Pausing Bears Fruit...

So I took six weeks off from Facebook and this blog. It was Lent, and I thought it was a good idea to turn my face from the screen for some reflection and growth. It was time well spent.

I love the new reality of online communities, but, for me, it was eating into my personal time and face-to-face relationships. Sure enough, my time away was warmed by the fire of two great Lenten discussion groups at my church, and an explosion of creativity in preparation for my band's 3rd CD. I also had time to see and feel my life in ways I had neglected for some time.

As a pastor, I am profoundly blessed to be invited into many other people's sacred moments. I wonder if my pastor-colleagues have found what I have found -- that many ministerial experiences leave a definite residue which sticks to the mind, heart and soul, and must be processed. These can accumulate over time, and lead to a certain opaqueness in our own lives (blindness, even, if we let things go too long).

For me, one of these was the motorcycle-accident death of a high school classmate, Jeff Broadwell. It is not that Jeff and I were particularly close, but he was an amazing guy, living his life large and out loud. I had last seen him at our 20th reunion, and he was just as full of life and adventure as ever. It pleased me to see that he had grown up, but not old. He had kept the covenants of his youth, expanding on them and finding new thrills and wonders just a few steps beyond where the rest of us stopped and turned around.

At any rate, I found myself writing a song that seemed to pour out of me from somewhere, and afterward I realized it was really about Jeff. I will be posting a demo version of the song on my band's Facebook page pretty soon, and I'm hoping dbdb will soon be performing it. Here are the words, which tell me that Jeff has left something of great value in me, given me an insight I might not otherwise have. I will be asking his parents for permission to dedicate the song to him on the CD.

The Boy Who Wouldn't Come In

It's wild beyond the window,

wide open past the door.

There's so much out inside of me,

and summer’s here once more...

I will not heed your call tonight,

not with summer here again.

I'm eyes to skies and foot to flight,

(call me) the boy who wouldn't come in.

Your distant, pleading siren song

I hear it hasten down the wind

It no longer pulls so strong

Not on the boy who wouldn't come in.

It's summer forever.

It's wild beyond the window,

wide open past the door.

There's so much out inside of me,

and summer’s here once more...

In just one stride I lost the how

of ruler, clock and pen.

Halls and walls mean nothing now

Not to the boy who wouldn't come in.

It’s summer forever.

I hold coyote secrets tight

I dance with ancient kin.

I wave with rye and drink moonlight.

I'm the boy...

I run with untamed mysteries.

I hold no faith in fact.

I'm well past hours or inches now,

and I'm never coming back...

forever.

© 2011 Corey Keyes

I guess I'm just saying to take time to listen to your inner life... I mean right now take a moment. Take a breath. Feel it.

We can get so caught up in surface activities that we forget to occasionally dive deeper... live deeper. 

It's good to be back. Peace to you all.