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A Life In Song: 4 Decades of Original Music

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December 17, 2014 · Life In Song 2010's, Songs of Transformation, Spiritual Songs

461 Living With Questions Revised


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About This Song: (Lyrics Below)
A book that has had a repeatedly profound effect upon my life since I first read it as a teenager is”Letters To A Young Poet” by R.M. Rilke. In it Rilke exhorts the young poet who had written to him asking for advice, to “love the questions themselves…”

Here’s the full quote:

I beg you…to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don’t search for the answers, which could not be given you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually without ever noticing it, live your way into the answer…

– Rainer Maria Rilke

When I was younger, I had so much frantic, frenetic, urgent, desperate drive and desire to share my music with people… But I kept getting blocked, and stopped and shut down and I couldn’t understand why. It seemed unfair and I gobbled up the idea of being a “victim” like it was breakfast cereal “consumed at odd hours of the night…”

Rilke’s guidance steadied me and allowed me to focus on writing for the sake of writing, not to please or impress other people. Writing as best I can in order to be true to my calling rather than in order to “get famous”. Rilke wrote to the young poet, essentially the best advice anyone could give about creative arts. To paraphrase, he said, “Hey if you are writing true to your deepest self, then it would never occur to you to ask someone else if your verses are any good or not…” So that’s what has guided me for 4 decades.

Eventually though as an artist, musician, author or  poet, we do need to get our work out into the world where it can do some good for others. But to do so from a place of non-attachment and grace is far more satisfying…

This song has gone through many revisions. This last one feels good for the moment. Can’t promise it won’t show up differently in the future but here is where it is as of this moment…

Living With The Questions

| Song # 461 [Song # 302 revised] | 9/28/1998 revised 1/28/2013
There’s an old Grey moon above us. There’s a city down below
There’s a secret that I’ll never tell because I don’t yet know…
We’ve got beads of expectation standing out upon our skins
We’ve got Sirens in the deep of night to notify the next of kin…
That we’ve left in search of answers to the questions locked like doors
Someday we may dare live into the truth that beckons from the farthest shore…

Refrain:
I’m living with the questions
I’m seeing things I’ve never seen before
I’m searching for the Truth
Digging right down to the roots
Maybe that’s what life is for…

There’s a telephone invading with its shrill and jangled news
But I am concentrating on holding my own tune
Sometimes I feel like I’m haunted by the questions from my past
Sometimes it seems like there’s an answer in just loving what is asked…

Refrain:

Some say the answer’s in the desert and there’s power there for sure
Where the sky goes on forever and the Spirit opens doors…
There’s a difference between illusion and what is magical and true
In the blessing of confusion will the wisdom you seek find you?

Refrain:

 

Copyright 1998-2013 by Mark Shepard.

Photo: Copyright: rolffimages / 123RF Stock Photo

Filed Under: Life In Song 2010's, Songs of Transformation, Spiritual Songs

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Some reviews & testimonials

I Love listening to all your songs…

Mark, you really are an amazing songwriter! I Love listening to all your songs and sitting in the creative aura they create!

Cheri

Enjoying your songs so much…

Hello Mark. I am enjoying your songs so much! I’d love to see you play live somewhere.

Marianne

Just awesome…

Your music is taking over my life and it’s awesome!

Eric

Brilliant!

Brilliant! I LOVE seeing the words to all these beloved songs, thanks!

Mary F.

For me these songs are transformational lessons in self-love…

Dear Mark, THANK YOU for sending *Spark & Flame*!!!! This CD certainly is a compilation of Conscious Love Songs! As I listen I am transported to memory after memory past, present and future, fulfilled and unfulfilled. I was flooded with many different emotions. I cried, laughed, held my breath and also breathed deep heart-centered breaths of connection to the Divine. I feel joy, grief, sadness, compassion, love, awe, freedom, kindness, gratitude and appreciation. For me these songs are transformational lessons in self-love, releasing, acceptance for what was, what is and who I am. Knowing that I am enough and that I am Divinely Loved.

J

They love (your song) and ask to listen to it, ALWAYS.

My name is Cecile. I teach kindergarten at OMSD. I had the pleasure of using your song Together We Can Change The World to help my students make a difference in this wonderful world! They love it and ask to listen to it, ALWAYS.

Cecile Arvizo

Never fails to move me…

Your incredible music never fails to move me. Thank you, Mark.

Paula

Love the “Key To Your Cage” album…

Love the “Key To Your Cage” album. I hear so many different influences and styles woven throughout the songs, really keeps it interesting from start to finish!

Dan Z

Love your lyrics!

Love your music! Love your lyrics!

Robin Bridgeford

I loved the song and listened to it 3 times….

Hi Mark, I just had to tell you this. I emailed my 3 granddaughters the song you wrote who are sisters with the youngest being 11 years old, has cerebral palsy and is very smart, is able to talk, very funny, uses a computer, is able to write, now is learning to play drums, emails me ‘Thanks. I do.’ I loved the song and listened to it 3 times.

Gail Russ

Total awesomeness!!!

‘Let’s Run’ is MY FAVORITE so far.. I LOVE THIS ONE.. great job.. total awesomeness!!! I thank Jana Stanfield for introducing me to your gifts. I am grateful.

Merril

Been singing the chorus since the first day I heard it…

I sh*t you not when I say I’ve been singing the chorus to Honest Rock since the first day I heard it. I sing this every single day. Many times a day. Seriously. It’s like a mantra to me. It soothes me:-)

Gene Moore

Your song was just perfect to start my day…

Mark, your song ‘Freedom (It’s Been  Long Road)’ was just perfect to start my day. I LOVE IT!  Thank you, Thank you.  Blessings to you and much gratitude for your musical gift.

Judy

You have put a grown man in tears…

Mark, this song and message really hit home for me today. You have put a grown man in tears. Thank You for what you do. Sometimes I think you sound kind of cheesy, and then others, I think you are a genius, and I’m beginning to realize that you actually care about helping people. So hard to “get out of your own way” sometimes…thanks for the reminder.

Jeremy

You write some great songs!

Hi Mark, You write some great songs! I really enjoyed listening to all of them on Spark and Flame. Thank you for all that you do. Keep up the good work! All the best.

Susan

Your lyrics embody everything we hold sacred…

Your lyrics embody everything we hold sacred and dear as a faith community.

Gina Sullivan, Sisters of the Congregation of St. Joseph

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