Gratitude Challenge – Hammer and Nail

I was noodling about what the next gratitude challenge should be about when the Indigo Girls song ‘Hammer and Nail” popped into my head. Which reminds me of another thing I’m grateful for – being around when the Indigo Girls got started and were popular. I really like their music! I put the lyrics below. Video (yes this was when every song had a video) is …not that good. So if you play it, maybe consider closing your eyes and simply enjoy the harmony, tune and words.

Your challenge can take one of two directions:

Pause and be grateful for the hammer. Can you imagine a world without this simple tool? I’m grateful Hammers and Nails exist as they keep my pictures on the wall, my curtains hanging up and my house together.
Read the words…Listen to the song and TAKE action. The song is about doing something for your community.

Clearing webs from the hovel
A blistered hand on the handle of a shovel
I’ve been digging too deep, I always do
I see my fate on the surface
I look a lot like Narcissus
A dark abyss of an emptiness
Standing on the edge of a drowning blue

I look behind my ears for the green
And even my sweat smells clean
Glare off the white hurts my eyes
I gotta get out of bed and get a hammer and a nail
Learn how to use my hands, not just my head
I think myself into jail
Now I know a refuge never grows
From a chin in a hand in a thoughtful pose
Gotta tend the earth if you want a rose

Had a lot of good intentions
Sit around for fifty years and then collect a pension
Started seeing the road to hell and just where it starts
But my life is more than a vision
The sweetest part is acting after making a decision
I started seeing the whole as a sum of its parts

And I, I look behind my ears for the green
And even my sweat smells clean
Glare off the white hurts my eyes
I gotta get out of bed and get a hammer and a nail
Learn how to use my hands, not just my head
I think myself into jail
Now I know a refuge never grows
From a chin in a hand in a thoughtful pose
Gotta tend the earth if you want a rose

My life is part of the global life
I’d found myself becoming more immobile
When I’d think a little girl in the world can’t do anything
A distant nation my community
A street person my responsibility
If I have a care in the world I have a gift to bring

I look behind my ears for the green
And even my sweat smells clean
Glare off the white hurts my eyes
I gotta get out of bed and get a hammer and a nail
Learn how to use my hands, not just my head
I think myself into jail
Now I know a refuge never grows
From a chin in a hand in a thoughtful pose
Gotta tend the earth if you want a rose