Mountain and sea

I am cradled so safe between mountain and sea.

So protected yet floating so flawlessly free.

I am wave, I am particle, child, I am God, 

I'm the fish, I'm the star.

I'm the kick in your womb, I'm the kiss in your ear.

I'm the "I AM" transcending the time and the sphere.

I am here, I am near, I am now, I am dear.

I'm the child of all your dreams. 

I'm the dream come true, I am you!

The  reason for being born in flesh
is to learn to see way beyond it.
The reason for leaving my mother’s deep warm sea
is to learn the Oneness of all.

My kicks are a tapdance with time and with space.

I am learning from the beats of my mother's heart's embrace,

and from the soft of the floors and the walls of her womb

I will incarnate soon.

I'm the dream come true, I am you!

I'm the dream come true, I am you!

This post has waited a long time to be published. "Mountain and sea" was written when our Gabriel was waiting to be born. He is big now, 15 years old. But the song has only now been delivered and released as a choral-piece on www.peaceofmusic.com.

The lyrics probably call for some kind of explanation. Not that I have any, still not. But I do recall how it all came about...

When Jennifer was pregnant with our first-born we were renting a small house in Vriedehoek, Cape Town. It is an amazing place; a "peace-corner" tucked away underneath the rim of the Table Mountain with a beautiful view of the Atlantic Ocean. And it was an amazing time; as the baby grew in Jennifer's  womb she was serving in the first democratically elected parliament in a virgin nation trying to define itself and release itself from the shackles of the past. I was adjusting to one of the biggest changes in my life, wide-open to all the miracles happening around me. In this setting something unusual yet very ordinary happened. We were receiving these "messages". The sender was unknown. But we suspected the unborn child.

The "messages" came to me like a soft whisper, "a kiss in my ear" which Jennifer wrote down as I was saying them. It could happen really anytime and anywhere but not seldom when we were at peace in our bed at night. This particular time I remember very well. It was in the middle of the day. I was sprawled out naked across the bed, exhausted and I exclaimed: "I feel like a starfish."

Then the soft kiss; "I am the star, I am the fish" (Those of you versed in biblical imagery know that, different as these images are, both have been used as symbols for Christ.) And then came a lengthy beautiful monologue which I later condensed into a song-lyric and put music to.

Apart from the obvious Cape Town reference the mountain and the sea can also refer to to the male and the female; "Nyberg" incidentally means "new mountain" and "Jennifer" can mean "white waves".
But more than anything the song speaks about the "original blessing" of a child. It is about our divine inheritance, and our unity in it. It is about being special because we are like everyone else. It is not about being the 1%, neither the 99%, it is about being part of the 100%. The idea of "us" and "them" becomes meaningless. That is why we incarnate: "to learn the Oneness of all".

Once at a choir-rehearsal after singing through the song without delving into the lyrics I asked the singers: Who is the "I" of the song? I got three answers: "Cape Town", "Jesus" and "an unborn child". Maybe they're all right. The oneness of all...

 

(c) Copyright Peace of Music Publishing AB 2011

You can download the full score here.