By: Tara Hutton
If you haven’t been introduced to Shellee Coley, it’s about time. Take a deep breath and prepare to be moved. Close your eyes and take her in as you listen to the words of this song.
“Waiting”
I brought in this morning with thoughts of you
And how you’re aching heart is trying to push through
And break out of the soil
And cut away the roots
That no longer offer any life to you
So you’re waiting on your sun
And you’re waiting on your rain
But you’re singing hallelujah while you wait
And you wanna know the answers
And you wanna know them now
But there’s so much truth
That can’t be found
Well I brought in this evening with thoughts of me
And how we’re not that different, you and me
Well I’ve been searching a little longer
But searching always brings some pain
And desperate still feels desperate
No matter what the age
So I’m waiting on my sun
And I’m waiting on my rain
But I’m singing Hallelujah with you while I wait
And I wanna know the answers
But now I wanna know them slow
So I can see my own reflection
In the life I show
We’re all waiting on our sun
We’re all waiting on our rain
So we can hope and we can grow and we can change
And we’re singing Hallelujah
If only but a song
To hold us while we’re waiting…
I know waiting. I don’t like waiting, but I know waiting. I always want what is “next” instead of what is “now”. I want to be “there”, not “here”. I want to be “that” not “this”. It’s difficult to except my circumstances and myself as I am. It’s difficult to except others as they are. It’s difficult to be in the present while I am waiting for the future.
Sometimes the present feels too painful to bear and to “wait” in that place feels impossible. When I feel stuck in the pain of wherever I am, I want to run to the next place, the next friend, or the next opportunity. I make up that “this place” is NOT where I am supposed to be and I need to do something different or, even more popular, that I must have done something wrong to put me “here”. People are inspired when they hear the story of where you’ve been, but they are afraid to sit with you while you’re “there”. But it is “there”, in that place, that is not so pretty, the place that feels dark and painful, where I need others to hold me, stand for me, “get” me, wait with me, and to cushion the walls while I throw a fit. And then pick me up, dust me off and whisper that I am not alone and I am loved.
So thank you Shellee for lending me your song. “Waiting,” tells me you know what I’m talking about. It reminds me that I am not alone. And sometimes to know another has felt your pain and moved beyond it is all there is to know…so “I’ll keep singing hallelujah with you while we wait.”
To hear Shellee’s story behind this song visit www.shelleecoley.com