Best of Rich 2021

Rich songs

Heard the news today
So unexpected
When that nice man came and told us
Everything was gonna change
Been working a long long time,
now I been selected
I been lifted and directed
To a new life on the way,  and….

I'm getting ready x4
I'm getting ready to go meet the lord

See this bright new world
In living colour,
Everyone with one another 
gonna dance the night away
So I kick my shoes off now
And I'm gonna shake it
Cause my heart must travel naked
On the road I'm gonna take, and...

I'm getting ready x4
I'm getting ready to go meet the lord

I'm ready now 
Cause if you want me Lord, I know that you can take me now
I'm ready now
Just put me where you want me to be and show me how

Half my life gone by
I never noticed
Kept my head down staying focused
On the busy-ness at hand
All the joy I missed
I didn't seek it
Say the prayer and come to meet it,
Follow willingly the plan, but…

I'm getting ready x4
I'm getting ready to go meet the lord

Getting Ready

Written with and featuring the mighty Julia Bloom ( https://juliabloom.org/ )

I’ve been dead and born again
More times that I can count 
From smallest to the largest I have grown
The corners turned, the lessons learned 
but only to forget
In the silence of the falling snow

Summers come and summers go
And winters never end
until the spring awakens us from sleep
But ON beyond the coming fall
I'll never rise again
These bones will be the final piece of me

But oh - feel the life rising and I'm new again
Oh - does it really matter how it goes away?

I been dancing skyward 
with the birds and all the bees
Spinning out the quivering strands of life
Weaving sound and colour til they're free to be released
Miracles on miracles in flight

Inside the gene you never see
but feel at every turn
I'm the one who steers you through the dark
I'm the love and longing
That can bring you through the hurt
That makes the meaning pulling at your heart

Oh - feel the life arising and I'm new again
Oh - does it really matter that it goes 

When there’s a love……
I feel a love that lifts me up and lays me down to my rest
I feel a love that lifts me up and lays me down to my rest

Feel the bees that tickle 
as they nibble at your flowers
Knowing how their kisses share your life
Though the birds may wound you 
as they're pecking at your boughs
Only they can spread the seed so wide

Lovers come and lovers go
and wonders never cease
So we travel wide and travel far
Though they fade and fall away
like autumn's changing leaves
love remains and makes us what we are

Oh - feel the life arising and I'm new again
Oh - does it really matter how it goes away?

New Again (with Julia Bloom)

Nothing quite says “fuck it” like conception
Nothing says “get out” like being born
Nothing says “you're nothing” like rejection
Find your way alone or not at all
No-one says "unwanted" in adoption
No-one says “we’re here for you” like Care
No-one said that thriving was an option
Nothing says “alone” like no one there 

But still I'll rise... take these broken pieces
And inside the fire I’ll forge a suit of armour for my soul
And so I'll rise… rise above… rise above it all

Nothing holds a moment like a picture
Especially one the memory carves in pain
Nothing says “forget it” like addiction
Only to recall time and again
Nothing finds you in your heart like longing
No-one meets you where you are like Grace
Nothing heals a trauma like belonging
Nothing else can put you in your place

And so tonight
I'm shutting out the beating of a heart that only tries to lift me up to let me fall,
But still despite myself
I can't help but wonder if another mother's love could be the healing of us all
And so I’ll rise...take these broken pieces
And I'll plant a little garden for the child inside my heart
And so I'll rise, rise above, rise above it a-all
And so I'll rise, rise above, rise above it all

No one says "forgive me" like a mother
No one means "I missed you" like your child
Nothing is so lost you can't recover
Traces that were in you all the while
Nothing means belonging quite like family
Nothing copies quite like DNA
Nothing shines with wonder like a baby
Nothing new surprise me today

And so this time
I’ll breathe into the beating of a heart that only tries to lift me up to hear the call,
And still despite myself
I can't help but wonder if another mother's cub could be the healing of us all
And so I rise
Take these broken pieces
And I'll plant a little garden for the child inside my arms
And so we'll rise, rise above, rise above it a-all
And so we'll rise, rise above, rise above it all

Rise

When the sunlight hits the water
And all the ripples sparkle gold
You meet with mother nature's daughter 
She's a wonder to behold
You can feel the life arising
As the crickets buzz and jump
And all the earth's awake and thriving
And you can tell the time has come 

Chorus:
And when you know you know you know
You just feel what's there to feel
You're gonna go where you got to go
to dream the dream and make it real
You gotta be what you got to be
When you see her there you see
When you know you know you know

And the spirit's there to guide you
And you've woken up to love
You can feel it there inside you
You just have to open up
And the heat is like a furnace
But the water's cold and sweet
Just to see her makes you nervous
Til your eyes will softly meet

Chorus

M8
That love has finally found its way to you after oh so long
Love has finally come and made you it's own

When you roll down to the river
And you hear those crickets play
When you see the gold light shimmer
Off the crest of every wave
Well if you meet her there you'll feel it
The ancient spell re-cast anew
You say the words and know you mean it
No, no-one teaches it to you  

Chorus

You Know You Know

I'm a doctor, in a helicopter
If you wanna step to me
You'd better get a little higher than you are
My warmth and knowledge, like morning porridge
This love bomb is gonna tear right through your life like a motorbike

Though my fabulous air ambulance is flying high
There’s evidence that arrogance is rife
This life can take or can leave you like a wife
And so I'm cutting through your butter like a hot knife

Well, I'm the pilot - high-flying skyward
I could let you try it but
You got to get your little fire under my control
Might dent your ego if you’re watching me go
I wouldn't say I'm a hero but
They are a little magnificent, these things I do

Chorus

We’re only heroes - we’re just heroes, that’s all we are
We’re only heroes - only heroes, nothing more
Everyday heroes - only heroes, that’s all we are
That’s why we fly so high and go so far

Air Ambulance

I can feel a deadness
seeping out and sinking in
Coating everything around me with a
glaze of grey and tin
(And even) though I know it's chemical
A brain imbalance thing
When I'm in the first person
I don’t see a way to win and

Come alive
And let the animal inside me find a wildness to shine out through my eyes
Come alive
going QUIetly, my head bowed in submission - meekly to the night
Come alive
And bare my teeth and show my claws and show you everything, bubbling inside - I wanna
Come alive
I wanna shake off all the shackles that are holding me - live not just survive 
And come alive

I feel my resistance
giving in and wearing out
As all my confident convictions
Get replaced with dread and doubt
(And really) who the fuck am I to try to do it anyway?
Just like every other no-one
I still get a voice to say Come…

Come alive
Let the animal inside you find a wildness to shine out through your eyes
Come alive
Don't go quietly, your head bowed in submission - meekly to the night - no
Come alive
Show me teeth and show me claws and show me everything, bubbling inside
Come alive
Shake off all the shackles that are holding you - live don't just survive
Come, come alive

This road will always roll
Out of my control
Don't you let me slide
Won't you help me try?
Say “come alive”

Come Alive

I know, I know, you'll say I'm doing it again
You'll say I'm giving all my self-respect away
I can't help but follow
I can't help but be a moth drawn to her flame
You know it's really only cause I love to feel alive
Yeah and you know we've gotta make our own mistakes
I know this might be one of them
But I'm not gonna let the chance escape

Incoming call - She's coming over - Somethings coming over me
Just like a momentary madness come to set me free.. from
this flesh and bone - this scrolling phone - I've got this hole in my soul
I know it's stupid but I can't help but believe she'll make me whole
She's coming home, she's coming over - And she's coming over me
Just like a wave that's gonna wash me to the sea and I say
Oh come along, come take me home - I've got this hole in my soul
I know it's stupid but I can't help but believe you'll make me whole

Bleary-eyed I focus on wreckage of the night before
There's clothes and chaos strewn around the room
Here inside my heart I feel the warmth, I feel the victory of you
Shrugging at my nakedness of body and of mind
I see the heaven and the earth that curve around
I can't help but let the moment take me - make me let my feelings out
I can't help but shout oh...

She's coming - oh, she's coming over - And she's coming over me
Just like a wave that's gonna wash me to the sea and I say
Oh come along, come take me home - I've got this hole in my soul
I know it's stupid but I can't help but believe you'll make me whole
So come around, come take me out - you lift my feet right off the ground
You lead me anywhere, I’ll follow you without a doubt, cos
You lift me out of the lost and found - Come take me out of this town
Out into the wildness that all the world revolves around….

When the stars glow over us, 
It’s never hopeless
Heaven's close enough for me 

Incoming call - She's coming over - Somethings coming over me
Just like a momentary madness come to set me free.. from
this flesh and bone - this scrolling phone - I've got this hole in my soul
I know it's stupid but I can't help but believe you'll make me whole
She's coming home - She's coming over - And she's coming over me
Just like a wave that's gonna wash me to the sea and I say
Oh come along - come take me home - I've got this hole in my soul
I know it's stupid but I can't help but believe you'll make me whole

I Know It's Stupid

Come - all you tired ones
Let yourself be held
Let yourself be welcomed 

Meet me in the presence of the moment
Meet me in the flowing of the stream
Meet me as you fold into your own mind
Meet me as you wake into the dream

Come - all you lonely ones 
Let yourself be seen (/ known)
Let yourself be welcomed (/ open)

Meet me in the moment ever flowing
Meet me at the sinking of the sun
Meet me as the other's arms enfold you
Meet me in the presence of the one

Come - all you shining suns
Let yourself be bright
Let yourself be radiant
Come - all you shining ones
Let out all your light
Play in any way you want

Meet me in the dazzle of the noon time
Meet me as the sunlight fades away
Meet me in the quiet of the moonlight
Meet me at the breaking of the day

Come - all you tired ones
Let yourself be held
Let yourself be welcomed

Song For The Tired

Come sit quietly now, and do what you're told
There's no-one to hear you - there's no-one to hold
No-one to hold a space to let your fears unfold
So you sit quietly now and do what you're told

Ink and paper - black and white
No-one's coming to save you - no end in sight
And no-one's gonna come make it all alright 
So you sit quietly now, keep it all inside

Sit quietly now, and do what you're told
There's no-one to hear you
There's no-one to hold
No-one to hold a space to let the fear unfold
So you sit quietly now and do what you're told

Thoughts so ugly, who could love me,
Made your bed now sleep in it
Tears are running down my bloody face
Starving hungry, must be some way
I can let you, help me out,
Let your kindness soften my disgrace

Everything that brought me to your knees
showed me only what I had to see
it turned you into who I’m meant to be
Every river runs into sea

And you can sit quietly now - you're held and safe
There's love all around you now
No price to pay
And now you've made it through the darkness to the day
You can sit quietly now - you found your way

New Again (with Julia Bloom)

Rich Waring