The Totem Edit Bandcamp page is a treasure trove of delights, edits of a wide range of songs by Leo Zero and Justin Deighton. This one has been hitting the spot recently, six minutes of Balearic dancefloor folk called Feel. Free/ name your own price here. You'll thank me. I've been hitting play endlessly.
Feel is a 2024 edit of The Way I Feel by Gordon Lightfoot, from Gordon's album, Lightfoot! in 1966. The guitar playing is beautiful, and Gordon's lyrics tell a story of loss- 'The way I feel is like a robin/ Whose babes have flown to come no more/ Like a tall oak tree along and crying/ When the birds have flown and the nest is bare'.
I have developed a thing about robins. The one above was photographed while we were queueing for a ride at Alton Towers back in March, just sitting there along side us. Robins have been associated with the dead for centuries. Some people think that robins appear to bring messages from the dead, that they are messengers between the living and the dead. I don't know if I was aware of this before Isaac died but I've become aware of it since. The idea that Isaac would choose to reveal himself to us in the form of a sweet little robin redbreast seems a little unlikely and I'm a pretty rational person. But when I see one, I think of him and it makes me smile. We saw one in the hedge at the cemetery once which was a bit of a moment. There was one that lived in the tree behind out garden in the spring. It often fluttered into our garden, zipping here and there, occasionally landing on the kitchen window sill, before flying back to the holly tree.
One morning in April I was preparing for a job interview (I didn't get it, they appointed someone younger and cheaper, something that happened twice earlier this year), the robin sat on the sill while I was looking out. Later on, when I got out of my car at the interview, a robin was on the pavement looking in my direction (I know it wasn't the same robin- I told, you I'm a rational person). It's become a thing, like some other things have become things since Isaac died- the number 23 for one. I don't mind these things that have become things, in fact I like them. Anyway, all this is related loosely to today's post and Gordon Lightfoot's song about feeling like a robin and this photo of a robin which I've been saving since March for just such an opportunity. I didn't even make the connection between the song, the photo and robins until I started writing. Funny how that happens sometimes.
4 comments:
As a big Gordon fan I will definitely need to check this out. Thanks for the tip-off.
Whenever I see a robin in the garden I feel that my mum is paying me a visit
It's wonderful that you've developed your thing about robins! It doesn't matter what's behind it, if it makes you smile, that's what counts. They seem to enjoy connecting with us, making themselves known, making sure we notice them - yes I know they just want some food but it's the *way* they do it. The one in our garden at the moment is especially keen and the other day I put a couple of small fat pellets in my hand, held it outstretched in his/her direction and, so as not to make it feel threatened, just looked away. A second or two later I felt the lightest of touches of its claws on my fingers and the flutter of wings as it took the food from my palm. Hope you can do the same, SA.
It was you Charity Chic! I knew someone had mentioned robins and their mum recently, I'm sure commented when you did.
That's amazing C. And yes, you're right it doesn't matter why, its the thing that matters
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