Music and Literature: Leon Russell and Herman Hesse

Posted on September 21, 2026 by Enchanted Seashells

“This day will never come again and anyone who fails to eat and drink and taste and smell it will never have it offered to him again in all eternity. The sun will never shine as it does today…But you must play your part and sing a song, one of your best.”
—Herman Hesse/“Klingsor’s Last Summer”.

Right now it’s about 6:30 a.m. The day is fresh, the sky is pink, and it’s so quiet that I can hear a Downy Woodpecker poking holes in the eucalyptus tree. Other birds are singing and flying back and forth across the garden. A few crows call to each other. It’s peaceful. Serene. Meditative.

Leon Russell understood exactly what Hesse was talking about, especially sing a song, one of your best.

“Life is a song, and love is the music.” – Leon Russell

Leon’s last recording of his iconic A Song For You from the album A Distant Shore, was released posthumously in 2017.

Leon alwaysalways managed to convey a lifetime of authentic heartfelt emotion in every word and note, as he played the piano like no one ever will again. This version is beautiful; reflective, melancholy.

“A Song For You” by Leon Russell

I love you in a place
Where there’s no space and time
And when my life is over
Remember when we were together
We were alone, and
I was singing this song for you —

Hermann Karl Hesse was a German-Swiss poet and novelist, and winner of the 1946 Nobel Prize in Literature. His interest in Eastern religious, spiritual, and philosophical traditions, combined with his involvement with Jungian analysis, helped shape his literary work.

Nearly fifty years earlier, this was Leon on the Homewood Sessions with “A Song For You”…

In December 1970 Leon Russell recorded the Homewood Sessions at the Vine Street Theatre in Hollywood, broadcast as an ‘unscripted and unrehearsed’ one-hour TV special on KCET TV and later re-broadcast several times on the Public Broadcasting System. They actually shot six hours but only broadcast one. Claimed to be the first national broadcast of a stereo rock and roll performance, this would have required an FM simulcast, since American television was not stereo in 1970s.

Word Of The Day: Lethologica

Posted on June 19, 2026 by Enchanted Seashells

Has this ever happened to you? Have you ever forgotten a word while you were in the middle of a conversation? Did you feel that it was on the tip of your tongue but oh so elusive?

I have, and it just happened to me today! I was chatting with a friend and completely lost the word I was searching for. It was so annoying,

I discovered there’s a word to describe that phenomenon. It’s lethologica, the technical term for the “tip-of-the-tongue” feeling—that frustrating moment when a specific word or name is on the tip of your tongue but you can’t quite retrieve it from memory.

The term combines lethe (meaning forgetfulness or oblivion, referencing the River Lethe in Greek mythology) and logos (meaning word or speech).

Every language seems to have a way to describe it; in German it’s Es liegt mir auf der Zunge (It’s lying on my tongue.)

While it happens to everyone, lethologica is a complex neurological event involving many factors that aren’t completely understood. Scientists believe one contributing element could be sleep levels, as lethologica tends to happen more often to those who are tired. Other factors might include how well the memory was encoded (the base memory of the word) and interference from other memories, which can cause confusion.

Studies have also found a positive correlation with age. Older adults might experience lethologica up to once a day, while younger adults experience it around once a week. The average native English-speaking American adult knows around 42,000 dictionary words; it’s only natural that some are forgotten from time to time.

The most common resolution for the failure to recall a specific word is to NOT think about it, which is often when the word suddenly “pops up” out of nowhere. This is referred to as a spontaneous resolution or one in which the state resolves itself.

Some content curated from: grandezza.seabreezecommunications.com and https://www.verywellmind.com/ Image credit to owner, from Pinterest.

Bliss

Posted on June 7, 2026 by Enchanted Seashells

If only you knew what bliss I find in being nothing.

Words attributed to Rumi
Photo by Enchanted Seashells

A Hopeful Walk

Posted on June 4, 2026 by Enchanted Seashells

She walks
With such a knowing
Of all that has been
And such a hope
For what is not yet seen

A Poem by Athey Thompson/Art by Paula Jones

Unexpected Magic

Posted on May 25, 2026 by Enchanted Seashells

“But once in a while the odd thing happens,
Once in a while the dream comes true,
And the whole pattern of life is altered,
Once in a while the moon turns blue.”
W.H. Auden

Photos from Pinterest

A Grain of Sand

Posted on April 28, 2026 by Enchanted Seashells

To see the world in a grain of sand
And heaven in a wildflower
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour
-William Blake

Sometimes all you need is to lie in the sand and breathe.

To Be Wild

Posted on April 6, 2026 by Enchanted Seashells

“To be wild is not to be crazy or psychotic. True wildness is a love of nature, a delight in silence, a voice free to say spontaneous things, and an exuberant curiosity in the face of the unknown.” —Robert Bly

Books: All About Love

Posted on March 11, 2026 by Enchanted Seashells

I’m reading bell hooks (yes, all lower case) All About Love.

To truly love we must learn to mix various ingredients—care, affection, recognition, respect, commitment, and trust, as well as honest and open communication.

“The wounded child inside many males is a boy who, when he first spoke his truths, was silenced by paternal sadism, by a patriarchal world that did not want him to claim his true feelings. The wounded child inside many females is a girl who was taught from early childhood that she must become something other than herself, deny her true feelings, in order to attract and please others. When men and women punish each other for truth telling, we reinforce the notion that lies are better. To be loving we willingly hear the other’s truth, and most important, we affirm the value of truth telling. Lies may make people feel better, but they do not help them to know love.”

All About Love: New Visions by bell hooks