These are some songs have meant the most to me in recent years. Though I'm known for the songs I do for children, these come from a child's heart reflecting on life over a number of years and are more appropriate for adults. The title references the Hubble Deep Field, a hitherto unanticipated expanse of ancient galaxies whose light has taken some thirteen billion years to reach us. Some of the oldest stars in the Deep Field began burning not long after the beginning of the universe as we know it. We know that the universe is expanding due to what's called the red shift; the shift of light to the red end of the visible spectrum when the source is receding from us. It's an instance of the Doppler Effect. And one of the strangest and most disconcerting discoveries ever made is the fact that the farther the galaxy, the more extreme the red shift. That is to say, the farther it is, the faster it's receding. We have no idea why. It will take our species a long time to come to grips with the implications. Though the Hubble Deep Field results were drawn from observations of only a single minuscule patch of space, the clear implication is that the principle of many vastly distant and ancient galaxies obtains no matter where we'd look. Further exploration will be needed to confirm that, but the pattern seems clear. We're part of something much larger than we ever dreamed. It's always been my sense, though, that size is unrelated to meaning. Though we're no longer at the center of our solar system, our galaxy, our local group or our universe as we once assumed, we remain full of promise and with a rich future, if we act wisely. If anything, it seems to me that the immensity we float in only serves to sharpen the already poignant edge of what it is to be human. Spirituality involves an attitude of trust and openness to an unseen - and perhaps unseeable - order of things, and science involves an attitude of skepticism and replicable experiment regarding what can be observed and measured. I was raised with the primacy of spirituality but over time time have gained an appreciation for the scientific as well. These are both, it seems to me, inherent aspects of who we are. Both poles will always be with us and we denigrate either one to our detriment. At its best, faith corrects for over reaches by science and science does the same for faith. My hunch is that in a fully evolved and informed state (whatever that might mean) they're the same thing. In the meantime, humility and compassion befits us caught as we all are in this odd and amazing journey that's by no means easy or obvious. Some of these songs I perform regularly, others not so much, being like delicate conversations that require the right mood and circumstance. Even so, they have an important voice, I feel. These songs come from many places: a dream, a death, a wedding, and a painting to name a few. You can read more about them on my website. Special thanks, as always, to the amazing Scott Malchow without whose talent and dedication this project would have remained concepts in the wind. And thanks to all of you who have smiled and encouraged me so much. You've all deepened my field in so many good ways. - Jack Notes on the Songs: 1) Eppur Si Muove – It is said that when the church forced Galileo to recant his idea that the earth was in motion around the sun, he did so but was heard to whisper as he stood up, “Eppur si muove:” “Yet, it moves.” The story – whether historical or not - should give pause to any religious authority that would presume to knowledge of the natural order without bothering to find out. It took the church four hundred years to notice their mistake and apologize. Better late than never, I suppose, but … well, that's a long time. I've bracketed this song with a traditional English children's round entitled “'Round and 'Round the Earth is Turning” learned from Sue Ribaudo from New York. It reminded me of the lines in the song that talk about Galileo teaching the children. 2) Deep Field - This one just seemed like a fitting follow-up to “Eppur Si Muove.” The Hubble Space Telescope has been able to see much farther than anything Galileo dreamed of. When the Hubble repeatedly examined a tiny, seemingly empty patch of space, it saw more than ten thousand galaxies so distant that their light has taken thirteen billion years to reach us. It became known as the Deep Field. Since then it's become the Ultra-Deep and now with the addition of further data, the Extreme-Deep Field. The question is how do we find meaning in the midst of such unfathomable immensity? The challenge of the spiritual path is to hear love calling from the deep field within. There's a lot more to say about that, of course, but I like that the song doesn't try to say it. Vastness of that sort commends brevity, simplicity and silence. And I'm pretty sure I've already tried to say too much. 3) Three Rules of Mothers Julian and Mary - My friend David and I put together a multimedia presentation on the spirituality of seeing nature. I wrote some songs for it and this is one of them. Julian is the Middle Ages mystic Julian of Norwich and Mary refers to that marvelous poet, Mary Oliver. Her three rules of life? 1. Pay attention 2. Be astonished 3. Tell what you saw. 4) God's Work, Our Hands – I first ran across this phrase in a church and it immediately sang to me. So I sang back. It's been used as a theme by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America but its message encompasses the whole human family. 5) Heaven's Come Near - A little tune kept going through my head when I'd pick up my banjo and so I spun out some words to go with it and this song was the result. It challenges us to forget what we thought we knew about Jesus and try to imagine encountering him and his message of the kingdom for the first time. It struck different people different ways in his day and it still does. Still, they were drawn, following on ... Many of us remain drawn, but we need to pay attention to who it is we're actually following. 6) My Dog – A song born of the years spent living with dogs at various times throughout my life. Note that I'm not saying that dogs are dumb. In fact, they're really quite wise. I'm quite convinced that we could learn a lot from them, and I already have. In the song I surmise that dogs don't philosophize, but … who knows, really? Maybe there are and have been philosopher dogs, but generally I like dogs' no-nonsense approach to life. A little food and lovin' is all that they ask, and maybe that's enough. 7) Oink Joint Road – For years I'd driven past Oink Joint Road on Minnesota Highway 10 just east of Wadena on my way to other places. One time my son, Peter, was with me and we ventured down it on a quest for where the name came from. The quest led us to a farm. The fellow working in the barn told us that his dad and uncle named the road: 'oink' for the pigs his dad raised and 'joint' for his uncle's body shop which was known as 'The Joint.' The only problem seems to be that every now and then someone steals the road sign though the state always replaces it per their original agreement. The story line in the song is strictly from my imagination. The last verse refers to an old story that goes by various names about a man who dreams of a distant treasure only to find that it's buried under the stove in his own cottage. Our treasure is close by, but sometimes the knowledge of it lies at a distance. 8) Kirsten's Wedding March – When I was asked to play music for my friend Kirsten's wedding, I was roundly honored. Inspired, too, since Kirsten is very much an artist. She spent a year making a bunch of whimsical little birds that bedecked the farmstead where the ceremony was held. Faced with that, I just had to write something. It needed to be dignified and so I modeled it on the scandinavian music tradition with just enough darkness to pay tribute to that inescapable aspect of life while preserving the light and beauty in which it's ultimately embedded. I've since played it at other weddings, but it remains Kirsten's first and foremost. And yours, too, Chris. 9) The Old Lovers’ Rhyme – Back in 1979 Nancy and I began writing this song. The melody was her’s and I came up with a verse. We called it “The Old Lovers’ Rhyme” and there it sat for the next thirty-five years or so. I suppose we didn’t finish it back then because we were young lovers, not old ones. In the intervening years, though, we managed to become old lovers. I remembered enough of the song as it had been to reconstruct it and then I finished it just as we were finishing this CD project. We all decided it needed to be on the collection, so there you go! 10) The Pearl – Of all the songs I've ever written, this is without doubt one of the strangest. I heard this song in a dream while I was napping late in the day one time during a tour. I woke up and wrote it all down in a matter of minutes. My friends, Rick and Laura, are black pearl dealers. They also ran a Mexican restaurant in northern Minnesota. That old routine. I'd eaten at their restaurant and must have had the pearl image in my mind and this is how it came out. The pearls strung themselves with some parable accounts in the Gospels giving the story its uncanny, religious overtones. 11) Sequoia Sempervirens – This is a song that I wrote a number of years ago but which seemed to belong on this collection. We made one slight lyric change to the otherwise original recording.The term ‘sequoia sempervirens’ is the Latin scientific name for the California coastal redwood trees. ‘Sempervirens’ means ‘ever living.’ These incredible trees tend to grow in colonies from common root systems that can be several thousand years old. Religious imagery was the only category I had that even hinted at the amazing reality of what these things were. 12) It is Love That Makes a Family and a Home – This actually had a life as quite a different song at one time, but with a major life change it came knocking and asked to be turned it into a new one. I don't typically do this, but this time it seemed right. As for the title, I've come to see its truth over the years, though I didn't always. In every hearth there truly burns a single flame. It's what warms us and unites us. Though we're different, it's what makes us all the same. 13) Trust Now in Love - Written for my friend, Eric, while he was struggling with brain cancer. He got to hear the song while he was still living, fortunately. It's what I would say to myself in that situation. I love the images of the shining window and stepping from the boat, and the notion that footsteps we've taken in faith follow us to help show us the way. Scott and I had recorded this one before but we couldn't find it, so here it is – new! I really think I like this version better anyway. I'm using what's called a cut capo on my guitar. It only covers three strings – 3, 4 and 5 at the second fret giving the guitar a modal sound. 14) A Song to Make Mister Rogers Smile – What's to say? Fred Rogers, thank-you. 15) The Arms of Love – A dear person named Heidi once painted Nancy and me a picture. On it were words from a book entitled “The Southern Mail” by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry: “The arms of love encompass you with your present, your past, your future. The arms of love gather you together.” I've always had the sense that we're all pulled and gathered in various ways by strong arms that love us. I wanted to give voice to that.