Nashville had enjoyed a month of 80 degree blue skies until that Thursday when I received the phone call saying my nephew was not expected to make it through the night. I’m not making this up in the least — at that very moment it began to rain.
The rest of the weekend was clouded with epic thunderstorms that seemed all too fitting for the stormy events happening a few states away. It was an eerie weekend; my first Southern thunderstorm bloomed in time with my first intimate bout with death.
On the day I heard those words, I penned a few lines about the weather coinciding with the news on the telephone. I wrote a bit about it being a chalkboard gray kind of day that he was too good for anyway. On Saturday, when it was final, I laid in bed for a good part of the day and noted that the thunder sounded like what must have been my sister’s heart. There was a sadness in the roll. It was all very fitting and surreal and too perfect of a storm.
When I returned from the funeral in Utah, I was greeted in Tennessee by the continuing rain and watched Nashville flood in front of my eyes. It was the talk of the town and noted nationally but I couldn’t bring myself to care — not about this flood.
There is room for little space in our hearts and in our heads and even though my city was sinking, selfishly, I had a different storm to suffer.
I’ve been asked if I have plans to write a “flood song” for the devastation that struck that week and my answer is, in a way, I already have. My variation of history. This is my song about the flooding in the days surrounding The Day.
LITTLE LIGHT
by tyler stenson © 2010
The rain spotted the pavement
On the day you went away
And fell in time with the words on the telephone.
It reminded me of my childhood
On an April shower day
And smelled like the kind you’ll never know.
So long Little Light,
It’s raining outside–
It’s a chalkboard gray kind of day.
So long Little Light,
But, since you’re use to shining bright,
It’s the kind of day you would want to miss anyway.
The thunder bloomed all afternoon
In the air around my bed
And I could hear a deep sadness in the roll.
It sounded like the tolling bells
Of a breaking Mother’s heart
Holding on to a Little Life letting go.
So long Little Light,
It’s raining outside–
It’s a chalkboard gray kind of day.
So long Little Light,
But, since you’re use to shining bright,
It’s the kind of day you would want to miss anyway.
I’ve heard the lives that leave the earth
Become Heaven’s gain
And wait to be joined on another day…
So long Little Light,
It’s raining outside–
It’s a chalkboard gray kind of day.
So long Little Light,
But, since you’re use to shining bright,
It’s the kind of day you would want to miss anyway.
Little Light I will see you another day.
