Song Lyrics
1. A Reason to Dream
Original poem written 1997
Song Revision August 2008
About the song: I wrote this in 1997 for a poetry contest. I found it in a file 9 years later and decided to put it to music. I think having these words within the field of my consciousness back in 1997 led me to encounter people and events to help move me in the direction of my dreams.
A Reason to Dream
I met a man in a field of dreams
Outside the bounds of time and space
He told me there’s no better place I can go
To feel the beauty of a life filled with grace
I reside in my dreams to give light to my days
I feel hope when I reach toward a goal
The importance of dreams I truly believe
They give purpose and meaning to our souls
Chorus:
How would the world be if we all had a dream?
If we had passion to live?
Would happiness spread out like a wave across the sand?
Would we all be more willing to give?
Many are trapped in the details of their lives
Feeling asleep due to absence of dreams
WAKE UP! Don’t forget why you’re here
Life can offer more than it seems
Repeat chorus
When I hold to my dream I feel alive
I give of myself I feel free
When people are joyful and feeling fulfilled
They make the earth a better place to be
2. The Only Thing that’s Real is Love
Written March 2005
About the song: This is a song about finding inner peace. When it really comes down to it, only love is real. All of the stuff the ego does to create chaos in our lives, with fear, unworthiness, jealously, anger–is just an illusion. Our true self is pure love.
The Only Thing that’s Real is Love
I said a prayer today
Asking God to guide me on my way
Lead me to a gentle heart
A place we cannot be apart
And this is what she had to say
“The only thing that’s real is love
All you need to feel is love
Pouring out to you from me
Open up your heart and see
The only thing that’s real is love
Close your eyes and be with me
You’ll find me in that space of pure tranquility
It’s the stillness from within
Where love and peace begin
And your soul becomes free
The only thing that’s real is love
All you need to feel is love
Pouring out to you from me
Open up your heart and see
The only thing that’s real is love”
The only thing that’s real is love
All I want to feel is love
Flowing out from within me
Like the river to the sea
The only thing that’s real is love
3. Sweet Surrender
Written Fall 2005, Revised Aug. 2008
About the song: This song is about finding inner peace and surrendering our need to look outside of ourselves for happiness. It’s about trusting in a higher power and allowing our lives to unfold gently.
Sweet Surrender
I have always wondered
How to get from here to there
A never ending search to find my destiny
Here and now is never good enough
Running frantically through time
There’s a better life than this and it will set me free
I’ve climbed the highest mountains
And I’ve sailed across the seas
An elusive race to catch the golden ring
I’ve searched in far off places
for a light just out of reach
The spark of fire I need to help my spirit sing
But every road I’ve traveled
Leads me back to my own shores
It’s always down to me where ere I go
So I’m giving up the struggle
To a force greater than me
Guiding me to find the peace in my own soul
Chorus:
Oh Sweet Surrender
Lay it down now let it be and let my life unfold
Oh Sweet Surrender
I no longer seek to know just what my future holds
It’s not about what life holds for me
It’s all in what I bring
Joy comes from within not from the goal
Time to cherish every moment
Embrace this gift of life
Feel the power of now, be still and know
Gonna jump into the river
Ride the current and let go
Open up my heart and wash my fears away
Start trusting in the mystery
Relinquish all control
Give thanks and bless whatever comes my way
Repeat chorus
4. We Can Make a Difference
Written Summer 2007
About the song: When I wrote this song, I had been reading a lot about the “Law of Attraction” and how our “thoughts become things” so I wanted to speak about the importance of focusing our thoughts on what we want to see. When we remain attentive to what is wrong, we will surely get more of it. But if we shift our attention to how we want the world to be, we can indeed make a difference to bring about change.
We can Make a Difference
Hear the words from the wise
Why won’t we listen, why won’t we try?
Hear the words
from the wise
When will we listen,
when will we try?
The wisdom through the ages
Says that love is the only way
We can’t create peace with violence
Like we’re doing, we’re doing here today
Violence creates more violence
It’s all energy
Whatever we send forth into the world
Returns to us, multiplied you see
We can make a difference
By focusing on what we want to see
Replace our hatred and our bitterness with love
And shift our attention to how we want the world to be
It’s a universal law
Repeated thoughts form reality
While we’re cursing the war or the president
We strengthen the pathway of negative energy
Envision a world of calm
Envision a world of love
Turn your thoughts toward all the goodness on the earth
Create a new script for the world that you want
We can make a difference
By focusing on what we want to see
Replace our hatred and our bitterness with love
And shift our attention to how we want the world to be
5. “A Song Of Peace” by Teresa Jennings (ASCAP) © 2001 Plank Road Publishing, Inc. • International copyright secured • All rights reserved
About the song: I chose to have my daughter Olivia sing this song, because she sang it with her school choir in 2006 and I loved it. She has such a sweet voice, and the song really fits into the theme of my cd.
A Song of Peace, by Teresa Jennings
If I could write a magic song
That everyone could sing
I would write of love, of hope and joy
And things that peace could bring
And when we sang
My magic song
All hate and war would cease
If I could write a magic song
I’d write a song of peace
One song for all of us
One song could bring us peace
One song could make a miracle for all of us
A song of peace
With just one song
One magic song
That everyone could sing
We could sing of love of hope and joy
And things that peace could bring
And when we sang our magic song
All hate and war would cease
With just one song one magic song,
The world could fill with peace
One song for all of us
One song could bring us peace
One song, can make a miracle for all of us
A song of peace
6. One Day I Pray
Poem written in 2004 by Sean M. Kelly, Co. Wicklow, Ireland
Music written by Jenny Brice March 2004. Added poem to music September 2004
About the song: I wrote the music for this song in March 2004, and didn’t have lyrics to go with it. The next month I met Sean Kelly, and we became good friends. When Sean returned to visit that fall, he had recently written “One Day I Pray”, in dedication to the children who were murdered by terrorists in their school in Beslan, September 1, 2004. After reading Sean’s poem, I put the words with my music, and they fit together beautifully.
One Day I Pray
One day I pray
we will stop and listen
and feel the Blessed truth we have been missing
One day we’ll hear
the deepest call
from a higher love beyond our minds wall
One day we’ll feel the pain of a Mother
whose child has died
in an adults war …
One day we’ll hear the cry of a soldier
Whose body lies waste in the sand …
One day we’ll realize that all this terror and fear
is but a prison of our mind
and through our heart will disappear
And be replaced with a Beautiful Love
A Beautiful Light
Then we shall see
it has all become so bright
7. Take me to Your Shores
Written in 2005
Revision 2007
About the song: I wrote this song after looking at the faces of some Iraqi people in a magazine, especially the children. I saw the light in their eyes, and felt the human connection we all share. Being at war with Iraq and hearing all the hype in the media about the “Axis of Evil” from the Bush administration, prompted me to write a song about how we are all on this planet together, and we’re all part of the human race.
Take me to Your Shores:
We’re all in this together
I hear the dreamers say
I should know, cuz I am one of them
Finding hope in each new day
We’re told to fear the enemy
Evil people full of hate
But they are people just the same
God took time to create
If I looked into the eyes
of the so called enemy
I’d see the light inside of him
Also lives in me
Chorus:
Take me to your shores
So I can see your face
And connect with the reality
That we’re all the human race
History tells the story
To us loud and clear
We can’t have peace and harmony
If we act upon our fear
If we look with eyes of love
Bring to the dark our light
We’ll forgive lay down our weapons
And give up the fight
Repeat Chorus
8. Farewell
Written: January 7, 2008
Dedicated to:
Blythe Cole Busch 1939-2000
Kris Kyro 1961-2008
and
John O’Donohue 1954-2008
About the song: On January 3, 2008, my mother’s dear friend John O’Donohue, the Irish poet and author, died suddenly. He was only 53. She was heartbroken, as were many on the planet. He was a grand soul. Her grief really moved something in me. That same week, I heard that a former colleague of mine, Kris Kyro, had died suddenly. He was only 46. After hearing of two unexpected deaths within a week, I began writing this song. As I wrote, I remembered a poem I had written after my step-mother, Blythe Cole Busch, died in 2000 at the age of 60. I blended the poem with new lyrics, and created this song. I included it on this peace album because each of the individuals I have dedicated the song to were true peacemakers. Each was full of love and brought joy to those they encountered. Peace begins one person at a time.
Farewell
How can one so young and full of light,
Bright enough to fill the sky
Leave the earth before there’s time?
Time enough to say goodbye
Oh help us understand
Can it be that one so full of love can’t contain it?
Can’t contain it anymore
While walking on the land?
Masters of this life are called home
Masters of this life are called home
Masters of this life are called home
All that we know of you
Is welcomed by the universe
Enfolding your magnificent spirit
Into its vast embrace
Little rays of light
that contain you
Now shine upon on so many more
The earth could no longer put its arms
Around your greatness
Masters of this life are called home
Masters of this life are called home
Masters of this life are called home
Farewell our radiant friend
Farewell our radiant friend
Farewell our radiant friend
We are forever blessed
9. Dare to Dream
September 2004
About the song: I wrote this song in dedication to my friend Sean M. Kelly, whom I met in April 2004. My mother, who had met Sean on a peace trip in Assisi, flew him out from Ireland to play bagpipes at her remarriage to my father. In getting to know him that week, he heard me speak of my dream to sing at Carnegie Hall with my choir, with John Rutter conducting. I loved John Rutter’s music and listened to the Cambridge Singers all the time, so I particularly wanted to go. I wasn’t planning on it though, mostly for financial and mothering reasons. Sean was the first person I had told who actually recognized the sincerity of my hope, and he really encouraged me to go for it. Sean helped me to see past any obstacles and just say “YES!” Once I did say “YES,” everything unfolded easily and I indeed went to New York and sang at Carnegie Hall with John Rutter conducting on June 15, 2004. It was one of the most poignant experiences of my life.
Sean returned to Bellingham in September 2004, to give a weekend workshop called Dare to Dream. I wrote this song as a tribute to Sean and his important work, encouraging others to follow their dreams.
Dare to Dream
Standing at the precipice
of my soul
Looking out across the landscape
of my heart
There’s an un-touched wilderness
I’m longing to explore
The adventure of my life’s
about to start
There’s a gentle voice
that’s calling
“Look inside and touch your dreams
Your life is now, so live it
It’s not as hard as it may seem”
So I listen in the stillness
to the truth inside of me
Then I spread my wings
and fly into that wilderness unseen
Dare to Dream
Dare to shine my light
for all the world to see
Dare to Dream
and find a sense of peace
begin to grow in me
Dare to Dream
Sometimes all it takes is someone
to lead the way
And the light they radiate
Becomes a mirror
For the greatness that’s in all of us
within our reach
Take a leap of faith
Beyond your walls of fear
There’s a miracle that happens
When we say “YES” to our dreams
For the happiness that follows
Touches everyone you meet
Like the spark that starts the fire
As the mountain feeds the stream
Joy and peace go out from one
To all humanity
Dare to Dream
Dare to shine my light
For all the world to see
Dare to Dream
and find a sense of peace
Begin to grow in me
Dare to Dream
( repeat chorus once)
Dare to Dream
New Songs
10. Love is Recognition
About the song: Written in August 2009. The first of a series of new love songs for my next cd, which will focus on themes of love, in all its glorious forms.
Love is Recognition
What is love anyway?
Love is recognition I say
A reflection of the deepest part of me
A facet of the soul, waiting to be seen
What is real and true?
The part of me that shines when I’m with you
Like a prism that gently turns in space
It took you to shine on me, and color me with grace
Chorus:
So what do you recognize in me?
Do I mirror back a part of you that longs to be free?
How do I contain this love that overflows?
Stretch out my hands, surrender, and let the earth absorb the glow
How does our love look from space?
Is there a beam of light that spans all time and place?
Do angels smile in awe at the great light
Radiating from our hearts to warm the night?
The soul is ageless do you see?
I’m a part of you and you of me
United in a universal love
A mystery only answered from above
Bridge:
I look to the stars and find you waiting there
I walk in nature’s wonder and feel your presence everywhere
I close my eyes, and you’re standing by my side
I hear your voice, break the silence in my mind
Chorus:
So what do you recognize in me?
Do I mirror back a part of you that longs to be seen?
How do I contain this love that overflows?
Stretch out my hands surrender and let the earth, absorb the glow.
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March 22, 2009 4:27 pm | 
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By Sue & Dic, April 11, 2009 @ 12:40 pm
Jen, You are beautiful!!
By my magic sing, June 9, 2009 @ 7:54 am
I must say that after watching the videos here in your blog, you’re not just beautiful; your talented and you have a gift that’s worth sharing to the world. =)