From the recording Threadbare Songs
Sometimes, the things that I try to bring light feel empty. Communion. Prayer. Scripture. All the sacred practices that ground me can feel like they aren't enough.
Barbara Brown Taylor writes about learning to trust the darkness instead of only asking to be delivered from it. That's what I'm wrestling with in song #43 in the @wildwoodrecording song contest, where the prompt this week was to write a song about darkness.
The chorus is adapted from a prayer in the New Zealand Prayer Book: "Lord, it is night. Let the night shelter me." Not "rescue me from the night," but "let the night shelter me." That shift changes everything.
Let me know what you think and if you'd like to vote in the contest, visit https://www.wildwoodrecordingstudio.com/contest for instructions. Thanks for listening.
Lyrics
VERSE 1
I once caught the sight of something holy
In communion at the opposite of lonely
But I’m falling down, down, down again
Deep into the dark
VERSE 2
I drank the wine and splashed in holy water
And given ‘til there’s nothing left to offer
I’m falling down, down, down again
Deep into the dark
CHORUS
O Lord, it is night, and I can’t find my peace
While the weapons and wounds hold their power against me.
I need rest, I can’t breathe, I’m so lost in the dark
No light can break through not the tiniest spark
But I’m learning to trust what I cannot yet see
O Lord, it is night. Let the night shelter me.
VERSE 3
I’ve tried to pray the prayers my parents taught me
Sacred words fall flat and come up empty
I’m falling down, down, down again
Deep into the dark
VERSE 4
There’s no ritual, no liturgy, or scripture
No potion, spell, or magical elixir
I’m falling down, down, down again
Deep into the dark
BRIDGE
But somewhere in this suffocating shadow
My lungs still keep on breathing, slow and shallow