The Friday Fix

Tag: music

  • Home To You – Sigrid

    4 years ago, Claire shared this reflection. Some things have changed since then. And some things haven’t. God, however, is still in amongst it all as Claire rightly reminds us.

    Claire writes:

    I first heard this song whilst I was driving home after work on a damp, dark, cold evening last December. I was listening to Radio 2, a recent discovery of mine. I love the wide variety of different music that is played on Radio 2 – some real good old tunes that remind me of when I was younger out clubbing in my hometown.

    After some research, I found that this song comes from a film called ‘The Aeronauts.’ ‘Home To You’ is a ballad that fits into the narrative of ‘The Aeronauts,’ where two of the characters in the film mount a balloon expedition to fly higher than anyone in history.

    This hauntingly different voice floated into my car filling me with a mix of emotions. The words of the song and Sigrid’s voice moved me to tears. The words really caught my breath…..

    When I don’t know what to say

    When I don’t know what to do

    There’s a room I need to sit in

    Surrounded by my favourite view

    When I need a hand to hold

    Someone to tell the truth

    Would it be okay if I came home to you?

    This song could be about so many things – about moving away from all that you know, experiencing loss or depression, or a change in direction. Maybe going through a difficult and challenging time – whatever that may be. But also having that comfort in a place to go to when things are difficult and overwhelming. But this song could also be about positive and good and taking time to appreciate those good things.

    We have recently experienced big changes in our family. Our eldest son Jack is in his second year at university. He started Uni during the pandemic – it wasn’t a great start to university life. We resigned from fostering after ten years in August last year. This has been a massive adjustment to our family, and we are glad to have left behind all the stresses and strains that fostering has brought over those ten years. Thomas, who is 14, is enjoying for the first time being the centre of his Mum and Dad’s attention. I am being challenged by my own faith journey of being called by God and following that call with all the demands and expectations that this brings with it.

    This song helped me to reflect that when I am stressed and sometimes completely overwhelmed by everything we are expected to do, I just want to retreat from the world, to sit and to crochet. God is my ‘go-to.’ I sit and I dwell with him. I pray. I love to be at home with God. The peace and the hope in knowing God is with me – whatever I go through – his love for me is amazing, breath-taking and overwhelming.

    Sigrid sings.

    No, I don’t wanna keep on calling

    When I’m miles away

    And you’re too far away

    Oh, but if I need you to remind me

    That nothing has changed

    Would it be okay, would it be okay for you?

    I know I can keep on calling on God and he will be there no matter what. He is my rock and my salvation, and I put on his armour every day. I do nothing in my own strength but with God by my side. We are all broken at times in our lives and God can give us the strength to pick up the pieces and to put ourselves back together, with joy and hope in our hearts.

    Jesus shows us by example that it is ok sometimes to retreat in Mark 1 v 35 – “Very early in the morning, whilst it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place where he prayed.”. In Luke 5 again we hear of Jesus withdrawing to pray alone, in lonely places.

    And I see the world so different now

    ‘Cause there’s a place by the sea and that’s my town

    Our faith in God can make us see things so differently, and I am glad that God is ‘my town’ as Sigrid says in the words of the song.

    The words are here in full for you to enjoy and reflect, and I would encourage you to listen to this beautiful song.

    You can find out more about Sigrid at https://www.thisissigrid.com/

    Couldn’t wait ’til I got outside

    Wondering what the world be like

    I knew I had to change my mind

    Didn’t realize it would happen all so soon, all so soon

    [Pre-Chorus] But I see the world so different now

    But there’s a place by the sea and that’s my town

    [Chorus]

    When I don’t know what to say

    When I don’t know what to do

    There’s a room I need to sit in

    Surrounded by my favourite view

    When I need a hand to hold

    Someone to tell the truth

    Would it be okay if I came home to you?

    [Verse 2]

    Mmm Independence comes with a price

    When questioning your own advice

    But I know I’ll be alright

    With an open door, no matter what I do, what I do

    [Pre-Chorus]

    Mmm, but I see the world so different now

    But there’s a place by the sea and that’s my town

    [Chorus]

    When I don’t know what to say

    When I don’t know what to do

    There’s a room I need to sit in

    Surrounded by my favourite view

    When I need a hand to hold

    Someone to tell the truth

    Would it be okay if I came home to you?

    [Bridge]

    No, I don’t wanna keep on calling

    When I’m miles away

    And you’re too far away

    Oh, but if I need you to remind me

    That nothing has changed

    Would it be okay, would it be okay for you?

    [Pre-Chorus]

    And I see the world so different now

    ‘Cause there’s a place by the sea and that’s my town

    [Chorus]

    When I don’t know what to say

    When I don’t know what to do

    There’s a room I need to sit in

    Surrounded by my favourite view

    When I need a hand to hold

    Someone to tell the truth

    Would it be okay if I came home to you?

    No, would it be okay if I came home to you?

  • ‘Detectorists’ – Johnny Flynn

    Tom writes:

    During the Covid lockdown, I rather paradoxically found myself walking far more than I previously did, while at the same time watching far more TV! These two are linked in my mind because one of the shows I discovered during that time was Detectorists, while its theme tune by Johnny Flynn (who has a cameo in the series at one point) rapidly made it onto the playlist that regularly accompanied me on my once-per day walks. This means that, no matter where I go, the programme and its theme will indelibly remind me of the place I currently live – which just happens to be a short journey as the crow flies to where the programme was filmed!

    While the show is, on the surface, about two men’s search for gold, anyone who has seen it knows that really it’s about the treasure that is human relationships – whether romantic or platonic. With a comedic gentleness that many (including me) find profound, Detectorists explores the strengths and frailties of love, and the genuine wealth that is found not in deeply buried Saxon hoards but in deeply rooted friendship.

    It seems to me, as I listen to Flynn’s masterfully-crafted theme tune, that the singer-songwriter has captured this beautifully. Using the metaphor of lost treasure, Flynn sings a song that is clearly a love song – yet anyone who knows the show can easily picture not a romantic love story, but the strong loving bond of two middle-aged men, walking a lane from the meadow to the layby, detectors over their shoulders, and recollections of last night’s University Challenge on their lips. The treasure sung of doesn’t need to be the romantic love we might usually associate with a love song (though the show certainly touches on that, whether in Andy and Becky, Lance and Toni, Terry and Sheila, Louise and Varde), but can also be familial love like that of Becky and her mum, Veronica, or Lance and his daughter, Kate, as well as the many close friendships that the show focuses on – including that of “Simon and Garfunkel” (if you’ve seen it, you’ll know who I mean – and if you haven’t, well, you should!)

    For me, however, the song offers a further possible dimension – and that is of divine love. And, I think, the song works in both directions. Clearly, there is a strong Biblical tradition of seeing God (and God’s Kingdom) as a treasure waiting to be found. So it is that we might see the Detectorists theme as being sung from the point of view of the divine – how willing, we might ask, are we to search high and low for the joy of finding ourselves in the presence of divine love? How far will we go to avail ourselves of the treasure of heaven (whatever we might mean by that)?

    Yet, at the same time, Jesus is clear that it doesn’t just work that way. For God, we are the treasure worth pursuing – whether the sheep lost from the flock or the coin lost from the purse, there is no stone that will be left unturned, no briar left unsearched, no fathom left undived, as God searches for the least and lost who are treasure of limitless value to the One whose reign is both now and yet to come.

    So as I listen, I see the wonder of creation and the beauty of friendship, and I recall the search I have made (and continue to make) in order to know for myself the Love that is beyond all other love, and I rejoice that there is nowhere I, or you, or anyone can hide ourselves, where that Love will not seek us out and find us, and dance the gold dance that is the joy of all Detectorists!

    Find out more about Johnny Flynn at https://johnny-flynn.com/