The Stories of the Songs:
Walk is a call to the soul; a call to be strong and keep moving in the direction of what is right, the direction of your dreams and the direction of the light. It is symbolic of the "Hero's Journey", through which one must travel outward and face the obstacles, burdens and battles of life, only to come full circle and find oneself returning home as a new person, transformed within. "Walk" is the journey and the song of the journey - to walk the path.
I grew up in Saskatchewan on what is traditionally Aboriginal land. I know that somewhere inside me, this beautiful and ancient culture has inspired and influenced me. I also travelled to Australia and spent time in a traditional Corroboree and studied the Yidaki (didgeridoo). Walk is a song of my own creation and is not traditional in any way, but it was inspired by the singing of the First Nations People of Canada and by the ancient sound of the Yidaki from Australia. It also echoes the struggle and suffering that they have faced and calls for courage to keep going and rise again on the journey.
I remember feeling frustrated and trapped. I remember feeling like I was missing something, but I didn't know what. I felt there was more, but I didn't know how to get to it. I remember, looking out over Lake Ontario in Toronto and pretending it was the ocean, wishing it was the ocean and wishing that I could surf the waves that I was imagining were there. Then one day it all changed. After a long talk with a good friend, suddenly "why" became "why not?" and the impossible became possible. A few months later I was on a plane to Thailand, New Zealand and Australia. That was seven years ago and ever since then I have travelled the world, sharing my music. This song was written on a beach in New Zealand (Piha to be exact), after finally finding the feeling of freedom that I was looking for.
It is fitting that Same Sky comes after Life is Beautiful. The same beautiful soul that encouraged me to leave everything and go on an adventure was the same beautiful soul that I was missing so dearly and wishing I could share everything with (she is amazing!). Oceans apart, different stars, but the same sky. An analogy for real love, no matter the distance; if we are in different countries, different hemispheres, different worlds - if love is there, the sky is the same. Even though I was in the South (this song was written in a park in Auckland, NZ) and she was in the North and even though the stars appear different in the north and south hemispheres - there is a part of the sky where we can both see the same stars. I often wondered if perhaps we were ever looking up at the same spot in the sky at the same time. Kindred souls. Even if the journey changes, love is never lost. It exists forever in the eternal now and in the heart.
Well since we are on the theme of love…I'll keep this one a bit shorter and let the words speak for themselves. It was written for the same lovely soul that Same Sky was written for. Composed on Tallows Beach in Australia - just south of Byron Bay. My days were filled with surfing, swimming, adventures and writing music. For a while it was like living in a dream.
I truly believe that one aspect of being in love is when you see the other person as they wish they could be seen and they see you as you wish you could be. It's almost as if they see the real you - the flower that has bloomed and reached perfection on it's soul's journey - they see the light in you. Yes, they accept the human side of you and love that too, but they fall in love with your essence and "see" the real you and you in turn, see the true soul within them. When this happens, it is like a dream - a shared dream.
"Am I awake or dreaming? Just lying next to the beauty that is you... that is enough to make me feel that I might be dreaming now".
In 2010, the G20 summit was held in Toronto. It was the largest incident of mass arrest in Canadian history. The human rights violations were atrocious. I could not believe that this was happening in Canada. I wanted to express my anger and my feelings about what I saw, but I wanted to do it in a peaceful way, so I expressed it in a song.
I made the lyrics to this song universal so that it wasn't specific to the Toronto G20 Summit and based on what I am seeing daily in the news, the message still applies. We need to treat others as we would like to be treated, we need to stop polarizing people, we need to respect all people's human rights and we need to put more love into the world.
The lyrics in this song speak for themselves, but the message that I wanted to convey is that we have the power to affect change in the world. The world is filled with chaos and abuse of power, but rather than be angry, we can simply decide to change ourselves - when we all make changes to ourselves and to our consciousness, the whole world will change. As a result of this dramatic shift in consciousness an old system that no longer serves us will no longer be able to survive. We can change the old negative system, by creating a new, positive one. And how do we do this? By changing ourselves. Each tree must be healthy for the forest to be green, the power of one becomes the power of many when each one does his or her part. That is this power of unity that can change the world - it is love. "Be the change you want to see in the world" - Mahatma Gandhi
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