I want to be like you
I want to fly, fly, fly
Want you to take me to
All of your sky

Why don't you kneel me down
Why don't you try, try, try
'cause when you come around
That's when I fly

'Cause I don't want to go under
It's only just begun
I want to be there when you come
I want to be there when you come

I want to be like you
I want to laugh and cry
About the things we do
Never ask why

'Cause I don't want to go under
It's only just begun
I want to be there when you come
I want to be there when you come

I want to be like you
I want to fly, fly, fly
Want you to take me to
All of your sky

I want to paint the town
And drink it dry, dry, dry
And when the lights go down
I'll say goodbye

Through the rain and the thunder
I'm heading into the sun
I want to be there when you come
I want to be there when you come

I don't know about you, Wally, but I had to put myself through a kind of training program to learn how to be a human being.... The only way I could think of to find out [what I wanted] was to just cut out all the noise, stop performing all the time, and just listen to what was inside me.  See, I think a time comes when you need to do just that.  Now, maybe in order to do it you have to go to the Sahara, and maybe you can do it at home, but you need to cut out the noise.
--My Dinner With Andre

Teach me to seek You, and reveal Yourself to me as I seek, because I can neither seek You if you do not teach me how, nor find you unless You reveal Yourself.  Let me seek You in desiring You; let me desire You in seeking You; let me find You in loving You; let me love You in finding You.
--St. Anselm of Canterbury, Proslogion, 1.

Divine Mystery, teach me to pray: teach me to stop performing, to cut out the noise.  Teach me what I desire, what I want.  And most of all, let me find You and let me love You.

--the beggar

Happy Father's Day to all of you dad's out there.  Take good care of the children God has entrusted to you, and spend some time with your dad today.

Lord, make me a better father.

Cats in the Cradle, by Harry Chapin

Echo and the Bunnymen
Nothing Lasts Forever

I want it now
I want it now
Not the promises of what tomorrow brings
I need to live in dreams today
I'm tired of the song that sorrow sings

And I want more than I can get
Just trying to, trying to, trying to forget

I'd walk to you through rings of fire
And never let you know the way I feel
Under skin is where I hide
The love that always gets me on my knees

And I want more than I can get
Just trying to, trying to, trying to forget

Nothing ever lasts forever
Nothing ever lasts forever
Nothing ever lasts forever
Nothing ever lasts forever

I want it now
I want it now
Don't tell me that my ship is coming in
Nothing comes to those who wait
Time's running out the door you're running in

So, I want more than I can get
Just trying to, trying to, trying to forget

Nothing ever lasts forever
Nothing ever lasts forever
Nothing ever lasts forever
Nothing ever lasts forever

All the shadows and the pain
Are coming to you....

Lord, as a friend reminded me today, I am need. Help me to remember that this need seeks nothing less than You, that only You can satisfy my needs in their breadth and my desires in their depth.  Help me to learn that everything else is limited, that only You are infinite, like the need you created in me.  Help me to learn that everything else passes, that only You last forever.

Divine Mystery, give me the grace to feel the happiness of clinging to you in the midst of the pain of loss, impermanence, and loneliness.

Thank You, Christ, for change, even for the shadows and the pain.  If things did not change, You would have so much difficulty drawing me back to You - I only learn, I only grow, from two things, Lord: beauty and pain.  When I'm in pain, I see things as they really are.  The illusion of my self-sufficiency vanishes.  I remember You, Beauty in the flesh, again.  As a friend of mine once remarked, You are, if You change me.

Have mercy on me, Lord, under skin is where I hide the love that always gets me on my knees.

-the beggar

"I have so much strength in me, you have no idea. I have a love in my life that makes me stronger than anything you can imagine."

-Barry Eagan, Punch Drunk Love

Lord, make me strong - be the love in my life, and I will become invincible.

-the beggar

Echo and the Bunnymen
Rust

Wish that you were here
Down amongst the dust
I need someone to help me
Yeah, I need someone to trust

There's something in these tears
Turning me to rust
I need someone to help me
Yeah, I need someone to touch

Give me one more try
And I'll come flaking back to you
Wish that you were here
I wish that it was true

I can feel stars
Shooting through my heart like rain
Leaving all the scars
Where the pleasure turns to pain

Point me in the light
Of a bright and a shining right direction
And then take me home again

Just when you thing it's over
Just when you think it's done
Out of every nowhere
You never see it come

I know the lines are showing
I can't keep them in
Like everybody's story
It's written on the skin

Give me one last try
And I'll make it up to you
Wish that you were here
Wish that I was true

I can feel stars
Shooting through my heart like rain
Leaving all the scars
Where the pleasure turns to pain

Point me in the light
Of a bright and a shining right direction
And then take me home again
Take me home again

I wish that you were here
Down amongst my dust
I need someone to help me
Yeah, I need someone to trust

There's something in these tears
Turning me to rust
Wish that you were here
Wish that it was us

I can feel stars
Shooting through my heart like rain
Leaving all the scars
Where the pleasure turns to pain

Point me in the light
Of a bright and a shining right direction
And then take me home again
Take me home again
Take me home again

Everything's gonna be alright
Everything's gonna be alright
Everything's gonna be alright
...