Monday, July 31, 2023
JACKIE, GARY, AND YOURS TRULY!
7/31/23
HELLO, Everybody!
Welcome to JACKIE, GARY, and YOURS TRULY!
It’s also called SPENDING SOME TIME! What is it? It’s essentially an intended Sing-along video series I compiled in 2004 that was meant to assist some in nursing type situations to join with me and sing some songs to hopefully add some joy to their life and help them be distracted from their shut-in circumstances.
My life has been filled with song. I have never claimed to be any great singer, but I have sung all my life – mostly on walking sprees. As I have walked along all by myself, I have sung many songs – some my own, but mostly the songs of others. Song has filled my life with Joy. SPENDING SOME TIME is nothing more than my singing all sort of song, acapella, mostly country-western types, and hoping that others would join me – again to help them be distracted from their shut-in circumstances.
Well, that was the intent of my SPENDING SOME TIME project of 2004. I even wrote a song called “Spending Some Time” – which I feature now and then in my series. As it happened, I never did anything with the series – which turned out to be a 4 volume, more than 120 song extravaganza. Looking back, I can’t imagine my having done such a thing. Goes to show that doing what comes naturally, so to speak, may evolve into something never intended in the first place.
Also, I never intended to make it a spiritual commentary type program either when I began it; but it became that as I went along. My initial intent was to simply sing a lot of songs all by myself without any accompaniment to encourage others to sing-along too, but soon I decided that I should feature some songs recorded by others as well; and those others are the Jackie & Gary of mention in my heading.
In the 80s, I was fortunate to produce an audio cassette series called MASTER OF YOUR OWN FATE – which was and is an audio series mixing original song and original commentary about an idea I have called “Divine Naturism.” I produced that in Atlanta, Georgia where I was living at the time. Gary James was my producer and we recorded it in his home. Gary had contacts with a lot of musicians, as he was and is a musician & songster himself. One of his musician friends was Jackie Audrey – and Jackie agreed to supply her voice to my songs. Gary asked four others to help with the project too.
Nothing much has happened with MASTER OF YOUR OWN FATE, but I have dubbed the songs of it to many VHS videos I have produced down through the years about my belief of Divine Naturism. Many of those VHS video series are now available on my website – francisbessler.com. If interested, simply go to the net and tap into francisbessler.com and select the Video section. OK? Then select the series called SPENDING SOME TIME and have at it.
I am just a Country Guy without a guitar, though. I love singing, though I must admit my current evolving dementia does not allow me to remember many of the songs I once knew. No matter! We are out there in the net on my francisbessler.com website – if you care to join us, Feel Welcome – Jackie Audrey and Gary James and others by recording – and Yours Truly in casual song. Enjoy as you can – and will.
I’d also like to offer a copy of one of my books – available via my websites – una-bella-vita.com and francisbessler.com. It’s called JESUS ACCORDING TO THOMAS AND MARY – AND ME. I mentioned I am a Christian, but perhaps not a “traditional” one in that I believe that Jesus came - not to be a messiah for some, but rather to be a counselor for all.
I do believe the long banned gospels of the apostles, Thomas and Mary
Magdalene, banned by church and state since the 4th Century, support my views on that. I am ordering 31 copies of that book after I finish this letter – since this is July 31 – and I will be glad to hand a copy to anyone we meet in person or mail a copy to anyone who might want a copy. Just let us know. Also, you can order a copy of your own via either of my websites - if you like.
Let me leave you with one of my songs about life being a song that I called Isn’t Life Grand, Babe? If you like my song, you may well enjoy SPENDING SOME TIME, as well as some of my other series too. Keep in mind, though, I am not what you might call a “traditional Christian” who believes that life needs to be sanctified to be saved, but rather one who believes that life has always been holy – and that Heaven is only believing and acting like that is so. Beware!
ALL OUR LOVE,
Francis William Bessler (Frank, Will) &
Loving Wife, Nancy Hammond Shaw
ISN’T LIFE GRAND,
BABE?
By
Francis William Bessler
Laramie, Wyoming
12/28/2010
REFRAIN:
Isn’t life grand, Babe?
Yes, isn’t it grand?
I sing the same songs, Babe,
that I did back then.
Isn’t life grand, Babe,
grand right to the end – and beyond?
All I need to do -------------- (tone wavers)
is treat life as a friend – and a song.
There has long been a debate
about how life came to be.
Some think it was by way of chance;
others think it was by Divinity.
Well I think it was a mixture of the two
that best accounts for the truth.
but however it happened, friends,
the result is me and you.
Refrain.
I think the greatest mistake we make
is that somehow God selects -
when it must be, God’s in all
and within all, God must set.
So, whatever is our truth,
one can’t be better than another.
Though a bird is not a bee,
both have life as a mother.
Refrain.
When I look out at life,
I see miracles galore;
and it becomes clear to me
just what I should adore.
It’s not any one in life
that should command my respect;
but rather it should be all of life
with which I should connect.
Refrain.
It is also clear to me
that everything in life does die.
Death is only part of it all –
and to all, it does apply.
Whatever happens after death
must be wonderful
because the miracle of it
extends to one and all.
Refrain.
Let’s not fear what we can’t see
because the process is the same.
Life & death continues on
and is our common fate.
Let us know all is well
and let that be our belief.
Life is our common bond;
and our wondrous mystery.
Refrain (at least once).