Bruce Cockburn is a  Canadian singer, songwriter, and guitarist who has been providing us with great music for over 50 years.   He has written and performed over 350 songs and has 34 albums.    Some of his activist songs are well-known like Stolen Land, If I Had a Rocket Launcher, If a Tree Falls, and others on topics of human rights and environmentalism.    He has won many awards over the last decades and continues to write and perform, but the weight of expectations can be a trap, one of one’s own making as noted in the song “Pacing the Cage.”

Sunset is an angel weeping
Holding out a bloody sword
No matter how I squint I cannot
Make out what it's pointing toward
Sometimes you feel like you've lived too long
Days drip slowly on the page
You catch yourself
Pacing the cage

We have seen Bruce Cockburn perform live twice.    He maintains an intimate relationship with his audience while performing in a very professional manner.   Like all of us, he is aging and performing less, but we hope to see him one more time.