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SDI Membership Moments: “In my life, I love you more” << Previous Next >>
Guest author: liz Budd Ellmann, MDiv
Have you ever had a song arrive during contemplative practice, and it sticks around for a while? Do you remember the simple tune and lyric by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, “In my life, I love you more”?
This tune came to me the week of the tragic violence in Tucson, Arizona, USA, and has emerged repeatedly since then. As I learn of personal tragedies in my friends’ lives and witness violent struggles in Tunisia and Egypt, the song beckons me gently to notice love in the midst of the specifics and beyond.
I am not alone in discovering the potency of this Beatles song. Read the lyrics, and then the stories of how others’ have encountered them:
There are places I’ll remember
All my life though some have changed
Some forever not for better
Some have gone and some remain
All these places have their moments
With lovers and friends I still can recall
Some are dead and some are living
In my life I’ve loved them all
But of all these friends and lovers
There is no one compares with you
And these memories lose their meaning
When I think of love as something new
Though I know I’ll never lose affection
For people and things that went before
I know I’ll often stop and think about them
In my life I love you more
Though I know I’ll never lose affection
For people and things that went before
I know I’ll often stop and think about them
In my life I love you more
In my life I love you more.
• “My favourite Beatles song. It’s the song that opens my bar mitzvah video.”
• “This is the song they played at my brother's funeral. I, like most people, have never really heard it before. It makes me cry each time I hear it because it reminds me of him obviously. 'Some forever not for better' ... I do remember the good and bad. Regardless of what it is about it is special to me. And in my life, I did love him more.”
• “When my daughter was born, she was delivered by C-Section. I was in the delivery room and got to hold her. Once she was bundled up, the Dr. said I should take her out to the waiting area while they closed the incision. I took her out and held her. I sat there with tears rolling down my face and sang this song to her. I thought it should be the first. I still do.”
• “I chose this song for my daughter and I to dance to at her wedding....It perfectly sums up my love for her, and my hopes for her future. She won't know what song I picked until the wedding, but I'm positive there won't be a dry eye in the place.”
Reflect
The transcendent quality to this Beatles song surpasses life, love, and death. Try substituting “God” for the word “you” in the lyrics and a divine love song emerges. This divine love song comforts me and draws me closer to God, to life, to love, and to the transcendence of death to a newer, broader, inclusive love in this life and beyond.
What love songs draw you closer to God?
Which popular love songs orient you to divine love?
How is music a way God is reaching out to you and to the people you companion?
Please share your thoughts on the blog.
01/31,2011, at 19:34
A friend from Tucson wrote me about the interfaith community that has bonded in the midst of tragedy, “The other day at the Safeway [grocery store] site, two dozen spiritual leaders gathered. A member of the Sikh community said it seemed fitting to see people from so many religions together. After all, she said, it was here that a white Catholic Republican judge was killed while coming to greet a Democratic Jewish congresswoman, whose life was saved first by a Mexican-American college student intern, (his fifth day of intern duty) and later by an Asian-American combat surgeon, and who were all honored when an African-American president came to share their contributions. ‘It is just very impactful to see all these groups working together in harmony like this.’” Love like this builds communities and celebrates the possibility of a greater love than we can yet imagine.
02/01,2011, at 11:55
Just listened to Hymns from the 49th Parallel by k.d. Lang. Pretty much anything she sings is gorgeous, but the songs "The Valley" by Jane Siberry and k.d.'s own "Love is Simple" are soaring! Her renditions of Young's "Helpless", Cohen's "Hallelujah" and Mitchell's "A Case of You" are unsurpassed and spiritually deep.
02/01,2011, at 12:08
It's beautiful here today. There has been so much damp and fog the last couple days that I guess that’s why today is truly a sight. The sun fills my heart with joy. It makes me want to sing....and I'm wondering, as I read about music and lyrics of love, where did music come from anyway? Today’s sun seems musical to me and I remember that feeling as a little girl. On my grandparents farm I loved to watch the birds play in the air above me, I loved to watch the horses and cows run across the field, but I especially loved to get down on my hands and knees near the tiny creek which ran through their land to listen to the sound of the water falling onto the rocks. I loved the sight of the water skippers darting away so quickly, only to come back a second later as if they were teasing you to catch them. The wonder of periwinkles living on the mossy rocks underwater, moving so slowly you couldn’t tell when they moved at all...all this remembering feels like music inside. Does music come from the beauty around us? Does it pour in through our eyes splashing on our hearts like the water in the creek falling onto the rocks below? Is that the sound of music? Where does music come from? Maybe it comes from touching the moments of glory and awe that surround us everyday and which we often take for granted. We have written many wonderful melodies in our history, yet is the true music, that which is made by our Creator found within our heart? Is that the beginning of His love song to us?
02/01,2011, at 14:26
Two of my favorite songs are Karen Drucker's THERE IS ONLY LOVE and also WE ARE ALL ANGELS..The words for each of these can truly bring me into touch with who I am and the truth about my/our lives....
02/01,2011, at 18:14
I hear Penelope's song as a love song from the Divine to me. I often play it during my prayer time and it brings me to tears: I will hold your hear in mine, till you come to me. It is so powerful that I created two pieces of art from it - which I would share if I had photos of them! Here are the full lyrics and I believe you can listen on-line: Penelope's Song : By Loreena McKennitt Now that the time has come Soon gone is the day There upon some distant shore You'll hear me say Long as the day in the summer time Deep as the wine dark sea I'll keep your heart with mine. Till you come to me. There like a bird I'd fly High through the air Reaching for the sun's full rays Only to find you there And in the night when our dreams are still Or when the wind calls free I'll keep your heart with mine Till you come to me Now that the time has come Soon gone is the day There upon some distant shore You'll hear me say Long as the day in the summer time Deep as the wine dark sea I'll keep your heart with mine. Till you come to me Now that the time has come Soon gone is the day There upon some distant shore You'll hear me say Long as the day in the summer time Deep as the wine dark sea I'll keep your heart with mine. Till you come to me. There like a bird I'd fly High through the air Reaching for the sun's full rays Only to find you there And in the night when our dreams are still Or when the wind calls free I'll keep your heart with mine Till you come to me Now that the time has come Soon gone is the day There upon some distant shore You'll hear me say Long as the day in the summer time Deep as the wine dark sea I'll keep your heart with mine. Till you come to me
02/01,2011, at 23:25
So much of the Beatles' music is in its own way sacred. I have played "Let It Be" and "The Two of Us (on our way home)" both in retreats and in one-one spiritual companioning. "Eleanor Rigby" portrays the existential loneliness of our times. A chaplain suggested you can do a "spiritual life assessment" by asking a person what's their favorite love song? For me, "The Shadow of Your Smile (when you are gone, will color all my days and wake the dawn)" from the movie The Sandpiper* speaks to me of the presence of God in absence, the soul's dark night. "In My Life I Love You More" speaks of "places I'll remember" - holy places like Iona but also like Tucson and the place you were when you heard about 9/11. I can "imagine" playing "In My Life..." with a spiritual companion if appropriate. *starring Richard Burton & Elizabeth Taylor
02/02,2011, at 17:02
Music keeps me going! Thank you for the reminder. God Bless you!
02/02,2011, at 23:58
I want to know what love is I want you to show me. is the song that speaks of my longing for God.
02/03,2011, at 08:47
When my son got married, he surprised me my selecting this song for our mother/groom dance. I don't know if there was a dry eye in the room because mine were so filled with tears of love and gratitude that I couldn't see. Words are one doorway into the sacred and when put to music, as in this song, the love and grace can be transformational.
02/07,2011, at 17:20
In more than one formal prayer moment the song "I will follow You" has come into mind and heart. When I think about this song I sense it reflects my desire of oneness with Christ and adds rhythm to my life. Clara Delpín
02/09,2011, at 20:35
Elton John's - The Circle of Life and so many, many Elvis Presley songs especially his gospel music. Music for me is a way for God to reach us through the inspiration of other people reminding us that love and life are precious. Music teaches us by reaching into our souls and drawing out the emotions that speak to our minds and touch our hearts. For me, the circle of life orients me to how God moves us through the phases of life and love; embracing us in our circumstances and preparing us to make a way for the next generation while we embrace our own deep music in the song of life.