30 years ago today, the world lost John Lennon. But his legacy and thoughts live on through his music and his words.
What better way to remember his legacy and mark his quest for a more peaceful world than to listen once again to his most famous solo song – Imagine.
As you listen to and read these words, reflect on your life and the world today and imagine what it would be like if you were a dreamer too:-
Imagine there’s no Heaven
It’s easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today
Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace
You may say that I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will be as one
Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world
You may say that I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will live as one
Just Imagine a Peaceful World – It’s Easy if You Try
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Image courtesy of -Marlith- and Peta-de-Astlan
I was getting ready to go to school one Tuesday morning. The radio was on, which was on most mornings. Beatle songs were playing. I’d long been a Beatle fan, pouring over my Dad’s LPs and singles. The previous year the BBC had put on all the Beatle films. I wanted to live in ‘Help!’.
I think it was my Mum who said it first, “John Lennon’s been shot”. It was 9th December 1980. I was nearly 10. I listened in for details. Was he going to be ok? What had happened? John had been in the news that week anyway as he’d just released a new LP and single. Then it was made clear. He’d gone. My eyes welled up. I didn’t want to go to school. It didn’t seem right. This was a personal loss. They were playing non-stop Beatles and John’s tunes all day on the radio and I wanted to stay at home and listen.
But I went to school on that cold and damp day, depressed and sad, with the tune of Woman playing in my head, thinking about Sean Lennon who was five years younger than me and who’s daddy wasn’t ever going to come home again.
Thanks Ayd for sharing your poignant story of the day John Lennon died.
Glad that you have kept some of that magic alive through your own music:-)
Hi Arvind,
Thank you for remembering John Lennon and this beautiful reminder of how the world can really be. It’s up to us!
Indeed Sandra it’s all up to us:-)
Give peace a chance!
Hi Arvind,
I live only 8 blocks from the Dakota, where John Lennon lived and was killed. A few weeks before he was shot, I was in a local cheese shop when John & Yoko walked in. Everyone there left them in peace. The chatter among us began the moment they left.
I’ve seen interviews with John where he spoke of how he loved the fact that it seemed here in New York he was able to go about the city freely and without interruption.
What a painful irony that he would be not only found, but murdered here. Fame sometimes seems to exact a terrible price.
John Lennon was an enormously gifted man who channeled his inner turmoil and childhood hurts into music that lives on. He was a seeker on a quest for his own truth. There were wrong turns and false starts on the path he walked, but what I loved about him was his commitment to keep going.
For me, Emile Zola’s words capture what drew me to John Lennon:
“If you ask me what I came into this life to do, I will tell you: I came to live out loud.”
Eileen, thanks for sharing your personal story of John Lennon.
As you say, a painful and poignant irony that he was shot in NYC, which regarded as safe and welcoming.
As he would have said today, Give Peace a Chance!
One of the best songs every written. I can sometimes cry when I hear this song. It is John’s expression of what could be that is so beautiful:
“You may say that I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will live as one”
Wendy, definitely of the best songs ever written.
The best way we can remember John Lennon is to become dreamers who dream that one day the world can live as one – and then make it happen!
Truly beautiful. It always pays off to remember the words of someone who only wanted the best for the world.
Stuart, indeed truly beautiful.
We have so many role models to learn from such as Lennon, Gandhi, Dr King and Mandela and yet sometimes I wonder when we’ll actually learn!
Great words, great thoughts, great people, stand the test of time. For those of us old enough to remember exactly where we were when we heard he had been killed, these words tie us to the past and link us to the future. Imagine, indeed.
Galen, I am old enough to remember just where I was when I heard the news and it was quite a sad day.
But his legacy lives on – the only thing missing is enough people willing to also imagine and create the world as John Lennon envisioned.
Hi Arvind,
I love this song. Sometimes when I walk around my harbor, I hum it in my head..Lots of people say I’m a dreamer, which used to bother me, but now I take it as a compliment. Truly imagine what each individual could be and what our world would look like..the full richness of it All.
Joy, it’s a song loved by millions and rightly so.
Keep dreaming and walking your talk – it only takes one person to change the world:-)
Thanks for this reflection on John Lennon. This is easily one of my most favorite songs by him. I was just thinking about his message and how much more meaningful it seems as we go in to the holidays. Peace, love, joy, happiness.
Thanks Lisa – have a peaceful and joyous holiday period.
And as we go into 2011, keep dreaming big and imagining a better world.
Dear Arvind,
Imagine is one of my favorite songs and I love John Lennon. He was my favorite in “the old days”. 🙂
We need dreamers to dream a dream of the best future we can imagine. Why not hold a space for the best?
As always, you lead us in this direction and I appreciate that about you. I can’t help but think your father would be proud of you – or is.
Love,
Lauren
Thanks Lauren for your kind words.
As you say, we need more dreamers to dream a dream of the best future we can imagine. And why not?
Happy dreaming today and everday from now onwards.
May 2011 be the year that we all imagine and manifest our highest hopes and dreams:)
Namaste and megwetch (Thanks in Ojibwe) for your message and your website…wonderful to feel the oneness and John Lennon’s Imagine encompasses the TRUTH… a truth that we can all experience as we do it through creating it with our thoughts (Imagination) which of course are channeled from the Divine.
I so appreciate how you have taken your thoughts to create a vehicle to help others to “remember” and promote consciousness. I came across it through a connection on Facebook.
I did a similar venture a in 2001 by creating a non-profit called Consciousness Incorporated with the mission to stimulate the Soul through the Arts in Education. The idea was to create a vehicle for Artists and educators to connect and create funds for both to help our youth (as well as the adults) This included the Healing Arts.) Your site has inspired me and I am hopeful that I will soon be able to rekindle this vehicle as well.
Sending you light for your path.
LLM,
Michele Ozau Waubeguan (Golden Flower) which by the way I noticed is on the cover of your ebook that I look forward to reading 🙂
Michele, great to connect with you via my blog and Facebook!
Thanks for your kind words, for your many insights and for ordering my ebook. A hard copy is also on its way to you.
I look forward to learning what our connection manifests in the time to come:-)
As you said, John was not the only one.
Arvind,
Thanks for sharing and showcasing this wonderful song! I have always admired John Lennon and his ability to express so poetically such a powerful message. It’s of course an amazing song as well.
Thanks Joe – I would have guessed you have been an admirer of John Lennon and his peace song:-)