Life In Song No. 286, Light Over Your Shoulder recorded Spring of 2022 and released worldwide July 1st 2022.
I’ve been savoring this song since I recorded it back in April… well since 1997 actually. I have forgotten about this song several times only to re-discover it with a certain delight. It’s one of those songs the feels wonderful to curl up to a guitar and sing.
I tried a number of different arrangements but this simple, bare bones, yet full one won out…
It’s a quiet simple song. No chorus. No bridge. Just a yearning to know where we came from, what we’re doing here and where we’re supposed to go… or do… next.
It’s a song about the undefinable, unexplainable, undeniable Spirit that breathes through us all.
For those of us who feel compelled (in the best way) to respond to the world through music, art or literature, theology, philosophy, physics…or regenerative agriculture… there is a sweet urgency to finding ways to do what we MUST do, regardless of how difficult it is to earn a living from it.
Just do it. Begin. Do it freely without expectation of appreciation, or financial reward. Do what you must do. Do it now. Learn what you need to as you go along. The way will open up to you once you commit to the journey.
But first, before you rush off to conquer your world, settle into a comfortable chair, couch or bed with some good headphones and listen to Light Over Your Shoulder several times. Crank it.
Let me know how it changes your day…
– Mark
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Light Over Your Shoulder
| Song # 286 | 8/24/1997. | Tuning DADGBD (just the 2 outside strings that are normally E are tuned down to D)
There’s a Light over your shoulder
It’s a dream. It’s a song. It’s a road
It’s a story that’s been aching
For a quiet moment to be told
You can say that it is power
But it’s power of a very different sort
You can say that it is justice
But it’s not the kind you’ll find in any court
You can that it is peace
But I guarantee it will disturb your sleep
The only way that you can have it
Is by gladly giving it away
It is plenty for the poor.
It is light for those who stumble in the dark
It is wholeness for the cripple.
It is healing for the wounded heart
It’s the promise of a quiet day
In the house where you’re always welcome to stay
It’s the Labrador retriever
Who delightfully is always in the way
It’s an enemy who becomes a teacher
It’s a teacher who dares to be a friend
It’s the lovers who cling to nothing
Because they have nothing to defend
It’s the ruthlessness of compassion
And the cunning of an open heart
It’s the active patience of a tree root.
It’s the sweetness of a conscious fool
It’s thunderclouds on the horizon
It’s the sound of seabirds out of sight of land
It’s the antidote to every poison.
It’s the punctuation of a marching band.
It’s the promise made to Jeremiah
That he was chosen in the womb
It’s the dawn on Easter morning at a certain empty tomb
I don’t know what it is.
There is so much I do not know
And I don’t know where it takes me
But I do know that I have to go…
Instrumental:
There’s a Light over your shoulder
It’s a dream. It’s a song. It’s a road
It’s a story that’s been aching
For this quiet moment to be told…