Spiritual Portal

Refuge Of The Roads
by Joni Mitchell

https://youtu.be/VfLH0xJByiI?si=OqUxjFPTwSMDkzlP

Refuge Of The Roads
by Joni Mitchell
I met a friend of spirit *
He drank and womanized ^

And I sat before his sanity

I was holding back from crying

He saw my complications

And he mirrored me back simplified

And we laughed how our perfection
Would always be denied

“Heart and humor and humility"

He said "Will lighten up your heavy load"

I left him for the refuge of the roads


I fell in with some drifters

Cast upon a beachtown

Winn Dixie cold cuts and highway hand me downs

And I wound up fixing dinner

For them and Boston Jim

I well up with affection

Thinking back down the roads to then

The nets were overflowing

In the Gulf of Mexico

They were overflowing
in the refuge of the roads


There was spring along the ditches

There were good times in the cities

Oh radiant happiness

It was all so light and easy

Till I started analyzing

And I brought on my old ways

A thunderhead of judgment was

Gathering in my gaze

And it made most people nervous

They just didn't want to know

What I was seeing in the refuge of the roads


I pulled off into a forest

Crickets clicking in the ferns

Like a wheel of fortune

I heard my fate turn turn turn

And I went running down a white sand road

I was running like a white-assed deer

Running to lose the blues

To the innocence in here

These are the clouds of Michelangelo

Muscular with gods and sungold

Shine on your witness
in the refuge of the roads


In a highway service station

Over the month of June

Was a photograph of the earth

Taken coming back from the moon

And you couldn't see a city

On that marbled bowling ball

Or a forest or a highway

Or me here least of all

You couldn't see these cold water restrooms

Or this baggage overload

Westbound and rolling
taking refuge in the roads

~ Joni Mitchell

A Day in the Garden

I see something of myself in everyone
Just at this moment of the world
We're only particles of change, I know, I know
Orbiting around the sun
But how can I have that point of view
When I'm always bound and tied to someone?
Well, I looked at the granite markers
Those tributes to finality, to eternity
And then I looked at myself here
Chicken scratching for my immortality


Hejira Lyrics

https://youtu.be/BjZjCjJZ0Yk?si=CaiqbOSWfAqOkURg

I'm traveling in some vehicle
I'm sitting in some café
A defector from the petty wars
That shell shock love away

[Verse 2]
There's comfort in melancholy
When there's no need to explain
It's just as natural as the weather
In this moody sky today

[Verse 3]
In our possessive coupling
So much could not be expressed
So now I'm returning to myself
These things that you and I suppressed

[Verse 4]
I see something of myself in everyone
Just at this moment of the world
As snow gathers like bolts of lace
Waltzing on a ballroom girl

[Verse 5]
You know it never has been easy
Whether you do or you do not resign
Whether you travel the breadth of extremities
Or stick to some straighter line

[Verse 6]
Now here's a man and a woman sitting on a rock
They're either going to thaw out or freeze
Listen, strains of Benny Goodman
Coming through the snow and the pinewood trees

[Verse 7]
I'm porous with travel fever
But you know I'm so glad to be on my own
Still somehow the slightest touch of a stranger
Can set up trembling in my bones

[Verse 8]
I know no one's going to show me everything
We all come and go unknown
Each so deep and superficial
Between the forceps and the stone

[Verse 9]
Well, I looked at the granite markers
Those tribute to finality, to eternity
And then I looked at myself here
Chicken scratching for my immortality

[Verse 10]
In the church they light the candles
And the wax rolls down like tears
There's the hope and the hopelessness
I've witnessed thirty years

[Verse 11]
We're only particles of change, I know, I know
Orbiting around the sun
But how can I have that point of view
When I'm always bound and tied to someone?

[Verse 12]
White flags of winter chimneys
Waving truce against the moon
In the mirrors of a modern bank
From the window of a hotel room

[Verse 13]
I'm traveling in some vehicle
I'm sitting in some café
A defector from the petty wars
Until love sucks me back that way

Wow, she's great. = )

Sends chills through my body.

Yea Eric she is quite a poet and her lyrics have a lot of insight, probably the most memorable song she wrote was this;

https://youtu.be/BlqDca5mUaU?si=26zavUuX2EntHtwS

Because most of us feel the same way; It’s life’s illusions I recall. I really don’t know life at all.

Joni Mitchell on monogamy - wise words.

“I don’t know if I’ve learned anything yet! I did learn how to have a happy home, but I consider myself fortunate in that regard because I could’ve rolled right by it. Everybody has a superficial side and a deep side, but this culture doesn’t place much value on depth — we don’t have shamans or soothsayers, and depth isn’t encouraged or understood. Surrounded by this shallow, glossy society we develop a shallow side, too, and we become attracted to fluff. That’s reflected in the fact that this culture sets up an addiction to romance based on insecurity — the uncertainty of whether or not you’re truly united with the object of your obsession is the rush people get hooked on. I’ve seen this pattern so much in myself and my friends and some people never get off that line.

“But along with developing my superficial side, I always nurtured a deeper longing, so even when I was falling into the trap of that other kind of love, I was hip to what I was doing. I recently read an article in Esquire magazine called ‘The End of Sex,’ that said something that struck me as very true. It said: “If you want endless repetition, see a lot of different people. If you want infinite variety, stay with one.” What happens when you date is you run all your best moves and tell all your best stories — and in a way, that routine is a method for falling in love with yourself over and over.

“You can’t do that with a longtime mate because he knows all that old material. With a long relationship, things die then are rekindled, and that shared process of rebirth deepens the love. It’s hard work, though, and a lot of people run at the first sign of trouble. You’re with this person, and suddenly you look like an asshole to them or they look like an asshole to you — it’s unpleasant, but if you can get through it you get closer and you learn a way of loving that’s different from the neurotic love enshrined in movies. It’s warmer and has more padding to it.” ~ Joni Mitchell

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/1399331-i-don-t-know-if-i-ve-learned-anything-yet-i-did

We  will never forget her. Who needs Trumps gold and silver? The only reason he shares any of it is that he has to. The selfish group of people now running this country can give no reward to any one. They have no respect and their honor has no substance!

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**EXPLOSIVE MOMENT AT THE KENNEDY CENTER: Joni Mitchell SHOCKS the Nation by Flatly Refusing Trump’s Medal on Live Honors Stage — Cheers Erupt, Critics Rage, and a Folk Legend Ignites America’s Deepest Political Divide at the 2025 Kennedy Center Honors**

----SEE MORE: https://chiwave.info/posts/explosive-moment-kennedy-center-joni-mitchell-shocks-nation-flatly-refusing-medal-live-honors-stage-truyen123-vofi
In what many are already calling the most controversial moment in Kennedy Center history, **folk icon and counterculture visionary Joni Mitchell** stunned the entire audience when she publicly declined the prestigious medal presented under President Donald Trump’s name.
Gasps echoed through the hall.
Cameras froze.
Applause clashed with outrage in real time. Supporters hailed her stand as a fearless defense of truth and principle. Critics accused her of turning a celebration of art into a political protest. Within minutes, social media exploded into chaos, with fans, politicians, and artists battling over whether **Joni** had committed an act of moral courage — or crossed an unforgivable line at America’s most sacred cultural ceremony.
One moment.
One refusal.
One firestorm still burning.