Inside your heart sits a seer

Between his thoughts, he can hear

A melody simple but wondrously clear

The music of life, so precious, so dear.

DANCING THE DREAM

Michael Jackson

“I think about the generations and that we want to make it a better place for our children and our children’s children, so that they know it’s a better world for them.  I think they can make it a better place.”

HEAL THE WORLD

Words spoken in the introduction by a child.

 My parents blessed me with the gift of life on 9/11.  For all my years, that date has represented only love…9/11/2001 brought with it something else.  It’s hard to believe more than a decade has passed since that shining September morning when the world stopped spinning for a time.  This week, I celebrated yet again…gifted with my Husband, Friends and Michael.  The morning began with memories of Michael’s 56th birthday in Gary, Indiana, as  told by my Dear Friend, Irina, who traveled all the way from Moscow.  Through her eyes, ears and enormous heart, she shared tearful stories…telling me of Michael’s beautiful children…their humility, politeness, generosity, strength and love.  She looked into their eyes and saw Michael looking back.  My heart filled with joy.  I felt strengthened and more hopeful for their young lives.  I was then given Michael through the beautiful talent of Siren in her watercolor, SONGBIRD.  She has truly captured Michael’s soul as love pours out on the canvas.  Hanging in my little writing studio, I feel both Siren and Michael with me.  Sitting along the shores of Lake Superior, I drank in the beauty and power of crashing waves and my friend Donna’s creativity with words.  Donna is a BELIEVING MIRROR in my life.  She gives strength to my creative process.

September 11, 2014 ended with MY SONGBIRD.  Tom and I sang and danced, smiled and cried our way through Michael’s HISTORY WORLD TOUR Copenhagen Performance.  “When an audience lights candles and sways to ‘HEAL THE WORLD’ a space is created where nobody is unholy, no religion can exercise its imaginary exclusive patent on the true God.”  Deepak Chopra

As the day drew to a close, my mind swirled in thought.  My gratitude prayers given, I lay thinking about my meaning for the word SONGBIRD.  I laughed when I looked in the dictionary, discovering the narrowest of parameters for the word, having been written before the genius that is Michael Jackson.

Michael’s music takes on a life of its own.  His performances take on a life of their own.  Fans and scholars alike listen, analyze, and extol the work…artists draw inspiration, cover and copy from the work.  The myth-making media work round the clock to find fault, to accuse, to minimize…obsessed with taking it all down.  Those of us who have taken the time to really KNOW  the man, simply bask in the magic. We allow the SONGBIRD to give us an escape, teaching us who we are and how we should live.

DANGEROUS by Susan Fast was a birthday gift.  In reading her discussion of HEAL THE WORLD, I was reminded of the profoundness of Michael’s teachings about children.

“What Jackson does not do in introducing children into his utopic visions, importantly, is buy into conventional ideas of normative futurity, i.e. that the future belongs to children, or: what we can’t achieve ourselves, our children will achieve on our behalf.  For him, there was a utopian impulse in children not because they represent the future, the hopes and dreams of adults, the continuation of a ‘normal’ progression of time and family, but because their honesty, simplicity and innocence center adults, bring us back to feeling, to good affect.”

Our SONGBIRD teaches.  Michael believed his music could affect world change.  He was right.  It has…it is!  And, his inspiration for his music came from children and the child living inside.  “Now, when the world is so confused and its problems so complicated, we need our children more than ever.  In their innocence, very young children know themselves to be light and love.  If we allow them, they can teach us to see ourselves the same way.”  Michael Jackson

A SONGBIRD of light and love…my birthday gift of the heart.  It has flown to me in a kaleidoscope of memories, words, paint, dance and song, THE MUSIC OF LIFE…woven in a tapestry of kindred spirits who share the same soul.  We have been given the exquisite, extraordinary gift of Michael Jackson…and, choosing to honor this priceless gift, we join him in recreating the world.

Thank you, Irina!

Thank you, Siren!

Thank you, Donna!

Thank you, Tom!

Thank you, Michael!

Thank you, all My Kindred Spirits in Michael!

I love you all.

Jude