dark night on a long road 220 minutes still to go spacing out time on odometer with all our stories running through my head
if we stretched out all the spaces we had nothing much to say we’d be further than it seems right now we’d still not be ok we’re farther than we started we’re still more than far away
if i opened up the wreckage of this life you’d see sparks fly from my insides and the flames burn higher for the silence my spark wants you to stay, for the road home
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you take me piece at a time with no patience for my spirit weak tired. you take me apart.
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oh my dear sad heart on far shore you proclaim the strength of days the hope of past mistakes restored i am only ever waiting on a star to fall from outer reaches of the dark, fragrant spaces.
oh the dearest, the best save all the letters and re-scatter them, make new beds we lie in every Saturday and new songs rewritten in each small perfection a confection of the melancholy perfect symphony of catastrophe.
laid upon disaster oh the vanishes of deep blue skies and conflicting pinstripes call nothing left on wasting time floating on the current of the day with light accompanying you to heaven with a violent twist, an aching kiss.
and even though we’re talking late into the night and parts of me feel mostly dead you are keeping me alive age is not the passing or a measure of what’s past just keeping score of all we’ve given up my love
you saved my life tonight you did it twice before you noticed i was drowning in the dark i was drowning in the dark
Beyond that, you’ll have to be patient with me. I’m writing eulogies of a life I wasn’t finished with yet.
Thanks to Madonna and Vanity Fair, May 2008.
“Ultimately everything’s good,” she told me. “Even bad is good, because bad is there to help you resist it. You need to have that resistance to be good, and, let’s face it, the worst things that happen are always the best things that happen. If you look back at your life and say, Well, what did you learn? What happened that changed your life, that made you strong, that made you grow, it’s always things you perceived as bad. So is there bad?”
“You have to get to a point where you care as little about getting smoke blown up your ass as you do when you become a whipping boy in the press, because ultimately they both add up to shit. You just have to keep doing your work, and hope and pray somebody’s dialing into your frequency. If your joy is derived from what society thinks of you, you’re always going to be disappointed.”
Audience Of One My favourite song of Bruce’s whole album and the 2nd single to be released is Long Lost Friend. It’s a song of hope & loss. The clip above is just pleasurable. I’m listening to this track and most of the CD on repeat with single malt and crying a lot.
My friend Simon Moore was laying tracks (guitars) for this long awaited album over Easter weekend 2006. It was the first Easter Si wasn’t at for a number of years. We had written the Sola series in the week prior and Si was emailing updated scripts for me to shoot at camp from the studio. Later, we were to name our company after that weekend’s pivotal output (Sola Fida – the first of Luther’s creeds).
It seems that this weekend, as the news is starting to penetrate amongst friends, colleagues and my family of easter crew… this song takes me back to beginnings and ends and is so appropriate.
This week I accepted the news that I will no longer be working on Eastercamp. It’s a hard goodbye, too fast and too soon. But God is present in it. In the weeks to come I’m going to endeavour to chronicle the time as a way of saying goodbye and honouring all that God has done and that I’ve been privileged to be part of.
In the meantime – if you have a special Eastercamp story – I’d love you to send them to me, even with a photo or two. I’m going to collect as many stories from 1999 – 2008 as I can to remember this season that’s been so important and beautiful in my life. Feel free to pass this around as many people as you know who have been part of or impacted by Eastercamp in some way during my involvement.. I’d appreciate the help. Email to tash at solafida dot co dot nz.
Song Of The Moment : Long Lost Friend by Bruce Conlon
goodbye my long lost friend i’m glad to see there’s no bitter end cos it’s a long time we spent in our lives and now it’s time to go
i won’t see you tonight cos now it’s time we must say goodbye cos it’s a long long time til we can say i’ll see you again someday
no need to make amends i’m glad we parted the best of friends cos it’s a long time we spent in our lives and now it’s time to go
i won’t see you tonight cos now it’s time we must say goodbye cos it’s a long long time til we can say i’ll see you again someday
stay with me tonight and all these memories inside you stay with me i want you to stay with me
cos i won’t see you tonight cos now it’s time we must say goodbye cos it’s a long long time til we can say I’ll see you again someday
Tash McGill is a broadcaster, writer and strategist who works with people and organisations to solve problems and create transformation. She believes people are the most important thing and that stories are powerful ways of changing the world. You can find out more at tashmcgill.com or by visiting her LinkedIn profile.
