Embedded Files
I first heard “We Rise with Our Dreams” in the late 1980s and early 1990s as the end-credit song on Bob Beattie’s “Ski World” show on ESPN. The music and vocals are by John Jarvis, with inspiring lyrics by Joe Henry. For decades I never knew who performed or wrote this song, as it was nearly impossible to find—or even find information about it, although parts of the song appeared on a few “Ski World” videos on YouTube. It was never released commercially. I finally found the complete song in February of 2025, around 35 years after I first fell in love with it. In May of 2025 I created a video of my own and uploaded it to my YouTube channel so more people could enjoy this underappreciated song. I incorporated skiing-related images as a nod to the context where I first heard “We Rise with Our Dreams,” and because skiing has always taken me where the song’s lyrics go. The lyrics apply to any dream, perhaps yours.
In a 2010 post on his Public Occurrences blog, Benjamin Harris reported hearing from the song’s performer, John Jarvis, who said that he and Joe Henry wrote this song around 1986 or 1987 for a Mutual of Omaha “Spirit of Adventure” TV show about whitewater rafting down the Yangtze River. The song was later used on the “Ski World” TV show and in a NASA film. On the “Ski World” show, the song has a keyboard and percussion instrumentation, which differs from the piano-based version in the video I made. Marty Balin, formerly of Jefferson Airplane and Jefferson Starship, covered the song on his 2008 album, Nashville Sessions.
YouTube includes several episodes of the “Ski World” TV show, where the song appears at the end, most often truncated, and sometimes spoken over. Here are some selected links:
https://youtu.be/aJh-NL1V7BA (starting at 25:51)
https://youtu.be/dajrs1BNWes (at 27:56)
https://youtu.be/xge7pex0Mwg (at 22:56)
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBhRxTWw-EM0KlJWfDHhjYsCockXP7hbC
(seven episodes, including the previous three links)
Additional links:
https://vimeo.com/667518425
(piano-based version of the song on Vimeo, with NASA-related images)https://youtu.be/xPQGNYUyMqo?si=kJH2Ex9OoRlyirLq&t=1959
(Marty Balin’s version of the song, at 32:40)http://publicoccurrenc.blogspot.com/2009/12/we-rise-with-our-dreams.html
(with photos of the song’s writers)
We Rise with Our Dreams
We Rise with Our Dreams
A man doesn’t know
where the changing wind goes
when it’s blowing
his feelings around.
Like home in his mind,
out of place, out of time,
like a vision
unseen and unfound.
A man can’t recall
when he first learned to fall
or the time
when he learned how to rise.
But the dream is the thing,
it’s his anchor and wings,
both his soul
and the flame in his eyes.
Oh the wisdom is reaching
far beyond what you see.
True wisdom is seeking
all the best you can be.
So delight in the journey
with the struggle it seems,
while the spirit is learning
that we rise with our dreams.
A man is the sum
of the living he’s done
and the choices
he’s made in his time.
To the left or the right,
from the dark to the light,
given earth
how he’ll yearn for the skies.
Oh the wisdom is reaching
far beyond what you see.
True wisdom is seeking
all the best you can be.
So delight in the journey,
with the struggle it seems,
while the spirit is learning
that we rise with our dreams.
While the spirit is learning
that we rise with our dreams.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse