Catching up versus Pacing The Cage

Friday - at last!  Whew!  Don't get me wrong, I'm not one who hates my work week or who lives only for the weekends. Its just that this has been a crowded week with some important yet competing priorities and I am more than usually ready for a break.  Thankfully, today's calendar is mostly empty, so I can grab a shovel and start GTD'ing my way through my inboxes and project threads.

It was another dark (they all will be now, so this probably goes without saying until early next spring) and cloudy drive in, but not yet raining. Top up.  Rain and wind are forecast for today and most of this weekend.  Typical long term forecast for us: wet weekend and sun comes out for Monday and most of the work week.

As for this morning's playlist: after the always-compelling Annie Lennox, Bruce Cockburn came up with the acoustic version of Pacing the Cage from the 2009 live solo tour album Slice O Life.  This has to be one of his most poetic and beautiful songs (ranks right up there, for me, with All The Diamonds).

The first verse reads:

Sunset is an angel weeping

Holding out a bloody sword

No matter how I squint I cannot

Make out what it's pointing toward

Sometimes you feel like you live too long 

Days drip slowly on the page

You catch yourself

Pacing the cage

This hasn't exactly been one of those pacing the cage weeks for me, but I do know the feeling; don't we all at one time or another?

Sometimes the best map will not guide you 

You can't see what's round the bend

Sometimes the road leads through dark places 

Sometimes the darkness is your friend

Today these eyes scan bleached-out land 

For the coming of the outbound stage

Pacing the cage 

Great poetry with powerfully accessible imagery, and set to a truly beautiful acoustic guitar-lead melody.  If you haven't heard the tune before, may I heartily recommend tracking down a copy and giving it a listen?

All in all, a great playlist today.  Yes, I stopped for coffee again this morning, thus the slightly longer playlist:

• Annie Lennox: No More "I Love You's"
• Bruce Cockburn: Pacing The Cage
• Bobby Previte: Airstrip One
• Kenny Werner: Hey Reggie
• Rocco Deluca And The Burden: How Fast
• Belle & Sebastian: Funny Little Frog