Beautiful but Unknown Song from Peter, Paul & Mary

"Sing Out! 2011" has been asking through blog postings and e-mails, as well as in my informal conversations with personal friends, for suggestions and actual links to Youtube uploads for suggested songs we could include in this project's lists of recommended songs.
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. ..........Over the holidays, my sister talked about a Peter, Paul & Mary song she particularly liked and described its lyrics to me. Much as I've been quite familiar with PPM songs, having been a fan for years of Mary Travers and more so of the PPM brand of vocal blending, I was dumbfounded not to remember any song as that one my sister was describing. I asked her for the title or at least some prominent words in the lyrics that I could Google-search. She gave the words "river" and "one" (as in oneness) and i searched immediately.
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. ..........And i was pleasantly surprised to learn that this song "River of Jordan" actually existed, a beautiful but virtually unknown song from my favorite folksinging trio, PPM!
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. ..........Please click at this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrTGgpWmdZQ, and wait for the song to start, then press the Facebook tab or email tab above and the link to this blog so you could return right back to this message and read the very insightful lyrics embedded below, as the song itself plays on in the background. A beautiful experience!

River of Jordan

I traveled the banks of the River of Jordan
To find where it flows to the sea.
I looked in the eyes of the cold and the hungry
And I saw I was looking at me.
I wanted to know if life had a purpose
And what it all means in the end.
In the silence I listened to voices inside me
And they told me again and again.
There is only one river. There is only one sea.
And it flows through you, and it flows through me.
There is only one people. We are one and the same.
We are all one spirit. We are all one name.
We are the father, mother, daughter and son.
From the dawn of creation, we are one.
We are one.

Every blade of grass on the mountain
Every drop in the sea
Every cry of a newborn baby
Every prayer to be free
Every hope at the end of a rainbow
Every song ever sung
Is a part of the family of woman and man
And that means everyone.
We are only one river. We are only one sea.
And it flows through you, and it flows through me.
We are only one people. We are one and the same.
We are all one spirit. We are all one name.
We are the mother, father, daughter and son
From the dawn of creation, we are one.
We are one, We are one, We are one.

. ..........I thank profoundly my sister Mila 'Sam' Reyes-Garcia, for alerting me about this song and recommending it for wide promotion by the "Sing Out! 2011" global initiative (for short intro, click here.) Mila just joined in as a Facebook Friend of Sing Out! 2011, and has been trying to recall appropriate songs for wide promotion by the project along it's themes of love, peace, joy, and singing together about these themes.
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. ..........Share with all your friends the Facebook/e-mail message that brought you to this blog, and start singing along with these folksingers three. Before the year ends, many people would be singing this song, in groups small and big, in homes, parks, offices and schools. It is a song too beautiful to keep as a secret from appreciation by the rest of Humanity!

--ding reyes
initiator, Sing Out! 2011

Sing Out 2011 blogsite

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Welcome to this dedicated blogsite for SING OUT our LOVE, PEACE, JOY!-2011

This global initiative seeks to cause an ever-growing number of family-based and friendship-based groups and circles to create, collate, share and frequently sing out together happy songs on universal LOVE, on real lasting PEACE, and on deep JOY, right in their homes, schools, parks, offices, etc. in an ever-growing number of localities throughout the world starting in May 2011.

The timetable for SING-OUT 2011 follows below:

January 1 - April 30: Widest introduction of the "SING-OUT 2011 project" as we can, and as it shapes up, to invite all who are reached to decide to participate in ways and to the extent that they freely choose. Further spreading the word (by forwarding its messages to many friends by various means) is one great way of participating throughout the year. (Note: We will suggest to the environmental conservation movement in the Philippines and in other countries to mobilize their members, communities and families to sing environmental advocacy songs together in their homes, parks, schools, and offices on the run-up to Earth Day, April 22 (Good Friday).

May 1 - June 30: First Period of singing out by all participating groups everywhere, with focus on the value of bringing out our happy voices together, to sing “of good things, not bad; of happy, not sad” not worrying "that it is not good enough for anyone else to hear.” (Note: May 2011 is commemoration month of the 45^th anniversary of the SING-OUT Folk Song Festival staged in Baguio, Philippines by the Baguio International Club in May 1966.)

July 1 - August 31: Second Period, with all participating groups to focus on songs with universal human LOVE as theme.

September 1 - October 31: Third Period, with all the participating groups to focus on songs with real, lasting PEACE as theme. (Note: September is the World Peace Consciousness Month as declared by the United Nations.)

November 1 - December 31: Fourth Period, with all participating groups to focus on songs with deep, profound, widely shared JOY as theme.(Note: this period embraces joyful holidays of both the Christian and Muslim communities throughout the word.).

To view earlier blog postings on Sing Out!-2011, please click here.

To join the Facebook Friends of Sing-Out! 2011, please click here and press at "Add as Friend."