{Run fast for your mother and fast for your father
Run for your children for your sisters and brothers
Leave all your love and your longing behind you
Can't carry it with you if you want to survive}
{So I'm sailing for tomorrow
My dreams are a dyin'.
And my love is an anchor tied to you
Tied with a silver chain.
I have my ship
And all her flags are a flyin'
She is all that I have left
And music is her name}
{Yea, when this flesh and heart shall fail,
And mortal life shall cease,
I shall possess within the veil,
A life of joy and peace}
{Happiness
Something in my own place
I'm standing naked
Smiling, I feel no disgrace
With who I am}
{Make me a channel of your peace
Where there's despair in life, let me bring hope
Where there is darkness, only light
And where there's sadness, ever joy}
{I'll take your part
When darkness comes
And pain is all around
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will lay me down
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will lay me down}
{And He will raise you up on eagle's wings,
Bear you on the breath of dawn,
Make you to shine like the sun,
And hold you in the palm of His Hand}
The first time I heard the song “On Eagle’s Wings”, I was a little girl sitting in St. Joseph’s church in Cayuga, NY. I remember the way I felt when I heard the song. I listened to the chorus and the words took me on a journey. I thought that God must be a giant if he was capable of holding me in the palm of his hand. I remember feeling small; very small. But small in a good way, like I was just a tiny fractal in a big universe. Although I felt small, I didn’t feel alone, I felt protected.
This past week I heard the song, twice; once on Ash Wednesday and again on Saturday. Every time I hear this song I find it difficult to sing the chorus. I start to tear up and have to look up at the ceiling. It’s one of my favorite songs to sing at mass still to this day. The song makes me feel light, like I’m floating on a cloud and traveling through the sky. I wonder what it must feel like to shine like the sun.
Music amazes me. It has the ability to make us feel every emotion possible. Happiness, joy, sadness, anger, wonder, excitement…
It can instantly change our mood.
Force us to ponder issues we don’t discuss.
Bring us to undiscovered corners of our imagination.
And even make us contemplate our own mortality.
All of the lyrics above are smaller portions of larger songs; the part that I gravitate to, sing in my head and speak to me in a secret way. They give me peace.
The beauty of music is that once we hear it, we can remember it, store it in our heart and carry it with our spirit. Once something has touched our spirit, it has touched us forever.
I saw a story on the NBC news this week about Eric Whitacre’s Virtual Choir. After watching the video on YouTube I felt that familiar feeling. The feeling of being small, but not alone, and knowing that we are surrounded by millions of other individuals and that we are all part of something much, much bigger.
Watch the video, it’s beautiful.
http://youtu.be/D7o7BrlbaDs
