Time and Space for it all...

More than twenty years ago, during a visit to my grandparents’ 280-acre farm in Oregon, I was staying in the old wooden cabin in the apple orchard back by the upper barn. The air was still, the grass carried the last hint of morning dew, and the pond shimmered through the trees in the distance. It was one of those moments when the world feels wide and quiet at the same time, as if the land is both holding you and inviting you.

As I sat there, surrounded by so much beauty and spaciousness, a song began to land inside me. It didn’t arrive as a melody first. It arrived as a sense of being breathed. A knowing. A widening. A soft opening to the idea that there is a larger relationship holding us through all the complexity of life. The beauty, the ugly, and the whole wide range in between.

Looking back, I can see that this place became a kind of sanctuary for my inner world. In IFS language, it became a space where Self was present, and my parts could come forward without fear. The song welcomed my joy, my longing, my fear, my tears, and the quieter, more fragile places that didn’t always have expression. It was a place where Protectors could loosen their grip, and Exiles could breathe. A space where Self could hold them all.

The words of the song came from that experience. They rose from the meeting point between the natural beauty around me and the spiritual truth that has always lived inside me: that there is a Presence that holds us. A relationship bigger than any one moment. A tenderness that waits for us to return to it.

Over the years I have revisited that orchard in my mind many times. Even when life felt busy or tangled, I could still sit under those apple trees, still feel the softness of the ground, the twisted strength of the trees, a still sense the quiet nearness of something larger. The song became a doorway back to that space.

Today, as I share this song with others, it feels like an invitation. An invitation to notice the parts of ourselves that long, and pray, and sing. The parts that fear and forget. The parts that remember and open. The parts that ache for beauty, safety, relationship, and meaning.

We all have these inner landscapes. And when we can meet them within the context of something larger and loving, we can soften into the truth that none of us are navigating this alone.

The orchard still stands, thousands of miles away. But the space it opened inside me is very much present. And this song continues to remind me that there is room for all of it. The light, the fear, the healing, the longing. All of it belongs. All of it is held.

I invite you in...

Lyrics:

There are times in my life when I know

That all that you do helps me grow

There are times in my life when I feel

That all that you do helps me heal

There are times in my life when I can perceive

The beauty in all that I receive

And I long for you

And I pray to you

And I sing to you

There are times in my life when I’m scared

And it’s hard to remember that you’re there

There are times in my life when I cry

I’m so worried and I don’t even know why

There are times when I feel so alone

And I throw myself down before Your holy throne

And I cry to you

And I pray to you

And I sing to you

There are times in my life when it’s clear

That you’ve been here all the while so near

There are times when I understand

You’ve been holding me all the while by the hand

There are times when I’m able to give

And I know that this is how I’m meant to live

And I long for you

And I pray to you

And I sing to you