(from the 2020 songbook, Lake of Mercy: Songs for Healing)
May What Is Right for Every Season
1. As the lilacs shine in May
And the corn swells in July
As the branches of October sag with apples.
May what is right for ev’ry season come to you
And each letting go that follows fall in beauty.
2. As the puppy full of spring
Goes abounding for the ball
Till the day he stiffly lies beside the rocker …
3. As the mother holds her child
Till the child is up and gone
Then returns to hold the mother in her failing …
4. In the years of quiet loss
In the strangeness left behind
In the longing for those things that never happened
May what is right for ev’ry season come to you
And each letting go that follows fall in beauty
Words and music by Bret Hesla.
© 2015 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.
When my mother-in-law was in her fourth or fifth year of dementia, my wife Jaimie, who was doing a lot of daily support and caregiving, said, “Oh Bret, can’t you write a song about how awful this is?”
I think the answer to that question is, “No.” But here’s what I wrote. Perhaps it can help, if you find yourself or a friend in a difficult place.