After a Bad Dream

Ever feel not yourself? 

Of course. 

Or you have a bad dream. You wake up and feel terrible. The “you” in the dream is disturbing. “Who was that?”

Here’s a suggestion, other than just waiting for the for the fog to clear (which might take the whole night and you don’t get your sleep): Go immediately (at least in your mind) to something you have made: a poem, a sketch, a workbench, oatmeal cookies baked earlier in the day, your child/ren sleeping in their bed. Then ask, “Who made that?” 

That’s—at least something of—who you are.

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Better after Bad Dream, an instrumental

YouTube:
https://youtu.be/iptmsLjmvB0?si=qcMEgMZZOfMtOFo2

Spotify
https://open.spotify.com/album/7ppRQyflrrAvi3p5vD3WCI?si=qJMK9muQQBe0Cjla4jO_SQ&utm_source=copy-link

Knew I Could

As a kid maybe you chanted, “I think I can” as the vehicle you rode in was heading up a hill—maybe just to annoy the driver with the hint they could use more horsepower. But the chant might reflect back on you and me, maybe years later, when we are doubting the horsepower of our own character. That could mean that when tackling, well, whatever, you might hear inside your head, “I don’t think I can … do this .. thing.”

But you do “the thing” anyway. Sometimes confidence, faith, belief in yourself, means acting as if you have it. And you fool yourself.

The rest of that chant is supposed to be “Knew I could.” Let’s take it one step further. You learn to say, from the get go, without a hint of smugness or bravado, just quietly, simply, “I know I can.”

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Knew I Could, an instrumental:

YouTube:

Spotify:

Unanxious Presence (2026)

“Unanxious presence.” The term is said to have come first from Edwin Friedman, a rabbi and therapist. I recall it being described as an important part of leadership (It is highly questionable that I fulfilled this requirement when I had such a role). It doesn’t mean apathy or ignorance of reality—just as courage is not an absence of fear, but a choice made in the face of it.

And so, “unanxious” rather than “calm” — I see it as implicit acknowledgement of things that are certainly anxiety-inducing. It is understandable if we feel perpetually on a precipice. Steven Wright said of that feeling when you tilt a chair back but you don’t quite fall back: “I feel like that all the time.”

Being unanxious is not numbness, denial or indifference, but a choice of response.

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Unanxious Presence (2026) —instrumental

YouTube:
https://youtu.be/oO_rbbeGIN4?si=khdqvsoopfv9pBnZ

Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/album/6F334hMEYTbthzWjgo0C7T?si=X-eoDhFZT-mWX7tniL5-AA&utm_source=copy-link

Apple Music:
https://music.apple.com/ca/album/unanxious-presence-2026/6807193450?i=6807193452

Suspending Gravity

What on earth—pun intended—do I mean?

… or suggest, or fantasize, by having a song title, Gravity Hereby Suspended?

According to all current science, gravity cannot be suspended. Apparently when anti-matter was discovered, it was thought for a while that anti-gravity might be discovered or made to follow, but no.

There is the thing called weightlessness, a sensation due to falling motion. That’s what causes the experience of weightlessness in earth orbit; the spacecraft is actually falling around the planet, until it deliberately re-enters atmosphere. It’s not that there is no gravity there—otherwise spacecraft would not achieve orbit but just head right out into the beyond. 

For now, at least, cancellation or suspension of gravity exists only in science fiction.

No matter. Physical gravity isn’t what concerns us personally. What concerns us personally is what we feel when we observe that someone we care about, or see on the street, has the world on their shoulders. It is the anxiety that weighs you down. It is the heavy load you carry at the office, hospital or classroom. It is the “gravity of the situation” in some part of the world, the world itself, or maybe the country you still love but no longer recognize.

That gravity can be suspended, although of course not removed from experience. How? A big one: Artistic appreciation or even better, trusting yourself to create something: a sketch or painting, a vase, a song, a poem, your autobiography, a snow angel. A smile.

Go for it. Suspend gravity.

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Links to Gravity Hereby Suspended, an instrumental:

Spotify:

YouTube:

Obligato, a Song Title

The word is Italian.

“Obligato” (Italian “obbligato”) is used in music notation to emphasize that a certain part is not optional. This is not to be confused with the Spanish “obligado,” although it actually carries much the same meaning: something essential, indispensable, but in a more general sense. Then there is the Portuguese, “obbrigado,” which is an expression of thanks—maybe in the way someone of my Dad’s generation would say, “Much obliged.”

But let me back up a bit.

I am reflecting on it here as the title of my most recent instrumental. I wasn’t thinking of any of the above when it came to me as a title. Honestly, it came into my head and I liked the sound of it. Then I realized from where and when, for me, the word had come: Before I went away to study music at university, I sang in the home church choir. Then, as I recall, it was used to refer to a part, an ornamentation, an embellishment, above the melody line. If so, that wasn’t exactly correct (as if it mattered then any more then than it does now). I just really liked the sound of the word as it came to me. It somehow suited the character of this new thing I had begun putting together.

Now I reflect on it as something more.

I can’t resist a no-doubt-inappropriate mashup of the meanings of the three words with two basic meanings: mandatory (obligato and obligado) and thanks (obbrigado), although I am wary of the potentially darker, even dangerous sense of “obliged” or “obligation” as implying a favour or debt owed (the cinematic world of John Wick comes to mind). And yet, there is something about the two basic meanings of the three words, together, that produces something meaningful, important even:
Obligato/Obligado: Not optional.
Obbrigado: Gratitude (untarnished by anything else).

We could use this mash-up meaning.

That is, we could use more of an active understanding that gratitude is not optional, and/yet is beautiful when it is not forced, or has anything darker attached to it.

For some in high places, some sense of obligation would be a refreshing change. There are those (there are exceptions) who live off the labours of the people and presume that they are obliged to no one for anything. Meanwhile, they offer nothing—except maybe lies.
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The song (an instrumental), Obligato:

YouTube:

Spotify:

 

Winners, Losers, and Playoffs

Yes, in nature and in human life, there are winners and losers. But …

The Sickness

There is a diseased mindset happening on a world scale. That which is causing havoc and unnecessary misery globally exercises this terror on the assumption that any who oppose need to be humiliated and destroyed. Those who dare to oppose or even criticize are tagged to be a a disgrace, to be imprisoned or even executed.

On the Issue

There are indeed always going to be winners and losers. You may be justified or even obligated to oppose your fellow town council or board member on some issue. There will at some point be a winner and loser on the issue. The ‘loser’ need not be personally devastated and destroyed with an epic fury the likes of which the world has never seen. The mindset that requires this may have erupted into pandemic level from a distorted worldview that has been metastasizing just under the surface (but not far under) in a culture of insecure, fear-riddled minds, hearts and relationships.

But Then Come the Playoffs

Anyone who plays or even watches a sport knows there are of course going to be winners and losers. And yes, in a more general sense that is the way of things. But there is an an important example from the world of professional sport that shows how that winning and losing can be handled—an example we would do well to observe and learn from. There be honour here.

What Is Wrong with Them?

It comes from playoff time in hockey. At the end of a series, there is a team with fans, and business office, that are all deliriously joyful, and there is a team with fans, and business office, devastated in defeat. So what do the losers do? Do they shamble away in utter disgrace to live the rest of their lives in doom, gloom and shame? No. They patiently line up at centre ice while their foes crazily whoop and holler and jump up and down in joy. What are the losers lining up for? To get in some futile last licks? No. It’s to shake hands, pat on the shoulder—so unlike anything normal and how the world works. And these humans actually seem to like and respect each other. What is wrong with them?

Nothing. The wrong is with the way the world works. The reality of winning and losing does not preclude mutual respect. Unless that is the way of things you take as inevitable.

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Musical Addendum: Vamp Until Ready
(Title is a direction in musical theatre—a “winner” the world can always use more of.)

YouTube

Spotify

Or search “Vamp Until Ready” on your preferred platform.

Welcoming an Actual King

The plea of Hegseth for spending on military resources appears to me as being like the drunk draining the last of the bottle while knowing a life-threatening withdrawal is coming. The bravado is just sad.

At the same time, a protocol office displayed Australian flags (thinking they were Union Jacks?) along with the Stars and Stripes to welcome King Charles III. 

The thing is, they were not entirely wrong, just as they would not have been entirely wrong had they displayed the red maple leaf Canadian flag. The “King of England” (as American media refers to Charles) is the head of state for Australia, Canada, and numerous other places, along with the U.K., consisting of England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. He’s a big deal.

He represents much of the world.

Canadians, from where I sit,  seem to figure it’s OK to have a king, or queen, as long as they recognize they have influence, but not actual power. Kind of like celebrities. Speaking of which:

Katy Perry’s boyfriend’s father, Pierre Trudeau, espoused a policy that was known as “The Third Option.” That option promoted a lessening of dependance on trade relations with the U.S. and U.K. and building ties with Europe. Sound familiar? See what a guy named Carney is doing?

Hopefully, the visit of King Charles to America can rekindle a connection of the real America to the rest of the world. We miss you. Meanwhile, Americans should please not be offended by Canada’s reaching out elsewhere. We love you. We just hate your choices. 

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Musical Addendum: The Threshold

Apple Music

Spotify

YouTube

https://youtu.be/968mgPysphU?si=EjwvDC7DjtZZ72rd

More Billionaires

Global real estate agency Knight Frank LLP is predicting there could be 4,000 billionaires in the world by 2031, up from 3,110 in 2026 (from the Financial Post). The biggest growth is expected in Saudi Arabia. Here in Canada we’ll have, apparently, an increase from 49 to 63. Full disclosure: I won’t be one of them. 

While there are those who are insanely rich beyond all reason, I do not consider it innately evil to have a lot of money. One might ask, however, “What are you doing with it?” I suppose that might be considered rude. So would: “How are you managing your stewardship of wealth?” 

Nevertheless, I think it’s fair to question the morality of wealth if the presenting mantra is just “Mine, mine, mine,” and “More, more, more.”

You sometimes hear the misquote: “Money is the root of all evil.” The quote is from the Bible, and it’s actually “The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.” It’s fair to recognize you don’t have to have a lot of it to be afflicted with that love.

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A recipe for true riches: Just Add Sunshine

Apple Music
https://music.apple.com/ca/album/just-add-sunshine/1842205622?i=1842205623

Spotify
https://open.spotify.com/track/0LEMtM9dpdVgljH35Ugb8r?si=8Xpg-iKcT9yNrEV5ihBHlw

YouTube
https://youtu.be/hkEZZ7ScRkA?si=aVwzdeY21pJi9TdC