I’m in Los Angeles on Watchfire Music business, a wall-to-wall meeting blitz with my partner, Jim Birch and LA staff planning out the coming year.  While on the plane coming out I once again considered the possibility of death – something that I don’t do with much regularity, but have certainly done a lot more of lately.

No, I’m not about to die, I’m healthy and productive, but the CD project I’m producing and writing now has got me pretty focused on the inevitabilities of life on Planet Earth.  When I got on the plane, I had to chuckle at myself as I considered the danger of what I was about to do for a moment.  I was about to fly through the air – for 3000 miles and then come down at just the right place – smoothly.

The CD project is called Goin’ Home, A Gospel Cantata — Reflections on Crossing Over and Beyond.  It’s a joyous look at death and heaven through the eyes of a number of classic Gospel traditional songs and an equal number of originals.

As I sat on the plane as it taxied down the runway, I went through my usual protective prayers knowing with complete positivity that God was over, under around and throughout that airplane, my mind turned once again to my beloved project as I faced the same danger that millions of people face every day now.  The question, “Could this be it?” came to mind for one fleeting instant and then was drowned out in a rash of denials and better focused positive thought.

Then, as we rose up over the East Coast of America, my wandering mind once again had the thought.  I laughed it off with the thought that at least I was one step closer to heaven up here at 35,000 feet.

Oh the mind…

We play such games with ourselves.

I’m clear on two things: 1. I’ve got far too much to do here now to suddenly stop and go somewhere else (and I truly believe that’s a great protection in itself) and 2. Heaven ain’t a place up there above 35,000 feet.

I’m not sure where heaven is or even what it is, for that matter, but I’m speculating that it’s probably a mental weigh station on the way to the next experience.  If life is eternal, and I’m counting on this, then heaven would be the state of mind where I might go next (considering that I’ve led a pretty clean life and have overcome many of my hells).  But I don’t figure to just stop there and spend the rest of eternity.

There’s still a lot of progress to be made, and whether I come back here to Planet Earth or am sent to some other dimension to continue that evolution, I feel it’s only practical that heaven would not be the last stop, but more like an idyllic train station or rest stop on the highway.

At least I’d like to think that it would be idyllic.  Why idyllic?  Because it’s called “heaven” and that’s the picture we all grew up with.  Besides, I’ve always wanted to learn to play the harp.  :o)

As long as I’m here it’s all imagination and speculation so we may as well have some fun with it, right?

And that’s the point of the album – a joyous reflection on crossing over and beyond.

It’s clear to me that the concepts of Heaven in many of the classic Gospel songs are slave inventions or dreams.  For them, life was so hopeless here and so tough that it was just human nature to hope for a better place – a place where they might even have shoes.

I got shoes You got shoes
All God’s children got shoes
When I get to heaven gonna put on my shoes
Gonna walk all over God’s heaven

Until I find out for sure I’m just going to imagine it in a classical way – not necessarily a place in the clouds where the angels strum, but certainly a place of peace, rest and regeneration.

I’ll finish off this evening’s mental meanderings with a new lyric from a song that I wrote and recently recorded with the profound help of vocalist Jenny Burton complimented by Margaret Dorn, Angela Clemmons and John James.  It’s a key song on the CD, Goin’ Home, to be released in the spring of 2010.

Heaven
I don’t believe in heaven
As a place up in the sky
A place where all the angels sit
As the clouds go passin’ by

I don’t believe in heaven
Dressed in white and gold
A city in a world up stairs
Where all of our wings unfold
And a God sits upon his throne

I see it more as a state of mind
Since my body gets left behind
I see it more
As an open door
To a life of another kind

I don’t believe in heaven
As a place this side of hell
A place where all the good folks go
A place where the spirits dwell
An’ ol’ Peter a-rings dem bells

I see it more as a holy space
A place to pause, a spiritual base
I see it more as an open door
To a kind of a quiet grace

And when all is said and done
I think that heaven
Like earth
Is what we make it

It’s a moment in the sun
It’s a cleansing time
In a state of grace
It’s a place where laughter reigns
Oh it’s heaven
Heaven
It’s heaven

Oh it’s heaven

Now I believe in heaven
As a place where I belong
A state of grace, a joyful space
A place I can sing my song

I’ll be livin’ high in this state of mind
Free from the earth
And the ties that bind
I’ll walk right through
That old open door
To a life of another kind

And when all is said and done
I think that heaven
Like earth
Is what we make it
It’s a moment in the sunIt’s a cleansing time
In a state of grace
It’s a place where laughter reigns
Oh it’s heaven
Heaven
It’s heaven

Oh it’s heaven

For more inspirational music, thoughts and ideas from Peter Link,
please visit Watchfire Music.