http://maryrocap.com/news.html Mary Rocap: Journal Jannis' PHPRss class - http://www.jannis.to/ Mon, 06 Sep 2010 01:08:50 -0700 http://maryrocap.com/news.html#23 Below are the words of the song I wrote in his honor:

Little Bird

And the little bird sings in the cool of the day
When the sun comes up
And the sun goes down
He’s got happy things to say

And the little bird sings from the highest tree
Hidden in the leaves
of the canopy
Doesn’t wanna be seen

When my head’s brought low by this world of woe
And trouble’s leaning on my door
I marvel at the simple joy that hearing can restore

When the little bird sings in the cool of the day
When the sun comes up
And the sun goes down
He’s got happy things to say

And the little bird sings I cannot stay
I come in the spring
and I leave in the fall
And it’s always been this way

But the little bird sings a promise true
When the jessamen blooms
I’ll be coming home soon
And will sing a song for you

When the nights are long and the wind blows cold
And the days are gray and drear
I hold onto the hope of spring
When the wood thrush reappears

And the little bird will sing in the cool of the day
When the sun comes up
And the sun goes down
He’s got happy things to say]]> http://maryrocap.com/news.html#23 Sun, 02 May 2010 00:00:00 -0700 - Mary Rocap - Journal http://maryrocap.com/news.html#22 We sing in sacred space and find ourselves strengthened and enriched by lifting our voices, as community in song.
Although the Circle is more about the process than performance - we have had the opportunity to share audiences both in programs and within services, such as memorial services.]]> http://maryrocap.com/news.html#22 Sat, 09 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0800 - Mary Rocap - Journal http://maryrocap.com/news.html#21 And just breaking:
"Cassiopeia" to be included in a compilation CD for the NC BioFuel Music Project.

1. Finalist in the 2008 NC Songwriters Coop Song Contest for the songs "Cotton" & "Hallelujah"

2. Finalist in the 2005 NC Songwriters Coop Song Contest for the songs "Flamingoes" & "Cassiopia"

3. Finalist in the 2004 Hank Williams Flat Rock Music Festival for the song "I Got a MInd to Love You"

4. Finalist in the 2004 Cats Cradle Song Contest for the songs "Mileposts", "
Sadie, Sadie Hawkins Day" & "Tell Me Why"

5. Honorable Mention in the 2003 NC Songwriters Coop Song Contest for the songs "Mileposts" & "Tell Me Why"

6. Alternate Finalist in the 2003 Cats Cradle Songwriters Contest for the songs "North Star", "Kingdoms Rise", & "Resting Up"]]> http://maryrocap.com/news.html#21 Fri, 27 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800 - Mary Rocap - Journal http://maryrocap.com/news.html#20 I have been writing little stories about my chickens for the last year or so. Some of you may have noticed the pictures I have on this site of some of them. I have now published a book of stories called Little Chicken Stories which you may order simply by emailing me from this site. The following is one of the chapters.

Matters of Life & Death by Mary Rocap

The summer of 2007 in the Piedmont of North Carolina was hot and dry. The average high was 96; the highest high was 105. August was the hottest and second driest month on record at the Raleigh Durham Airport (the official weather data collection spot in our area). Dogwoods were turning brown; poplars were losing yellowed leaves. The local growers of the Hillsborough Farmers Market had given up irrigating since no amount of watering seemed to quench the thirst of the soil and their ponds were getting low. People asked politely about their neighbor’s wells.

The end of summer was also when our friend Greg was trying to figure out why he had no energy and would shake with cold while running a temperature. Turned out he had leukemia. He called me from the hospital just before going into a week of chemotherapy saying he and his wife Carol were confident they could beat this. One week later he was dead — a catastrophic reaction, from which he could not, did not recover.

The heat stressed everybody and it stressed our hens; they started laying fewer eggs as if to say “Just be thankful we made it through another day.” A day they had spent with their panting beaks open, seeking the shade and relative cool of the woods surrounding our home. Why one of our hens would decide to sit on a clutch during this hot spell is beyond me. But sit she did in the coop where temperatures surely were 10 degrees above the actual. She had laid claim to eight eggs.

After three weeks of her sitting, looking mean, and poophing out when approached, there was movement and a little head shyly peeking out from her breast where she sat on her nest. By the end of the day there were three little fluff balls, a buff and two with shades of gray coloration. The next day she left her nest abandoning the five remaining eggs, and took her little brood down the plank to the fenced area under the coop. We rejoiced at her accomplishment in the face of such adverse conditions.

That evening we caused a complete panic as Tom decided to it was time to confine an increasingly pesky rooster. There was chaos and pandemonium. The little chicks fled through the fence, but Momma was trapped. Tom and my attentions were completely focused on the rooster and so didn’t appreciate the desperate situation we had created for Momma. She eventually got herself over the 6-foot fence and shot like a bat from hell through the woods in hot pursuit of her babes.

At that point the situation we had created sunk in and we went into search and rescue mode. We listened for peeps — couldn’t hear any; walked slowly through the woods — didn’t see any. It was an hour ”˜til dusk and time was short.

Alas, we did not find them. We delayed closing up the birds ”˜til well after dark hoping they would return. We felt like idiots.

This was the within days of receiving word of Greg’s death. At our very late dinner Tom prayed “Thy will be done.” to which I involuntarily responded “No.” I wasn’t ready for another dose of God’s will.

The next morning I went out looking for Momma and her chicks. I went to the hen house and was surprised to find one of the five remaining eggs had a crack in it. I picked it up and it peeped! Completely taken aback I squeezed it slightly and it peeped again. Who knew a chick peeped before hatching? Who knew that eggs cool to the touch, abandoned a whole day would be viable?

I picked up all five eggs and hurried inside making a little nest in a basket and setting it under the heat lamp that was warming our 10-day old mail-order chicks housed in a big box in our living room. I called work and said I would be late, called my Mom & Dad to see if they wanted to come over and watch with me, and called Tom with the good news.

In fact, while the sound of the peep was good news I learned it takes some time and effort for a chick to hatch. The egg shutters and shakes. Eventually more of the shell opened and we could see a little beak with its egg tooth and some of the body. The whole body pulsed like a little heart, straining against the constraints of the shell. Surprisingly, the membrane seemed to pose the most difficulty, tearing separately from the breaking of the shell. I called my neighbor Joy who has a lot more experience in these matters and she counseled against helping the chick out of the shell (which I was inclined to do). She said it is the effort of the chick against the shell that makes the chick ready to stand after hatching.

Realizing this is a solitary task for the chick I reluctantly left for work. Mom said she would check in on the progress. At 12:30 she reported that we had the cutest little fluffy buff chick.

What good and amazing news!

When I got home late afternoon, wonder-of-wonders, Momma was back with her three little ones. We introduced her new one to her and she accepted it with solemnity.

I know that human life, the life of my friend Greg, is not comparable to the lives of my little birds. He was a close friend, my best song critic, a wise and compassionate person. I miss him. Yet I know that God loves all of his creation — all creatures great and small. It is written that God knows when every sparrow falls (“Yet not one of them is forgotten in God’s sight” Luke 12:6) and those words resonate in me. I love the song “His Eye is on the Sparrow” with its colliery line “and I know he cares for me” made famous by Ethel Waters. And in truth, the miraculous life of these little birds has been some comfort.

Life is a mystery. In the end we don’t know what death is or what purpose it serves. It pleases me that Momma and her chicks’ lives were spared; it hurts that Greg’s life was taken and that hurt will stay hurt a long time. “The Lord giveth, the Lord takest away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.” (Job 1:21) I have to try to offer both the rejoicing and the mourning to God and claim, by faith, that death is not the end, but a new beginning. Life will have the last word, not death.

And so, journey on Greg.]]> http://maryrocap.com/news.html#20 Fri, 26 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700 - Mary Rocap - Journal http://maryrocap.com/news.html#19 We were in a songwriting circle and he always had positive and insightful suggestions. We also worked together at Whole Foods and Wellspring Distributors, shared performances, and served together on the board of the NC Songwriters Coop. I last saw him at the Eno Festival in July and last talked to him from the hospital. He had been admitted for treatment of recently diagnosed leukemia.
Condolences go out to his wife, Carol, and everyone who knew him. His presence in our lives will be greatly missed.
Go in peace Greg and may your soul rise in glory.

I've got a picture of Greg in my photo section. His website is www.gregtaylormusic.com -- his albumn All in My Hands is available for purchase from there. It would mean a lot to Carol if you bought one.]]> http://maryrocap.com/news.html#19 Mon, 15 Oct 2007 00:00:00 -0700 - Mary Rocap - Journal http://maryrocap.com/news.html#18
Ever was but now I am
And chose I mortal form
To taste the apple and the pear
To feel the sun and storm
Crossed eternal starry sea
The never ending night
To rest upon the sandy shore
And view the morning light

One hundred years passed as a day
And then I felt bereft
And looked above a starry hosts
And longed for what I’d left
Three messengers had I retained
Three messengers of flight
Falcon, moth, and turtle dove
“Fly high into the night”

One thousand years passed as a day
And one by one they came
Weary travelers from afar
All with a sad refrain
“Foolish Mica, ever bright
Why did you have to roam?
You stayed too long, and were forgot
So far away from home”

Then I turned my face from them
And toward the setting sun
Still and silent like a stone
And stone I did become
Ten thousand years of sun and storm
Crushed me to sparking dust
Three winged friends spread my remains
O’er all the earth’s hard crust

"And if of ships I now should sing
What ship would come to me?
What ship would bear me ever back
Across so wide a sea?"

copyright 2006]]> http://maryrocap.com/news.html#18 Mon, 21 May 2007 00:00:00 -0700 - Mary Rocap - Journal http://maryrocap.com/news.html#17
Where the meadow meets the wood
A dark limbed tree does grow
And in the springtime breezes
Redbud blossoms blow
I see them on the road sides
On the edges of the lane
Between the tended and the wild
The tangled and the tame
But why it’s called a redbud
I sure would like to know
There is no ruby in its blush
Saying don't make it so

When the redbud was first named
It bloomed a scarlet true
But March he was a chilly wind
Tinged with icy blue
No lovlier a vision;
The colors did enchant
Indigo and crimson
Birthed a miscreant
And thus the wild bred blossom
Takes on a purple hue
In memory of when wind met flower
And flower said I love you
And flower said I love you

copyright 2006]]> http://maryrocap.com/news.html#17 Mon, 21 May 2007 00:00:00 -0700 - Mary Rocap - Journal http://maryrocap.com/news.html#16 None of the songs on this CD will be originals and in fact most were written in the 18th century.]]> http://maryrocap.com/news.html#16 Sat, 24 Mar 2007 00:00:00 -0700 - Mary Rocap - Journal http://maryrocap.com/news.html#15 Isn't that neat?]]> http://maryrocap.com/news.html#15 Fri, 11 Aug 2006 00:00:00 -0700 - Mary Rocap - Journal http://maryrocap.com/news.html#14 http://maryrocap.com/news.html#14 Thu, 13 Jul 2006 00:00:00 -0700 - Mary Rocap - Journal