Move Like A River . So Deep and So Wide.
When I was very young… I had left home to go to university, which was absolutely dismal as I had winged my way through the whole education system, and then at university they actually wanted me to know something, to remember things!!!!
… Oh my gosh, to put it bluntly I was stuffed so, I left that. I do remember getting a job as a laboratory technician, starting to play music, but interestingly one of my strongest memories of this time, was hammering literally on the door of the only place I knew in Sydney at that time that offered a meditation practice… It was the one that handed out mantras like cookies :-)…But really what I remember about it is I was just distraught saying you have to give me something to still this mind this ceaseless streaming of thoughts.
That wasn’t the answer, so I was living with a couple of Olympic martial artists who also did the same meditation and I buried myself into physicality, fitness to see if that would work.
Well, that didn’t work at this stage being 21 or 22. I had never had a girlfriend and was introduced to this woman who played the flute and that did it for me… Possibly this was the answer… immerse myself in relationship. Well that didn’t work either she went off to New Zealand, so I moved to New Zealand, I lived to the shared house with her and some others , (consequently I learned how to strum a guitar like a Maori J), she moved into an ashram run by well-known Guru , and I followed, she moved out, and I stayed,.
Meditating four hours a day… Leading community singing every night for over 10 years for a couple of hundred people. You know even this level of intense practice was not assuaging that deep inner longing. Meditating four hours a day, running for miles every day, martial arts training three times a week.
You know I didn’t even know what I was missing. And you know at this stage, still no-one had even mentioned the soul.
Back to Australia… Working very hard playing three or four nights a week got my private detectives license was doing security, re-joined the Army reserve, still meditating or what I thought was meditating. And it wasn’t.
Then I started to teach singing. And it seemed to have a strong effect on people so I started running bigger and bigger groups and ended up teaching all around the world becoming quite well-known.Still no mention of the soul.
It’s like I was working with these big names in this personal development, self help, find your’self’, and it seems that if enough people give kudos to you, then it is assumed that you know what you’re talking about…Fast forward again for many years and what I was presenting, again it was nothing to do with the soul.
And yes I was mixing with big names, and my peers were people who were supposedly charting the name of God, all sorts of wonderful words,
But nothing there. When everything was still, there was an absence not a presence.
Fast forward again.
Finally, a presentation to me of a matter of fact connection with the truth of our soul, that we live in the field of God, that we cannot be separate from God try as we may, and thus everything changed again, I took all my recorded albums off the market, and ate copious amount of humble pie (GF DF of course J )
And so in this day and age, what happens then once we have been truly introduced to our soul, we know that we are, however imperfectly, at one with the Divine, what then!?.
Well then we become a resource for humanity. And this is where it all comes down to. We live in such a way that, not saying anything is perfect, but we bring a sense of living decency that is so deep and wide that we can actually be a resource.
And that’s what, on this New Year’s Day, this song, that is a gift to you all, is about.
We are that river deep and wide.
Hear the words and here is the song.
Enjoy with so much love,
Chris
PS the cello is played by my dear friend Rebecca Murphy, and the artwork is done by that incredible woman who brings grace beauty and presence to everything that she does and is, Jenny James.
Click here for the link then click download and enjoy
Comments 14
Dear Chris, you are a giant resource and river of wisdom and glorious sound.
I too have experienced the inner unsettlement and I felt homeless in lovely homes for many of my adult years until I reconnected to the truth of who we are. Listening to your music brings us home to the Soul. Thank you.
Author
Thank you Bernadette ❤️
Bernadette, you express this so beautifully, homeless, in lovely homes…Thank you – and Chris, thank You for this deep share – I’m in my own phase of Humble pie.
Wow Chris, thanks for sharing your journey. While in no way are our experiences similar, I can very much relate to the search for deeper purpose and meaning to life – until I found that the missing element was a connection with the Soul. It is such a basic ‘ingredient’ for life in every regard, and yet so few have the support to realise they can live with that level of integrity and presence. ‘Hear the words and here is the song.’ – that says it all!
Dear Chris, I absolutely loved reading your story and I love this song. I too had my own journey, ping ponging back and forth indulging in spiritual pursuits, until I found the true soulful path. You are indeed, a huge inspiration, and a fun and glorious reflection of someone who dedicates himself to supporting others with their expression through music and song 🎶 🎵 thank you for bringing all of this to all of us.
Thank you, Chris. And please, do write more, love how you say what you say, that particular and very unique angle.
Dear Chris,
So wonder-full to read how and why you are so majestically glorious. Mostly all of us have looked everywhere for what we absolutely knew was missing – now we have found it. Your very being oozes love and you so readily share your Godly music for us all. Thank you Chris xx
Chris James all-ways your vibration in sound has moved mountains and streams to flow to our Soul.
As we now realise through our unending return back to the true River in Life .
Your voice is a gift of Heaven sounding through agelessness.
Adore you and all that moves us equally so.
Love the words of this song and most deeply feel the enrichment of its movements .
Grand morning to begin 2026 as we go round and round the Sun as One.
Gorgeous Chris same as You
Elizabeth
Awe Chris! Best way to start this new cycle ever ⚡️💜✨
Gorgeous being this River with you and everyOne.
Such Love and Grace
Rippling out deep and wide
Thank you Chris, you are a great resource from the vibration of your voice, the freedom to express what is there to come through you is exquisite to be the receiver of.
It is an endless stream of wonderful music that you share with us all.
A true Master ✨🌹✨
Author
Thank you, Christine. I love and truly appreciate the flow of it, and never take it for granted.
Thank you Chris for what you have shared about your journey back to the truth and without any self-critique of what was.
And from this truth of residing in the ‘Field of God’ you bless us with your beauty-full music. So stilling.
I deeply appreciate all that you share with us.
Dear Chris, You are the river that brings to us and humanity the true connection with our body/with our Soul. You gave me the first real experience what is was to re-connect with the God in us. This strong feeling is marked in my body and is the ‘go-to’ when it seems that I lost it. With your delicate voice and touch you let the river flow deep and wide. Thank you for this offering.💝
Dear Chris,
Thank you for the beautiful gift of this song and also the beautiful gift of your writing. Both feel deeply settling and both speak directly to the river within my body, the connective tissue system, the very magic of God that moves within and through each one of us.