Tag Archives: Rawlins Cross

Wandrin’ Star


By now probably all of you have seen the ad by Amazon, with the tousle-haired man and his dog with the broken leg. It’s sweet but the song attached to it seems an odd choice (well, except that the dog wants to wander and can’t, poor wee thing). It’s catchy, though and sticks in the head. For those of you who wonder how the rest of it goes, here it is: (click on the first lines for a link to the Youtube of Lee Marvin singing it…)

I was born under a wandrin’ star
I was born under a wandrin’ star
Wheels are made for rolling, mules are made to pack
I’ve never seen a sight that didn’t look better looking back
I was born under a wandrin’ star

Mud can make you prisoner and the plains can bake you dry
Snow can burn your eyes, but only people make you cry
Home is made for coming from, for dreams of going to
Which with any luck will never come true
I was born under a wandrin’ star
I was born under a wandrin’ star

Do I know where hell is, hell is in hello
Heaven is goodbye forever, its time for me to go
I was born under a wandrin’ star
A wandrin’ wandrin’ star

When I get to heaven, tie me to a tree
For I’ll begin to roam and soon you’ll know where I will be
I was born under a wandrin’ star
A wandrin’ wandrin’ star
Read more: http://artists.letssingit.com/lee-marvin-lyrics-born-under-a-wandering-star-zfs6zf2#ixzz3y79V5jpL

I’m feeling that restlessness again. I don’t know whether it is winter or cabin fever or my lack of success with knitting broad-amyut I feel the need to stretch my legs. Somehow.

The other song that keeps running through my head is the Rose Vaughan Trio’s Restless as a River, a lovely tune with a haunting melody that sounds just like water over river rocks. And then there’s Rawlin’s Cross‘s Open Road, a song I listened to obsessively when I was contemplating divorce so many years ago…:

 If you want to you could stay, dream your life away
Counting the old memories you have stowed
But if you could be what you could be, you’d be just as good as free
I think it’s time you hit the open road

Chorus:
Open road, carry me
And take me where I can be free
Lead me where I’ve got to go
To the end of the open road

The future sits beside you, whisper in your ear
Telling you that now it’s time to go
But I don’t know how far you’ll get before sunset
I just know it’s time you hit the open road

Leave the past and let it wait, do not hesitate
Take your time and time will take your load
There’s nothing here for you but the memories and the blues
I think it’s time you hit the open road

I don’t know. Maybe it’s the Sagittarius in me, or maybe it’s from years of wandering as a military spouse, but for a while now I’ve felt the need to shift my location. I’m not sure where as yet. Will it be to Wolfville, small College town in the Annapolis Valley? Will it be elsewhere? Where?

I love it here. I love the people I’ve met and gotten to know. But there’s something… Perhaps, like Vianne Rocher in Chocolat, it’s the tricky north wind that calls me to travel, to experience something new. To force myself out of the comfort of routine, to encourage me to step bigger, to take chances, to expand my view. Or maybe to tighten my view, live somewhere smaller, somewhere where I can walk places, where there are birds other than pigeons to see.

Perhaps I can do this here. Perhaps I can’t. I only know there is something not sitting quite right here in my lovely cozy spacious apartment in the city, despite the friends around me. Like a pebble in my shoe, it pesters. I can push it to the side, ignore it for a while, but it’s still there…

not-all-who-wander

I will go and not ask why…


Way back about 15 years ago, when I lived in Annapolis Royal, NS, I had two CD’s in the van that I would play as I drove the kids here, there and everywhere. One was Rawlins Cross, a celtic rock band that provides the definitive answer to the question of whether bagpipes can rock. They can. I still love those guys.

The other was an Atlantic music CD that I lost and was never able to replace. On it, there was a song that spoke so directly to my heart I used to cry every time I heard it. It was Stone and Sand and Sea and Sky by the Rose Vaughan Trio. Today, thanks to the wonders of the internet and Seaside FM that played a similar song and sent me hunting, I found the song again on YouTube. It still makes me cry, hard. I’ve been looking for the song for years, and never been able to find it. Now I just need to find the actual recording.

Like the Rawlins Cross song “Open Road”, which I also played obsessively back then, both songs spoke to me. I knew my marriage was over, although it would take me years to finally leave. I felt broken when I arrived in Annapolis Royal for a variety of reasons – the loss of my parents, the state of my marriage, the life of a parent of young children with an absent partner. I was fat(ter), ugly, unhappy.

And then I came to Nova Scotia. I was healed. Four wonderful women believed in me; they made me feel valued, like I had something to say and contribute. One got me into public health nursing, two got me into political activism, and one was the tow line that brought me back home. With their help, I was able to throw off the things that were holding me down, whether mine or someone else’s. I became who I am today, and , although I’m definitely not perfect, I’m at least closer to good (and parts of me are excellent, as Ashleigh Brilliant would say).

I left Annapolis Royal, and didn’t really return to the province until a kind friend took me with him on a breathtaking road trip around Cape Breton. I knew then that Nova Scotia and I were meant to be together, forever. I planned and sorted and finally came, and I haven’t regretted a moment since. I feel like I have been reunited with my soul.

Lately, I am feeling blessed. Several good things are happening to me, and it’s a nice change after a bundle of bad. Into every life, as they say, some rain must fall, but one assumes that that means some sun arrives as well. I’m grateful for both, as they teach me as they go along, but I’ve gotta say, I like the sunny days a wee bit better.

I can’t help but believe that being so near the sea (and stone and sand and sky) has helped.

Stone and Sand

Stone and sand and sea and sky
Rest my heart and please my eye.
I will go and not ask why
Stone and sand and sea and sky.

Early morning rise and walk
Listen to the sea stone talk
Wild geese flock above me high
Stone and sand and sea and sky.

Soon the wind is holding me
Clears my mind so easily
Open, open to the song
Wind and sea have played so long.

I am strengthened by the sea
Something broken mends in me
Hold me till the day I die
Stone and sand and sea and sky.

Stone and sand and sea and sky
I am free to laugh and cry
I feel the spirit lift me high
Stone and sand and sea and sky.
Lyrics written by Rose Vaughan