LOVE GIVES MORE
Love asks a lot of us we think we’ve done enough
When love will then speak up to say there’s more to do
We give it one more try and love is satisfied
Again we realize what we already knew
Chorus
Love takes faith love takes hope love takes time if it’s to grow
Love takes heart love takes trust that’s for that sure
Love takes all that we’ve got and at times that is a lot
For everything love takes love gives more
Dear Partner,
That’s a song called Love Gives More. Some time ago I wrote in my journal that Love means giving just a little more than we can take. For me that idea speaks to the notion of being loved on one hand and loving on the other, and how those two hands working together can change us and the world we live in. The chorus of Love Gives More starts with a list of things that love takes. Faith, hope, time, trust, sometimes it takes all we’ve got. And then the payoff in the final line for everything love takes love gives more. An attempt to musically explore and explain what it means to truly live in that circle of loving and being loved.
For you the way forward on your Journey toward that Circle of Love was illuminated and became transformational when it dawned on you that dark night that you and everything you were was loveable and loved. You were somehow able to finally accept the truth of that love when you looked into Connie’s eyes as well as when you fell to your knees, closed your eyes and realized on the deepest level what it is to believe you are so loved.
After gaining a foothold on what it means to BE loved, that’s when someone can begin to know where to stand to understand what it means TO love, others and ourselves. The better we understand how to love the more in balance the Circle of Love becomes. It is what might be described as the Call and Answer of Being Loved and Loving.
What it amounted to in your life is something I would describe as a mundane miracle. Each day you became in ways seen and unseen a more loving father, husband, son, teacher, friend.
You and Connie found a new place to live so you could be closer to your kids as they were growing up. You learned you could trust Connie with parts of yourself you wondered if you’d ever share with anyone. Growing up you had nicknamed your mom The Bloodhound because it seemed she was always getting into your stuff. After truly being able to believe you WERE loved, you surprised her more than once by freely sharing parts of yourself with her. Life began to slow down in ways that let you hear better what other people were saying or maybe more significantly what they meant to say but couldn’t.
For thirty-one years you were a good first grade teacher. You wrote and taught the kids songs to help them learn. When the class was learning about dinosaurs you wrote a song for the kids to sing as if they were dinosaurs.
A long time ago I roamed the land never thinking I would cause such a fuss
Nobody knows why I disappeared just where’d I go in a rush
It really hasn’t been that long since you started digging up my bones
Putting all the pieces of the puzzle together is a job you can’t do alone
Was I a mammal? Did you make a mistake
Thought I was a reptile you might want to do a retake
Can you imagine twenty-thousand pounds on some nights getting cold (So cold!)
If I was a reptile I never would have grown to be old (Grown to be old)
At the end of each school year you would invite the parents for a concert of their kids singing songs you had written about what they’d learned in first grade. They loved their Mr. McCoy. I believe even more beginning at the end of 1995 when they were getting the real McCoy.
Now don’t get me wrong, as someone who is both your friend and singing partner, you can truly be a pain in the butt. And like most of us you remain a work in progress, not who you used to be, not who you’re going to be, continuing to do a little more each day to discover who you truly are and what you’re doing here.
In 2000 you gave voice to some of who you were becoming in a CD you called Out of the Darkness containing songs you wrote that reflected your journey, including one song called Take the Time.
I’m just His reflection He’s taken a hold of me
He watches over my children made me the person He wants me to be
I always have a quiet time a place to be alone with Him
I thank the Lord for the strength to deal with sin
Bridge
When I’m feeling sorry when I’m feeling low
Take the stand that woe is me troubles I can’t let go
I stop and try to reason the answer is always there
It’s time that I surrender give him all my cares
Chorus
Take the time and daily come to Him
Bare my soul to one who knows it all
Surrender what I hold inside and drop down on my knees
And listen to His voice heed the call
Our relationship continued to grow. Something had changed sitting together at my dad’s memorial that May day in 1997. Literally and figuratively we added a familial bond to a personal friendship and a musical partnership. While the next few years our singing was mostly confined to music nights at each other’s homes. What we didn’t know was how our musical collaboration was about to reach new heights, how as friends we would begin to explore new cities and even countries, and how that brotherly bond would be further strengthened because in the Spring of 2004 John Paine would retire as a member of The Brothers Four and it was you I would be standing next to on the stage, you I would sitting next to in the car, plane or tour bus, you I would be walking next to in places like Tokyo, Taipei, Seoul, or Bangkok or one of countless cities in the US. You who I would gratefully be giving a nod to backstage before every show.
Love gives the soul a song love gives the night the dawn
Love gives cause to go on love gives the heart a home
Love gives joy and delight love gives a reason why
Love gives the spirit flight love gives its all I know
Chorus
Love takes faith love takes hope love takes time if it’s to grow
Love takes heart love takes trust that’s for that sure
Love takes all that we’ve got and at times that is a lot
For everything love takes love gives more
