One of my favorite songs of all time is a song written by John Denver and sang so very well by him. It is a song called Sweet Surrender. My favorite version of that song is on John Denver's most popular album, Back Home Again, an album that has sold over 3,000,000 copies to date. If you are old enough to remember way back then (the late 1970's) you probably know that Back Home Again featured a famous picture of John Denver posed with his first wife, Annie Martell. John was very much in love with Annie, and in fact wrote at least two songs devoted to her. One was of course Annie's Song, which started with the words "You fill up my senses...." John also wrote a song, Annie's Other Song, which included this course:
I'm bringing me home to you
It's all that I have to give...
My Life, My Love, My Everything...
It's you I choose to be with.
I love both of Annie's songs, but as I said, my favorite song on that entire album was (and IS) "Sweet Surrender." As a teenager, I used to sing this song over and over (of course well out of earshot of any living human being!) and related so well to the words:
Lost and alone on some forgotten highway, travelled by many remembered by few
Looking for something that I can believe in...
Looking for something that I'd like to do with my life.
There's nothing behind me and nothing that ties me to something that might have been true yesterday,
Tomorrow is open and right now it seems to be more than enough to just be here today
And I don't what the future is holding in store
I don't know where I'm going, I'm not sure where I've been
But there's a Spirit that guides me
A Light that shines for me
My life is worth the living I don't need to see the end.....
I like the words to this song, but what I loved most was the chorus toward the end of the song where a beautiful alto singer's voice becomes very prominent during the singing. If you listen to the end of the song you will know what I am talking about. I loved that song, but I was only about sixteen at the time it came out. Certainly I did not have much behind me. It was not hard to figure out where I had been because I had not been anywhere, really.
Fast forward in my life to over thirty years later. I still love this song, Sweet Surrender, but a lot has happened over the intervening years. For one thing, John Denver, for all the love he had for Annie, eventually left her. His song of long ago was most prophetic for him, as he seemed to forget where he had been, and had no idea where he was going. He continued singing but his songs were no longer quite so heartfelt. He performed around the world, yet floundered in his personal life and seemed in the end to have totally lost his direction. He was desperately trying to get the world to follow his messages in song, yet he himself was adrift in life. John's audience, perhaps sensing his confusion, had begun to fall away by the time of his tragic death in a plane crash in 1997.
I myself have come to empathize with John Denver, with that feeling of "lost and alone on some forgotten highway..." I have certainly made some mistakes along the way, and I have come to realize that in many ways "I don't know where I'm going, I'm not sure where I've been..." Life, as I have known it for many years, has changed. I find myself listening to this song quite often once again, contemplating those haunting words, and remembering the many times I have driven along so many beautiful country roads in Central Texas, roads once travelled by many, now remembered by few. Many of the ties were broken (mostly by me) yet there are others still intact. Most of all, I find that while there are some uncertainties and some hard times ahead, "my life is worth the living, I don't need to see the end." I listen to John's rich, full voice sing the words, and to that haunting female alto voice that joins the group in the final choruses, and I am full of wonder, eagerness, and at the same time fear, regret, and uncertainty. Most of all, I am full of the desire to continue on.
A person's life is what he makes it, but no one lives in a vacuum. A person's actions effect others immediately, as well as cause ripples in the life scape that continue in ever growing circles, touching who knows who and who knows where. Sometimes the reflections of those ripples come back as blessings, sometimes as troubles to others and troubles to one's self. I find myself now in the awkward position of reaping what I have sown over the years, yet some of what I am reaping is certainly good. Instead of running from it all or trying to hide, I find that I am in the Sweet Surrender mode. I am not living totally without care, but I am living with the knowledge that even someone so lost as I feel at times can still find the old ties and can create new ties. I find that life is still truly worth the living, right up to the very end. And I find that I am wiser in only one way: I am wise enough to know that I can advise no one on how to go, and can judge no one because of the way he or she has been. I still feel lost, but I feel too the Sweet Surrender that John sang about, that releases one from his past ways and points to an unknown, but eagerly anticipated journey full of hope and excitement that still awaits its completion.
I'm bringing me home to you
It's all that I have to give...
My Life, My Love, My Everything...
It's you I choose to be with.
I love both of Annie's songs, but as I said, my favorite song on that entire album was (and IS) "Sweet Surrender." As a teenager, I used to sing this song over and over (of course well out of earshot of any living human being!) and related so well to the words:
Lost and alone on some forgotten highway, travelled by many remembered by few
Looking for something that I can believe in...
Looking for something that I'd like to do with my life.
There's nothing behind me and nothing that ties me to something that might have been true yesterday,
Tomorrow is open and right now it seems to be more than enough to just be here today
And I don't what the future is holding in store
I don't know where I'm going, I'm not sure where I've been
But there's a Spirit that guides me
A Light that shines for me
My life is worth the living I don't need to see the end.....
I like the words to this song, but what I loved most was the chorus toward the end of the song where a beautiful alto singer's voice becomes very prominent during the singing. If you listen to the end of the song you will know what I am talking about. I loved that song, but I was only about sixteen at the time it came out. Certainly I did not have much behind me. It was not hard to figure out where I had been because I had not been anywhere, really.
Fast forward in my life to over thirty years later. I still love this song, Sweet Surrender, but a lot has happened over the intervening years. For one thing, John Denver, for all the love he had for Annie, eventually left her. His song of long ago was most prophetic for him, as he seemed to forget where he had been, and had no idea where he was going. He continued singing but his songs were no longer quite so heartfelt. He performed around the world, yet floundered in his personal life and seemed in the end to have totally lost his direction. He was desperately trying to get the world to follow his messages in song, yet he himself was adrift in life. John's audience, perhaps sensing his confusion, had begun to fall away by the time of his tragic death in a plane crash in 1997.
I myself have come to empathize with John Denver, with that feeling of "lost and alone on some forgotten highway..." I have certainly made some mistakes along the way, and I have come to realize that in many ways "I don't know where I'm going, I'm not sure where I've been..." Life, as I have known it for many years, has changed. I find myself listening to this song quite often once again, contemplating those haunting words, and remembering the many times I have driven along so many beautiful country roads in Central Texas, roads once travelled by many, now remembered by few. Many of the ties were broken (mostly by me) yet there are others still intact. Most of all, I find that while there are some uncertainties and some hard times ahead, "my life is worth the living, I don't need to see the end." I listen to John's rich, full voice sing the words, and to that haunting female alto voice that joins the group in the final choruses, and I am full of wonder, eagerness, and at the same time fear, regret, and uncertainty. Most of all, I am full of the desire to continue on.
A person's life is what he makes it, but no one lives in a vacuum. A person's actions effect others immediately, as well as cause ripples in the life scape that continue in ever growing circles, touching who knows who and who knows where. Sometimes the reflections of those ripples come back as blessings, sometimes as troubles to others and troubles to one's self. I find myself now in the awkward position of reaping what I have sown over the years, yet some of what I am reaping is certainly good. Instead of running from it all or trying to hide, I find that I am in the Sweet Surrender mode. I am not living totally without care, but I am living with the knowledge that even someone so lost as I feel at times can still find the old ties and can create new ties. I find that life is still truly worth the living, right up to the very end. And I find that I am wiser in only one way: I am wise enough to know that I can advise no one on how to go, and can judge no one because of the way he or she has been. I still feel lost, but I feel too the Sweet Surrender that John sang about, that releases one from his past ways and points to an unknown, but eagerly anticipated journey full of hope and excitement that still awaits its completion.
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