no, I'm not going all religious on you

I danced in the morning when the world was begun,
And I danced in the moon and the stars and the sun,
And I came down from heaven and I danced on the earth,
At Bethlehem I had my birth.

Dance, then, wherever you may be;
I am the Lord of the Dance, said he.
And I’ll lead you all wherever you may be,
And I’ll lead you all in the dance, said he.

I danced for the scribe and the Pharisee,
But they would not dance and they would not follow me;
I danced for the fishermen, for James and John;
They came to me and the dance went on.

I danced on the sabbath when I cured the lame,
The holy people said it was a shame;
They whipped and they stripped and they hung me high;
And they left me there on a cross to die.

I danced on a Friday and the sky turned black;
It’s hard to dance with the devil on your back;
They buried my body and they thought I’d gone,
But I am the dance and I still go on.

They cut me down and I leapt up high,
I am the life that’ll never, never die;
I’ll live in you if you’ll live in me;
I am the Lord of the Dance, said he.

that is one of my favourite hymns, in fact XCH and I chose it amonst others to be sung at our wedding; it was written by Sydney Carter in 1963. . . and the tune was adapted from a Shaker dancing song, the lyrics of which are lovely:


'Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free,
'Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be,
And when we find ourselves in the place just right,
'Twill be in the valley of love and delight.
.
When true simplicity is gain'd,
To bow and to bend we shan't be asham'd,
To turn, turn will be our delight,
Till by turning, turning we come round right.


Elder Joseph, 1848

now, until this evening, I didn't know that (the Shaker bit) - 'tis true what they say about learning something new everyday
.

I hope whatever you learned today
will come in useful. . .

7 comments:

Mel said...

:-)

Gonna haffta see if himself can sing it.........

(could prove to be interesting! LOL)

Gordie said...

"'Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be"

How true, how right.

Go eat bunnies, y'all, or eggs or something.

Anonymous said...

And a Happy Easter to you too. C:)

Anonymous said...

Merry Easter!

(Thanks Easter Bunny, Bawk! Bawk!)

Mel said...

Easter blessings to you and yours..

(((((((ILTV))))))))))

Dave said...

Good Monday.

Mel said...

*rubbing eyes and yawning*

G'mornin'..........
It is mornin'......right?

*yawning*