I've gotten a bit nostalgic recently seeing just how independent my kids have become as of late. So I decided to record the song I used to sing to them to get them to go to sleep, lest I forget what it feels like to be draped over the side of a crib, barely able to stay awake myself, just trying to form the words to the song...

Enjoy and hopefully it won't put YOU to sleep too. ;-)

"Forgiving you. She's stronger than I am. You don't look much like a man from where I'm at." --- I think this might be one of my most favorite song lyrics ever.

The whole song is just so beautiful that I decided I needed to learn it. Every once in a while, when I'm learning a song, I record it with my phone and send it to a friend. I did that with this one and then decided, since I haven't posted anything musical in a VERY long time, that I would post it here. 

The sound is far from good and it's by no means perfect but I'm trying not to care. Or rather, when I used to attend acting class, we used to do an exercise where we would literally just be silly. The whole idea was to just create without giving a damn what anyone else says or if it's perfect. So this is kinda like that. Kind of. 

Thanks to Pinterest I finally figured out how to get my boots to stand up and thus, appear organized. Cut up pool noodles! I only suggest you clear the cutting of the noodles with your children BEFORE you actually cut. My daughter was NOT happy with me and demanded full reimbursement for the entire noodle. Had I negotiated before hand she would have probably given up the noodle for a stick of gum. Lesson learned! ;-)

Fall is my favorite time of year in Nashville. Pumpkin Spice Lattes, boots, scarves, chilly mornings snuggled up in bed hitting "snooze" one extra time. How can you not love Fall?

I've arrived back to Clearwater after a whirlwind trip to Nashville. I should have more pictures soon but in the meantime, here are some shots I snapped on my phone while making my way around the city.

The first few are from a stroll down Music Row and the last bit are from a tour of the Grand Ole Opry Museum.

Nashville is truly a beautiful, incredible and inspiring city. If you have not had the opportunity to go, I highly recommend it.

Most songs that I write are based out of some experience I've had, sometimes something small that inspires a much bigger idea and sometimes it's something so big that it takes several songs to fully communicate it. Most of the time, it comes from such a private and vulnerable place that I don't tell the story behind it. In the case of the following song, however, there is a story I feel should be told.

In September of 2008 my cousin, who was serving in the 101st infantry in Iraq, was killed in action. A month later, my grandfather who was completely distraught over my cousin's death, died in a car accident. Understandably, this series of events shook my family pretty deeply but we were finally able to get some closure when their ashes were spread at Hahn's Peak in Colorado. I wasn't there but the story is that just as the ashes were spread two Bald Eagles flew overhead. I felt this send off was so fitting and was so moved by it that I wrote this song:

On Wings of an Eagle

On wings of an eagle
Take him to a place he can soar
Fly him away
to a place he can’t hurt anymore
On wings of an eagle
fly him to where he can dream
Where his grandchildren’s laughter fills the air
a place, far away though it may seem
Let him watch over his family
all day at his favorite fishing stream

Let there be peace
if only for a moment
Let there be harmony
Stop the war and let us sing
The world is a quieter place
since you left on eagle's wings

On wings of an eagle
Let him find peace
in a place far away
where his mind can rest at ease
On wings of an eagle
take him where a hero belongs
In the sweet absence of war
let him hear the world’s songs
Give him a soldier’s goodbye
a place void of this worlds wrongs

Let there be peace
if only for a moment
Let there be harmony
Stop the war and let us sing
The world is a quieter place
since you left on eagle's wings

When the years have past
and the eagle long since flown
We won’t forget the legacy
of those we’ve known

So let there be peace
if only for a moment
Let there be harmony
stop the war and let us sing
The world is a quieter place
since you left on eagle's wings

© Jessica Rose Greenwood, 2009

As we exit one year and enter another I'm sure we will all be making resolutions and plans for the upcoming year. Things we could do better, habits we want to break and goals we want to achieve. I know I've already been hard at work on my list for a good week now!

Before you do this, don't forget to look back over 2009 and take a good look at what you DID accomplish already. Sure, maybe the most important stuff is what's to come but look back and pat yourself on the back for what you did get done. This stuff matters, even though there are those who would like you to think otherwise.

So do it, peeps. Write down everything good you accomplished in 2009, do a little happy dance and then write down all the ways 2010 is going to be better.

And for those who try to distract you from the good you did in 2009 and who would like to see you fail in 2010, ignore them. Ignore them and continue to do what you do that makes you so fantastic!

Nothing will drive them crazier than watching you flourish and prosper in spite of their attempts to hold you down. What are they anyway but cowards who are too afraid to go after their own dreams!

So that is my wish for you as we celebrate the holidays, close out 2009 and begin 2010. FLOURISH AND PROSPER!!!

XOXO,
Jessica

Steve Valtin and I opened for WD Han's EP release show not all that long ago. It was an amazing gig. It was the first time Steve and I have performed together and it was one of those performances that is just plain FUN.

Steve is fantastically talented and really fun to perform with. We will do more together in the near future and are also co-writing songs. Exciting! More on that later but in the meantime, here is an image from the gig snapped by my dear friend, Susan, on her phone.

I've come to find that if, when inspiration hits, I don't drop everything and write it down it will be lost. I've pulled over while in the car, excused myself from seminars, etc. This Thanksgiving was no different. While sitting around the table and listening to my dad tell stories about my great grandfather, I was suddenly so inspired to write a song that I got up from the table, went into the other room and scribbled it down. Once I arrived home I finished it. This is what resulted:

Beautiful

I look at my children
growing bigger each day
And I think to myself
If I could leave with them one thing
If I could show them the way
To cherish the beauty life brings
Hold on to life’s magic
The moments that make you smile
In the end, no one remembers
the pain and the stress
In the end, these moments comprise
life’s ultimate test

These are the moments in life
that make you stop and smile
The moments that matter
The things that inspire
This is what makes life beautiful
When you realize all that you love
and all who love you in return
It’s what makes it all worth while

And for a moment, just a moment
You couldn’t ask for anything more

Because don’t know that life is beautiful
Mmm, it’s beautiful

A mother glances upon her child
for the very first time
A love fills her eyes
that will remain until
the end of time

A day with Grandpa at the fishing stream
stories of the glory days
while a young boy listens and dreams
He says, ‘Son, if I could do it all over,
live it all again
I would cherish those moments
They are only things that matter
in the end’

These are the moments in life
that make you stop and smile
The moments that matter
The things that inspire
This is what makes life beautiful
When you realize all that you love
and all who love you in return
It’s what makes it all worth while

And for a moment, just a moment
You couldn’t ask for anything more

Because don’t know that life is beautiful
Mmm, it’s beautiful

And in the end
when it’s all said and done
Life’s trivial stress will be gone
And no one will remember
the beds you made
and the bills that didn’t get paid
When you look back
will you have let it all go by?
Or will you look back smile
Still happy to be alive

Those were the moments in life
that made you stop and smile
The moments that mattered
The things that inspired
This is what made life beautiful
When you realized all that you loved
and all who loved you in return
It’s what made it all worth while

And for a moment, just a moment
You couldn’t ask for anything more

Because don’t know that life is beautiful
Yeah, life is beautiful

© Jessica Rose Greenwood, 2009