I lovelove this song, and it’s perfect for the last full moon of 2023.
“It’s a marvelous night for a moon dance With the stars up above in your eyes.”
Today, December 26, the full moon is in Cancer. Because of that, we might experience heightened emotions and feel some déjà vu. This Cold moon is all about healing old wounds, tapping into the supernatural, and accessing our intuition. It’s a reminder to sit in stillness with practices of introspection and awareness.
“You know the night’s magic seems to whisper and hush…”
Last night, the moon shone so brightly through the window that it woke me up. I’m glad I had remembered to put my crystals outside on the deck to savor the full moon’s cleansing energy.
I spent the day in the gardens, front and back. Neighbors dropped by to chat and comment on our beautiful weather in anticipation of much needed rain.
One neighbor recently got a sweet Golden Retriever that spent too many years at a disgusting Amish puppy mill and is now living her best life. A few minutes later, a young couple walked by with a newborn, their first. Kids rode by on their bikes and e-bikes on their way to play tennis at the park.
It was a wonderful, happy, Southern California kind of day, and I got a lot of work done, filling up three yard waste cans.
Even the butterflies seemed to be more active than usual, perhaps trying to sip as much nectar as possible before the rain or a southerly migration. I tried to snap some pics but they absolutely wouldn’t stay still long enough!
It made me think of that really old song, Elusive Butterfly. It’s beautiful, sad, poignant, even melancholy, but there I was, chasing that elusive butterfly — I could so relate.
Imagine how happy I was to learn that my fave Leon Russell played piano on this song, along with Henry Diltz (Banjo), Carol Kaye (Bass), and Hal Blaine (Drums). I had no idea!
Here’s previous butterfly photos, and these guys knew how to properly model.
I’m still obsessed with the lyrics of Elusive Butterfly
You might wake up some mornin’ To the sound of something moving past your window in the wind And if you’re quick enough to rise You’ll catch a fleeting glimpse of someone’s fading shadow Out on the new horizon You may see the floating motion of a distant pair of wings And if the sleep has left your ears You might hear footsteps running through an open meadow
Don’t be concerned, it will not harm you It’s only me pursuing somethin’ I’m not sure of Across my dreams with nets of wonder I chase the bright elusive butterfly of love
You might have heard my footsteps Echo softly in the distance through the canyons of your mind I might have even called your name As I ran searching after something to believe in You might have seen me runnin’ Through the long-abandoned ruins of the dreams you left behind If you remember something there That glided past you followed close by heavy breathin’
Don’t be concerned, it will not harm you It’s only me pursuing somethin’ I’m not sure of Across my dreams with nets of wonder I chase the bright elusive butterfly of love
Across my dreams with nets of wonder I chase the bright elusive butterfly of love
There is truly no greater joy than to have my sweet yet scarily precocious Angels in their car seats as we drive down to the beach, windows down, all of us belting out Karma by Taylor Swift.
They pay no attention to the fact that I can’t carry a tune; we’re nodding our heads and singing along with Apple music. “Play it again, Grandma!”
“Karma is my boyfriend.”
“I keep my side of the street clean. You wouldn’t know what I mean…” (Picture us mimic sweeping with our hands.)
“Karma is a cat…Purring in my lap ’cause it loves me.”
“Me and karma are like THAT.”
“Karma takes all my friends to the summit.”
“Karma’s gonna track you down Step by step from town to town.”
Like Taylor changed the lyrics to her bf’s name, I also change the words in this line…
“Karma is the guy on the screen coming straight home to me.”
to
“Karma is my two favorite kids coming straight home to me.”
Time spent with these Angel Kids is a neverending tapestry of shared joyful memories, including singing with tone deaf Grandma.
It’s cooling off even here in Southern California and now we can anticipate (or dread) shorter, darker days, to give us plenty of time for self reflection on the passage of time.
The Falling Leaves
Today, as I rode by,
I saw the brown leaves dropping from their tree
In a still afternoon,
When no wind whirled them whistling to the sky,
But thickly, silently,
They fell, like snowflakes wiping out the noon;
And wandered slowly thence
For thinking of a gallant multitude
Which now all withering lay,
Slain by no wind of age or pestilence,
But in their beauty strewed
Like snowflakes falling on the Flemish clay.
by Margaret Postgate-Cole (1893–1980)
I had to add this melancholy Nat King Cole song and just noticed he and the poet have the same last name. How cool is that coincidence!
The greatest thing you'll ever learn
Is just to love
And be loved in return.
I just learned the most incredibly interesting backstory about “Nature Boy”, Nat King Cole’s first big hit.
George Alexander Aberle (1908-1995), known as eden ahbez, was a songwriter and recording artist of the 1940s to 1970s, known to friends simply as ahbe.
In the late 40s, there was a rumor that there was a sort of hermit, disenchanted and disillusioned with the world, living in California in a cave under one of the Ls in the Hollywood sign.
No one really cared about this strange man until one night in 1947, he entered backstage at the Lincoln Theater in Los Angeles where Nat King Cole was playing. The man said he had something for Cole and he gave whatever he had to Cole’s manager.
Later, Cole tracked him down in New York City [no explanation about how he got from LA to NYC]. When Cole asked him where he was staying, the man declared he was staying at the best hotel in New York – outside, literally, in Central Park.
He said his name was eden ahbez (spelled all in lower-case letters). The song he gave Cole was titled “Nature Boy.” It became Cole’s first big hit, and was soon covered by other artists through the years; Frank Sinatra, Sarah Vaughan, Tony Bennett, and Lady Gaga.
The media went crazy about the mysterious man who handed Nat King Cole one of the biggest hits. Everyone tried to find out more about him.
What little they found was that he was once an orphan who never stayed at one place very long, living in various foster homes. He explained he just never fit in and was always searching for something.
“They say he wandered very far…Very far, over land and sea…”
They found out he would hop freight trains and walked across country several times, subsisting solely on raw fruits and vegetables.
“A little shy and sad of eye…But very wise was he…”
ahbez would eventually get his message out when the hippie movement began, with other artists such as Donovan, Grace Slick, and the Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson sought him out. He also wrote songs for Eartha Kitt and had another song recorded by Sam Cooke.
IIn 1974, ahbez was reported to be living in the Los Angeles suburb of Sunland. He owned a record label named Sunland Records, recording under the name “Eden Abba.” From the late 1980s until his death, ahbez worked closely with Joe Romersa, an engineer/drummer in Los Angeles. The master tapes, photos, and final works of eden ahbez are in Romersa’s possession.
Ahbez died in 1995 at the age of 86, of injuries sustained in a car accident.
As I was writing this post, I learned that we lost Sinead O'Connor, another one-of-a-kind talent. "Nothing Compares to You" can't be surpassed, whether she sang it or Prince did. There's so much that could be said about Sinead's tragic life, but I'll just honor her music and not dwell on the other stuff.
Since Tony Bennett died last week, I’ve been listening to a lot of the old standards by the great ones: Sinatra and Fitzgerald and Nat King Cole.
I don’t know how I missed the news, but I didn’t realize that Natalie Cole died several years ago.
Her voice was magical.
Natalie carried on her dad’s incredible legacy with an enormous gift of her own. She died at the age of sixty-five from idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension which led to heart failure after she received a kidney transplant in 2009.
I always loved this bittersweet duet. They’re both unforgettable.
Today would have been my mom’s birthday and I heard that Burt Bacharach died. He was one of my mom’s favorite artists.
While we were baking together or cleaning the house, wearing the apron I still have hanging up in the kitchen, she’d sing along with an album or the radio, which REALLY REALLY embarrassed me — I thought she was so annoying, but I miss hearing her voice now. She could carry a tune and I cannot, even though I had voice lessons…oh well, not one my skills, I guess.
So much awesome music like “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head” and “Do You Know the Way to San Jose” and “Alfie.
Rest in peace, Burt.
Here are some of my mom’s favorites:
One of my favorite singers, Cilla Black and one of Burt Bacharach’s best-loved songs, too.
From selenite to moon glow to reflecting on ways to become improved humans, we can’t forget our shadow side as well as our bright lovelight.
Carl Jung believed that we needed to see, understand, embrace, and accept our shadow side to become a fully integrated and fully functional human.
As much work as that seems to be to self reflect, with the full moon in a few days, I think it might be time to bring home another piece of selenite, don’t you?
For me, a little retail therapy is a bit more enlightening and illuminating than wallowing in sadness and guilt. At least, it’s less painful…
UPDATE: Another lovely Australian, Olivia Newton John, passed away Monday, August 8, 2022. How sad!
Judith Durham, Australia’s folk music icon, died yesterday at the age of seventy-nine. Sources report cause of death was a long battle with chronic lung disease.
Judith’s bandmates Bruce Woodley, Keith Potger, and Athol Guy said their lives had been changed forever by losing their treasured lifelong friend and shining star.
I’m reminded of Karen Carpenter, another iconic singer. There are only a few voices that possess such pure, magical, soulful qualities.
If you’ve never heard of The Seekers, here’s some of their biggest hits…
From The Seekers Farewell Tour 2013, I’ll Never Find Another You. Listening to it, I think her voice is even more beautiful than in the original, if that’s even possible.
Have you heard of the 1966 film, Georgy Girl, with Lynn Redgrave, Charlotte Rampling, and James Mason? It’s absolutely worth watching. I might watch it tonight as an homage to Judith Durham.
Back in 1967, when The Seekers returned home to Australia for a visit, little did they know that their free concert at the Myer Music Bowl in their home town of Melbourne would break attendance records for the Southern hemisphere and TV ratings records for Australia.
The group sang live on the day, but because no promo video existed for the original (1966) hit version of the song, it is this which was used for the audio.
A World of Our Own:
Red Rubber Ball:
An earlier version of this song, Judith Durham’s voice is EVERYTHING:
This Frank Sinatra tune floated in and out of my head along with the symphony of wind chimes as I took a break from a very hard garden project to sit on the deck and quench my thirst with my favorite (daytime) beverage, cold ginger and peppermint tea.
My view from the deck. Lawn is suffering a bit in this heat.
Like the song, our fickle summer wind blows from the west most of the time; I’m a couple miles from the Pacific Ocean.
Nobody can ever compare to Frank’s lyrical interpretation.
Summer Wind
The summer wind came blowin’ in from across the sea
It lingered there, to touch your hair and walk with me
All summer long we sang a song and then we strolled that golden sand
Two sweethearts and the summer wind
Like painted kites, those days and nights they went flyin’ by
The world was new beneath a blue umbrella sky
Then softer than a piper man, one day it called to you
I lost you, I lost you to the summer wind
The autumn wind, and the winter winds they have come and gone
And still the days, those lonely days, they go on and on
And guess who sighs his lullabies through nights that never end
My fickle friend, the summer wind
The summer wind
Warm summer wind
The summer wind
Songwriters: Hans Bradtke / Henry Mayer / Johnny Mercer
Enchanted Seashells | Princess Rosebud 