Erst kommt das Fressen; Dann kommt die Moral.

First the gorging, then the morality... isn't that always how it is??

Have you ever had that experience of listening to a song, perhaps for the hundredth-plus time, and even though you've been singing along each time, you are finally, really hearing the words for the first time?

Feeling them 'land in the body' as we like to say in the yoga world?

Driving around a lot this week - thanks and praise, classes, private clients, leading my Teacher Training - all good, but a lot of time in the car. I have Dead Can Dance in the CD changer, and got settled on this track on a longer drive the other evening... as I am oft inclined to do, I just hit repeat and listened again and again.

Offered for your consideration, from the incomparable and fantastic Berthold Brecht...

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How Fortunate the Man with None
 From the play "Mother Courage"

You saw sagacious Solomon
You know what came of him,
To him complexities seemed plain.
He cursed the hour that gave birth to him
And saw that everything was vain.
How great and wise was Solomon.
The world however did not wait
But soon observed what followed on.
It's wisdom that had brought him to this state.
How fortunate the man with none.

You saw courageous Caesar next
You know what he became.
They deified him in his life
Then had him murdered just the same.
And as they raised the fatal knife
How loud he cried: you too my son!
The world however did not wait
But soon observed what followed on.
It's courage that had brought him to that state.
How fortunate the man with none.

You heard of honest Socrates
The man who never lied:
They weren't so grateful as you'd think
Instead the rulers fixed to have him tried
And handed him the poisoned drink.
How honest was the people's noble son.
The world however did not wait
But soon observed what followed on.
It's honesty that brought him to that state.
How fortunate the man with none.

Here you can see respectable folk
Keeping to God's own laws.
So far he hasn't taken heed.
You who sit safe and warm indoors
Help to relieve our bitter need.
How virtuously we had begun.
The world however did not wait
But soon observed what followed on.
It's fear of god that brought us to that state.
How fortunate the man with none.        

Bertolt Brecht

That's it, that's what I've been pondering, ruminating on, and working towards discernment of...

Wherever, however, find the space, find your fortune and give thanks and praise.