Irish Heartbeat

This is one of my favorite artists, and my favorite song by him. I’ve put the lyrics below. Click on the first line to hear the song, it’ll pop up YouTube… listen for the lines

There’s a stranger
And he’s standing at your door
Might be your best friend, might be your brother
You may never know
Irish Heartbeat, Van Morrison

A song is a song, a picture is a picture, what it meant to the one who put pen to paper, brush to canvass, is one thing, what it means in the heart and soul of another… what it means to me, the one who’s gently musing at midnight about his life… is another thing… its a window on my soul…

I see pictures in my mind… best way to try and tell you. I don’t see words, I don’t hear words, I see the image, and that’s not enough to get you to understand fully, but to touch it… I see the image, the picture, and then I try to tell you about it… to express it, and it comes out like poetry…

But also, such that I am, I’ll sometimes hear the poetry of others… like Van Morrison’s lyric here… and see the image…

I see a house, on a foggy piece of land somewhere… it’s my house… and outside, there’s a stranger… and he’s not even knocking, is he? He’s standing at my door… I have always assumed that my door is closed, and locked. But it doesn’t say that either. He’s standing at my door. Hey, I just realized, not only has the door always been locked, but that stranger is standing on his side of the threshold… he’s come this far… yet he hasn’t entered in. He’s not a part of my life. Curiosity grips you if you hear him, Van Morrison, say… “might be your friend, might be your brother, you may never know…” fear grips my heart, without thinking, I’ve closed and locked the door, I’m hiding inside here, not safe, just alone and lonely… you may never know… my own ones…

God, my father, Jesus my Lord, my friend and brother, oh could you, would you introduce me around, your family, your own ones, my own ones, cuz they’re your own ones… help me to unlock my door, and to let him in… let my brother in… and hey, there just might be ones passing by, that don’t know what awaits them here, in my heart, YOU wait here… longing for them, to know you, you’ve called me, to reach out to them… for you, to reach them, and grab them from the fire…

And the Lord said unto Satan, The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan; even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee: is not this a brand plucked out of the fire…
Zechariah 3:2 KJV

Oh, to see the stranger, not at my door, but at my table, with a cup of tea, and a freshly baked biscuit or scone or two… warm hearth flickering and sparking nearby.

…now, turn out the lights, invite the Holy Spirit in, and muse, listen and imagine, let the Spirit flow, listen to it on continuous loop until you hear it, feel it in your soul, that longing for your own ones, for his own ones, for our own ones… the lost called ones

Oh won’t you stay
Stay a while with your own ones
Don’t ever stray
Stray so far from your own ones
Cause the world is so cold
Don’t care nothing for your soul
That you share with your own ones

Don’t rush away
Rush away from your own ones
Just one more day
One more day with your own ones
Cause the world is so cold
Don’t care nothing ’bout your soul
That you share with your own ones

There’s a stranger
And he’s standing at your door
Might be your best friend, might be your brother
You may never know

I’m going back
Going back to my own ones
Come back to talk
Talk a while with my own ones
Cause the world is so cold
Don’t care nothing ’bout your soul
You share with your own ones

Oh won’t you stay
One more day with your own ones
Don’t rush away
Rush away from your own ones
This old world is so cold,
Don’t care nothing for your soul
You share with your own ones

Songwriters: Van Morrison

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