I've been climbing my own personal Everest
I built it myself, foot by foot, stone by stone.
From every real or perceived slight I've ever known.
It is my own...my very own.

I wish the air was just a little less rarified
Then a trifle more oxygen could flow into my brain.
Then I could finally see that rain is simply rain
And not my pain. Not a symbol of my pain.

Chomolungma, Mother Goddess,
Bless me down, bless me down.
Chomolungma, Mother Goddess,
Let me live again.
Chomolungma, Mother Goddess,
Bless me down, bless me down.
Let me live again...living again for the first time.

I don't want to reach the top
'Cause it's all downhill from there.
And who said climbing up is better anyhow?
Struggle for struggle's sake is just some foolish vow,
And I'll break it now.
Gonna break that vow right now.

Chomolungma, Mother Goddess,
Bless me down, bless me down.
Chomolungma, Mother Goddess,
Let me live again.
Chomolungma, Mother Goddess,
Bless me down, bless me down.
Let me live again...living again for the first time.

I'm slowly dismantling my personal Everest.
I'm feeling my way to my soul's very core.
I don't think that I'll need that kind of challenge anymore
It is a bore...and it's not what life is for.

Chomolungma, Mother Goddess,
Bless me down, bless me down.
Chomolungma, Mother Goddess,
Let me live again.
Chomolungma, Mother Goddess,
Bless me down, bless me down.
Let me live again...living again for the first time.
Living again for the first time...

©2004 by Kristin Carole Hall & Purple Cat Music. All Rights Reserved.

Bless Me Down Back Story

It began with a simple sentence found in my collection of Bitz & Pieces in mid-2003: "I'm still climbing my own Himalyas." It had been languishing there since well before I'd been stateside coordinator for an Everest Expedition in 1998. Then, I just let it sit for a few days.

I learned a lot about Everest in the frantic few months I had before pulling together the resources necessary to send nine people - other people's children, really - over to Mount Everest and safely back again for a combined research expedition with the Museum of Science in Boston & Yale University. One thing that touched the heart of this devout Celtic Pagan was the holiness of the mountain itself: Chomolungma in Tibetian, Sagarmartha in Nepalese, Goddess Mother of the World to all. So named millennia before measurements "proved" what people already knew: the mountain is, indeed, the largest in the world and Goddess Mother to us all. I wanted to honor all that somehow.

Then, one day, driving home during a long, hot July commute, what is now the chorus came to mind just as it is now. I had to sing it over & over to firmly entrench it in my mind so I could write it down when I got home. A friend later asked me about the phrase "Bless me down". Was it something I'd grown up with? Something I'd read? What? No, it is just what it is; from my Muse to your ear. But I was nearing the end of a long period where I consciously made many difficult changes that took me from where I was to where I am. (It was worth the effort!) So, this seemed an apt prayer to the Goddess to bless me down & let me live life fully and enjoyably as I'd not done before.

With that in mind, the verses wrote themselves. Yes, I was that much of a self-pitying martyr over the years; which, of course, only encouraged me to repeat the mistakes that kept me in that state over & again. I implore to learn from my mistakes. Go make whatever constructive changes you need to make in order to live again for the first time.