photo by Darrell Lecorre

Song Stories #10
Love Shines

This song has a long and continually emerging story - I will share some of it here.
It was the last day of recording the 'trust...inspirations from taize' CD (fall 2008) when I was in the studio with Philip. We were working on the last song and I remember thinking to myself that I had just used up every last drop of material I had - and there would be nothing left after this moment.  Philip received a phone call then and so I took a break and lay on the floor in the studio and rested.  In that moment, light shone through the window onto my face.  As I received the light coming to me, the first part of the Love Shines song just came to me.  I was so gripped by the simple melody and simple lyrics that when Philip did get off the phone and we had to get back to work, it was hard to concentrate.  So, Philip helped me by recording a few lines of what I was hearing so I would remember it later and come back to work on it.  And that is what I did and how the song became a song.  It became a sign of hope to me that my songs were not yet over and that song-writing days were still in the works for me.  I had dreams of embarking on my own and creating a Love Shines album - but it seemed like a daunting task.
In early March of 2010 I went to see my friend Christina Kautz in Florida.  As I walked into her home, she had all this imagery of stars and moons.  Immediately I wanted to sing for her the Love Shines song, but I didn't have my ukulele and she didn't have a piano - and so I let it go.  Then bizarre moments started to happen!  She was planning on taking me to a house concert with Victoria Vox, who I didn't realize at the time is a uke musician who was flying in for this event.  Victoria flew in a day early and we happened to run into her.  I found out she played uke and she graciously showed her instrument to me and I asked if I could play Christina Love Shines.  Victoria listened as I played and then told me about a Ukelele compilation album happening and the cut off day for entries was in 2 days and she thought this song would be perfect.  So, she asked me to sing it again and she recorded it on Garage Band on her MAC laptop and then we sent off the application.  Love Shines was accepted for this uke album, Song Still Remains,  which came out later in 2010 and thus the 'single' became born which helped me continue to dream about the larger project.
Just before I was to professionally record the single with Philip, my dear nephew Christian died.  I was so devastated that I cancelled the recording.  I just didn't know how I could do it.  But after two days, I realized that Chris would have wanted me to sing and to do my best and to bring the message that Love Shines.  So, I called Philip back and told me this, 'of course you need to do this Cathy.  This is exactly what you need to do.'  So, I recorded this song in the midst of intense funeral preparations and sang this at Chris's funeral.  I will never forget that moment.
So - this song is full of story - joy and heartache.....all of life.

here is an excerpt of the words:

Starlight  
Starllight
Starlight shine on me


Moonlight
Moonlight
Moonlight shine on me


Sunlight
Sunlight
Sunlight shine on me


Source of all light shine down
Source of all light shine down 
Light shines and darkness flees
Source of all light shine down
Source of all light shine down
Source of all light shine down on me