A Song, A Moment, A Light

Copyright © 2020

by Ralph F. Couey

I've been in a kind of dark place, as regular readers of this blog may have noted.  The reasons for this are perhaps no different than the burdens many of you have borne in recent months.  Yes, the long isolation of this pandemic along with everything else that has been on the news has taken its toll.  But along with that is that for the first time, when I look to the future, I don't see a path.  Lately, that view has become like a tunnel, one without the reassuring light at the other end.

Our situation here is fluid, governed by considerations far beyond anyone's ability to influence or alter.  I've never liked living on an island, and while Hawai'i may seem to be paradise to others, to me it is feeling more and more like a prison.

I have always had that itchy foot, the desire to explore; to see what lay beyond the next hill. Or the far horizon.  In my past are a lot of journeys beyond the horizon, and while I still am not sure what exactly I was searching for, I nevertheless found the quest deeply satisfying.  But here, every journey ends at a rocky shore, beyond which stretches the endless blue ocean and a horizon that lies tantalizingly, frustratingly out of reach.

Today though, in the midst of this funk, I heard a song.

I listen to a lot of traditional Irish music and on one of my streaming services, this song, called "Homeward Bound," broke through.  Peter Hollens, an American tenor is the performer, backed by a high school choir.  It's hard to understand how, through the blizzard of input received every day, one tune, one sound, one set of lyrics seems to grab one by the lapels, demanding attention.  But I learned enough that when something grabs my heart like this, there's a really good reason.

The lyrics, written by Marta Keen Thompson, speak of one who feels the pull to leave, to follow a dream.  In the parting, if that person is set free, the promise is made to return.  I was on my regular walk when this song poured out of my earbuds.  By the time the chorus was reached, tears were streaming down my face.  My heart, which had been feeling confined, broke out of its prison and for the first time in a while, my spirit soared.

I can only describe that moment as a healing, and I know that God sent that song to me for that purpose.  Tonight as I write this, I am at peace, a state that has lately been elusive.  I guess the best part is knowing that I don't have to get on a plane and fly somewhere to find this peace.  I only needed to listen to my heart and find the message which was placed there.  

I hope you will follow the link and listen to the song.  I don't know if it will touch you like it did me.  But if it does, and you find a healing peace there, then I'm glad we found each other in the same place.

I'm not any longer going to let the anger of others crush my spirit.  The anger of one becomes the anger of many.  But by the same token, the joy of one can become the joy of many.  I have a responsibility -- and a right -- to live in that place of joy.  I also have the need to share that joy with others.  

Today, I returned home to peace.  I intend to stay for awhile, so if you seek me, there I will be.

In the quiet, misty morning

When the moon has gone to bed

When the sparrows stop their singing

and the sky is clear and red

When the summer's ceased its gleaming

When the corn is past its prime

When adventure's lost its meaning

I'll be homeward bound in time

Bind me not to the pasture

Chain me not to the plow

Set me free to find my calling

And I'll return to you somehow.

If you find it's me you're missing

If you're hoping I'll return

To your thoughts I'll soon be list'ning

In the road I'll stop and turn

Then the wind will set me racing

As my journey nears its end

And the path I'll be retracing

As I'm homeward bound again

Bind me not to the pasture

Chain me not to the plow

Set me free to find my calling

And I'll return to you somehow