Across the Universe

This morning the ipod shuffled immediately to this song, and I stopped in my tracks to listen to it. Ok, so it wasn't tough to get me to lie back down on my bed so soon after I'd gotten off it, but really, it mesmerized me. The version it played was Fiona Apple's cover, which is pretty awesome, but I'm not sure the original could ever be topped:

Words are flying out like

endless rain into a paper cup

They slither while they pass

They slip away across the universe

Pools of sorrow waves of joy

are drifting thorough my open mind

Possessing and caressing me

As I listened to this verse, I couldn't help thinking about the devastation wrought by the earthquake in Japan. (And watching this video accompanying The Beatles, some of the images resemble some of the horrifying video footage I've watched of the quake and tsunami.)

But hearing this part, for the first time, I heard it, I think, the way it was intended:

Jai guru deva om

Nothing's gonna change my world

Nothing's gonna change my world

Nothing's gonna change my world

Nothing's gonna change my world

Which I think is that notion I attribute to Buddhism that we can always be ok in whatever external world presents itself as long as we are ok in the internal world. And if you're not feeling that internal okness, I recommend putting this song on repeat:

Sounds of laughter shades of life

are ringing through my open ears

exciting and inviting me

Limitless undying love which

shines around me like a million suns

It calls me on and on across the universe

Yes, every version of it I've heard is pretty magical, including Rufus Wainwright's...