Meet Shawndell Marks!
READY TO FORGIVE
Crawl with me inside this dark space
Face to face we'll let all hell free
Blow it up throw it up get it all out
Then look at me so I see you love me
Listen to me
Don't turn away
Don't break down
Don't turn crazy
Stay and hear me out
Oh darlin darlin darlin
I'm ready to forgive
Lord knows it hasn't been easy
For me to get to this place
When you left it felt like a murder
But just because you're gone doesn't mean your displaced
I only wish my hands could hold your face
Listen to me
Don't turn away
Don't break down
Don't turn crazy
Stay and hear me out
Stay and hear me out
My blood needs to boil before I'm ready
Oh darlin darlin darlin
I'm ready to forgive
STILL I WISH YOU WELL
Seems we got a situation
You and me, we don't agree
Answering questions with questions
I want you here
You want to be free
There's a bit about forgiveness
For all that we've been through
There's a bit about reflection
Cause I see me, and you see you
But still I wish you well
Still I wish you well
Though I'm tired and a little bit angry
Still I wish you well
There's a bit about religion
I don't see it the way you do
There's a piece about rejection
Cause you don't love me the way that I love you
And still I wish you well
Still I wish you well
Though I'm tired and a little bit angry
Still I wish you well
HIDING BEHIND
Pastor Jim he's a real smart man
Telling others how to live their lives
He spreads the Good News by day
And strolls the Red Letter News at night
He's hiding behind his Bible
There goes Sandy in her tiny red car
Bleached blonde hair and obesity
She cries and feeds her wounds at night
The past is her present reality
She's hiding behind her body
Why are you hiding
Where are your fears
What does it take to bring you to tears
Take off your glasses
Throw up the shades
Don't miss your parade
I see Jon he's a surgeon MD
Thinks he's smarter than everyone else
Don't ask him questions you're just wasting his time
He'd rather protect himself
He's hiding behind his arrogance
Why are you hiding
Where are your fears
What does it take to bring you to tears
Take off your glasses
Throw up the shades
Don't miss your parade
Writing Prompts/Suggestions:
I have been examining some of the reasons why I don't write. It's quite entertaining, really. I can come up with some good ones. I'm too tired. A friend asked me to do lunch. My mother-n-law's refrigerator needs cleaning. Dinner is waiting to be fixed. The kids have no more clean underwear. The Packers are playing. Here's one: I suck at it. It's too hard. Why bother when there are so many other artists/writers in the world much better writers than me? While it's true there are real life things that need to get done, emotions genuinely felt, the reasons and emotions are often simply disguised resistance. Author Steven Pressfield even capitalizes it. Resistance with a big R. He believes Resistance is a force in nature, always there, operating "with the indifference of rain and transits the heavens by the same laws as the stars," not out to get us personally, rather just doing its job. As good at following laws of the universe as gravity. He devotes an entire section of his book The War of Art to Resistance, giving it traits and descriptions to be understood, acknowledged, and then ignored.
What does Resistance look like? Unhappiness. Boredom. Procrastination. Restlessness. Dissatisfaction. We want to go back to bed. We beat ourselves up. We attend pity parties, drunk on Resistance, not able to find the door. Eventually, Resistance can show up as depression, drama, self-medication, over-eating. It's a sneaky little bastard, fooling us by the many costumes it adorns.
Can Resistance be beaten? Absolutely. If it couldn't, there would be no Great Pyramid of Giza, no Sgt. Peppers, no Gone With the Wind, no one to cross the Boston Marathon finish line. "Defeating Resistance is like giving birth. It seems absolutely impossible until you remember that women have been pulling it off successfully, with support and without, for fifty million years." (S. Pressfield)
How can we beat it? Seems cliche, but by one small step. Each small step we take lets Resistance know we're not believing its stories. Each step empowers our humanness, this body that houses our powerful but helpless-without-the-human-to-fulfill-its-work souls. Each step is a victory. Does Resistance ever go away? No. Remember it follows the laws of nature. It is always there in varying degrees. Rather than frustrating, I find this comforting. No matter what I do, how many books I read, how many miles I run or classes I take, Resistance is there. My only task is to SHOW UP regardless.
Write about why you don't write. Write about the actual things or events that keep you from writing.
Write about a habit you're ready to let go of, to create more time and space to write.
Where might Resistance show up for you?
Contact Shawndell Marks
SoulSong Productions, Inc.
608.963.7078
www.shawndellmarks.com/journal (my blog)
To book or inquire about a house concert, call Shawndell directly at: 608.963.7078
