The Morning, Brilliant Blue

Issue #9 - The Water Issue (a mini-version)

In this issue, scroll on down to:

• Wading Out to Greet You

• All This Water - Music Video Performance

• MT Concert Live on Zoom Info - Sunday April 27 - 5pm Pacific

• Here to Be - a little prayer of a song to cause you to sigh

• Thank you

Wading Out to Greet You

My Dear Friends, I went into the water today. The ocean, in fact. I go there when I need soothing, when I need grounding and to be opened up and cleared of all that is not harmonious. The sun was warm and it made me think the sea would be too, but no, it was quite cold. Had I gone in deeper than my knees you’d have heard me cursing with a faint Texas twang. Faint compared to what it would have been in the ‘80s when I first moved to the Pacific Northwest from Austin. But even decades later, I ain’t foolin’ nobody when I talk. Nobody thinks I’m from Boston.

I mention water for so many reasons. It’s in nearly all my songs. And of course most of my songs are not only songs but also weather reports. Raining Away was one of the early ones you might recall. While I was raised in dry dusty country, I dreamed of water, rivers sluicing through ravines, creeks tumbling down mountainsides among shady aspen groves. But I wasn’t too picky. Next to our backyard in Amarillo was a machine shop which dripped metal shavings and car solvents into a pond of water. Man, that pond was like a fairy tale for me. I threw an old wooden pallet into it and stood on that thing rocking and playing pirates. I’m sure I sloshed a bit of poison onto myself from time to time, but a boy must go where the water is. Go back and ask Huck Finn if that is true.

After I walked into the lapping waves this afternoon, balancing in my sandals on slippery pebbles and stones that have been rounded down a billion years, I just stood there letting it take me. Sometimes cold water can awaken you in several ways. Physically for sure. But also mentally and emotionally. It’s hard to be super sad when you’re standing in water so cold you shiver.

I walked out of the sea and over to a driftwood log and there I just became. . . I don’t know, more me? A part of the seashore? Nothing at all? Whatever it was, it emptied me out, left me clear. I needed that. No one needs to report that we live in strange times, but it kind of feels a little better to just say it to my friends. “We are living in strange times.” Sleep is less smooth and steady. Energy and motivation can be hard found. But I keep breathing. I keep laughing. I keep writing stories. And all the last week I’ve even kept playing the songs I want to sing this weekend in concert.

It’s felt good to get back into the space of where I was when I wrote some of them. Sitting under a tall shady oak behind my place in Austin, when “All is Clear” was somehow being sung out of my mouth. How? I do not know. But I loved it instantly and still sing it at nearly every concert. I have new songs that I’m starting to feel thrilled by. When a song becomes a structure that radiates feeling — and you cannot quite fathom how it exists — what a pleasure it is to sing and marvel at it too! There are a bunch of those.

In this mini-version of The Morning, Brilliant Blue, Water is my theme and I’m bringing you a couple of musical videos to enjoy. I hope you will listen and just take some deep sighs as you do. There is always something healing in water — and always profound gifts in breathing. I hope you give both a try. Be gentle with yourself in these times. ~ Michael Tomlinson

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All This Water

We are made of all this water
Ever flowing from the well
We’re no orphans here
We’re the sons and daughters
Of Life dreaming of herself
But we came the long way down
From the mountain to the plain
Now we are raspy and bone dry
Time to remember how to surrender to the rain . . .

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MT Concert Live on Zoom, Sunday April 27

THIS CONCERT WAS NOT ON MY CALENDAR ~ until the constant unfathomable ups and downs of these last months brought forth so much stress and worry into not just our country, but the world. There is much we have to find our way through, but what I know for certain is that we need kindness and love, we need laughter and friendship. And we need hope. So those are the songs I’m singing for you. I hope you’ll join us. ~ Michael

MICHAEL TOMLINSON in CONCERT
Live on Zoom ~ Sunday, April 27 at 5pm Pacific
Info & tickets at www.michaeltomlinson.com

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Here to Be ~ A Little Prayer of a Song for You

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Thank you my friends. I’ll have some new stories for everyone in May and some special perks for my paid subscribers. Thank you all for your support.

Your friend, Michael