“But now, get me a player of music, and it will come about that while the man is playing, the hand of the Lord will come on me and I will give you the word of the Lord: and they got a player of music, and while the man was playing, the hand of the Lord was on him.”

~ 2 Kings 3:15

One of the most beautiful stories I’ve been inspired to write is my second novel, “Death Has Wings.” The title may seem a bit peculiar, considering the word death is within it… Nonetheless, death is simply a metaphor for new beginnings… There are physical transitions that occur in the book, yet, these departures represent paradigms, dynamics and character traits being resolved and dissolved in families, friendships, love relationships and communities… As these shifts take place we witness the development and growth of individuals in relation to God, to themselves, to others and to the world… The most intriguing people and relationship of all in the book is, Corinth and Ezekiel Greengold’s… They are the principal characters whose lives we get to live through during the entire story… We see that their marriage, their love-affair, is truly a match made in heaven, brought to life through their colorful dreams, poetic speech and thoughtful doings… Corinth sets out to show us and those whose lives she touches what love, hope and faith embodies, while her husband reflects for us the magic and life-giving nature of music… the kind born from a pure and harmonious heart…

“Music… If only we could hear it inside of ourselves more often, perhaps then, life would grant us the dreams that only those who are living know about.” 

~ Death Has Wings

When I first started writing “Death Has Wings” I thought about where I wanted to take the story… I knew I wanted to confront fears regarding death, and I wanted to learn more about love, its unconditional qualities… Little did I know this story would request that I completely let myself go to understand death, and to experience love… I didn’t have to physically die to garner the ultimate meaning of death, but I had to release every part of me… I had to surrender all that I was familiar with regarding my life, beliefs… ways of thinking… ways of speaking… ways of being… Love, too, asked me to release everything I knew or thought I knew about it—love, so that I could learn its true essence… So I did… Instead of making Corinth and Ezekiel become who I thought they should be, I let them show me who I could be… I let them share their dreams with me… I let them speak and sing to me… I let them move and dance in front of me… I let them show me so much more of me, through them…

“Letting go is the most beautiful death I’ve experienced. Life doesn’t need me to control it, teach it or show it how to live. It’s already living. And, when I’m ready, it will show me how to live too.”

~ Death Has Wings

I cried, and I laughed and I gave myself entirely to the emotions and moods in me that made their way forth… It was comforting to be genuinely real… Being in the company of Corinth and Ezekiel, although existing in thought and on the pages before me, allowed me a greater sense of freedom… The kind that unconditional love creates for us… The kind that lets us know we are worthy of feeling what we feel, authentically… And when we feel what we feel, entirely, we’ve then a full song of our hearts shown to us, that can now be re-written, re-created, or simply let go of, without any remnants left behind… This death simply allows for the rebirth of a pure heart… In the story, we were able to gauge the emotions, moods and feelings of both Ezekiel and Corinth as Ezekiel played his djembe. Each time they were in each other’s company the songs Ezekiel played reflected his deep and abiding adoration for his life-friend and wife… Ezekiel best showed what was in his heart for Corinth by the music he made on his djembe… Sometimes his music was slow and mellow… Sometimes his hands moved on the surface of the drum faster, making the music louder, and sometimes there was the silence of love, when Ezekiel’s hands only rested, gently, on top of his djembe… Regardless of the stillness or tempo of his beating, his hands and heart only expressed love, unequivocally… Corinth reciprocated her love for her life-friend and husband through dance… The movement of her body aligned itself with either the meditative silence or the rhythmic beats of the drum… She would let the music carry her, whether softly, more passionately or silently through every emotion, mood and feeling that both she and Ezekiel gave birth to, together…

“What makes the sun rise? Is it music? Ezekiel said it was. I believed him.” 

~ Death Has Wings

Mirroring the natural world, there was never a day when the sun didn’t come forth within Corinth… Although she knew there was a light that shined brightly inside her all of her life, it seemed to grow brighter and brighter since the day she met Ezekiel… When he first spoke to her, she could feel the sun’s rays parting her lips to make her smile… She could see the sparkle of the sun’s light coming through her own gaze as she looked into the eyes of the man she knew would become more to her… She could feel the warmth of the glow in her belly as Ezekiel drew closer to her… She could harness the tangible sensation of that light, the sun, in her hands when the man of her dreams touched her… And she could feel the docile flames from the beating of her heart, in her feet, as her feet danced to the tunes of Ezekiel’s love, his light and his laughter… Ezekiel rarely used words to express his love for Corinth, yet he never allowed her to go a day without knowing how immeasurable is…his love for her… When Ezekiel conveyed to Corinth that it was music that made the sun rise, he led Corinth into herself to witness such magic by way of his djembe—by way of his own heart’s song…

In the story, “Death Has Wings” butterflies and birds are prevalent… Not only do they represent the beauty found in the organic world, they too reflect the silence of song… the unheard music of the butterfly, and the audible sound of song, heard by the birds whose tweets fill the air… It is both the silence and audible sounds of song together that create life… Like the pause and pulse of our hearts, which give us breath… Freedom is a silent yet audible song… It has no real definable feeling that can be associated with it, but somehow we feel its life, its essence within us and about us… This is what I’ve come to learn about true love… It is music that frees us—mostly from ourselves… And yet, it too can bind us to ourselves, and to something and/or someone who further awakens our independence and power… We each are love, birthing and re-birthing, creating and re-creating ourselves… therefore, making and re-making our world… It all is music… It all is life… It all is love… But let it be music that makes the sun rise within us and parts our lips to smile… Let it be life that keeps our hearts beating songs that make glorious worlds come into being…Let it be love that frees us, lifts us and keeps us light like butterflies and birds so that we can always spread our wings and fly…

Just when the caterpillar thought it was coming to the end of its life, it transformed into a glorious butterfly…  

~English Proverb

 

“ Thy will be done.

God’s way is clear and simple.

Let us not cloud the highest vision and dream

for our lives with unclear thinking and noisy thoughts.

Our imaginations are meant to soar,

not to be fettered by heavy perceptions of life.

Our sublime minds are free like a bird when

our perceptions are light with the beauty of our truths.”

~ Dana Rondel…  

Above verse excerpted from “Rise & Reach: Life and Leadership”

Stay tuned for track 5 of 17… There’s more Nude Music coming your way… Life is Good…

 Photography: Partners In Goodwill (P.I.G.) ~ www.partnersingoodwill.com

Imagery Concept: Partners In Goodwill (P.I.G.) ~ www.partnersingoodwill.com

Sustainable (Un)Clothing : Unif(eyed) Colors Campaign (UCC) ~ www.partnersingoodwill.com

For more about me and my life views visit, www.windinc.org and pickup my latest book, “Rise & Reach: Life and Leadership” or all of my books, there’s currently a total of 7, at: www.amazon.com … www.barnesandnoble.com … www.partnersingoodwill.com … This latest project, “My Recycled Life… Within The Compilation of (Un)Framed Music…” was inspired by Chapter 10  ~ Doing More That Matters … written in the book  “Rise & Reach: Life and Leadership.”