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To all Leonard Cohen fans and those not yet familiar with his poetry and music,

A sad day yesterday when I heard that Leonard Cohen had passed away. I had taken a day off work and coincidentally, the first item on my list was going out and buy the great poet and singer's new record You Want It Darker.  The store I went to was out of stock and I didn't have time to go to another store.  I could have listened on the internet, but I wanted to hear his music fresh in my living room from a CD or record.  I sulked a bit all day that I wasn't listening to his music throughout my day while I had the day off.  

I was fortunate that I was able to hear and see him in concert three times and I have read the books about and by him.  I have watched DVDs of him performing in other cities and I have seen programs where other singers have paid tribute to his songs.  I also took the opportunity to locate his current home in Montreal in Little Portugal and his childhood home.  I have a photo of me in front of his door in Little Portugal.  I was hoping he would be there, but he didn't emerge out of his house while I was waiting for that to happen.  

What an elegant man he was, always dressed beautifully in an impeccably tailored suit.  He spoke of tea and oranges in Suzanne and wrote about power, sex, love, spirituality, strong emotions and the heart.  Born into a Jewish family, he also became a Buddhist monk and a rock 'n roll Hall of Famer.  Incredible.  Whenever I heard him speak, he was gentle and reflective about life and suffering.  He emulated a wisdom, no matter what age he was at.  He would have been the one person I would love to have been able to sit down with and just listen to.  His baritone voice was hypnotic and sexy at the same time.  I heard him interviewed several times and he talked about the length of time it took him to write one poem.  He apparently paid meticulous attention to each word he wrote.  He was careful.  He wanted it just right. 

As a therapist, there are two specific lines of his that I think about in terms of therapy.  It is written in the song Anthem:

"There is a crack in everything...that's how the light gets in."

When people come into my office and say they are "broken," or  "need fixing," I say this:  "you may think that you are and I hear that you are suffering, AND it is at this precise point in your life where you can learn to be with your suffering and discover some important attributes you never knew existed." 

Namaste...