Many of you will be familiar with my song Ring Out, Wild Bells. Well... I spent a number of days professionally recording it during the first week of Advent. I hired my amazing mixing engineer to mix and master it, and then last week, I recorded a music video for it. 

The video is steampunk-themed, which I thought was fun, and fitting, because Tennyson, who penned the poem (from his requiem In Memoriam), was from the Victorian era, and steampunk is inspired by that age of early technology and style.

I shared a photo of me (pictured here) in steampunk attire, with a mandolin, and I was surprised by how many negative reactions I got, in private messages, in essence, suggesting that I wasn't being spiritual enough...

​On Christmas Eve, after passing through some hurt feelings, with a warm and open heart, I went live to tell a story from the Franciscan medieval age... based on a book my children have called The Clown of God by Tomie dePaola (1974), which is adapted and based on a legend.

There were jugglers in the medieval age, who were seen as sacred by the Franciscans.

Although I don't juggle in the video, the story of the jugglers wearing makeup and costume, in performance, to weave in some levity into a suffering world, was one the inspirations ... 

To see it as my job to thread some fun into and through and along with the grief of this year's suffering.

​You can watch the talk I gave in the video below.

To get ready for the brand new version and video of Ring Out, Wild Bells, you can download this gift...
​a PDF copy of the standard notation and lyrics: 

Because I am preparing to go live on facebook for Sunday Song this week, I have a very short reflection here today.

In this very Advent-y song, from Meditation with Children... you can hear my collaborator Noel Keating, show us again, how children intuit the Presence. The children who shared their meditation experiences to Noel, will forever be my teachers. Thanks to them, my Advent season, and my own inherent awareness, is forever richer.