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Crane Dance

from Divine Intervention by Julia Ecklar

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Many times, inspiration goes far beyond the actual seed that gave it birth. I began this song as a reaction to the movie The Karate Kid, but it quickly turned into something more.

The imagery of strength and balance that I’d taken from the movie’s martial arts theme moved easily into the greater theme of strength and balance in the living of one’s own life; I can’t count the number of people who have contacted me through the years to say they took comfort from this song while going through difficult times of their own.

Michael’s brilliance and flexibility as an arranger are no more apparent than here. When I walked into the studio that night, he said, “I want to do it ad lib — you sing, I’ll play, and we’ll just let it go where it goes.”

So there was never an arrangement written down for this song, just Michael on the piano and me alone in the vocal booth, listening to the music and feeling our own ways. Kind of like life.

lyrics

“In all things, there must be balance.”
So my teacher says to me.
“Living life’s the point of things,
But balance is the key.
There is power in the balance
That allows a crane to stand.
My son, you must learn balance
To assist your empty hands.

“For balance guides the butterflies,
And lets the seasons turn.
The greatness inside any man
Is the balance that he learns.”

In my life there’s been no balance —
I was taught to lose or cheat.
How am I to balance
With no ground beneath my feet?
How will learning to be hurt and hate
Help me to have a chance?
While a crane may stand by balance,
You will never see one dance.

For balance is a fairy tale
I never will achieve.
The naive may find balance,
But the bitter can’t believe.
Still I try to catch my balance
Where the sand hills meet the sea.
Do I need another’s faith,
Or my own faith in me?

With my head above the water
I can sometimes see the land.
Could it be I must see balance
Before I can understand

That balance is as balance does,
Between the left and right?
Balance means you understand
The crane when it’s in flight.

Almost lost, can I find balance
In the guise of what I fear?
Could it be a test of fire
Must make the balance clear?
This fire only balances
The cold I’ve known so long.
From this balancing, I will emerge
A single human strong.

For balance tempers light and dark,
And guides these empty hands.
Like the crane, whose one leg bears his all,
With balance, I can stand.

credits

from Divine Intervention, released August 27, 1986

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Julia Ecklar Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

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