The Water is Wide - Adaptation

9/7/13 - After listening to "The Water is Wide" sung by Joan Baez and the Indigo Girls(link below) , I had an idea to adapt this for church. Maybe FROG, our youth choir, could sing it. What do you think? My version follows the lyrics from the version sung by the Indigo Girls and Joan Baez.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uCehZkO7Fw

The Water is Wide
Indigo Girls and Joan Baez version
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uCehZkO7Fw

The water is wide
I can’t cross o’er
And neither I have wings to fly
Give me a boat that can carry two
And both shall row
My love and I

 Love is Gentle
And love is kind
It’s gaze a jewel
When first it’s new
But love grows old and waxes cold
And fades away
Like the morning dew

Music interlude

There is a ship
She sails the sea
She’s loaded deep
As deep can be
But not as deep as the love im in
I know not how
I’ll sink or swim

The water is wide
I can’t cross o’er
And Neither I have wings to fly
Give me a boat that can carry two
And both shall row,
My love and I

And both shall row,
My love and I.

The Water is Wide - lyrics adapted by Teri VanLieshout

The water is wide, I can't cross o'er (alt: o-ver)
And nor have I the wings to fly   (alt: And neither I have wings to fly)
Give me a boat that can carry two
And both shall row, Jesus and I.

A ship there is, and she sails the seas. (alt: There is a ship, and she sails the sea.)
She's loaded deep, as deep can be
But not as deep as the love I'm in
And I know not if I sink or swim (alt: I know not if I'll sink or swim).

And sink or swim, I'll be with my Lord
All one in Christ, the whole world o'er
From skin & bones, to the spirit bare
One in Him means the veil's not there.

Lord wipe the clay off of my eyes
Help me to trust, it's you and I
held in this boat, where both we row
I'm never lost, forever home.

The water is wide, I can't cross o'er (alt: o-ver)
And nor have I the wings to fly   (alt: And neither I have wings to fly)
Give me a boat that can carry two
And both shall row, Jesus and I.

Hammer and a Nail

because sometimes I spend too much time in my head.. ;-)

lyrics by Emily Saliers  of the Indigo Girls

Clearing webs from the hovel
a blistered hand on the handle of a shovel
I've been digging too deep, I always do.
I see my face on the surface
I look a lot like narcissus
A dark abyss of an emptiness
Standing on the edge of a drowning blue.
I look behind my ears for the green
Even my sweat smells clean
Glare off the white hurts my eyes
Gotta get out of bed get a hammer and a nail
Learn how to use my hands, not just my head
I think myself into jail
Now I know a refuge never grows
From a chin in a hand in a thoughtful pose
Gotta tend the earth if you want a rose.
I had a lot of good intentions
Sit around for fifty years and then collect a pension,
Started seeing the road to hell and just where it starts.
But my life is more than a vision
The sweetest part is acting after making a decision
I started seeing the whole as a sum of its parts.
My life is part of the global life
I'd found myself becoming more immobile
When I'd think a little girl in the world can't do anything.
A distant nation my community
A street person my responsibility
If I have a care in the world I have a gift to bring.

Strange Fire

Full texts are below the paralells listed:

The Indigo Girls write: mercenaries of the shrine, who are you to speak for god? with haughty eyes and lying tongues and hands that shed innocent blood. who delivered you the power to interpret calvary? you gamble away our freedom to gain your own authority.

From Proverbs 6:
16 There are six things the LORD hates,
seven that are detestable to him:

17 haughty eyes,
a lying tongue,
hands that shed innocent blood,

18 a heart that devises wicked schemes,
feet that are quick to rush into evil,

19 a false witness who pours out lies
and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers.


Lyrics from Strange Fire by The Indigo Girls

strange fire
i come to you with strange fire, i make an offering of love, the incense of my soil is burned by the fire in my blood. i come with a softer answer to the questions that lie in your path. i want to harbor you from the anger, find a refuge from the wrath.

this is a message of love. love that moves from the inside out, love that never grows tired. i come to you with strange fire.

mercenaries of the shrine, who are you to speak for god? with haughty eyes and lying tongues and hands that shed innocent blood. who delivered you the power to interpret calvary? you gamble away our freedom to gain your own authority.

find another state of mind. grab hold. strange fire burns with the motion of love.

when you learn to love yourself, you will dissolve all the stones that are cast, you will learn to burn the icing sky and to melt the waxen mask. yes, to have the gift of true release, this is a peace that will take you higher. i come to you with my offering., i bring you strange fire.

this is a message of love. love that moves from the inside out, love that never grows tired. i come to you with strange fire.

Proverbs 6 (New International Version)

Proverbs 6
Warnings Against Folly
1 My son, if you have put up security for your neighbor,
if you have struck hands in pledge for another,
2 if you have been trapped by what you said,
ensnared by the words of your mouth,

3 then do this, my son, to free yourself,
since you have fallen into your neighbor's hands:
Go and humble yourself;
press your plea with your neighbor!

4 Allow no sleep to your eyes,
no slumber to your eyelids.

5 Free yourself, like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter,
like a bird from the snare of the fowler.

6 Go to the ant, you sluggard;
consider its ways and be wise!

7 It has no commander,
no overseer or ruler,

8 yet it stores its provisions in summer
and gathers its food at harvest.

9 How long will you lie there, you sluggard?
When will you get up from your sleep?

10 A little sleep, a little slumber,
a little folding of the hands to rest-

11 and poverty will come on you like a bandit
and scarcity like an armed man. [a]

12 A scoundrel and villain,
who goes about with a corrupt mouth,

13 who winks with his eye,
signals with his feet
and motions with his fingers,

14 who plots evil with deceit in his heart—
he always stirs up dissension.

15 Therefore disaster will overtake him in an instant;
he will suddenly be destroyed—without remedy.

16 There are six things the LORD hates,
seven that are detestable to him:

17 haughty eyes,
a lying tongue,
hands that shed innocent blood,

18 a heart that devises wicked schemes,
feet that are quick to rush into evil,

19 a false witness who pours out lies
and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers.

This is my Song

This beautiful Hymn was sung for us in church today, July 4, 2010, by Ann and David Harsh and AnnEllen and Ken Boettcher. It’s so beautiful; I had to find out more.

The following are the lyrics listed in our United Methodist Hymnal (#437). Music by Jean Sibelius (1899) and Words adapted by Lloyd Stone(1934). It’s a prayer for peace, here and everywhere.

This is My Song

This is my song, oh God of all the nations,
a song of peace for lands afar and mine.
This is my home, the country where my heart is;
here are my hopes, my dreams, my holy shrine;
but other hearts in other lands are beating
with hopes and dreams as true and high as mine.

My country's skies are bluer than the ocean,
and sunlight beams on clover leaf and pine.
But other lands have sunlight too and clover,
and skies are everywhere as blue as mine.
This is my song, oh God of all the nations;
a song of peace for their land and for mine.

This is my prayer, o Lord of all earth's kingdoms
Thy kingdom come on earth thy will be done.
Let Christ be lifted up till all shall serve him.
And hearts united learn to live as one.
Oh hear my prayer, o God of all the nations.
Myself I give thee; let thy will be done.

So moving are these lyrics. Truly, as we celebrate our own independence, let us pray for freedom and peace everywhere.

Here is a link to an article about the song from Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finlandia_Hymn

Here is a beautiful rendition of the hymn by The Southwest American Choral Director's Association Collegiate Choir in 2006.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCjuxePRyCo&feature=related

And here is a link of the hymn being sung by the Indigo Girls with Missy Higgins
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LD1t6tzbp-Y

Pendulum Swinger by the Indigo Girls

"Pendulum Swinger"
by the Indigo Girls
Lyrics by Emily Saliers

I meet you for coffee
We get together periodically
I got a bad case I can't shake off of me
The fevered walking round wondering how it ought to be
You work in the system
You see possibilities and your glistening
Eyes show the hell you're gonna give 'em
When they back off the mic for once and give it to a woman

I dream like a mad one
Brutal fantasies I catch as catch can
I'm a psychic and a laywoman
I see love and I like to make it happen
What we get from your war walk
Ticker of the nation breaking down like a bad clock
I want the pendulum to swing again
So that all your mighty mandate was just spitting in the wind

It doesn't come by the bullwhip
It's not persuaded with your hands on your hips
Not the company of gunslingers
The epicenter love is the pendulum swinger
She is she is she is

It's fine about the old scroll Sanskrit
Gnostic gospels the da vinci code a smash hit
Aren't we dying just to read it and relate
Too hard just to go by a blind faith
But they left out the sisters
Praying to a father god so long I really missed her
The goddess of benevolence
You should listen to your mama if you have a lick of sense left

Pushed under by the main press, buried under a code of dress
Relegated by the Vatican
But you can't keep a spirit down that wants to get up again

If we're a drop in the bucket
With just enough science to keep from saying fuck it
Until the last drop of sun burns its sweet light
Plenty revolutions left until we get this thing right

Listen on YouTube by clicking on the link below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqPPdj6WqyQ