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about

If I could only have one track on this album, it would be this one. For me, this is the pinnacle, the outcome of all this digging. This song for me is about transformation. Somehow, I found that in the idea of a sycamore tree and the idea of thunder.

This Spring, I have been on many daily outings with my young boys, going to parks and going for walks, simply in order to tend to my mental health. However, unlike in the past, where we might visit a playground, we've been sticking more to the woods and dirt and creeks: places away from people. In this time, I have become more interested in learning about trees. Somewhere, in all of that, I became very interested in sycamore trees.

And at some point that feels like years ago now, my wife took our boys and went for an overnight stay with her parents and left me to have some time on my own at our house. That time for me was a spiritual retreat, something I badly needed after facing lots of burnout from working too hard as a preacher in a pandemic and as a father to my young sons. And during that two-day retreat, I spent a bunch of time on our back porch.

And one evening, I heard the thunder. I don't think it ever actually stormed that day or rained, but the thunder was amazing: the sort of thunder that draws you in and goes on and on. It was a sort of divine thunder, the sort I really needed to hear.

So I never actually spent a night in a sycamore tree, the way the narrator of the song does. But does that matter? For me, this song creates a space in my mind, a sacred retreat and an experience with the divine presence, which changes me for the better, somehow. Or at least, gives me the strength to keep on going.

lyrics

"That night I heard the thunder
As I slept in the branches..."

"...Like a three legged hamster in the wheel of life
Keeps getting tired but then starts up again.."

credits

from Dig, released August 25, 2020
Written by Stephen Yarbrough, May 26, 2020.
Recorded by Stephen Yarbrough, August 5, 2020.

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Stephen Yarbrough aka christianhippie image

Stephen Yarbrough aka christianhippie Indianapolis, Indiana

Stephen is an artist, minister, and songwriter from Indianapolis. He is known both for adapting old hymns with modern rhythms and for creative, thoughtful songwriting. He is also a painter. These days, he spends most time at home caring for his two young sons. ... more

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