Signed, Sealed, Delivered

So often, especially these days, the articles and videos that I see in my Facebook feed are heavy, but this video of FLOTUS doing carpool karaoke is the complete opposite. It's light. It's joyful. It's exuberant. It's real. It's honest. It's awesome!

She sang a few different songs, but this Stevie Wonder (her fave) classic was among them:

Like a fool I went and stayed too long
Now I'm wondering if your love's still strong
Oo baby, here I am,
Signed, sealed delivered, I'm yours
Then that time I went and said goodbye
Now I'm back and not ashamed to cry
Oo baby, here I am,
Signed, sealed delivered, I'm yours

Here I am baby
Oh, you've got the future in your hand
(signed, sealed delivered, I'm yours)

Here I am baby,
Oh, you've got the future in your hand
(signed, sealed, delivered, I'm yours)

I've done alot of foolish things
That I really didn't mean
Hey, hey, yea, yea, didn't I, oh baby

Seen alot of things in this old world
When I touched them they did nothing, girl

Oo baby, here I am, signed, sealed delivered,
I'm yours, oh I'm yours
Oo-wee babe you set my soul on fire
That's why I know you are my only desire

Oo baby, here I am, signed, sealed delivered,
I'm yours Here I am baby
Oh, you've got the future in your hand
(signed, sealed delivered, I'm yours)

Here I am baby,
Oh, you've got the future in your hand
(signed, sealed, delivered, I'm yours)

I've done alot of foolish things
That I really didn't mean
I could be a broken man but here I am

With your future, got your future babe (here I am baby)
Here I am baby (signed, sealed delivered, I'm yours)
Here I am baby, (here I am baby)
Here I am baby (signed, sealed delivered, I'm yours)
Here I am baby, (here I am baby)
Here I am baby (signed, sealed delivered, I'm yours)

It is a happy number, and it's a happy time, when you're in love and it feels certain that's where you will say. Impermanence, my friends. We don't stay anywhere.

Speaking of not being able to feel the ground beneath your feet, I just drove home through the biggest thunderstorm I've ever  driven through in my nearly 30 years behind the wheel. So scary.

And as I drove, I listened to Ta'Nehisi Coates' book, Between the World and Me. Wow. What an incredible, thought-provoking read. I highly recommend it for people like me who are grappling for answers to all the mayhem that is going on in our society right now. It's eye opening, and it's beautifully written, and it represents a perspective from which most of us can learn a lot...

Rockin' in the Free World

Tonight while I was getting ready to go out to dinner with a friend, I decided to turn on some Neil Young. I was just in the mood. I love Neil Young.

But I was surprised, when this song came on, just how topical it is today, especially given that it was written in 1989:

There's colors on the street
Red, white and blue
People shufflin' their feet
People sleepin' in their shoes
But there's a warnin' sign on the road ahead
There's a lot of people sayin' we'd be better off dead
Don't feel like Satan, but I am to them
So I try to forget it, any way I can.

Keep on rockin' in the free world,
Keep on rockin' in the free world
Keep on rockin' in the free world,
Keep on rockin' in the free world.

I see a woman in the night
With a baby in her hand
Under an old street light
Near a garbage can
Now she puts the kid away, and she's gone to get a hit
She hates her life, and what she's done to it
There's one more kid that will never go to school
Never get to fall in love, never get to be cool.

Keep on rockin' in the free world,
Keep on rockin' in the free world
Keep on rockin' in the free world,
Keep on rockin' in the free world.

We got a thousand points of light
For the homeless man
We got a kinder, gentler,
Machine gun hand
We got department stores and toilet paper
Got Styrofoam boxes for the ozone layer
Got a man of the people, says keep hope alive
Got fuel to burn, got roads to drive.

Keep on rockin' in the free world,
Keep on rockin' in the free world
Keep on rockin' in the free world,
Keep on rockin' in the free world.

Feels like I am more aware than ever that this world is only free for some of us...

Coming Home

What a day.

It began with a beautiful early morning practice, then some taking care of my children, and then off I went to the Dane County Jail to teach yoga to the women in minimum there.

Talk about a grounding experience. Wow.

And when I left, I felt lucky. Because I was the only one, of the six of us in that jail recreation room, who actually had the opportunity to feel the ground, the actual earth, beneath my feet today.

One of the places my feet took me was a core class, where this was appropriately one of the songs played:

I need that
Ground beneath my feet to feel that
Ground beneath my feet
I need that
Ground beneath my feet to feel that
Ground beneath my feet
I need that

We all need that. And while I get that we have laws for a reason, and I get that we sometimes need to protect people from hurting themselves and/or others. But the way that we do it is so far from anything that might help empower these people to make better choices the next time around.

Today I learned that the women are not allowed to stand up in the pod (dorm area). They have to be sitting or laying down. One said she does her squats in the shower because it's the only place she's allowed to stand. Really? Talk about not being able to feel the ground beneath your feet, even if it is the floor of the jail. What an unfortunate, fear-based policy.

Anyway, besides the humbling and heart-opening experience of being present to those women today, I also found out my part time job at the University is morphing to full time this month (yay!), and had the incredible experience of biking up my driveway and being greeted by my 16 year old son, standing in the window, making dinner.

I am so, so blessed.

And so glad to be coming home in all these many ways:

I need that home, I'm coming home, I'm coming home
Cause it's life that I've been living in my home
Home, I'm coming home, I'm coming home
Cause I'm tired of being out here on my own
I'm coming home, oh yeah yeah yeah
I'm coming home, oh yeah
All of this time I've been living it up
All that's is left is rubble and dust
Oh oh, I'm coming home

I know if I can find my own way back
There's a life I always knew but never had
I'm tired of fighting things that I can't change
Letting me go so I can finally find my place

I need that
Ground beneath my feet to feel that
Ground beneath my feet
I need that
Ground beneath my feet to feel that
Ground beneath my feet
I need that
Ground beneath my feet to feel that
Ground beneath my feet
I need that
Ground beneath my feet to feel that
Ground beneath my feet
I need that

We all do. Every single one of us. Not just those us fortunate enough to either have the resources to make good choices, the resources to not get caught, or the resources to avoid doing time if we are caught.

Imma see what I can do about changing some of these inhumane policies...