Margaret Mikus Dubay - Full Blooming: Selections from a Poetic Journal

Comments from listeners: 'absolutely inspiring...voice is so calm and comforting' 'soothing, nourishing, and healing' 'voice is magnificent' 'Bravo! Beautiful CD...loved the three songs' 'It will touch many.' 'wonderful' 'I listen as I am driving. Each time I find something new.' 'beautiful cover' 'awesome' Margaret speaks: I am a poet, singer, photographer, healer, and story teller. My life life profoundly changed when I healed from multiple sclerosis in 1995 and breast cancer a year later. Poems bubbled up inside me as if they had been waiting my whole life for me to take notice. For this CD, I selected fifty-six poems from ten years of my poetic journal, and three of my songs, including the powerful new version of 'Prayer of Lovingkindness' (adapted from the Buddhist Metta meditation). Total running time is 55:09. About the poems in this CD: Eleven years ago I began a poetic journal, writing down my life as it unfolded. This was totally surprising! My Ph.D. in microbiology from the University of Chicago had prepared me for a career in molecular genetics research and teaching. Healing from serious illnesses profoundly transformed my life in ways I could not have imagined then. My science background was not wasted, it became the foundation for how I saw the world, for my confidence in myself, and ultimately, for my poetry and photography. Although the details of my story are unique, I believe we all have untapped potential. It is this hidden resource I want to release in all of us. For more info, visit FullBlooming.com. Tracks 2-38, 46, and 59 are from my first book, 'As Easy as Breathing: Reclaiming Power for Healing and Transformation.' Tracks 37, 42-44, 48, 50, 53, 56-58, and 60 are from my second book, 'Letting Go and New Beginnings: Poems and Photographs,' mixed with a few unpublished poems. 'I Come Back,' 'Individuals,' 'Cast Off,' 'Oh the Webs,' 'To Dance Is To Be,' 'Idle,' 'We Are Not All Like Corn,' 'Bird Poop,' and 'Why' are also in my Life Support Cards (TM). About the three songs in this CD: 'I Know That' was written during chemotherapy, when I was afraid of losing my hair, symbolic of losing myself. When my aunt died of breast cancer, I realized that she belonged in the song too. This is a song of empowerment, life purpose, and conscious choice. I wrote the line 'I Let Go of Fear (and love remains)' in a poem in 1996 (found in my book, 'As Easy as Breathing'). A few years ago was another fearful time for me. I remembered this phrase and began repeating it as an affirmation. Music came to me, and as I sang it I felt calmer, more peaceful and optimistic. It is a chant I have sung with audiences in a call and response form and the melodies come out a bit different every time. When I first read the Buddhist Metta or lovingkindness meditation in 'Pocketful of Miracles' by Joan Borysenko, Ph.D., I heard music in my head. I picked out the notes on the piano and wrote them down, adapting the lyrics. In 1996, I sang this song with my surgical team before breast cancer surgery -- a very empowering experience! Since then, I've sung it many times at healing services, funerals, workshops, talks, and poetry readings. This year, I was asked by Rev. Susi Roos, RN, to sing the words in present tense. This powerful, combined version of 'Prayer of Lovingkindness' is much needed at this time of great tumult and also great opportunity in our world. Peace, tolerance, awareness, healing, and love starts with each of us, everyday rippling outward. Acknowledgments: Thanks to: Terry Breen for his encouragement, Keith Dickens for coming to the rescue, Kip Snyder, superb voice teacher and honest friend, Stephen Mikus, my generous husband of 32 years, who listened and envisioned all this time, and Blake and Alex, who continue to inspire me. I am grateful to all who were moved by my poems over the years, encouraging me to keep on. Peace rose (from Chicago Botanic Garden): photograph and CD graphics by Margaret Dubay Mikus. Author photos by Stephen Mikus. Recorded at The Big Beige Studio of Terry Breen, engineer. Re-mastered by Keith Dickens.

1) Introduction
2) Cast Off
3) I Come Back
4) Breathing
5) Please Do Heal
6) Idle
7) If I Do Enough
8) Why
9) Should We
10) I Know That (Song)
11) Bird Poop
12) No Matter
13) Wisdom of the Grandmothers
14) As You Wish
15) Some Seeds Need
16) Floating Between the Deeps
17) We Are Not All Like Corn
18) Individuals
19) Christmas Cricket
20) My Hair Is Coming in
21) To Suspend Disbelief
22) Winter Morning: Looking East
23) How Do I Choose
24) To Dance Is to Be
25) This Is the Moment I Have
26) Oh the Webs
27) Sweetness
28) Reason
29) Promise
30) Let the Body Speak
31) As Easy As Breathing
32) Response to I Don't Know If
33) Better and Better
34) Risk
35) After Lisel Mueller
36) The Same Side
37) Getting Ready to Leave
38) Aftermath (10/3/01)
39) Remember How to Levitate
40) Darkness So Absolute
41) Gone
42) Upon Returning Home
43) Let in
44) The Poet
45) No Accident
46) I Let Go of Fear... (Chant)
47) Flipping Channels
48) The Fierceness of Loving
49) An Innocent Question
50) College on the Moon
51) Thinking of the Conference
52) Absolution
53) Delivery
54) Invite Fear to Tea
55) Upon Serious Consideration
56) Bittersweet Summer
57) Sheepdog in Transition
58) The Purpose of Visiting Champaign
59) Prayer of Lovingkindness (Song)
60) Seasoned Woman