Day 18: It’s Feel Good Friday...Adjust Your Dreams

There are two things you can bank on in this life…God and change.

Many years ago, in a life long gone, I was a DJ on public radio. I had my own show and played an eclectic mix of music the likes of which could only fly on a station like KDNK. I playEd Bach and Steve Winwood. Patsy Cline and Fleetwood Mac. I threw new stuff in there as well as jazz and country and R&B. Whatever struck my fancy, I played it. It was great fun.

One of the artists I began to fancy was a singer-songwriter named Christine Lavin. Her music covered such a broad range of emotion, just like my radio show. Everything from eating Cold Pizza for Breakfast to the acknowledgement/encouragement of As Bad as it Gets to the raucous fun of What Was I Thinking? Christine’s music carried me though a particularly rough time in my life. My marriage was doing the slow burn before that brilliant crash that sent me away for a while.

As we are beginning to gain a real understanding of the magnitude of what we are collectively facing in this pandemic, I have been turning inward to my memory banks. I’ve been looking for those tools in my toolbox that I used to help get me through the heartbreaks…first with divorce, then with the untimely death of Mr. Virgo.

We all need more tools to help us cope. My faith brings me the most comfort. And I augment my faith with finding the goodness in the world and in the people within it. I have a friend in Costa Rica. Greg and I send pictures of fine art back and forth to each other and tell what it is about that particular piece that speaks to us on that day. Another friend and I send each other funny pictures and memes and videos to maintain a sense of connection with our similar humor.

The last week or so, a song has swirled around in my mind. Just a snippet floating into and out of my consciousness. I remember hearing it during that dark time of sadness surrounding my second divorce. I felt defeated, abandoned, and decidedly “less than”. It was called “Adjust Your Dreams” and was attached to another song “Shining My Flashlight” during a live recording by none other than…Christine Lavin.

I’ve seen Christine a couple of times in concert. Small, intimate venues in which she sat at a table in the lobby before the show and painted my nails. (Just that act alone signals a simpler time when we didn’t think of catching or spreading some deadly disease through casual social contact.) I had a delightful conversation with her and enjoyed her shows immensely. A few years later, she and I communicated briefly when I was trying to organize a concert at the luxury resort Mr. Virgo and I worked at in Pagosa Springs. It didn’t work out and I was always bummed about that.

Since “Adjust Your Dreams” was circling around my brain, I went on the prowl through Google and couldn’t find it anywhere. I really wanted to use that today for “Feel Good Friday”, so I sent Ms. Lavin a note through her website and asked if there might be a recording or video somewhere. She didn’t have a copy but put it out on her FB page and within minutes, the recording was in my inbox!

We all have had dreams. Dreams of what we want our lives to be. Dreams of how we want things to work. We may even find our dreams come true and we are living them in the moment. Then something so unforeseen, so unthinkable, so utterly devastating comes along and takes our dreams away in little bites over a very short period of time and we find ourselves drifting. This is how the last few months have felt to me.

Christine’s song…just a few verses, really…is uplifting. When we find ourselves in the midst of dashed dreams, we need to adjust our dreams and make new ones. We’re not quite there yet. Right now, it feels like we are essentially riding down some pretty rough Class VI whitewater… blindfolded. I know I am not alone in this. I know God is in control and is bigger than any of this and He does not change no matter what is going on in the world. And I also know, I’m not the only one feeling this way. We are all in the same boat.

Here is Christine’s song she so generously shared with me. The last bit of the song is done with this really cool recording device where she sings different parts and it ends up sounding like a dozen voices. If you don’t know her music, do give her a listen. She is fun and upbeat and sometimes a bit irreverent and her music is good for what ails you. You can find her on FB and YouTube as well as her catalog on iTunes. I hope you enjoy it.