As I continued working on my Muskoka morning sunrise painting today, I had my beloved iPod Touch playing. I think it may be wrong to love an object as much as I love that sweet rectangular music box. There are some days when Shuffle can send you the weirdest, most disconcerting choices (let's say, for instance, the chorus of Hawksley Workman's Addicted as you are driving your daughter somewhere) and others when it can be in absolutely perfect sync with what you are doing. Today was one of those perfect sync days.
As I painted the clouds and the rays of morning sunlight breaking through them, two songs played in succession--first Joni Mitchell's Cotton Avenue:
A red sun came rolling down a grey sky
And the frogs and dogs and night birds then
Started up singing sweet country lullaby...
And then this one:
The birds they sang
at the break of day
Start again
I heard them say
Don't dwell on what
has passed away
or what is yet to be...
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in.
(from Anthem by Leonard Cohen)
Oh Leonard, your lyrics and sense of timing are beautiful.
See a video of Leonard Cohen singing Anthem here.
