Showing posts with label Jan Garrett. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jan Garrett. Show all posts

Monday, April 18, 2011

The Spaces In Between Us

A friend, recently introduced me to award winning singer/songwriters Jan Garett and JD Martin because she thought their song, The Spaces In Between Us, weaved perfectly with the theme of my blog, Enter the Between.

When I heard the song for myself, I said, "Yes.  Yes.  Yes."

For over a year, I've been trying to articulate the spirit behind my novels, the force behind this blog.  But all I managed to come up with was a post called A Word From My Protagonist

Sure, I've talked about The Between as a bridge that connects, a place (behind the scenes, between the lines) where one's creative and spiritual lives overlap, and a place where one's true self dwells.

I've compared The Between to Deepak Chopra's Hidden Dimension of Life, Robert Butler's White Hot Center of the Unconscious, Kabir Helminski's Threshold Between Two Worlds and Janet Conner's Intersection.

I have talked about how we are suspended between an outer world and the mystery of the inner world and how it pays to expand the size of this meeting point and the frequency of our visits there.

But I haven't been able to pin my message down.

And then, when I heard the song, The Spaces in Between, and read its background story, I felt that at least two others understood--and had put into words--much of what I was trying to say.

Today, with Jan and JD's consent, I share the song and its back story with you (Italics and bolds added for emphasis).

###

The Spaces In Between Us

Sensory overload. Too-much-information. Tweets, blogs, spam, 24-hour news cycles, friending-defriending-defending-spending, everybody’s 15 minutes of fame….constantly, simultaneously, extraneously, crowding, clouding, comparing, contrasting.

We love this quote: “If the under-examined life is not worth living, perhaps the over-examined life is not worth reading.”

In the midst of all this madness there is a Heart of Harmony we are all longing to tune into. It’s the direct experience of remembering, with great relief, who we really are. This unfathomable mystery is everywhere present and always available, the lovely voluptuous emptiness that gives rise to everyone and everything. Deepak Chopra calls it pure potentiality, the field of all possibility. As vast and un-knowable as it sounds, it also feels very familiar and benevolent, an infinitely personal gift: The spaces in-between us.

JD and I are very fortunate to have a brilliant cranial sacral osteopathic healer. I think he’s a genius, but he insists that for the most part he doesn’t really DO anything. He just gently tunes us into the universal open space….and then that invites the mind-body-spirit-heart to relax and come into the natural still point where it remembers its original divine blueprint. Then everything re-configures beautifully from the inside out. I have absolutely no idea how it works, but it does, and I feel incredibly grateful.

Artists are completely comfortable working with negative space. Musicians know that the silence that gives rise to the sound. Rests are as important as the notes themselves. You can’t have one without the other. Hopefully even the best of friends and the most passionate of lovers are wise enough to cherish their alone time, and generous enough to offer that spaciousness to themselves and each another on a regular basis.

Deep space. There are galaxies millions of light years away, dazzling the night sky. And when we try going inward to pin down the atom, the energy keeps whirling into smaller and smaller orbits until we realize that ultimately there’s nothing there. Just energy, information, and consciousness. Apparently there’s no such thing as solid matter, anywhere. Stardust is really just a bright idea in the mind of God.

We might as well make ourselves at home.

Einstein is rumored to have said that the most important question anyone can ask, and answer, for themselves is this: “Is this a friendly universe?” Hopefully this song will help nudge us in the direction of a resounding YES.

(We wrote this song with Lisa Aschmann, a very talented and prolific award-winning songwriter from Nashville. Visit her website: http://www.lisaaschmann.com/)

###

Here is a link to the complete song, The Spaces In Between Us.  You might want to listen in as you read the lyrics below.

The Spaces In Between Us

If I could give one gift to you
As solid as the morning dew
A windowpane the light shines through
The spaces in-between us

A gift for you my heart would bring
The sweet release of every thing
The breath I take before I sing
The spaces in-between us

Trusting in what might arise
Without a thought preceding
As simple as a baby's sighs
Resting and receiving

It's not what keeps our souls apart
But what connects and dreams us
The vast potential of the heart
The spaces in between us

So, I offer what my heart has found
The silent love that's all around
A symphony without a sound
The spaces in-between us

If I could give you more than this
Let it be Forever's kiss
Mindful of my mindlessness
The spaces in-between us

(The spaces in between us)

Lisa Aschmann, Jan Garrett, & JD Martin © 2011

###

Photo credit: h.koppdelaney
"There is a Heart of Harmony we are all longing to tune into."

"This unfathomable mystery is everywhere present and always available, the lovely voluptuous emptiness that gives rise to everyone and everything."

"The Spaces In Between Us."

Thank you Jan and JD for your awesome perspective.