Please notice the newly edited lyrics of all the songs on the "A Long Way To Go" album. I just added in all the previously missing punctuation and fixed the missing letters. Very cool - please appreciate it because it took me a long time........: )
Note to Stephen - thank you for taking the time last year to post all these lyrics. You are the best! Love, Mom
1. It Isn't A Dream - 2001
I used to dream I could fly out in the wide open sky, over the tops of the trees I was borne on a breeze, away so high. There was no obstacle there that could worry, hinder or impair/ I had a long way to go, but I always seemed to know the way/ Now it's been so long, I don't know where I went wrong/ Maybe I'll trust what I feel, if it a dream or it's real/ One day I noticed that I was flying lower in a darkening sky/ I knew it wouldn't be long until my freedom was gone and I be walking/ Well then I met a fine friend who said it wasn't hard to understand the things that weighed me down and kept me wandering below the wind/ Now it's been so long, I don't know where I went wrong/ Maybe I'll trust what I feel if its a dream or it's real/ I see far above me/ You never say you love me but I know you do/ Love is like the wind, dear and loyal friend to me my whole life through/ Don't always feel the power but there I am gazing at a flower/ My face is covered in smiles, the companions and miles they are my friends/ The very limits of dreams life and emotion never what they seem/ You put your love to the test you will find what is best; It isn a dream/Now it been so long, I don know where I went wrong/ Maybe I'll trust what I feel, if it a dream or it real/ I see far around me/ I so glad you found me and you gave me some room/ Love is like a flower; you never know its power il you see it bloom/ I haven flown in awhile, but it just as great to see you smile/ Walking here on the ground is worth the secrets I have found just being near you/ You e gotta follow your heart, though it be very different from the start/ You can trust what you know; when you know it is so, its isn a dream/ I want to take you along, for you believe I am strong/ You never offer me wings but those intangible things I cannot describe so far above me, you never say you love me but I know you do/ Love is like the wind, dear and loyal friend to me my whole life through.
Voice and guitar Dorothy
2. Common Road - 1998
Happy ever after is in fairy tales and there's always an end to the story/but this enchanting theme is the scheme of a dream and boy meets girl is a little more real/Whether you met in school or you met in the park or you met picking blackberries in the dark or you met through friends on a tube in the river you converged on a common road/ Living together makes for stormy weather and the prince and princess are unhappy now; they've discovered irreconcilable differences and wonder where is our common road? Whether you met in the library or in the store or you met growing up as the kid next door, playing bingo, or you met on the Internet, you converged on a common road Seeking only the best, he puts her love to the test and she counters with a similar attitude but their love won't die and the reason why is that they're walking on a common road Refrain Now in traveling wide, we all look inside and at times leave the road where we wander, but to reach the goal do you sell your soul to converge on a common road?
Voice, keyboard and guitar Dorothy
Harmonica Joel Kroenke
3. Oasis 1999
The desert sand is dry, the sun burns down, my heart is thirsting to have you around, to have you around/ Two hearts in love, two hearts in love where are we going? We know not where, we know not where. But we know where we go will be a good place we know where we're going we'll see God's face/ We may not know just how we'll get there but we know it will be an oasis/ In God's own time He'll lead our hearts through many places and we will come to rest in the oasis/ And your love is like an oasis to me/ in the middle of the desert I'll take a drink of your sweet love fills me down to the ground/ our love is like an oasis
Voice, keyboard, bass and percussion Dorothy
Guitar Steve Hazell
4. The Dolphin and the Dove 2000
Give me a home where the wild things grow/ Give me a home with the people I know, where the trees grow wild and free and happy birds are looking down on me/ I was born in a mountain state/ my family left there when I was eight/ I left my childhood behind/ Ever since then I been half-blind/ Had a beau, he was all I knew; to marry him was all I would do/ I knew that I was so young/ when he left me I came undone/ I climbed a mountain to find my way/ And then I overheard my Daddy say wish she would make up her mind and then maybe she'd find happiness again. I met a man who I knew could love me long and then I found myself singin' a happier song/ I saw my children and discovered the meaning of love and there we were, the dolphin and the dove/ I been a lover, I been a wife, in the unfolding chapters of my life I been a shoulder to the down and out/ In all my journeys I left me no doubt that life is goofy, life can be sweet, life goes full circle and lands at your feet/ You can be ready for everything/ Wherever you are, you can learn to sing/ Give me a home where the wild things grow/ Give me a home with the people I know/ Make a home inside my heart, something familiar for this brand new start
Vocals, keyboard and bass Dorothy
Drums Stephen Zerbe
Guitar Steve Hazell
Harmonica Joel Kroenke
5. Take Care of Your Friends 1993 From Box in the Wood 1998, Realtime Productions
Chorus: Take care of your friends, take care of your neighbors/ they're a part of you, you're a part of them too, so take care of them A man walked to Jericho one day some bad guys beat him up and ran away/ Well, the good guys felt so bad, but they walked on by, they didn't give him what they had/ Chorus / Another guy passed by the broken man/ he knew it was time to lend a hand/ Well, he did not have to think twice/ you see, giving of yourself is more than just being nice/ Chorus/ Well, who is my neighbor, you want to know? It's someone in passing who needs you so/ You know it takes extra time to care, but don't you know that's the reason that we all are here?/ Chorus
Lead and backup vocals Dorothy
Deeper Backup vocals Marty Wondrash
Harmonica Joel Kroenke
Any background ferocious dog noise - Marty's fierce dogs Fred (in memory) and Sam
6. Beam of Hope 1998
I want to be a beam of hope in your life whenever you're feeling down/ It just ain't true that old saying that out of sight is out of mind/ at least that's not what I have found/ For you are ever present in my mind, you are ever present in my heart/ and I dream one day should there ever be a way that we would never be apart/ I want to be the voice of hope that you hear whenever you're feeling low/ That you may see just how very much I care, no matter how far I may go/ For you are...../ Leaving comes too soon, I want to hold you beneath the waning moon with the waves crashing on the shore
Voice, keyboard and bass Dorothy
Viola Anita Zerbe
Harmonica Joel Kroenke
Guitar Steve Hazell
7. Song For My Children 1988
What will you do with your hands when they grow bigger/ Where will you go with your feet when you grow old/ We desire for you to walk upon the high and holy path/ God give us grace to lead you in this way, child/ What will you see with your eyes as they grow wider/ What will you hear with your ears as you grow old/ Will you see and hear the treasures of God kingdom/ God give us grace to see you in this way, child/ People say it's such a miracle when a child is newly born/ Do we forget we each began as a miracle too/ And the miracle continues as the seeds of love are sown and there's beauty in how we all can grow and change/ What will you do with your heart, will it be holy/ Will you be planted by God's river like a tree/ Will you bear fruit in later years and know the joy of the Lord/ Will you be planted in the house of the Lord/ And will you flourish in the courts of the Almighty God/ God give us grace to plant you in this way, child
Voice, piano, guitar and bass Dorothy
Cello Nancy Kaphaem
8. Bow and Arrow* 1994 From Box in the Wood 1998, Realtime Productions
The concept of the bow and arrow as symbolic of parent and child, thus many of the word pictures in this song, came to me from *Kahlil Gibran "The Prophet" in the chapter where the prophet's people implore him to teach them about children before he leaves them. His words are wise, the images he paints profound. The rest of the song was inspired by my daughter Erica, who at the time was 10 years old, standing by the piano with her long flowing hair and inquisitive, creative ways, which to this day endear her to me.
Yesterday I sent you flying o'er the field/ the sun was in your hair, the wind at your back/ In love I brought you forth into this world, but you were crafted in a secret, mysterious place/ I can see it in your face/ You are my arrow I am your bow, we belong together as well you know/ We walk together by the bubbling brook/you tell me your thoughts and I tell you mine/ Our thoughts go running along together but they are different, not the same and that's so fine, for you are not mine/ You are my arrow, I am your bow/ I send you flying, away you go
May I bend with His strength, may you fly swift and far/ may my bending in His hands be for gladness/ Your soul dwells in the house of tomorrow, which I cannot visit, not even in my dreams/ Sometimes I wish that I could be like you, for life goes forward so relentlessly, it seems, and the archer sees the infinite/ You are my arrow, I am your bow/ I send you flying, away you go/ For he loves the bow even as he loves the arrow/ the bow is steady, the arrow flies away
Voice, piano and bass Dorothy
9. Part of the Journey 1998
The best of intentions is easily mislaid, and there you are lying in the bed that you made
And that's how life goes and everybody knows it's part of the journey/ You worry and wonder, when things go wrong, why the days are so short and the nights are so long/ But that how life goes and everybody knows it part of the journey/ Grace happens to the ones who dream, who open their hearts to the craziest scheme/ You fill your mind with grace 'til it's all over the place, the best part of the journey/ Everyone knows, everyone but you, and you're waitin' around for the appropriate que/ And in the meantime, you can see time passing you by/ Well, open your eyes now, relax on the road/ Find someone to help you with your heavy load/ 'coz that how life goes and everybody knows it part of the journey Grace happens ../ Well, open your eyes now, relax on the road/Find someone and help them with their heavy load/ 'coz that's how life goes, and everybody knows it's part of the journey
Lead and backup vocals, keyboard and guitar Dorothy
10. Who Knows Her Ways 1998
When she hears the love songs lamenting the distance of the one who is loved, then she knows she's not alone/ Nor in her longing for the laughter, the ideas, the incredible eyes, the tireless search for meaning/ She'll love and love and gaze and gaze and never find anyone who knows her ways/ she'll try to change and get so sad/ Why didn't anyone tell her that falling in love could feel so bad?/ This house where she hasn't lived very long is not friendly in the dark/ She has known those that are/ She says to find a friend I'll go and find the brightest star, or even a star that struggles to shine could certainly be a friend of mine She'll love and love and gaze and gaze and never find anyone who knows her ways/ she'll try to change and get so sad/ Why didn't anyone tell her that following a star could feel so bad?/ Her smile, her sweet look came right out of a storybook/ the one she fumbles with in the dark of this house where she has not lived very long/ Will she put it back on the shelf? She just wants to be herself/ She knows she should try to write a happier song that would lift people up out of the rut/ She knows the words, she knows the tune/ It just that people expect it too soon, for her to rise up to their expectation, out of a lifetime of obligation/ Refrain: She'll love and love and gaze and gaze and never find anyone who knows her ways/ she'll try to change and get so sad/ Why didn't anyone tell her that writing a song could feel so bad?
Voice, piano and bass Dorothy
Bass enhancement Marty Wondrash
11. I'm Not A Model 1991 From Box in the Wood 1998, Realtime Productions
I'm not a model I'm not a movie star/ I'm not an artist who's admired from afar/ My looks are average, my intelligence the same/ does that mean I won't do well in the game?/ The things they tell me that I need to do/ wear certain clothes and lose a pound or two/ well, is it propaganda or is it true? There's only one me and there's only one you/ Be yourself, the magazines advise/ but then they tell you how to wear a disguise/ And they show you what is in and what's out/ makes you wonder what being yourself is about/ Internal beauty is hard to find unless you take it one day at a time/ get yourself away from the daily grind of trying to look so good on the outside/ Happiness is an elusive butterfly/ I try to catch it and it flies on by/ but when I let it go it's likely to return/ it's not my purpose but it's something I learn/ Come to think of it, I know that it's true/ I like the person I am, I really do/ I just forget because the mirror is there/ looking at myself never gets me anywhere/ I'm not a model maybe neither are you/ I'm not a famous artist, I know it's true/ But I'm the only one who can be me/you're the only one who can be you, you're the only one who can be you, so you've got a special job to do
Lead and back-up vocals, keyboard and bass Dorothy
Harmonica Joel Kroenke
12. Winds of Change 2000
Refrain: Everything is OK, everything is alright, I turn my heart around and dance into the night/ I feel the winds of change blowing through my hair when I know the one I love will not be there/ We can fool ourselves into thinking everything is gonna go our own way, but I have yet to see anything to ever be the way I imagined it to be/ Refrain/ We can build our houses, each brick upon brick and plant the flowers around and make the grass grow green/ we know not when the storms will move us on to where nobody knows us and the streets are empty/ Refrain/ My best friend is the one who lives in my own heart/ I remind myself of this when each new day starts/ In a free fall I hear my heart call, come and catch the beauty of a new day Refrain/ Now you may be thinking this is a real sad song but to me it's the best thing to come along/ You see, when I know that I am my own best friend that's when all of my troubles will end/ Refrain
Lead vocal and celeste Dorothy
Back-up vocals, rice-in-a-cookie-tin Marty Wondrash
Guitar Steve Hazell
13. Box in the Wood 1995 From Box in the Wood 1998, Realtime Productions
The title of this song comes from the Black Box style theatre in the deeply wooded Mielke County Park, Shawano, Wisconsin, in which I played the role of Guenevere in "Camelot" in the summer of 1995. I wrote the song for fellow cast members and sang it for them before our opening production. Several weeks later when we formed a Theatre Guild and elected Camelot director Dennis Brei as president, we chose "Box in the Wood" as the name of the theatre guild as well, after the song. Now it seems to have become a theme, sung by many cast members in subsequent summer musical productions. I don't know if it is still making Dennis cry.
You're a piece in the puzzle, you're a color in the picture on the stage/ You give breath to the portrait and life to the words on the page/And the reason I know it is you is because you're my friend when the curtain goes down/Just as I knew they could our paths lead to the box in the wood/You are there when I'm crying, you are there in my craziest of days/ You have helped me to grow, you're not ashamed of my emotional ways/ and the reason I know it is you is because you're my friend when the curtain goes down/ Just as I knew they could our paths lead to the box in the wood/ You are the artist that I've come to see/ I am the artist you taught me to be/ My dreams fly high, I am often not all here below/ I been misunderstood as I travel my colorful road/ but you tell me I've something to give/ a picture to paint so a story can live/ If you're here with me we can set ourselves free and just like I knew they could our paths lead to the box in the wood/ You are the artist.../ When the last show is over don't be afraid of letting go/let the light that is in you illumine each way that you go/ And I always will know it is you 'coz you'll still be my friend when the curtain goes down/Just like I knew they could our paths lead to the box in the wood
Voice, piano and bass Dorothy
Harmonica Joel Kroenke
14. Middle School Blues 2001
The phrases of this song were spoken to me at one time or another by a Middle School student, either one of our own kids or one of their friends. One phrase even comes from my own journal of 1970 when I was 13 years old.
Refrain: Gimme some time, gimme some direction and I'll get it all worked out/ Before vacation I weighed about a hundred, and now I weigh a hundred and five/ If I wanna look like the girl on the cover, I guess I'll have to starve myself alive/ Tuck me in, Mom! Go away Mom! You know this is the time of my life/ Makeup on my dresser, dolls in my closet/How am I ever gonna survive/ Refrain/ The popular crowd, hey, I don't think they like me/ today I had a fight with my friend/ I feel so alone standing out on the playground/ I can't wait for the lunch hour to end/ And I'm so tired/ I have a test tomorrow/ I'll never get this studying done/ I'm so much taller than everyone else/ I'm really tired of school, it's no fun/ Refrain/ Did you see that kid/ Oh what a hottie/ but don't you dare let anyone know/ I cannot stay home, hey it's Friday night and I don't have anywhere to go/ Talk to me Dad, hang around with me/ But I don't wanna say it outloud/ I feel ugly/ I wish I were smaller/ I'm feeling like my head's in a cloud/ Refrain
Vocals Anita and Dorothy
Guitar Dorothy
15. Emerge 1998
From Box in the Wood 1998, Realtime Productions
This piece was written for the Wolf River Youth Chorale in Shawano, a short-lived but successful venture for Cathy LaFrombois and myself. Malcolm Dalglish brought his hammered dulcimer to Shawano and taught us some of his beautiful tunes. I was showing him some of my songs when he suggested I write something for the choir. After he left, I pulled out a poem by Robert Browning, which had ben languishing in my song ideas file for some 20 years, chained to an uninspired tune. The new tune may have been summoned from an inspiration left by Malcolm in his wake, but from wherever it came, it fit the words perfectly. I am so pleased that Erica and Sara, two of the members of the WRYC, could come and share their beautiful voices with all of you on this recording.
If I stoop into a dark, tremendous sea of cloud, it is but for a time. I press God's lamp close to my breast; its splendor, soon or late, will pierce the gloom. I shall emerge one day. (words by Robert Browning)
Vocals Sara Kroenke, Erica Zerbe, Dorothy
Piano and electric keyboard Dorothy
16. Night Falls 1998
Judging by the way you look tonight I'd say you had a bad day, the way the world can push and shove you around/But you know everything's alright when the stars are in their place and the moon shows her face and the night is a good place to rest/In the nighttime we will not be afraid of the dark/ in the nighttime, oh, we can let things go/ You're thinking about the way things used to be and how you're longing for the light/ And I can see that it's bringing you down/ You're wishing you could undo what you've done and the past is pressing in 'til you open your hands and your heart and begin again/ In the nighttime we will not be afraid of the dark/ in the nighttime, oh, we can let things go/ And seeing is believing, they say/ well, that philosophy is alright if you are looking at the day from a familiar light/ But when everything you know is gone and still you must go on, night falls/ Believing in the dark, oh, it's alright/ I always knew I'd see you again with a smile upon your face, pulling the complacent ones along in your design/the distance of the time and long miles never changes who we are, so we open our hands and our hearts and begin again
Vocals, keyboard, bass and banjo Dorothy
Cello Nancy Kaphaem
17. Running With the Dogs 2001
I want a ride on a dogsled/ I want to fly over the snow under the moon on a dogsled/ hike, hike, here we go/ Honey, wake up, wake up, I say/ It's gonna be a beautiful day/ see the sky is blue and the sun is shining/ there's six feet of snow but you don't hear me whining/ it's hats and boots and mittens that we've gotta be finding/ we're heading up north/ we're running with the dogs/ Mushin'........ / Haul out the harnesses and cables/Hitch up the dogs there, two by two/ they are wild to go, how they love to run/ it's what they are made for, that's why they think it's fun/ you know which one is Zoomer, he's the crazy one/ I'm gettin' on the Sprint, I'm running with the dogs/ Skid around the corner/ the sled flips and I am eating snow face first/ hang on, hang on, hang on and I am hollering whoa, Sadie, whoa! I'm being dragged headfirst through the snow, whoa!/ The very next day I am stiff and sore/ only a fool would go back for more but when morning dawns you will find me outside/ the joy of flying down the trail cannot be denied/ you cannot imagine if you never have tried a ride on the sled, a ride behind the dogs/ The kennels need mucking and the dogs need food, you'll get it done even if you're not in the mood/but it's a different world riding under the moon/ their joyful silent speed hums a magical tune/ I want to go again and I hope it is soon/ I want to run with them/ I want to run with the dogs/ Rocky, Zoomer, Fraser, Frisco and Betty, Amelia and Sadie, you look like you're ready/ Abra, Sonic and Topaz are you ready for kicks? We're harnessing you up, also Venus and Trix/ the air is filled with howling only running will fix/ we're running with them we're going running with the dogs
Lead vocals and backups, guitar and bass Dorothy
18. A Long Way To Go 2001
Based on a beautiful piano piece by Robert Schumann which my Dad often played on the piano at his usual after-dinner time. As kids we would dance to his music. Late in life, Dad learned to play the cello which is why I love having Nancy's beautiful cello harmonizing along here. The lyrics of the song were inspired one day when I was looking at the couch we couldn't fit up the stairs to our attic, but I had already promised friends we would store it for them. The only way it would fit in our entryway was standing on end until we figured out what to do with it....
The old brown couch standing in my entryway, it doesn't crowd my life, it doesn't get in my way/ It's a reminder of how friends add a color to my day when I know I have a long way to go/ The late night call that deprives me of my sleep and the pile of old letters that I somehow need to keep/ They remind me certain friends will always be there when I know I have a long way to go/ The lullabies I remember from my childhood/ the gentle voice of a mother and a father/ a reminder of the tireless, creative way of love/ The camping trips that you go on anyway, even though the weatherman says the rain is here to stay/ it's a picture of how friends just like to be together when we know we've got a long way to go/ The Christmas Day flame in the ice-candle holder/ When the future may look bleak, you know you have a shoulder to lean on/ A lonely man playing tunes on the piano, giving lifelong music to his children as they dance/ it reminds me of how melody gives meaning to our lives when we know we have a long way to go
Piano, vocals and bass Dorothy
Cello Nancy Kaphaem