Yes, I need to sing.  Yes, I’m being drawn to memorize many songs.  I want to spill the words out into the world.  I want people to receive the messages that the songwriters intended.  I want the listeners to see their lives in the music.

Here are five of those songs:

1.  Paint the Sky with Stars

May I be the artist and invite others to do the same.  May I be wistful and give that sweetness to the hearers of the song.

Suddenly before my eyes
Hues of indigo arise
With them how my spirit sighs
Paint the sky with stars

Only night will ever know
Why the heavens never show
All the dreams there are to know
Paint the sky with stars

2.  How Can I Keep From Singing?

A song that fleshes out my need to share melody and words.  “Here’s who I am, folks.  I hope you’ll join me in the music.”

Though the tempest loudly roars
I hear the truth … it liveth
And though the darkness ’round me close
Songs in the night it giveth

No storm can shake my inmost calm
While to that rock I’m clinging
Since love is lord of heaven and earth
How can I keep from singing?

3.  True Colors

I see you. Not just your personality and your life story. I see your essence, your unique flavour of spirit … and I love you for it.

You with the sad eyes
Don’t be discouraged
Oh … I realize
It’s hard to take courage
In a world full of people
You can lose sight of it all
And the darkness inside you
Can make you feel so small

But I see your true colors
Shining through
I see your true colors
And that’s why I love you
So don’t be afraid to let them show
Your true colors
True colors are beautiful
Like a rainbow

4. Angel

There is a place called heaven on earth, where we are deeply connected to each other. The human beings who hurt us and the human emotions which assail us fade in the presence of such brilliance.

So tired of the straight line
and everywhere you turn
there’s vultures and thieves at your back

The storm keeps on twisting
Keep on building the lies
that you make up for all that you lack

Don’t make no difference
to escape one last time
It’s easier to believe in this sweet madness
Oh, this glorious sadness
that brings me to my knees

In the arms of the angel
fly away from here
from this dark, cold hotel room
and the endlessness that you fear

5. Remember When The Music

In some cultures, singing is natural. Folks gather in kitchens or in circles on the lawn … to make music. May that be part of my life too.

Remember when the music
Was a glow on the horizon of every newborn day
And as we sang, the sun came up to chase the dark away
And life was good, for we knew we could

Remember when the music
Brought the night across the valley as the day went down
And as we’d hum the melody, we’d be safe inside the sound
And so we’d sleep, we had dreams to keep

***

There is a purity in the voice

As life stories are told