The Crucible of Love
The Players:
Bob Ryan - Rythm Guitar and Lead Vocals
Auberte Campeau - Percussion and Harmony Vocals
Laurel Dewitt - Keyboards
Mike Ward - Bass Guitar
Eugene Smith - Drums

Recorded live in Vancouver BC in 1994
(Lyrics)
Words & Music by Bob Ryan (C)1987

I've felt the cold of slumber
Its numbing swathe
Its whispering hold of comfort
Its dark embrace

But I don't wish its succor
Its painless death
Let me wake through the pain of life
Through the crucible of love

And let me call to mind
Your shining hand
And grasp with heart and soul
Toward the promised land

Eternal change and movement
With no return
Who am I that's speaking now?
Am I the same as yesterday?

No I am always growing
Ever leaving behind
Moving ever into newness
Through the crucible of love
There is being alive...and there is being alive.  Man has two natures during his sojourn on this earthly plane: the material and the spiritual.  While here they are intimately associated.  One is but for a time, the other eternal, ever evolving.  Both aspects are vitally important for the human being during his time here - both need to be cared for and properly nurtured.  If we try to develop one over the other, we find ourselves in a state of profound imbalance - exemplified by the artificial dichotomy of science and religion.

If we take the path of science alone, we find ourselves adrift in a sea of materialism, and if we tread the path of religion alone, we drown in a quagmire of superstition.  Both aspects, together, represent a fuller expression of the human being.

One can get through this life focusing mostly on one or the other, but the resulting consciousness has a lamentable numbness about it - a half-awake quality.  Like a state of semi-realized potential.  Sometimes it is easier to tread such a path.  Much need not be faced, ideas and theories not fully tested.  But the love of truth unites the two paths, which are really one path.  Only a humble posture of learning can help illuminate this oneness.  The challenging effort of subduing the insistent self is what is needed to be able to be fully awake and alive.

So, the two natures are vital to human civilization.  And love - in its highest expression: divine love - is the uniter of these two, which in the end are really one......
Video Clip of Bob Ryan performing "The Crucible of Love"
with the band, Spirit Village