Monday's Mourning Ministry
These Arms of Mine
~Otis Redding
~with Revised Lyrics for Grieving Parents
On Friday's Faith this week, I shared a poem expressing Tommy's laments about longing to hold our daughter in his arms again. The sentiments from the poem culminated into the final sentiment as Tommy was listening to Otis Redding's impassioned rendition of his spontaneously created song, "These Arms of Mine." When Tommy shared his thoughts with me, I teared up, and then the tears began to flow...
We wanted to share this very familiar song with all of you even though we are sure you too have heard it many times. But we have changed some of Otis's lyrics as his were crooned more in the context of romantic love while ours are wailed from out the depths of our broken hearts which house the desperate and longing love we feel for our-precious-child-who-is-not-here.
As you replace Otis's words with ours, it is our hope you will picture your own dear child, and use the very soulful groaning of Otis along with the words of a parent's wail of genuine love that has been forced to go "unrequited."
“Because, if you could love someone,
and keep loving them, without being loved back . . .
then that love had to be real.
It hurt too much to be anything else.”
“When I talk about unrequited love,
most of you probably think about romantic love,
but there are many other kinds of love that are not adequately returned,
if they are returned at all.
An angry adolescent may not love her mother back as her mother loves her;
an abusive father doesn't return the innocent open love of his young child.
But grief is the ultimate unrequited love.
However hard and however long we love someone who has died,
they can never love us back.
At least that is how it feels...”
~~~~~
These Arms of Mine
~Otis Redding
~with Bereaved Parents' lyrics
Revised Lyrics for Grieving Parents:
These arms of mine
They are lonely, lonely and feeling blue
These arms of mine
They are yearning, yearning from missing you.
And if God would let them hold you
Oh, how grateful I will be
These arms of mine
They are burning, burning from missing you
These arms of mine
They are wanting, wanting to hold you
And if God would let them hold you
Oh, how grateful I will be
Dear God, dear God, oh please please
Just let me hold her, just let me hold her, oh
I'm grieving my baby, my baby who had to leave me, oh
I long to wrap my loving arms around, (around my baby) and hold her tight
O I...I..I...need... I need my baby near me,
O I need to hold, O Lord to hold... Dear Lord, I need to hold... my baby so tight.
~~~~~
Original Lyrics
These arms of mine
They are lonely, lonely and feeling blue
These arms of mine
They are yearning, yearning from wanting you
And if you would let them hold you
Oh, how grateful I will be
These arms of mine
They are burning, burning from wanting you
These arms of mine
They are wanting, wanting to hold you
And if you would let them hold you
Oh, how grateful I will be
Come on, come on baby
Just be my little woman, just be my lover, oh
I need me somebody, somebody to treat me right, oh
I need your woman's loving arms to hold me tight
And I...I...I need...I need your...I need your tender lips
Video: http://youtu.be/K-FQL-tJ3ic
Pics, thanks to Grieving Mothers
Quotes, thanks to goodreads.com
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