🎶 No Apologies
Sensuality belongs to me
Dear Kindred Spirit,
Today is my birthday. The original lyrics of the song I’m sharing below were written in 1990. This latest version was written and recorded in the mid 2000’s, I believe, in celebration for my fifth decade of living.
As a newly minted 68-year-old, its meaning has changed for me. It’s deepened.
When I first recorded No Apologies, I was reclaiming my sensuality as part of being a sexual woman, as a survivor whose sensuality, that comes from being vibrantly alive and ready to embrace the world, was claimed and used by others since childhood.
I still feel this claiming of my body as my own, my sensuality belonging to me, my right to live, and celebrate it.
I have no apologies for that… not anymore, not for my creative self, for my need to write, to sing, to see the world through new and inventive eyes.
So, this is a gift for you on this day, when I celebrate the gift of being alive and being who I am. I know what a privilege it is to be alive, to have the opportunity and space to learn and grow, to not have to worry about explosions, or gunfire, or people kicking down my door.
I don’t know what that’s like, but I know what it’s like to live in and grow up in fear. If it doesn’t take your life, it will take its toll.
Grief bores holes into our hearts and spirit.
Fill them with song, with words that empower and heal, with colors that comfort, and movement that speak empathy, and hope.
Despair asks, What can we do?
We can show up for ourselves, and we can show up for others. We can do our part, knowing that none of us is a complete answer, and we don’t need to be to make a difference.
Without apology. Without feeling foolish or afraid. Okay, we can feel foolish and afraid, and still do what is ours to lift each other up, anyway, and who knows, the world.
No Apologies
Lyrics/Song by Demian. Music, arrangement and production by Stacy Young
No apologies
Sensuality belongs to me
All the lies are fading
Truth and power waiting
here for me!
No apologies
All the roads I’ve traveled for so long
make me realize I’m
strong and proud of who I’ve
come to be.
No apologies
Time is really not the enemy
Gifts abound that only
those who live the years
can truly see.
No apologies
for the love I feel inside of me
Hold the writer’s pen and
play with grandchildren, I’m
so happy!
Seasons come and go
and I am growing old
Now, hear me sing!
No apologies, Oh, no apologies, Oh, no apologies
Oh, no apologies
Sensuality belongs to me
Life is full and rich and
Twilight promises
there’s more to see…
and more to be
and more to know
and more to grow…From my heart to yours,
Demian Elaine’ Yumei ~ Silent No More
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Just Simply, Thank you......... revisiting and bringing your voice I want you to know is a gift of the heart and received well where I sit this morning. Blessed I am to be here right now.
Wow. You have such a beautiful voice, what a moving song. "If it doesn’t take your life, it will take its toll." So true. Thank you for sharing your talent and your strength, and happy belated birthday.