Feeling overwhelmed by the sense of human struggle for power at my recent 15 year reunion at Stanford University, this song dawned on me like a most welcome dove. I stepped out of a couple lecture halls to catch the words and melody that were brimming in my thought—but as they did, the content of the lectures and panel discussions were also brimming with more of this same gentle and pervasive light that was speaking to my heart in music. The seed of this song was a simple smile shared with a stranger which momentarily dissolved those harsh qualities of ambition and judgment I was feeling troubled by — qualities that might be missing a little of the wisdom which made all things, including us. 

The words:

Meet me under the bright lights 
In plain sight
Where the world can’t see us

Speak the word in a new tongue
One that’s still unsung 
Outrun confusion
When the right hand tells the left what it’s doing

But I’ll duck, and cover, and slip away
If you get carried away
In the bright lights
Where you can’t see me

But I’ll stay as far as I can go
Knowing what I do of the glow
Overcoming the bright lights
Where we can’t see us

October 2021

where the world can't see us

recorded in 2018 with my late husband, Linden Leary Watts III
my mom's favorite hymn
words by Mary Baker Eddy, founder of the Christian Science Church
from the Christian Science Hymnal: 212 

O Gentle presence
Peace, and joy and power
O Life divine that owns each waiting hour
O Love that guards the nestlings faltering flight
keep thou my child on upward wing tonight

Love is our refuge
only with mine eye
can I behold the snare the pit the fall
His habitation, high
is here and nigh
His arm encircles me, and mine, and all

O make me glad for every scalding tear
for hope deferred, ingratitude, disdain!
Wait, and love more every hate, and fear no ill--
since God is good and loss is gain

Beneath the shadow of his mighty wing
in that sweet secret of the narrow way
seeking and finding
with the angels sing
lo, I am with you alway
watch and pray

no snare no fowler
pestilence or pain
no night drops down
upon the troubled breast
when heaven's aftersmile earth's teardrops gain
and mother finds her home and heavenly rest

O Gentle Presence

How We Came to Me and You

Lyrics:

Verse:
Revelation of hope
that I've followed so long
here you are in this scene that plays like a song

Not a meaning is lost
in this tunnel of light
I am loosed from false loyalties 
clean on all sides

Chorus:
I wake up with a smile on my face
my dreams were sweet but i don't need them now
everything's beautiful in its right place
this is the world in love
oh, this is the world in love!
Verse:
My affections unfreeze
I am brought to my knees
overcome by a love so much greater than me

I am lifted beyond
what i yet understand
and I tremble with joy as my heart expands

chorus

Bridge:
don't be afraid
this weight is not on your shoulders alone
you put in the last cornerstone
Life itself is enthroned!

Inspiration sustains
where forgiveness abounds
in the depths of our need is our innocence found

Hesitation relieved
from hostility freed
and I see only allies in the cause to survive

Chorus:
I wake up with smile on my face
my dreams were sweet but i don't need them now
everything's beautiful in its right place
this is the world in love
Oh, this is the world in love

The World in Love

Oh who’s the one
Who won’t succumb
When he’s seen it all?

And who’s the one
Who will not run
Till he’s found a ransom for us all?

And is it just me?
Or is the world getting heavier?
When the only reprieve seems to be
Someone losing his mind
For a moment or two?
Isn’t he a bit like me and you?

And would it offend you to know?
If a man like Job had an eye on you to pray?
What would that say about you?
Weren’t you the one being so good not to turn away?
In what looked like his final days?

Oh who’s the one who won’t succumb
When he’s seen it all?

Meghan Dunn, July 2023

A man like Job

Sweet and powerful song which immediately landed for me.  Grateful for its wings.

"Beautiful Dawn"/"To Mend a Broken Heart" by the Wailin Jennys

Lyrics

Verse:
Is the love from this man that I'm feeling so deep only desperation?
would I be anyone who would give him the time is this exploitation?
Who does he think he is?
Who do I think I am?
Are we here to know it?

Chorus:
I am fully compensated by your understanding
an eternity has passed
I'm right here where we are standing

Verse:
Do I flatter myself while indulging his pride
thinking I can tame him?
A peace settles in knowing everything's fair
oh how can I blame him?
Midst the battle we know only Truth can prevail
there's no opposition

Chorus

Bridge:
I don't know how I can go on
without this forbidden love
it makes me feel like a hero

Verse:
I told you I can't so you told me you weren't even thinking of it
And we're freed to proceed undercover pretending to be above it
And my heart's still confused but I'm seeking the truth and I'm learning to love it


Right Here Where We Are Standing

 Keeping a vigil through feeling overwhelmed, and being moved by a powerfully composed television show I was watching which more or less became a music video for the song "Forever Young"--I thereafter felt that inner focus which bids me to pick up my guitar, when it seems, or is, that I can't do anything wrong with it, because it's just there purely as a means to pick up the inspiration.

The Total Gravity Of Life

Psalm 121

You were the Christ, child
You were the light
How else could we hope
To see things right?
When we were so blind 
To cross that line?
When we were so clearly hypnotized?

You were the Christ, child
You were the light
The son of man didn’t try to fight
But laid down his life
To prove the light
That’s always on everybody’s side

You were the Christ, child
You were the light
And you never took the devil’s side
You didn’t comply or sympathize
Your conscience the straight and narrow line

You were the Christ, child.m4a

Two kinds of ways to be at war
to wage it or to lay down

Two kinds of ways to be at war
two kinds of ways and I'm not suffering anymore

I will do what I am called to do
I am interested in what is true
I will work to keep my conscience free
and know the peace of real security

Two kinds of ways to be alone
to fake it or to never try

Two kinds of ways to be alone 
two kinds of ways and I'm not suffering anymore

We are all but different versions of The One
I will not be afraid of anyone
I don't know just what you are to me
but I know that I don't want you to leave

Oh, this exquisite tragedy
where the guilt in me becomes offense
and letting go is recompense
for your abuse is my neglect 
and your affection my respect
Right side out we can't go wrong
(the truth has been here all along)

Two kinds of ways to be at war
two kinds of ways and I'm not suffering anymore

I'm Not Fighting Anymore

Wherever You Go Be Home

an original setting for my favorite hymn from the Christian Science Hymnal, rose right up through me after a long, sleepless night and a sweet and fortifying conversation with a fellow waiting for the public park to open so he could lay down for a while. stepped into the church, sat at the piano, and there it was. 

Ye Timid Saints (original melody)

Like a children's song for all ages. This comforting and authoritative message came to me while looking at myself critically in the mirror one morning. I was so inspired I wrote most of the song in my head while at work!

Love Doesn't Look At You That Way

Nobody's left out
Can you figure it out?

The circle is drawn
There's no corners at all

Where do the ends meet?
At either end of the extremes

Ends Meet

Not what I am, O Lord, but what Thou art; / That, that alone can be my soul's true rest; / Thy love, not mine, bids fear and doubt depart, / And stills the tumult of my troubled breast.

Girt with the love of God, on every side, / I breathe that love as heaven's own healing air; / I work and pray, and follow still my guide, / And fear no foe, escaping every snare. / 

'Tis what I know of Thee, my Lord and God, / That fills my soul with peace, my lips with song; / Thou art my health, my joy, my staff, my rod; / I lean on Thee, in weakness I am strong.

From the Christian Science Hymnal, 195

Not what I am, O Lord, but what Thou art; from the Christian Science hymnal

We gather together to ask the Lord's blessing, / To sing of God's goodness as year turns to year. / We gather professing Your grace and Your blessing, / With thanks for the gospel that gathers us here. / 

Your Spirit consoles us. We're safe in Your keeping. / When roads are uncharted, Your love shows the way. / Where new hope is springing You fill us with singing; / Your presence delights us with each dawning day. / 

What, then, can we give You in praise for our journey, / When all the earth's treasures were Yours from the start? / We offer our labor, our love for our neighbors, / Our gifts and the worship of each hand and heart.
(From the Christian Science Hymnal 593)

We Gather Together from Christian Science Hymnal

Meghan's Album

"I'll be with thee" as performed by the Jerry Garcia Band

Original tune for hymn 54 from the Christian Science Hymnal. Words by Harriet Martineau

Faith Grasps the blessing (original melody, words from CS Hymnal)

Doesn't everybody want you for their war?
when you don't even know what you'd stand for?
but you know that if you did, you could be brave--
but now they'll bury you in the common grave.
Oh, they'll bury you in the common grave.

Is there anyone who's really found their place?
not running circles trying to keep up with the race?
maybe if there is, I could be saved--
but now just bury me in the common grave.
For now, just bury me in the common grave.

I know I've had my chance.
I don't blame circumstance.
I don't blame you or me.
I seek a whole new scene--

Ain't that where everyone's going, anyway?
Can't take it with you--have no say.
Past our control, it's come what may.

Still doesn't everybody want you for their war?
When you don't even know what you'd stand for?
But you know that if you did you could be brave.
Oh, they'll bury you in the common grave.
It's alright, they'll bury you in the common grave.

The Common Grave

What can you say?

geared toward the kiddos, and those feeling maybe a little tender

Have you ever wondered where thoughts come from?
where they all lead and where you will be?
have you ever wondered how you know you know
which way to go?

daisies open and close with the sun
sheep know the voice of the one they follow
birds return home after months and months 
to the very same spot they begun 
with no map of the way they had come

and just like them 
we know our way
hear a voice behind us say
"this is the way"

have you ever wondered 
if you're all alone
or who's here with you
and knows like you do
have you ever wondered
how you know you know
what's real or no?

daisies...

have you ever seen
a whole cloud of those birdies that sing?
they turn this way and that 
at the drop of a hat
and there's no one in charge to be seen

Have you ever wondered..

Meghan Elizabeth Dunn

Pinned to spotlight

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