For some time I have described myself as an empath not knowing there exists a whole bunch of information about ‘empaths’ on the internet. I described myself this was for a couple reasons. The main was is that is seems to be the main thing that I am. I feel what others feel, I take it on, I spin it around and it becomes part of me. But I have another ability gift whatever, and that is Resonation. I can resonate the feelings, and in the resonation people find resolution. My ability to resonate comes from the singing, first, and performing second. The performance is the church. The singing I guess is the vessel.

People come to shows with their feelings wrapped around songs so tightly that they begin to weep. The weep because of the feeling I am transmitting as I sing. They are probably empathetic beings themselves. But they also are feeling the resonating of our sympathetic waves, and in that sympathetic atmosphere healing occurs. I know that the performances are ‘churches’ they are the places people come to celebrate, make a joyful noise, be lifted. What is church if not that? the service is not sold to them this way so they dont feel the pressure to perform. It’s just a concert. But in this setting spirit is powerful because music of course is the language that resonates with the body and mind, it crosses the borders of logic and emotion.

When I write songs, I am writing my life, my story, my higher observations in the simplest verse so that in this Extract the listener can deserve their own meanings from the pictures I offer. It is work I do for myself, but I am aiming at them. I am speaking – to them. I am not singing just to feel the vibration of the sound in my body. I am sending a message out. Also… emotion… we try to fit emotion into the very little library of words we have learned. But there are not words to describe what we feel. Words do not serve us. And so music is much closer to a language, a resonating of the real speaking of emotion.

So its complex. Not complicated, complex. And the use of the melody – well that is a language unto itself. So the story, with the dual language of melody, and then of course the sound of my voice, this all combines to a unique experience and one that continues to unfold, never ends, is still alive and lit up 20, 40 years later. 200, 400 years later. We return to melodies and performances, to symphonies and songs and even voices time and time again. The are intact and yet they also continue to reveal. I use metaphor often, I also allow for poetry, allow my mind to spit out words that might not make sense at first, and as time goes by I realize they were telling me something my logic mind wanted to make logical. I am aware that ‘then why do you run?” is a totally different line when sung the way I sing it in ‘Blinded by the Hunt.’ I can give you the title ‘Blinded by the Hunt’ and you will probably be intrigued… if indeed you have pursued something relentlessly. You will know right away this is a feeling of anticipation – a hunt- and someone who has lost the ability to do what they do by doing what they do. (blinded) Well I don’t like to say that, to explain, I prefer the many explanations people feel as they listen. But that is basically the idea in that song, and it is a universal one. The thing we do undoes us in the end. singers lose their voice, readers lose their eyes, dancers lose their legs. Staring so long at what we want, eventually we cannot see it anymore. It’s a zen lesson.

To get what you want you cannot seek it. Well, you start on the journey and then trust the journey. perhaps you are meant to find a tree on the way, not the house you seek. or… as we all learn, the house you find when you finally find your house is not at all how it felt when you began your journey. The seeking is the trip. But then again, is that just an entertainment for the spirit? are we better not seeking? If You find yourself riding a wonderful wave, hopefully you do not sit out there for hours waiting for it. That is not wave riding, that’s obsession. obsession does not allow for revelation. it ends the journey. it is a demon which causes one to eat oneself. so, you say, I am off for this picture I have, and along the way you meet many amazing things. do you stay there or continue? might it be that the picture is taking place even as you journey?

Control is the tool to grace, for once you find control you can lay down the sword of diligence of guarding against. You can be joyful, kind, generous. Control will bring you back in to your cave if, as an empath, you are in danger from someones energy. too generous. too hopeful for them. If you have a loved one who sucks the life out of you, in a way, baby drinkers, that is, they attach on to your Giving it and cannot related to you any other way, you must be diligent in your control of yourself. you cannot tell them stop sucking. you must take yourself away.

How long you will sit and listen to the complaints and horror stories? What you do when you leave them to restore your balance? You will want to save them, feeling as you do their despair. But you are not Christ, and if Christ should work through you you probably will not know it, they will be saved or not, not by your will, you know this. and if you do know it Christ is about you, you may also notice your own life burning abit. I image that kind of divine healing light sometimes, not always, but sometimes Costs. Few of His wield his light. But maybe its vanity to say we cant. Maybe we all can wield any light we choose.

Now having paid, and continued the hunt, walked and walked, sung and wrote, learned to sleep at night, and to greet the day, you have achieved nirvanas port. If you seek to leave behind the joy and sensation of this plane while still standing on it, you may, but I am not really sure yet what the point of that is. or perhaps I am engaged in this. to enjoy, and only enjoy, to bring light. I know the message of the Buddhist, Hindus is to serve yourself. achieve Your nirvana. by your study your control, create your next life. but I am not sure yet that My Self is the only road to where I can take. when i say this it seems obvious that I am the only road I can take. but my heart, my heart tells me otherwise. Can I take my heart to my road that is made of letting go of me?

I am enjoying the animal life, the insatiable thirst the life seed brings. Life wants to live.

I am thinking it may be possible that demons are. the attach themselves to the physical plane and only need a bit of negativity to begin to bloom. they are hard to destroy and difficult to control. they bring ceaseless self reflection and condemnation, weakness and repetitive thinking. you must lift your head, like the johnny depp and the endless crabs on the shore, you must lift your head of your own valition, imagine there is another shore, and it will call you. But you must be the miraculous moment. That is the only way out of hell. The moment of conception. The moment God says I am that I am. You must weave to that moment become part of it here, you must have your own epiphany and let it permeate the waves of all time, across the board. then it will be as if it were always there leading you out.
Raise your head. turn from the familiar. go into the unknown. face Fear. the fear of your manufacturing. you can manufacture a strength as well. whether it is the strength you borrow from the demonic or the strength of your innocence, for you are innocent, if you love, you are innocent, use what ever you can to envision any room other than the one you are in.

these are ways out of drugs and compulsive behavior, and they are ways into the light and joy. they do not happen over night. but keep walking listen to the sound of your footsteps. shut your mind, if it starts to talk, pulls you like some orgasmic resolution will occur if you keep following these threads, what if,and then, could should, why, but, because all of it… leads no Where and the demons are sucking up your time on earth. your time you would dream, and be healed, and tell your story to the cosmos so it can give you instruction. you must dream. you must shut off your mind. I had to say to myself, outloud, STOP. stop thinking, stop it. and then a few minutes later, STOP. and eventually i trained my mind to shut off.

if medication helps take it. but only you know if you are an addict, and addiction stops growth.
its just the truth of it. I invite empath to come and hear my sing. I invite the troubled to seek ways out of the labyrinth. You must lift your foot and step. Its very hard sometimes. but it will get easier.

love, Rickie lee Jones