03/06/2024
Hi Friends - It's Here! My new single, "The Perfect Path". I REALLY want you to listen and share, so I'll put the whole track on this link, no strings attached - but I'd also appreciate it if you'd head over to your streaming service of choice, give it a like, add it to your playlist, and share with a friend.
"The Perfect Path" is a song from my upcoming album, "For Others". These are all songs that I have written through interview processes and deep-listening to the stories of other people over the past few years. https://michaeltiernan.hearnow.com/the-perfect-path
"The Perfect Path" tells the story of Azim Khamisa, who I met in 2019 while performing at VISION: A Center For Spiritual Living - he was speaking at that service, and the story of the tragic loss of his son to a 14-year old with a gun, along with his subsequent suffering and brutally difficult choice to pursue forgiveness of his son's killer, and lobby for his release, just left me in awe and in tears. I got to know Azim over the next several months and wrote this song about the sort of peace and fulfillment that is the fruit of forgiveness.
When looking into the eyes of the 14 year old, Tony, who killed his son, Azim did not see a murderer. He saw the same spark of humanity and soul inside Tony's young eyes as he had in his own. His meditation helped him realized there are victims on both sides of the gun, and Tony had been a victim of incredibly difficult circumstances that led him to seek out acceptance in a gang. Over the years, Azim became a father figure to Tony, and helped turn Tony's life into one of service.
From burying his only son, and in his memory and legacy, and with the imperative of his Sufi Muslim tradition to "do something of service in the name of your loved one", Azim founded the TKF - Tariq Khamisa Foundation, which, along with Tony's grandfather Ples, has impacted tens of thousands of at-risk youth with the message of non-violence, responsibility, and peace.
Today is Tariq's birthday - that's why I'm releasing this song in his honor this day. He would have been 50, just like me.
Also today, Azim is also launching a worldwide peace initiative called the "Peace Through Forgiveness" Project. If you head over to their website in just a few minutes (link in comments), you will see the soft-launch of this very important project, and you will also see the video we made for this song, which I won't officially be releasing for a few weeks, so this will be a little insiders sneak peak, for those of you reading this far! Please head over at 12 o'clock noon Pacific Time to watch the presentation and launch of this very worthy effort.
Happy birthday, Tariq. Happy Birth Day, Peace Through Forgiveness Project. Happy birth day, "The Perfect Path".
I am honored to be a part of this. Please help me, and us, share this message of peace.
You don't have to look far to find very distressing news in the world - from our own communities, to wars ravaging distant lands and peoples. We feel the violence in ourselves because WE ARE ALL CONNECTED. "The Perfect Path" is the story of Azim Khamisa, a man who's choice for forgiveness in the fac...
