Deep Water

"Way out on the deep blue sea

Let the waves just carry me, to deep, deep water

To deep, deep water"

--Sarah Hawker
"Deep Water"

I fell in love with a song last week. I discovered it by accident while searching for another song on YouTube. It's called "Deep Water" and it's written by Sarah Hawker and performed beautifully by Sarah and her singing partner Debra Clifford, The Lonesome Sisters. I fell in love with them too, because when I posted on their Facebook page how much I loved the song, they responded with genuine gratitude. How charming is that? 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_j4UWcX-Hc

I love this song for its simple guitar arrangement and its beautiful harmonies. I love it because it's the type of song I love to sing most: A beautiful ballad with harmonies just crying out to be sung. Harmonizing with other singers is nothing short of a spiritual experience for me. It connects me to another person in a way that I can't put into words. I feel like our blended voices become more than the sum of their parts. Together they become a whole new voice, part of us, but outside of us too. And I have been fortunate enough to have this wonderful experience with some very special people. In just a couple of days I will have it again with my lovely friend, Ellen, who has the purest most beautiful soprano voice I have ever known. She is truly a songbird in human form. And I am grateful for the opportunity to sing with her again before she flies her songbird self off to Iowa for a fresh start in her life.

But there are other reasons the song "Deep Water" spoke to me. So often I am afraid to tread deep water, to spend time there letting the waves just carry me. Give me an oar and let me shout directions. Don't just leave me there to float on the waves. And yet sometimes that's where I need to be. I try so hard to be in control, to be the captain of my little vessel on the wide blue sea. But, while I can chart a course, stockpile supplies, gather together a crew, so often it is the waves that show me where I need to go. I love the first verse of the song.

All my intentions and all of my plans
and all of my maps to far distant lands
Float lifeless across the oceans darkened floor
The broken compass of my lonely dreams
Lays buried beneath a shipwreck of schemes
The sound of the wind on the water is all that remains

The sound of the wind on the water is all that remains, not maps or GPS or compasses. The sound of the wind on the water. What happens when we listen to the wind on the waves of our longings, our dreams?  When we are faced with big questions that do not have easy answers, what would happen if we let go of the tiller for awhile and let the waves carry us?  

There is a beautiful poem by poet John O'Donohue called "For Longing." One of my favorite lines in the poem is:

May you have the wisdom to enter generously into
   your own unease
To discover the new direction your longing wants
   you to take.

Deep water. Thank you Sarah Hawker and Debra Clifford for the beautiful song, and for the gentle reminder that it is ok to let go of the helm sometimes, to let the waves carry us. In fact, it's more than ok. It's what we need.

The Lonesome Sisters singing the hymn, "Bright Morning Stars" on the front porch. Good stuff.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tW00jOvwg3M&feature=related