More of My Favorite Lyrics

Ruth Sandra Sperling
RSS Designs In Fiber - My Handmade Designs on ARTFIRE


Life goes on, but each of us have things that are more important to us -- and sometimes, just sometimes, you find a song that says it just right!


First, from GORDON LIGHTFOOT, the song "IF CHILDREN HAD WINGS" from his "ENDLESS WIRE" Album (I have the old LP from way back - copyright 1969 Moose Music)

"There's a love I hold dear
  and it shines through each year
  And it makes things seem different somehow
  It's for better or worse
  It's for people who thirst
  for a love that burns brighter right now

"And it shines on and on 'til all sadness is gone
  and if children had wings I
  would sing them their song
...... "

Second, from DAN FOGELBERG, the song "THE SAND AND THE FOAM" from his "THE INNOCENT AGE" Album copyright 1981 Hickory Grove Music

"Time stills the singing
  A child holds so dear
  And I'm just beginning to hear
  Gone are the pathways
  The child followed home
  Gone, like the sand and the foam
  Gone, like the sand
  Gone, like the sand and the foam"

Third, from PHIL COLLINS, the song "SURVIVORS" from his "BOTH SIDES" Album copyright 1993 Atlantic Recording Corporation

"When all is said and done
  we'll find someday
  we can forget all this
  somehow, some way

"And as long as I'm here
  there'll be no worries any more
  and all these promises I'm making now
  I'll hold each day

"So don't ever, don't ever, don't forget
  that I never, never meant to break your heart
  all I ever wanted was to stand beside you
  survivors in the night

"We are survivors in the night"

Ya' know -- I wonder if we ever know what the singer/songwriter exactly meant in a song (unless they tell you) -- but each listener may have their own interpretation in their very own life!

For me - It is FAMILY .... and FAMILY .... and those really true FRIENDS!

Life Changes - But I Still Have The MUSIC!

Ruth Sandra Sperling
RSS Designs In Fiber - My Handmade Designs on ARTFIRE

You may wonder - well, WHAT???

It's been a while since I have been in here.  Since late July I have been working on a Life Change that has taken a lot of work and time -- overall it is very good for me, but there were problems with it along the way.

But through it all -- with my trusty computer, my ipod shuffle and my itunes -- I had the MUSIC I wanted all through it!!

I can't remember when MUSIC wasn't a major part of my life.  Of course, I had a Father who had sung since his childhood -- and he sang around me all the time.  I grew up with all kinds of MUSIC -- and I definitely have my favorites.

Here is where itunes and my ipod shuffle come in.

Oh - since I was a kid, I had albums of MUSIC.  My Uncle Saul gave me an album of the MUSIC from Peter Pan and I still remember it.  We always had a record player and a selection of albums - I grew up with Classical Music, Musicals -- and various types of Folk Music.  I collected them throughout my life - now they are CD's or just digital downloads!!

But those are whole albums -- which I still highly appreciate and buy.  After all, when an artist puts together an album -- very often, that album tells a story or is a "song cycle" or is just on some theme, but there is usually a purpose to a whole album.

But ipods -- I love my ipod shuffle!!  I can put individual pieces I want to hear -- and I can make playlists with the pieces in a certain order -- or I can just load all these songs on it -- and listen to it on Random, so I have a surprise with every song it plays!!

So, from some of the CD's I have, I have chosen some of the songs and loaded them on my ipod shuffle, so I can hear these "favorites" when I listen.  And the great thing about an ipod shuffle is that you can attach it to whatever you are wearing and listen as you go about doing things.

My "favorites" change -- why I do not know.  Mood???  Life??? Aesthetics???

Well -- what I feel like listening to changes!!!

I have figured out that the Vocals and the playing of the instruments have something to do with my favorites.

Here are few of my favorite lines from my current musical favorites -- which helped me through this recent period of change!  You have to realize that when I read the lines, I hear the music and the songs in my head!   

DAN FOGELBERG - From the song "Ever On" - on the Album "The Wild Places" copyright 1990

"May the trail rise up to greet you
 May your heart rejoice in song
 May the skies be fair above you
 As you journey ever on.
 ....
"May your love be there to guide us
 May it always keep us strong
 May we walk within your footsteps
 As you lead us ever on"
"Ever On ....

GORDON LIGHTFOOT - From the song "Canadian Railroad Trilogy" - on the Album "Gord's Gold" copyright 1975

"We have opened up the soil with our teardrops and our toil
  Oh, there was a time in this fair land when the railroad did not run
  When the wild majestic mountains stood alone against the sun
  Long before the white man and long before the wheel
  When the green dark forest was too silent to be real
  When the green dark forest was too silent to be real
  And many are the dead men .... too silent to be real"

LEO KOTKE - his arrangement of "Cripple Creek" on the Album, "The Best of Leo Lotke" -- his fine pickin' says it all!!

WOODY GUTHRIE - From the song "Talking Dust Bowl Blues (Alternate Version) on the Album, "Dust Bowl Ballads" - re-publication of the original 1940 Album in 2000 by Buddha Records.

"That stew was so thin you could read a magazine right through it
  Always have thought and always have figured that if it had been just a little bit thinner
     there here politicians could have seen through it"

Note about WOODY GUTHRIE:  My Father introduced me to him when I was a kid and I just loved Woody's singing, harmonica playing and guitar playing -- and his stories and his sense of humor.  Here are a few notes from the Album, "Dust Bowl Ballads".  First from Dave Marsh in May 2000:  "So these songs are not only historical, they are history itself, history being that which links present to future.  That is why, sixty years after they were recorded, Woody Guthrie's Dust Bowl Ballads still deserve their place among the greatest American stories and songs."  Second, from Woody Guthrie's Original Liner Notes:  "This bunch of songs ain't about me, and I ain't a going to write about me, 'cause every time I start to do that, I find that I run out of material. .... Sing as loud and as long as you like, but don't mention my name.  Take it easy, but take it.  True as the Average - Woody Guthrie"

WHATEVER IS GOING ON IN YOUR LIFE -- DON'T FORGET THE MUSIC -- WHATEVER MUSIC YOU CHOOSE!!  TAKE THE TIME TO LISTEN!!!

THANKS - And A Voice For Peace

Ruth Sandra Sperling
RSS Designs In Fiber - My Handmade Designs on BONANZA and ETSY

Bird of Peace Hoop Pendant Necklace by RSS Designs In Fiber

As I was out doing some things this week - before Thanksgiving Day -- and hearing and seeing the news about some happenings in the world, I was thinking.

I have a lot to be thankful for -- throughout my life -- so many things and quite a variety -- that I won't be listing them all.

The one thing that was on my mind a lot was:  PEACE.

Yes, for me -- but much more than that, for all the world.

I feel the need for it -- and I am sorry for the lack of it in some places.

So, the above piece of Fiber Art - with the Bird of Peace - A Bird Flying With An Olive Branch - a long-time traditional Symbol of Peace and Well-Being In the World -- is a way I find to express my feelings.

But sometimes in your life, you find others - A Personal Friend, A Writer, An Artist who expresses how you feel deeply - most likely better than you ever would in the same way.

Well, I "stumbled upon" one -- a long time ago -- he was another College student at the University of Illinois in 1969 through 1971 -- but while I listened in the audience or at friendly gatherings, he sang and played.  Time showed that somehow his writing - both the music and the songs - would continue over the years to sometimes so exactly express my own feelings on things, that it was a little uncanny at times.  We had each gone on with our own lives, but I knew how he felt about Peace back then, so when I heard this song off his album, "River of Souls" - I was not surprised and, again, felt like he expressed with words, music and emotion - how I felt.

"A Voice For Peace" by Dan Fogelberg, copyright 1993 Sacred Circle Music 

You know that everybody has a voice

And how they use it is their own free choice

But in your glory I will not rejoice

If you choose the way of war

If you choose the way of war

Ashes to ashes and dust to dust

My country 'tis of thee; in God we trust

But how much longer will he shelter us

While we choose the ways of war

While the winds of war range on

Let mine (oh let my small voice) be a voice for peace

Oh let mime (oh let my small voice) be a voice for peace

Let mine (oh let my small voice) be a voice for peace

Let it start here with me

Oh let mine be a voice for peace

The good book tells us thou shalt not kill

The truth came shining and it's shining still

But how much blood upon this earth must spill

Before we lay our weapons down

Let us lay our weapons down

Let mine (oh let my small voice) be a voice for peace

Oh let mime (oh let my small voice) be a voice for peace

Let mine (oh let my small voice) be a voice for peace

Let it start here with me

Oh let mine be a voice for peace

Let mine (oh let my small voice) be a voice for peace

Oh let mime (oh let my small voice) be a voice for peace

Let mine (oh let my small voice) be a voice for peace

Let it start here with me

Oh let mine be a voice

And in the face of the beast

Oh let mine be a voice

Until the breaths in me cease

Oh let mine be a voice for peace

Raise your voice up

Raise your voice up

Raise your voice up and sing for the promise of peace...

You can buy this song and listen to it HERE.

On his 4-CD Set, PORTRAIT, in the notes for this song, Dan Fogelberg is quoted:  "A very authentic song written after the Gulf War broke out.  As I stated on the 'River of Souls' album, there will always be better ways than destruction to settle our differences."

This is really not political for me -- this is about LIFE -- and how I feel about it for all of us!!

So, this Thanksgiving - I Give Thanks - and - I Raise My Voice For The Promise of PEACE !!

Updated Oct. 22, 2015 With a New Bird of Peace Hanging online - my sentiments remain the same now as they were when I wrote this!!  Ruth Sandra Sperling

ART (All Kinds) and What It Communicates

Ruth Sandra Sperling
RSS Designs In Fiber - Internet Shop of Handmade Items In Fibers


ART - well, when you get into the subject of ART, you get into an area that is actually very personal and very subjective.

I have been exposed to various forms and types of ART all my life - I believe since I was a baby.

I had relatives -- and friends of relatives -- who did various types of Arts and Crafts -- and, yes, some of it was "in capital letters", though some of it was just for fun.

• Music
• Drawing
• Painting
• Sewing
• Needlecrafts (Crochet, Knitting, Needlepoint)
• Mosaics
• Writing

Also, when I was very young, I was exposed to some of those who are considered "Great Artists" -- mostly Musicians and Painters -- through musical recordings and classical music radio stations -- and I don't remember the first time I was taken to the Art Institute of Chicago, but I believe I was very young.

I was quite young - still a child, not yet in my teens - when I "fell in love" with the paintings of the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists I saw at the Art Institute of Chicago, such as Monet, Van Gogh, Seurat, Renoir -- these works so full of light and color, which I just adored!! To be seen there, for example: Monet's various landscapes; Van Gogh's vibrant - and what I would call dramatic - colors and images; Seurat's grand landscape by the water with dots of colors which together form almost an enchanting composition (to me) - I would stand entranced for a while; Renoir's delightful compositions - both of people and landscapes!

-- And then the works of later painters that I grew to love, such as Marc Chagall and Georgia O'Keeffe!

-- And the various sculptures and pottery and glass works!

-- And the music, as a child and in my early teens -- from Beethoven, Bach, Handel -- to the folk artists, such as Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, The Weavers, Buffy Sainte-Marie -- to the Musicals, such as "The Music Man", "Fiddler on the Roof" - I loved the singing of Theodore Bikel!

As I ventured out on my own -- my love of the Impressionistic painters and a few other painters (especially Georgia O'Keeffe) only grew. My love of music also grew and expanded -- and the musicians that I met -- and some I got to know -- added so much to my life!

As I got into studying Photography (I got my first camera at the age of 6, but never really studied it until my 30's), my admiration for (Alfred Stieglitz, Ansel Adams, Robert Glenn Ketchum, Freeman Patterson, David Muench) and interaction with various Photographers (Craig Fucile, Jan Pietrzak, Steve Cohen - and other environmental photographers) in various genres added so much to my life.

What it all comes down to -- there is something in what the works of these Artists commuicate that reaches me and adds such a feeling of joy to one's life!!

I think all Artists have some kind of message -- though that message may be interpreted differently by each person experiencing the art -- for me, it is that experience which adds so much to my life - and I can truthfully only speak of my own experience.

So, now I am involved online with some Artisans who do Handmade on Etsy -- from the Thread Artists to Painters, Photographers, people who work in Wood, Clay, Glass, Needlecrafts, Fibers .... as usual, there are always different viewpoints and different things that different people like, but I have found so many that I personally admire on Etsy!!

There is something in what these Artists communicate in their Art that brings joy into my life -- and I thank all of them for it!!