you see the movie for free and then, if you saw the whole thing and liked it, then, and only then, you would have to pay for it.

It’s a good analogy. (more…)

“Thoughts On ‘Today’” is the last of a 12 part series of posts reflecting on the songs of Julia Wade’s CD, Solos, with lyrics from the writings of Mary Baker Eddy and Music by Peter Link.

The most important books I’ve read over the last couple of decades besides the Bible and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy are, without a doubt, The Power of Now and The New Earth by Eckhart Tolle.  In his The Power of Now, Mr. Tolle sets forth reasoning on living in the nowness of life in such a compelling manner that it changed my life, changed the way I thought and acted, and along the way changed the way I look at life.  I can easily say that it brought to me a way of living that made me a much happier man and one who is much freer of two dramatic issues that haunt human beings daily – regret and fear.

Basically, I learned and understood that regret is living moment to moment in the past and that fear is living moment to moment in the future and that both are totally wrong choices and complete mistakes.  I had a preface to this understanding through the reading and study of Science and Health.   Mrs. Eddy talks about living in the now and deals with it several places in her book.  What took me over the top in my thinking in The Power of Now is that Tolle dedicates his entire book to the concept.

Mrs. Eddy, however, begins her book with these words that set forth the speculation that living totally in the now of life is the only way to practice life when she writes,

“To those leaning
on the sustaining infinite,
today is big with blessings.”

Though she does not use the word “now” she clearly means it.  This short statement of truth is packed with portent and has been a mantra for me for six decades.  The understanding of the truths contained therein has righted many a day for me that got off the track.

Lean on the infinite and you will be blessed.  Right now. Get out of the past and keep your thought out of the future and the blessings will flow.

So when I began this great adventure of writing songs from Mrs. Eddy’s iconic prose statements, it seemed only natural to start at the beginning with one that had played such an important part of my life. (more…)

“Thoughts On ‘Footsteps of Truth’” is one of a 12 part series of posts reflecting on the songs of Julia Wade’s CD, Solos, with lyrics from the writings of Mary Baker Eddy and Music by Peter Link.

We walk in the footsteps of Truth and Love
by following the example of our Master
in the understanding
of divine metaphysics.

To me, this song is about following – following the example of our Master.  The sixth and last tenet of Christian Science states, “And we solemnly promise to watch and pray for that mind to be in us which was also in Christ Jesus …” Most Christian Scientists use this tenet as a daily prayer.

It’s quite a statement, quite a promise.  I’ll have to admit that I’ve broken this solemn promise far too many times.  If ya’ think about it, it’s a lot to live up to.  It’s a promise to follow in his footsteps, to follow his example.

On the surface, this song often strikes me as the simplest lyric of the 12 songs, but upon further consideration, it may be the strongest statement of commitment.

We first acknowledge that certain truths are absolute.  Then we do all we can to move in the direction of those truths.

Whatever inspires with wisdom, Truth, or Love—
be it song, sermon, or Science—
blesses the human family
with crumbs of comfort
from Christ’s table,
feeding the hungry
and giving living waters
giving living waters
to the thirsty.

Two wondrous metaphors used throughout the Bible and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy are “light” and “water”.  Both represent inspiration passing from God to mankind.  In a previous post entitled, “Thoughts On Divine Love” I found myself using the water image endlessly pouring forth from the fountain to describe God’s Love filling our souls.

Here Mrs. Eddy illuminates the act of inspiration with the giving of living waters to the thirsty.  It is Julia’s and my great hope that these songs will, on some levels, fulfill Mrs. Eddy’s proclamation of “… be it song, sermon, or Science—blesses the human family …

Going forth, after we have committed daily to following in the Master’s footsteps, we must stay to the course.

One’s aim,
a point beyond faith,
should be to find
the footsteps of Truth,
the way to health and holiness.

And what rewards!  Health and holiness.  Perhaps the two most important necessities of the human experience.  Why else are we here, but to demonstrate these two concepts?  All other good must follow these two ideas. (more…)

“Thoughts On ‘Divine Love’” is one of a 12 part series of posts reflecting on the songs of Julia Wade’s CD, Solos, with lyrics from the writings of Mary Baker Eddy and Music by Peter Link.

Here is a song that was as natural to write as the act of breathing.  It starts at the end really.  The final words of the song were the first words I chose.

The vital part,
the heart and soul of Christian Science,
is Love.

Mary Baker Eddy probably uses this word as a synonym for God in her writings more than any other concept.  And who’s to argue with that?

Love is the liberator.
No power can withstand divine Love.

Say it again …

Love is the liberator.
No power can withstand divine Love.

In my life this is an absolute.  Feeling stressful?  Love more?  Have relationship problems?  Love more.  Struggling with disease or injury?  Love more.  Broke?  Love more.

When in doubt, love more.

Wait patiently
for divine Love to move
to move upon the waters
of mortal mind,
and form the perfect concept.

You’re not waiting for God to get to work, you know.  What we wait for is for our own consciousness to fill with love.  God is instant.  Love is instant.  It is mortal mind or ego that we wait for.  The process sometimes takes time because it is consciousness that needs to change, not God, not Love.

Love inspires,
illumines, designates,
and leads the way.

It is Love that leads the way, illuminating the roads we travel with God’s light so that we may see the errors of our ways and eradicate those mistakes.  It is Love that inspires us to get to work, to heal, to forgive, to a change of base in consciousness so that healing may take its natural, not miraculous, course.

God is Love.
Can we ask Him to be more? (more…)

“Thoughts On ‘Dominion’” is one of a 12 part series of posts reflecting on the songs of Julia Wade’s CD, Solos, with lyrics from the writings of Mary Baker Eddy and Music by Peter Link.

“The enslavement of man is not legitimate.” — Mary Baker Eddy

The American Civil War was fought over just this issue between the years of 1861 and 1865.  Soon after this time period Mary Baker Eddy was writing her best-selling and thought-changing book, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures and putting down her own thoughts on slavery. 

Wikipedia states, “After four years of warfare, mostly within the Southern states, the Confederacy surrendered and slavery was outlawed everywhere in the nation. (The slavery) Issues that led to war were partially resolved in the Reconstruction Era that followed, though others remained unresolved.”

So this issue, which had so polarized the mindset of a nation so that brother fought brother was clearly on the forefront of people’s thought.

She continues…

It will cease when man enters
into his heritage of freedom,
his God-given dominion …

Though the slaves had been freed, at the time, the issues of slavery would certainly not have been solved or even agreed upon for that matter.  By the end of the war our country would have still been polarized in its thinking as Southern and some Northern farmers were forced to give up their free work force and begin again.

So Mrs. Eddy wrote of her time and took her stand on not only this national issue, but also went a giant step further in the finishing of this iconic sentence.

… over the material senses.

Dominion over not just civil enslavement, but … over the material senses!

Though slavery had been abolished, she knew that the enslavement of man was far from being over until man was and is able to free himself from the chains of materialism. (more…)

“Thoughts On ‘Mind’s Camera’” is one of a 12 part series of posts reflecting on the songs of Julia Wade’s CD, Solos, with lyrics from the writings of Mary Baker Eddy and Music by Peter Link.

Focus.  This song is all about focus.

One of the things I miss the most about my new digital camera is that it has an automatic focus.  It won’t let me focus the camera, rather it does the focusing for me.  Many years ago I got totally into my old Pentax for about a decade and shot a coupla thousand pictures of everything imaginable.  What made the pictures most interesting, besides composition and content, was my ability to direct the viewer’s eye to one particular point of the picture.  The ability to focus that old camera made my pictures real personal impressions of life’s moments.

These days, with my digital camera, it decides where the eye should look and that makes my pictures more into what I would call ‘snapshots’ as opposed to artistic choices of my own personal points of view.

Now I often forget my camera and even when I do remember to take it, my pictures are seldom interesting to me.  Even when they’re in focus, it’s not my particular focus, it’s the camera’s focus.  When I do get a good picture occasionally, I just consider myself lucky that the camera and I agreed.

What we choose to see in life, the way we see life, the way we experience life is all a matter of focus.  I witnessed a traffic accident a few years back, and in the aftermath, when the cops were interviewing several people who stood on the same corner and witnessed with me, I was amazed to hear the different recounts and completely disparate recollections of each witness.

Each of us, standing in the same spot, had a different focus, and so told a different story.

Whatever the reason we go through this experience here on Planet Earth, and I sometimes think the whole reason we’re here is to find our way back to our true spirituality, some of us get very lost and make little progress and some of us actually spend some real time moving in the right direction.

Those who progress are simply better focused on the right idea and those who wander and even get lost lose focus and go down the wrong paths.

I had a Sunday School student several years ago who was just an terrific all-American kid – bright, spiritually curious, a good athlete, a sweet and gentle person, and an Eagle Scout with a great future before him.  He’s now in Leavenworth Prison locked up for life on a horrendous murder charge.  He was guilty – no question about it.

I believe he simply lost focus.

The crude creations of mortal thought
must finally give place
to the glorious forms
which we sometimes behold
in the camera
of divine Mind,
when the mental picture is spiritual and eternal.
Mortals must look beyond fading, finite forms,
if they would gain the true sense of things.

How can we stay true to our true selves?  I believe that each of us is God’s perfect child, but some of us get off the track and lose our way.

It happened to me.  I spent a decade of my life with a drug addiction, and though some of that decade was very focused and my career successful, over all, looking back, I was completely out of focus and totally barking up the wrong tree.  I know now that I wasted a decade of my life wandering about. (more…)

“Thoughts On ‘Prayer’” is one of a 12 part series of posts reflecting on the songs of Julia Wade’s CD, Solos, with lyrics from the writings of Mary Baker Eddy and Music by Peter Link.

If there’s one thing that has changed dramatically in my life over the years it’s the way I pray.  As I’ve changed my concept of what God is, prayer has naturally evolved from one thing to another.

The truth is, people pray in various sundry ways, and I give honor to most all of them.  If you lie down prostrate several times a day in the street and face Mecca, I consider that a powerful discipline and sometimes wish I could be so committed.  If you chant strange words whose meanings tangle in foreign-ness, so be it.

I had a wife once who filled the house with such dedication and brought great peace to an otherwise difficult relationship.  I have found sometimes that simply sitting in stillness and watching my breath, the intake and release, is a most rich and valuable form of prayer or meditation – especially when I’m faced with life’s tensions and pressure.

My simple and basic definition of prayer is to do whatever it takes to get closer to God, to de-emphasize the human ego and open mind to the more spiritual clarities of the moment.

Certainly, for me, music composition is a deep and fulfilling form of prayer.  Before I write a song, I tune up by praying and knowing that the muse in me is simply my connection with God and I know that the best of my music passes through me from God’s mouth to your ears, so to speak, though I no longer believe that God has a mouth.  )

So when it came time to dive into the song Prayer working with our lyricist, Mary Baker Eddy’s POV, I turned to my favorite passage from her book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures to begin the song.

Thoughts unspoken are not unknown
to the divine Mind.
Desire is prayer;
and no loss can occur
from trusting God with our desires,
that they may be moulded and exalted
and exalted!
before they take form
in words and in deeds.

Years ago I gave up praying for things.  One day it just made absolutely no sense to me to do so based upon my understanding of a God who “knows all things” to begin with.  It seemed hopelessly redundant to beg for objects or success or victory for that matter.  I think of prayer now as a deep knowing, or sometimes just simply heartfelt gratitude. (more…)

“Thanks be to God,
who gives us the victory
through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

We begin with a joyful celebration of gratitude from First Corinthians.  It is our victory, this rising from the dead.  It is Jesus’ victory over the cross that he bore, but ultimately it is mankind’s victory over the false belief of death.  The way-shower illuminated the truth of life for all mankind and we celebrate on this day.

…a sad supper
taken at the close of day,
in the twilight of a glorious career
with shadows fast falling around;
and this supper closed forever
Jesus’ ritualism
or concessions to matter.

We flash back to probably the most famous meal in the history of mankind where the Master said his goodbyes, not only to his followers, but also to his own illusion of life in the mortal state.  The music turns melancholy befitting the moment.  Mary Baker Eddy’s text from her book Science And Health beautifully sets the tone for the evening of farewells.

She continues…
The final demonstration
of the truth which Jesus taught,
and for which he was crucified,
opened a new era for the world.

No one knew it at the time, but the world had changed.  Now death was no longer the ultimate end to life, but we had an eternal future.  The most feared experience of life, the most eluded event of life on Planet Earth had suddenly become a lie and an event that was simply a transition, not the end.  And so we celebrate this wondrous fact.

“Thanks be to God,
who gives us the victory
through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Then Mrs. Eddy continues again…
Glory be to God,
and peace to the struggling hearts!

Christ hath rolled away the stone
from the door of human hope and faith,
and through the revelation
and demonstration of life in God…

(Christ)
hath elevated them
to possible at-one-ment…

Yes, the stone was the door that was opened and let in the light, the illumination of the truth that death is not real, and is a lie in life.  The revelation first came to Mary and then to Jesus’ disciples as they struggled to accept the concept of this new idea.  The music becomes like a child skipping down the lane lost in the energies and wonder of life.  As each of us accepts this revelation, we become at one with a new mankind, a new spirituality where the old inevitable no longer exists.

And so we proclaim through Mrs. Eddy’s words…
We acknowledge
that the crucifixion of Jesus
and his resurrection
served to uplift faith
to understand eternal Life,
even the allness of Soul, Spirit,
and the nothingness of matter.

Our Master
fully and finally
demonstrated
Divine Science
in his victory over death and the grave.

Here is the spiritual fact set forth.  Here is the meaning of Easter.  Here is the cause for celebration set purposefully in the woodwinds of the orchestra – simply, straight forward, matter of fact.  And so, once again we must celebrate.

“Thanks be to God,
who gives us the victory
through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Then once again Mrs. Eddy reminds us…
The periods of spiritual ascension
are the days and seasons of Mind’s creation,
in which beauty, sublimity,
purity, and holiness —
yea, the divine nature —
appear in man and the universe
never to disappear.

No, there was not just one ascension, only one miracle.  Instead, this was a new world being illuminated for all of us that choose to live it.  This is not an old story retold through the centuries, but a present possibility today.  Now is a period of spiritual ascension.  These are the days and seasons of Mind’s creation.  I choose to walk in this light.  Will you walk with me?  I choose to live in the divine nature.  This doesn’t make me better than anybody else; it is just a choice I choose to make.  I choose to live in the new world where death has no reality.  I choose life instead.  I celebrate this on this day of Easter and every day.

And the pipe organ begins to peel the paint from the walls of the old church and the orchestra fills the rooms of Mind and the timpani and cymbals crash through the barriers of human existence.

“Thanks be to God,
who gives us the victory
through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Allelulia
Allelulia!

This new song, with lyrics from the prose text of Mary Baker Eddy and the Bible, and music by yours truly, will debut to the world Easter Morning broadcast via the Internet from Boston’s First Church of Christ, Scientist.  Sung by their soloist, Julia Wade, and played on its huge and wondrous 4 manual pipe organ by Bryan Ashley, it will also be released on Julia’s new CD, Solos, in early May of 2012.  The CD version will accompany Julia with pipe organ and full orchestra.

Easter is only and ultimately about the resurrection.  The rest of the story is the old picture.  We welcome in the new!