This week’s *8 Things assignment from Magpie Girl is to list 8 songs that speak to my Soul, that connect me to the Divine.

Show the Way – David Wilcox (sung at our wedding in 1995)

Look, if someone wrote a play just to glorify
What’s stronger than hate, would they not arrange the stage
To look as if the hero came too late, he’s almost in defeat
It’s looking like the Evil side will win, so on the Edge
Of every seat, from the moment that the whole thing begins
It is…

Love who makes the mortar
And it’s love who stacked these stones
And it’s love who made the stage here
Although it looks like we’re alone
In this scene set in shadows
Like the night is here to stay
There is evil cast around us
But it’s love that wrote the play…
For in this darkness love can show the way

Duck and Cover – Glen Phillips

Everybody here’s got a story to tell
Everybody’s been through their own hell
There’s nothing too special about getting hurt
Getting over it, that takes the work

Cowboy Take Me Away – Dixie Chicks

I said I wanna touch the earth
I wanna break it in my hands
I wanna grow something wild and unruly

Farthest Shore – David Wilcox

So…Let me dive into the water,
Leave behind all that I’ve worked for
Except what I remember and believe
and when I stand on the farthest shore
I will have all I need

The Queen and the Soldier – Suzanne Vega

Such a beautiful song about such a tragic figure.

Diamond in the Rough – Shawn Colvin (tho I like Jennifer Knapp’s version better)

This song makes me think of my childhood summers at the cottage with my sister, scouring the lakeshore for shiny pebbles and shells. It also always makes me think of my daughter…

You’re shining I can see you
You’re smiling that’s enough
I’m holding on to you
Like a diamond in the rough

Ophelia – Romantica

You tell yourself in hiding, the aesthete is your role
But in all my years I’ve never met a girl who had more soul
You’re looking for your lover and your lover is looking for you

and everything by Over the Rhine