I am the Dawn - O, America!

I want to rise and go to the river early, on this morning...It is calling me - gently pulling at my heart strings...but I am tired, and it is thundering, and I lay in bed instead, overcome with a very deep longing that will not abate and permeates everything...

I am filled with the magnificence of last night's music - listening to Celtic Woman at Wolftrap Center for the Performing Arts - under the stars which on this night are hidden under a warm blanket of clouds...

This is my third time hearing them in this same venue - and memories of those years come flooding back - especially the first year - because on that day, a great soul transitioned...

So many beautiful songs do I hear - ones I know by heart - others are new gems that will quickly become beloved treasures...

I think of all the beauty that is in this world - if we only have the eyes to see and the ears to hear - as I imbibe one song after another - so many of them offering such profound messages of hope, of unity, and of love, that I am moved deeply to the core...

The music begins with my favorite song - one that I have imagined the Divine praying to me as a love song, in so many instances over the last couple of years:

The Sky, and the Dawn, and the Sun

"High is the moon tonight
Hiding its guiding light
High

Heaven and earth do sleep
Still in the dark so deep
I will the darkness sweep

I will the moon to flight
I will the heavens bright
I will the earth delight

Open your eyes with me
See paradise with me
Awake and arise with me

I am the dawn, I'm the new day begun
I bring you the morning, I bring you the sun
I hold back the night and I open the skies
I give light to the world, I give sight to your eyes

From the first of all time, until time is undone
Forever and ever and ever and ever
And I am the dawn and the sky and the sun
I am one with the One, and I am the dawn

I am the sky and the dawn and the sun
I am the sky and the new day begun
I am the sky and the dawn and the sun"

I am lost in every present moment, savoring each morsel that is offered until we approach the end of this delicious evening, and we are gifted with this beautiful tribute to America, land of opportunity, and my own adopted country:

"O, America you’re calling,
I can hear you calling me:
You are calling me to be true to thee,
True to thee… I will be.

O, America no weeping,
Let me heal your wounded heart:
I will keep you in my keeping,
Till there be… a new start.

And I will answer you, and I will take your hand,
And lead you… to the sun:
And I will stand by you…do all that I can do,
And we will be… as one.

O, America I hear you,
From your prairies to the sea,
From your mountains grand, and all through this land,
You are beautiful to me.

And… O, America you’re calling,
I can hear you calling me:
You are calling me to be true to thee,
True to thee… I will be.

And I will answer you, and I will take your hand,
And lead you… to the sun:
And I will stand by you… do all that I can do,
And we will be…as one.

O, America you’re calling…
I will ever answer thee..."

I leave, filled to the brim - fueled in body, mind, and spirit - and my heart expresses its thanks with another song that rises from deep within me, its lyrics wafting through my soul:

"And I think to myself, what a wonderful world..."

Yes, what a wonderful world this is!

(Both of these songs can be viewed on YouTube. For O, America, visit:
http://celticwoman-oamerica.blogspot.com/)