ABOUT RESTA

Resta BurnhamIn early 1978, at the age of 33, I took a few lessons in playing acoustic guitar. From the day of the first lesson I inwardly "heard" melodies and lyrics. Having no real musical training (a few years of piano lessons as a child), I was frustrated at my inability to write down the songs, arrange them or play them. Although I stopped after ten lessons, I did learn the basic chords and how they went together. That summer I took the guitar along on a vacation to Maine, my home state. There my first "real" song - melody, lyrics and guitar accompaniment - came into being. It was like a Rosetta stone for me that opened a whole world of songs. In September 1978 I joined a group of friends to study A Course in Miracles and found that every miracle, every flushing up of unforgiveness, every spiritual experience began finding expression in songs. These early songs were my teachers in composition. In a later era of computer jargon, I would refer to the song-writing process as "downloading" songs. Typically a song would take no more than a half hour from start to finish once I picked up the guitar. Inspirations came from my spiritual readings and teachers, from dreams, from relationships, and from Spirit.

From 1984 to 1998 I put the Course aside and followed another spiritual teaching and teacher, but music continued to flow in these years as the inner work of forgiving, healing and purification went on without letup. On Easter Sunday in 1998 the guidance came to begin working with A Course in Miracles once again. Shortly afterwards I was inspired to collect all the songs together in a body titled Music of Christ. The name came from the lyrics of "Gethsemane Prayer" (Vol.4, Trk 21):

O Father, I love them, Your daughters and sons.
Their dream world I leave now, for my work's just begun.
From Spirit I'll call them to know we are one,
to awaken from dreams and remember the love.

They are flowers not blooming and stars that don't shine.
They bow down to idols and mock the divine.
Their hearts know not peace and their minds are asleep.
Yet I see their true beauty and goodness, and weep.

They are eagles in cages. They are deer without legs.
They are lakes without water. They are princes who beg.
They are gods who've forgotten their power to create.
They wander in darkness and call it the day.

My brothers, my sisters, my children, my all,
deep in your souls can you hear my love call?
Awaken, little children, remember the light.
Rise up now and dance to the music of Christ.

I forgive them, dear Father. They know not what they do,
yet in time they'll make union with me and with You.
We'll send them our Spirit to comfort and guide
and teach them to sing to the music of Christ.

O Father, I love them, Your daughters and sons.
Their dream world I leave now, for my work's just begun.
From Spirit I'll call them to know we are one,
to awaken from dreams and remember the love.

In 2002 I purchased the equipment that allowed me to record the music digitally, and 12 volumes of the Music of Christ - each about an hour in length - have followed. Most of the songs have come in the past eight years and are thus grounded in the metaphysics of the Course. Of the probably 500 songs received since 1978, these 216 remain.

Like everyone who seems to be embodied in the dream world, I am a work in progress. I have a right mind and a wrong mind. The music comes from the right mind, where I am learning to spend most - but not yet all - of my time. The songs are filled with vibrations of truth that burrow down into the subconscious and flush up everything unlike itself. Thus the 29-year birthing of this body of music has often been extremely painful. Around Christmas of 2005 I decided I'd had and done enough, and would retire my voice and guitar. I collected the remaining unpublished songs into Volume 12 of the collection, which was completed (I thought) in February 2006. The flow of music ceased.

In November 2006 I attended a weeklong Academy class at Kenneth Wapnick's Foundation For A Course in Miracles in Temecula, CA. On a previous visit, Ken had me bring my guitar and give a mini-concert after class one day. He had written to me, "The music is wonderful, Resta - both in form and content. What a combination!" When Ken learned in November that I wasn't singing anymore, he began a gentle, persistent and humorous prodding until in the middle of one sleepless night I confronted the sense of unworthiness that was the real reason for my turning away from the music. At the end of this process I resolved that the time had come to create a business - Remember To Laugh Productions, Inc. - that would send the music into the world.

The day after coming back from Temecula, another new song came - "We Go Together" (now added to Volume 12, track 17):

We go together, you and I, in the dreaming of the world,
out of darkness into light on the road of Love's Return.
To each other, let's be kind, for the way seems hard and long -
too hard for separated minds, but together we are strong.

Refrain
My brothers, my sisters, God's sons and God's daughters,
walk with me, drink with me Spirit's sweet waters.
Alone we get lost in the pain and depression.
In joining we laugh our way back into Heaven.

If not together, not at all. That's the way out of the dream.
When we join we hear Love's Call to awaken and be free.
We go together, you and I, not ahead and not behind,
but together, side by side in this journey of the mind.
Refrain

We go together, you and I, in the dreaming of the world,
out of darkness into light on the road of Love's Return.
We go together, you and I, not ahead and not behind,
but together, side by side in this journey of the mind.

So as you listen to the Music of Christ, know that I go with you in your journey. We are the same, not different. We are together, not apart. We are spirit, not bodies. In sharing the Music of Christ, we remember that together we are Christ.

Love and blessings,

Resta