My third CD compilation is finally finished!  This one has taken me months to get right and I’m really proud of it.

For some background: A little over a year ago I wanted to compile a playlist of songs that together told to the narrative of, well, God, the Gospel, our own humanity and relationship with that that is Other.  All of those things and probably a few others.  It was a creative and explorative process that I very much enjoyed.  I called it “Fully Known, Fully Loved.” 

I honestly thought that was the beginning and the end of my compilation-making days.  Once you tackle the Gospel, what could be left?  Obviously, I was wrong.  Very wrong.  After an unexpected and pretty brutal breakup I found myself wanting to compile another album.  More than needing a distraction, this became a therapeutic process of moving through my emotions in a healthy and productive way.  Robert Frost says, “The best way out is always through,” and this album, called “Put Back,” became my way of understanding and moving through pain.  It’s an album that explores heartbreak specifically but I think applies to any kind of deep hurt.

Getting my feet back under me has been a journey.  A journey that has sparked this third compilation, “Hopeful Tears.”  This is really about what happens when life doesn’t go like you expected it to.  It’s about what happens “after the storm.”  It’s about hoping and trusting and confessing and forgiving and healing and releasing.  It’s about freedom and movement and resilience and new beginnings.

Learning to trust that “there’s hope in the darkness,” and that “it’s always darkest before the dawn,” has been life’s most terrifying lesson (up to this point at least, who knows what else awaits me…).  The world is a mess, yes, but I’m discovering that this is only a “single thread of a deeper truth.”  I could continue my lyrical quoting but it’s probably better for you to just explore the album yourself.  I think/hope you can download it here.  Or you can ask me for a copy, I’m more than happy to make you one!

Oh, and Happy 2012!