Skip to main content

Holiday Homage Part Seven: Liberation (in Home's Embrace)




I have been ill this past week and am more behind in school that I care to articulate.  During this, I had to rehearse for singing gigs and performed in one last night.  Through it all... when I have not wanted to leave the bed and am falling further behind in my studies... 

The song changes everything.  

I chose to sing "I'll Be Home for Christmas" last night in the concert.  A few weeks ago, I had never heard the opening verse.  The opening verses of standards are either gems or atrocious.  The one to this piece is haunting and makes the number that much more emotional and heartfelt.  

There are no sufficient words to describe the joy and peace of performing, telling a story through song.  In this time where I am looking for my new home and in flux, this lyric spoke to my spirit and I was able to share that with others.  In this season of joy, of peace, I sometimes find myself overwhelmed, but I am able to access that joy, that peace through song... always.  I carry it within.  (And kick and stretch!)

To know that you can bring an audience to you, make them listen, and let them into your small world for a few minutes is a gift that I possess and it always humbles and enthralls me.  It is in NO way conceit... I merely acknowledge the gifts.  That has been a long journey for me: being confident.  I have come to realize that if I don't acknowledge what I have been given, I am making a mockery of the treasured talents. 

That has been freeing.  It has allowed me to sing, act, tell stories because I want to, because it is who I am, what I do, my calling.  If someone wants to come along for the ride, he/she is invited.  I am an equal opportunity artist.  However, if someone is not interested, that is okay with me for I do this because it is HOW I communicate.  

In this time where I am "homeless", I am able to secure an emotional dwelling in the lyric, the story.  I am indeed blessed.  If I were never to receive another gift, I would be fine.  I have several lifetime's worth of gifts already.  My life is abundant.  Wow.

Ah, sweet liberation.  How I love thee!

The art of musical storytelling is spiritual wonderment.  I am bewitched in its embrace and leveled by its beauty.

It is my wish that you know your gifts and are able to be as intimate with them as I have been with mine.  I also hope that you find your home, whether it be made of walls, music, stories, dreams, or friends.  

Joyous,
Dustin 

I'm dreaming tonight of a place I love
Even more than I usually do
And although I know it's a long road back
I promise you

I'll be home for Christmas
You can plan on me 
Please have snow and mistletoe
And presents (on/round/under/by) the tree
Christmas Eve will find me
Where the love light gleams
I'll be home for Christmas
If only in my dreams

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Call to Action

This past Saturday I, with thousands of others across the country, attended a protest/rally of Proposition 8 and Act I (the adoption ban in Arkansas). My dear allies in this battle were Jay, Karen, their joyous son Quin, our mutual friend Greg, Amanda, Carter, Sarah Jane, Liz, and the brave Arkansans that showed up for the rally on the steps of our Capitol. It was bitterly cold and grey, but within I was ignited with passion and newfound purpose. As I listened to the stories of my fellow brothers and sisters, gay, straight, bisexual, transgendered, I was struck by the power of the many speaking as one. Then I began to visit my own story and was struck at how far I have come... to think back fourteen years ago when I had my brother tell my parents that I happened to be gay because I was so frightened as to what they would think, say, how they could ever love me, this abomination.... To now, a man standing with his friends and proclaiming "This is our right, What you have done is ...
3 comments
Read more

I Love the Clarks

I LOVE THE CLARKS!!!!!!!!!!!! (I used twelve exclamation marks/points to show the significance of the love and because twelve is my cosmic number.) It is that simple. Jay and Karen (and the illustrious Quin) allowed me to move into their lovely home under the proviso I would be out in a few days. Well that was October 18th and, look at your calendar folks, I am still here. I think that finally the light has bounced off of a nimbus cloud that I have not seen before and I might have a dwelling. But... I LOVE these two people. They just get me and leave me to my own devices. In this time where I have sequestered myself off into my own little respite lair, they have let me "do my own thing". And they are such lovely, talented, decent people. It has been my honour to get to know them more and their ultimate collaboration, THE Quin. He is the COOLEST child ever. I adore the boy. Tonight Jay, Karen, and I played a card game called Nerts. I am addicted and I saw new shades ...
5 comments
Read more

Scampering Back From the Hiatus

I awoke with these names in my head... surely they are characters from a forthcoming story tentatively entitled, "The Merman's Song": Briinan Jossuraje Arthero Zyne What a perplexing and delicious way to greet the morning, I love it when that happens. Jer is heading over to bond and I am trying to break the habit of making him wait when he arrives for me to finish getting ready. It is a tad ridiculous and just keeps happening, one of those atrocious habits that is born out of sheer laziness and poor time management skills. I just love, love, love, love that guy. If I am the toothbrush, he is the floss, the Ron to my Harry, the Patty to my Sandi, the Pepper to my Doctor, the Dorothy to my Rose, the world's best person and my FAVOURITE. He keeps me sane, he really does. The picture is from the wedding in which I performed last weekend. I think it is a classy and interesting shot. There is loads to deliver and reveal as I took a brief hiatus, not intentionally, but I...
2 comments
Read more