Lakeshore-on-the-Hudson

The request seemed perfectly beautiful and even romantic if not for the fact that my open guitar case was not an indicator of a catalog of songs for couples. I apologized for having to decline the request of the couple who now sat at my feet to play a song for them. They were young but seemed they had been traveling some of the harder roads to get here. For some reason they stayed and I played. There were a few songs I could remember, mostly spirituals, revealing my vocation. Our conversation moved quickly from small talk about geography or work to our shared pursuit of love. As they shared their journey and heartbreak I found myself with the grace to speak peace to them. I told them of princess hearts and of a faith that believes that love will find it's way to you. I felt I could promise it to them.

Maybe I could promise it to them because as they walked away I was struck by my own heart and the fact that for this moment I didn't hurt anymore.

I came to the river tonight with my own heart filled with feelings I was trying to manage. The universe, to quote, just hadn't been cooperating in recent days. I've spent my days just moving through, doing my best, but not sure
where to land.

I came to the river without answers...but apparently with a destiny. I can live with that.

I'm grateful that I've learned enough about love to reveal royal hearts. I'm grateful that I know enough guitar to draw people looking for music. I'm grateful to follow the spirit of Jesus out to the shore and not get trapped in my own head

I'm grateful I have a heart that still has a capacity to know love

I seldom think about the fact that he went to the lakeshore with his own hurt, his own frustration, his own tired.

But he went to be who he is. He went to find hearts that beat with the music of the universe

And I imagine he, like me, felt like life made just a little more sense in the process.

thanks for asking me to sing

Walking to Ft. Lauderdale

I have this tendency to choose books or stories by reading the first line.  If they are provocative or well written, I’m in.  If the author fails to intrigue me in the first few words of the story about to be presented, I usually move on. They don’t have to be long or filled with a lot of detail.  

“Call me Ishmael”

It’s more than enough to make me believe I want to board the Peaquod. 

I’ve been told to give books a chance…and there have been many I had, against my better judgement, and liked.  But I still am going to be captured more by a first line than a recommendation or review.

“There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it” - Gotta know more about this kid.

“Elmer Gantry was drunk” - I’m coming to the tent meeting

“It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn't know what I was doing in New York.” - Shiver.

Your first glimpse of beauty is enough to make you believe. 

One winter I was in Ft. Lauderdale when I met a homeless man.  The weather was perfect and we sat on a stone wall and ate a slice of pizza and watched the girls go by.  We had a great time hanging out when his questions revealed that I had flown from New York City to join him on this wall on the edge of paradise.  “New York City? That’s where I’m from! Born and raised in Brooklyn?”.  We chatted for a while about New York and how amazing of a city it really is and both of us realizing how much different the weather was there.  “That’s why I came here.” He told me.  I was intrigued as to how a homeless man from New York ended up on a beach in Florida.  So I asked.

“I was here when I was a boy and I remembered it…so I just started walking”.

I decided that I had just met the smartest homeless man who ever lived.

New York had it’s share of homeless who in that moment were just trying to survive.  This man saw something beautiful and believed that the journey…no matter how difficult…was worth trying.  He knew that there was a possibility that he wouldn’t make it…that he would die along the way…but the man had seen Ft. Lauderdale…it made his feet move.

His first glimpse of beauty made him a man who believed.

So much of life is enough to make a man doubt.  There is enough chaos and confusion to spin one around and make you stay in the winter.  Nights can be long and lonely and there seldom seems like there is enough of…well, anything.  Some might even say I’m a fool to even try.

However, I’ve seen beauty…I’ve read the first line.  I believe.  I can’t unsee it.  You’ll find me somewhere on I-95.

happily ever after

Dear reader...we have come to the "end" of our walk with the prince. It's just the begining for him.  The following words reflect my own experiences as I journey. Some have asked me if I think I am Prince Charming. I suppose my life has found me as both hero and villain depending on where one sits...and I write about both. All I can do is tell you what my own heart has found and I sought a new heart.  I welcome comment and pray my walk enhances yours.

Here we are…our journey has come to this undiscovered country.

It has taken great faith, unspeakable courage, and an awareness of the nature of what’s at stake and what’s to be gained.  This is a journey that has cost…and the cost has been gladly paid.  

Dragons…defeated, 

Witches…fallen over cliff, 

Out of control rosebushes…landscaped.

The Prince has come to the goal of his quest and has kissed a kiss that inspires the deepest sighs.  The evil spell is reversed and all that’s left are the immortal words…

Happily. Ever. After.

Few of us haven’t taken pause at those words and wondered if it was really possible. We’ve often tried to imagine the rest of the story.  Is it constant bliss? Do the birds still sing every morning? Are there still dances that last till midnight? 

Most would skeptically answer no. The prince has his prize, she has her castle, and now is simply a matter of doing every day until you wake up one day and wonder if you were happier in the tower and everyone is asking what happened to the fairy tale.  This isn’t the life you thought would be yours when the slipper fit. Happily ever after has just simply become…after.

In Oscar Wilde’s “The Picture of Dorian Gray” we see the first instance in known written form where we hear our hero mentioned.  Only here his name is not attached to heroics.  The attractive Dorian is identified as a young actresses’ "prince charming".  He pursues her and wins her, gives up the quest once he has had her. This despairing princess eventually takes her own life.

Dorian is not alone.

History is filled with poser princes who stop looking at the wonder of the princess heart, leaving a hole behind that may never heal.  Healing takes faith that there are real princes whose white steed isn’t a rental and who are simply dying for the opportunity to love a worthy heart of a queen.  The princely quest then must proceed with great care…but proceed all the same. It's still her story. The princess heart never dies...and it's always worthy.

The temptation is to stop believing.

Here’s the thing.  I believe in love.  I believe in magic.  I believe it with my whole starry-eyed heart.  I believe in bliss.  I believe in happily ever after.  

What I don’t believe is that it just happens.

Many of us who look like princes end up as paupers because the only effort we put in is the effort to win the princess and then we lay down our sword.

Lean in close because I want to tell you a truth…

…Our quest never ends.

It’s who we are.  We are men on a quest to seek a worthy heart…and we never stop.

I know what your thinking…what about the prince, right?  Is it ever about him? Does he ever get to just hang out with the boys and watch the joust with some flagons of grog? Wouldn’t it just be nice to head out to the forest in pursuit of a wild boar? What’s all this about questing?  If it never stops, why does it ever have to begin?

It’s simple…our story is irrevocably linked to hers.  Yes, we have our own life. If not, we would have little to bring to the table.  We can be strong, graceful, attractive, well spoken, and rich…all by ourselves.  However, without quest, we are merely shining armor, sans knight.  We become like a Dorian Gray or the humorous twist on our own Prince Charming found in the movie Shrek.  Flowing hair, winning smile, but no heart and no ability to go beyond the trophy.

Our heart finds a beat with hers and she is responsible to honor our hearts.  We can trust that she will. A true princess knows when she has found a worthy heart and you will find no greater champion of the heart of a prince.  I’ve seen this to be true. And a prince has no greater joy than to see hers full of life.  It may go against conventional wisdom…but we find our life in our love of another.

Another for whom, we never stop staring.

So, our friend, our Prince Charming, has brought us along on his quest.  He has trained himself, been transformed by beauty, he has journeyed through a nightmare, bravely stood in the face of certain doom, defeated the obstacles in his path, sweat, bled, and kissed with the entirety of his soul.  She is awake.  She is free.  She is as beautiful as he imagined her to be.  His joy is immeasurable…simply because she is.

Now the real quest begins. Finding her every single day…

Happily.

Ever.

After.