You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait, be quite still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet. -- Franz Kafka
This song is also not on One Good Reason. It's much newer - written and
recorded in 2009 (One Good Reason was way back in 1992).
INVITATION is a reflection on community conversations and on the process of
Civic Engagement we use in A SMALL GROUP, here in Cincinnati
(www.asmallgroup.net). I have a number of small pocket notebooks filled with
scribbles from years past and from ASG meetings, intensives, talks given by
Peter Block (www.peterblock.com), John McKnight, Barry Wakeman and other
friends and mentors of my life in recent years. The words and concepts of the
work had flowed into my daily life and conversation, over time.
In April 2009, up early one Saturday morning for an ASG intensive at The
College of Mount St. Joseph, I had a tune in my head that needed to be
played, so I sat with my guitar for an hour or so and found the first draft of
this song ready to be sung. I don't write many songs, lately, and have never
written one in 6/8 time that I can remember, so this was a fun and interesting
experience in more ways than one.
After sharing it with the ASG community, I worked on the words and music a
little more, then made the accompanying recording with the help of Ric
Hordinski and his musical gifts, studio wizardry
and talented friends.
INVITATION
This is the Invitation
To a new conversation
Of depth over speed
Of gift over need
A new Listening…
The structure of how we gather
Speaks of what really matters
Telling a new
Story of who
We are to each other
This is the Invitation
Community’s Restoration
By just showing up
We’re gifted enough
To birth a new world
Though we don’t know
what it will look like
We’re feeling that world’s alive
Like it’s ready to bloom
Here in this room
The seeds in each life
So Community’s New Frontier
Is finding all that we need, right here
To weave a rich, local life
Into a tapestry lined
With the connections we share
This is the invitation
To join a celebration
Of neighbors & friends
Connecting again
Creating the new.
Of neighbors & friends
Connecting again
Creating the new
My neighbors & friends
I’m glad to come in
And be here
With you.
Words & Music by Randy Weeks
with thanks to Peter Block and A Small Group
randy@weeks.org April-July 2009
Recorded 7-27-09 at Monastery Studio, Cincinnati, OH
Production & Engineering: Ric
Hordinski
Acoustic Guitar & Vocal: Randy Weeks
Electric Guitars & Bass: Ric Hordinski
Drums: Josh Seurkamp
