lenten journal: songs in the key of lent
This has been one of those days when I have had music running through my head. It has also been a day of doing -- of carrying out quotidian tasks -- rather than reading or contemplating. So I offer songs tonight -- a Lenten soundtrack of sorts -- drawn from songs that have spoken to me or spoken for me over the last several months. In the spirit of the Psalms, these are songs than name feelings more than anything else, to acknowledge what is difficult and painful alongside of all that gives us hope.
First, a song of lament. Patty Griffin's "Wild Old Dog," which begins:
God is a wild old dogsomeone left out on the highway . . .
What I hear in the song is the ache of grief. (She wrote the album after the death of her father.)
it's lonely on the highwaysometimes a heart can turn to dustget whittled down to nothingbroken down and crushedin with the bones ofwild old dogswild old dogs
The honesty of our lament opens our hearts to the possibility of comfort and even healing. I love this song.
I suppose there are several Indigo Girls’ songs that would make my all-time playlist, but one to which I keep returning in these days is “All That We Let In.”
I pass the cemetery, walk my dog down there I read the names in stone and say a silent prayerwhen I get home, you're cooking supper on the stoveand the greatest gift of life is to know love
Mavis Staples has so many songs of faith and feeling that we could rewrite the Psalms using just her stuff. Here she is singing Jeff Tweedy’s song, “You’re Not Alone.” (He’s the one playing guitar.) I find deep encouragement here.
a broken dreama broken heartisolated and afraidopen up this is a raidI wanna get it through to youyou're not alone
John David Souther has written his fair share of the songs that make up the soundtrack of my life. This one, however, I didn’t know until just a couple of years ago: "Little Victories"
little victories I know you need one little victories of the heart
they say that these are not the best of times but they're the only times I've ever known and I believe there is a time for meditation in cathedrals of our own
I’ll let Billy Joel’s “Summer Highland Falls” finish today’s playlist. The words in the first verse I found meaningful at several different stages of my life. I love that this video is a fresh recording. Both he and the song have aged fairly well.
The path through Lent is one of focus and faith, of trust and temerity, of wonder and weariness. It’s good to have songs to sing as we go.
Peace,
Milton
