Great Big Love Lyrics

All music and lyrics by Barbara McAfee unless otherwise noted.
© Big Bug Music

Great Big Love
By Lauren Anthony and Barbara McAfee
Chorus:
I'm saying thank you, thank you for this great big love
Thank you, thank you for this great big love
I'm saying thank you, thank you for this great big love
Thank you, thank you for this great -- big -- love.
 
Who can explain this great big love?
These (two) souls who found each other on their way
When I ask you pesky questions like these,
You just smile and shrug and then I'm on my knees...Chorus
 
We've got no goodly reason to feel this way.
It seems you just decided to love me one day.
I'd say that we've been touched by a mystery.
Some things in this life were just meant to be...Chorus
 
(Bridge) When we're together, it's food for my spirit
And when we're apart, it's always still there.
Who knows where we're going, in life where we'll travel,
Wherever your heart goes, my heart will be there.
 
She’s growing up and I’m growing gray
We're not even related in the usual way
But even a stranger can look and see
That we belong to one family...Chorus

Turn off Your TV
Chorus:                                                  
Turn off your TV, look around                                  
Green things are growing out of the ground             
Water is falling down from the sky                  
There are lots of nice things a person can't buy.      
 
Turn off the boob tube for awhile                     
You might like the look of a 3-D smile
Real humans have many things the fake ones lack
For one thing they tend to answer back! Chorus
 
Turn off your TV, remember how?
It's the button that you push to come back to now.
It takes awhile to figure out what to feel
When you've been so long away from real. Chorus
 
Turn off the stories that tell you lies
Turn off the ads that make you BUY BUY BUY
There's more out there than you could ever see
Sitting on your couch with your big old TV. Chorus
 
Turn off that garbage, get a clue
There's not much there you could say is true
Time is the only thing that's truly yours
Why would you blow it all by staying indoors? Chorus
                                   
Somewhere Not Far From Here
Somewhere not far from here
There is a song so clear
Inside the silence I sometimes can hear it
Anthem outside of time
Sung without word or rhyme
Taking me back to a place I remember
Song of such beauty
What you bring to me:
Yearning, impossible yearning.
 
Somewhere not far from here
There is so much to fear
The light all around me creates such deep shadows
Mother of mystery
Darkness falls over me
Drawing me deep to the place I must go to
Here, too, there is beauty
What you bring to me:
Learning, indelible learning.
 
Somewhere not far away
Those who have passed away
Witness my living with eyes of compassion
This brief dance in space and time
Drenched in five senses, I’m
holding a living flame here in this body
Life of such beauty
What you bring to me:
Burning, unquenchable burning.

Every Day
By Keb’ Mo’
Chorus:
Every morning, every evening
Every day I, I think of you
The way you love me through and through

When I’m with you it’s just like heaven
You’re an angel holding me
You’re sweet, sweet loving, it sets me free...Chorus
 
In my wildest imagination I could never imagine you
That you would love me as I love you...Chorus
 
It may be winter, it may be fall
I may have plenty or nothing at all
But baby I’ll be there whenever you call...Chorus

Temple of Sweat
My friends and I, we went out walking
To a part of town we’d never been
The streets were dark and the sidewalks empty
And the shadows made a desolate scene.
We saw a light burning in the distance
And we followed down an alley way
There we saw a bright shining doorway
And met a man named Deacon Gray.
He was a bent and an ancient doorman
His suit was white and his grin sincere
He said, “You’re just in time for the second set,
My children, welcome to the Temple of Sweat.”
 
He said, “Brothers and sisters, here’s a call to worship
In a temple of a different kind
Here’s a place where you can feed your spirit
And shake your body till you lose your mind.
Here’s some water, here’s a thirsty towel
Here’s the place to heal your troubled soul
Here’s an extra shirt, you might get wet
When you worship at the Temple of Sweat.
 
We come to this temple to pray
Cry out, “Lord, let us live to dance another day
Keep our feet moving on your way.”
 
The women shimmied and the men were shaking
Moving everything from head to toe
Sin and shame were nowhere to be met
They never show up at the Temple of Sweat
The crowd was frenzied and the band was blowing
Horns that shone like the morning sun
Then there rose up such a mighty shout,
It put an end to any lingering doubt
That where we were was a place so holy
A place that other churches have forgot
The house where joy overcomes regret
Holy hips rolling in the Temple of Sweat
 
Our bodies that on earth do dwell
And the stuff of heaven, not of hell
And God is pleased when we move them well.
 
When we left the place, the dawn was breaking
And the deacon  bade us all farewell
He said, “I’ve lived a long time and it thrills me yet
To see God working in the Temple of Sweat.”

Turning Back to One Another
Music by Barbara McAfee, Gregory Theisen and Catherine Wilson
First and last stanzas from "A Ritual to Read Each Other"
by William Stafford. Other lyrics by Barbara McAfee inspired by Margaret Wheatley’s book, Turning To One Another
If you don’t know the kind of person I am
And I don’t know the kind of person that you are
A pattern that others made may prevail in the world
And following the wrong god home
We may miss our star
 
Turning back to one another
Talk and listen, give, receive
Lending ear to things that matter
Speaking true what we believe
 
We are living one big story
How will you play out your part?
What’s the secret wish you harbor
In the temple of your heart?
 
How can your true heart know
There’s more than meets the eye?
Who and how are you going to be
As the sun travels through the sky?
How does the change begin?
It could be one small thing
It may be as simple as
Talking ... and listening.
 
What is sacred in the silence?
What restores your faith again?
What do you believe we’re here for?
How do you think our story ends?
 
Awake people, please stay awake
Don’t be discouraged back to sleep
The signals we give should be crystal clear
For the darkness around us
It grows so deep.

Birth of the World
Rise up early, taste the day.
The sun will be here either way.
All earth’s wonders in full display:
Bear witness to the birth of the world.
 
The robin’s song, the birds brash band,
The lavish beauty of the land,
Miracles are close at hand.
Bear witness to the birth of the world.
 
Taste the sweetness in the air
Let your sigh become a prayer.
Let joy find you if you dare.
Bear witness to the birth of the world.
Bear witness to the birth of the world.

​Mother Song
Though I have known you all my life
We're strangers in many ways
Although people we don't know can see how we're the same.
Piece by piece we're building bridges 
Between these two loving hearts
That growing up and growing older often tore apart.
How does a girl become a woman?
How does a woman thrive?
These are the questions that we answer with our lives.
 
Things are all so complicated, you said the other day
It's hard for us to get together, but we've got to find a way
Cause being here in your circle is a rare and precious thing
It's the very place I had to flee when freedom filled my wings.
Mama, I've finally grown into you
Or have you caught up with me?
We've learned there's more to loving than the need to agree.
 
I don't really think we see each other till old assumptions die.
In the midst of joy and tribulation, we see each other fly.
You become my hero, and I become your friend
When it seems that we will break apart, we find a way to bend.
How does a love come to flower?
Who's that in your eyes?
These are the questions that we answer with our lives...
 
Though I have known you all my life
We're strangers in many ways
Although people we don't know can see how we're the same......

Truth Bit Me Young
My mouth was too sassy
My pants were too short
My feet hung out of my bed.
The town was too small
My vision too wide
I had too much stuff in my head.
 
My friends were all weird
My clothes were all wrong
So I lived inside those romantic songs
My chest was too flat
My humors too strong
So I found some ways just to get along
 
Chorus:  Truth bit me young
It made me serious, it made me stern
Truth must be sung:
It makes you fall down again and again
until you learn.
 
I tried to be nice
I tried to be cute
Tried to cram myself in a good-girl suit
It worked for awhile
I tightened my style
But then it yanked me up by the roots
 
Chorus: Truth bit me young
It made me furious, it made me burn
Truth must be sung:
It makes you fall down again and again
until you learn. 
 
I steeped in fear
I rolled in shame
Watched my friends all do the same
I looked for something
I could blame
For that deep malaise that I could not name
 
It was -- Truth, it bit me young
It made me furious, it made me burn
It made me serious, it made me stern
It made me curious, it made me yearn
Truth must be sung
It makes you fall down again and again until you learn

Sunflower
I turn my heart to you
like the sunflower
turns its face to the sun overhead. (2x)
 
No one knows why it’s so
That flowers know just where to go
No one knows what will be
All I know is I want you with me
 
We turn like polar stars
Around one fiery heart
in boundless space (2x)
 
No one knows how we turn
No one knows what makes us burn.
The secret bonds between you and me
Are things that only God can see.
 
All around us the world
unfolds her glory
for our eyes to see (2x)
 
Migrating birds.
A child at breast.
The dreaming egg inside its nest.
The sprouting seed
The draw of the tide
Are part of the mystery we live inside.

Been Places, Seen Things
Been places, seen things
Lost footing, grew wings,
Ran hot, stopped cold
Dreamed young and grew old
 
Sang blue, saw red
Lived high, played dead
Broke bread, ate crow
Praised God, let go
 
Chorus:  Saw you see me
Fell flat, broke free
See me love you true
See me see you
What can I do?
But to love you true.
 
Pent up, cut loose
Blew steam, called truce
Cooked goose, bad call
Fell short, walked tall
 
Curled up, slept sound
Woke up, left town
Wised up, stayed true
Held ground, came through...Chorus
 
Been places, seen things
Lost footing, grew wings
Broke bread, ate crow
Praised God, let go.

Simple Season 
I’m calling you for a reason: to wish you a simple season
And hope this time of darkness brings you lightness of heart
 
I wish you the taste of quiet; no currency yet can buy it
Time to dream by the fireside - stroll out under the stars

Chorus: Stars are shining as only they can in such darkness
Peace is waiting in the velvet snow under the pines
 
I wish you a time for being when doing is done and over
Time to be with your family - read a story out loud
 
Let’s give up the lists and “have-to’s” and start up a new tradition
To spend more time than money on the ones we love...Chorus

I’m calling you for a reason: to wish you a simple season
And hope this time of darkness brings you lightness of heart
 
Molly's Song
For Molly O'Brien
She's the voice of the bell, the heart of the lion
A dance of green willow on the dusky breeze
In her eyes, I see the century's knowing
And whatever she looks at, I know she sees.

With truth on her lips and her hands full of kindness
And a wild secret music in her soul
She folds the world in the arms of her loving
And sees in its pieces a beautiful whole

She's walked unflinching through doorways of darkness
With tender strength that travels long
Her face is full of a young girl's secrets
But her life, it is singing a woman's song

Good company for your every journey
Sweet rain to nourish all your trees
Your heart's desires and the grace to receive them
These things and this song - your gifts from me

She's the voice of the bell, the heart of the lion
A dance of green willow on the dusky breeze
In her eyes, I see the century's knowing
And whatever she looks at, I know she sees.

Kite at Sundown
I may go but I'll be returning
Keep the window candle burning
Wind me in like a kite at sundown
With the fine strong thread of love.
 
You hold it always in your hand
No matter how high on my travels I fly,
Wind me in like a kite at sundown
And I will take my rest.
 
When I draw near you I'll shed a tear
And tell you of the things I have seen
The sun on my shoulder,
The birds by my side
And the winds who have moved me to dancing.