BEHIND THE SONGS
“Lord Of The Seasons”
FLICKER MY EYES TO SUNBEAMS THROUGH WINDOWS
In the autumn of 2023, the descent of autumn overlapped with the turning of pages elsewhere in my life. For a myriad of reasons, the changing season hit harder, leaving more than a few tear-stained marks.
During the peak of the fall foliage, I had an hour-long drive through the flat Ohio countryside one Saturday morning. I was on my way to a family event of making apple butter, a West Virginian tradition that capitalizes on fall flavors. The annual gathering that year had a gravity to it as it was the first one since the sudden and tragic passing of a family member.
STEADY MY EYES AS FLOWERS FALL OVER
As the colors of the changing leaves continuing captured my attention, I saw the parallel. I am hardly the first to see the changing weather as a greater metaphor for life. But seeing it helped bring dimension to the balancing act I was dealing with.
The vibrancy of autumn continually drew my gaze, but that beauty was at the expense of living things dying. I was beginning to understand how life often carries the same equation.
THE YEARS MAY MOVE FAST BUT NOTHING SHALL PASS
The structure of the song became reflective of the many questions I was working through. ‘Flicker my eyes’ captured the things we see that remind us of the passing time. ‘Steady my eyes’ was the countered command to put worry aside. And the repeated chorus was the answer: rest in the faithfulness of God.
"People are like grass; their beauty is like a flower in the field. The grass withers and the flower fades. But the word of the Lord remains forever."
- 1 Peter 1:24
What Ohio lacks in altitude it makes up for in autumn colors. There’s about a two-week window in which the vibrancy of the leaves are downright magical. It coincides with the days when the daylight shortens and its shadows extend their reach. I’ve always found this time of the year bittersweet. There’s a special beauty of the crispness of the air and the crunch of the fallen leaves. But there’s a point in October where the summer greens are decidedly gone and autumn has settled itself in its place. Without fail, I’ll notice a span of depressive days.
THAT STRETCH AS THE DAY GOES AS SECONDS SLIP BY.
Thoughts on that were swimming in my mind as I drove through the country. Paired with realizing the speed at which life was changing, I felt an internal battle over how to feel about all of it. Life can’t be lived in the fear of change, nor in the denial of it. But sometimes the season you’re in is so sweet that it’s a challenge to not waste it away with the worry of losing the present goodness.
This was the particular challenge I was feeling in that stretch of autumn’s prime. I worried over what the next season of my life would look like, I feared I had neglected to appreciate the sweetness of what had come before. And I didn’t quite know where to settle on it all.
THEY MARK END OF SUMMER AS WINTER ARRIVES.
I came home after the family event and started strumming my guitar, singing words and thoughts as they came to mind. I penned the first verse of this song out of a poem I had quickly written on one of those long-shadowed fall days. I expanded on the prose, finding a chord progression along the way that captured the melancholiness of the moment.
The chorus came shortly after, anchoring the lyrics in the lesson I was continually dwelling on. It felt very simple, but it seems to be a lesson we all wrestle with throughout life.
OUTSIDE HIS REASON, HE’S LORD OF THE SEASONS.
