My Story
‘Face to the Wind’, the final song of this album, is not a song of answers, but rather one of reconciliation. It is a personal invitation – an invitation to all – to ‘taste the bread and the wine’, to engage in holy communion with life. It is a call to the redemptive process.
Throughout my own life, but especially in the last 7 years of my journey, I have resisted the path of the struggle. This resistance most often has to do with fear. Fear of being vulnerable. Fear of the unknown. Fear of failure. Struggle, pain, and challenge run tandem with joy, growth and fulfillment. To turn away is to reject it all. To face it is to find myself. I connect with those around me, I live into my truth and join the redemptive process. I find my soul.
My EP, Stone Bright Solid – Volume 1, was the first step in the journey to explore the dark night. The title song from that album is about being ‘caught’ in the net of darkness and distracted by anything that glimmers with hope. All the while, the Stone Bright Solid true hope is a witness and a midwife to this difficult experience. She cradles us and weeps over our broken attempts, all the while waiting patiently for our awakening.
‘Face to the Wind (Finale)’ ends with a reprise of the song ‘Stone Bright Solid’ on cello and hammered dulcimer. This reprise of ‘Stone Bright Solid’ signals an emergence in awareness, in complete understanding of our brokenness but standing singularly in its raw form as a statement of acceptance to all the life found in our darkness on the road to hope and joy.
.
Folk Rock Opera
In terms of the narrative arc, this is the end of the story for the woman, but it is also the beginning. The beginning of new process of struggle and joy, never ending, always different, always the same.
Face to the Wind (FINALE)
by angela josephine
take a walk with me
tell me what you see
be my eyes, be my ears
i am feeling so blind
take a walk with me
tell me what you see
trace my face with your lips
i am feeling so numb
i’m coming undone
i can’t take
no i can’t take it
you turn my face to the wind
you say, “breathe it all in,
open wide”
you tell me, “take it all in,
wear the sky on your skin
and the birds will fly to you”
you surround me
you, you surround me
take a walk with me
tell me what you see
be my salt, be my light
i am feeling so blind
take a walk with me
tell me what you see
trace my face with your lips
taste the bread and the wine
but i can’t cross that line
and i can’t take
no i can’t take it
but you turn my face to the wind
you say, “breathe it all in,
open wide”
you tell me, “take it all in,
wear the sky on your skin
and the birds will fly to you”
you surround me
you, you surround me
i’m taking the cross in this way
there’s no other way
no other way
you’ve taken away my attack
there’s no turning back
no turning back
when you, you surround me
you, you surround me
fly
the birds will fly
fly to you
fly
the birds will fly
fly to you
fly
fly
…Stone Bright Solid (Reprise)
Enter the experience…
What is calling to you? What fear do you need to lean into? What is your holy now? Go forward into new experience. Turn your face to the wind and breathe in the life that is yours.