PDFs: Key to Blessing lyrics | Liturgy
Enter the wild with care, my love
And speak the things you see
Let new names take and root and thrive and grow…
Our 18-month-old grandson was touring wild areas of Washington and the Olympic National Forest the week before last with his parents. They sent us adorable photos of him utterly absorbed in watching, looking, touching, learning the names of every created thing. Starfish on the beach, waves upon the shore, the bark of trees in the forest, snow upon the mountains, whales out in the ocean. Our little word-acquirer walking through nature wide-eyed, learning to speak what he is seeing, to “be the singer and the speaker….”
While they were out west, we were connecting with friends in St. Charles. Two members of the family there, Melody and Micajah, are contemplating returning to Switzerland this fall. Melody’s mother, recently retired, spear-headed for many decades a Forest Kindergarten in Germany. Micajah is the one I would most want to lead me on a mountain trail. On a nature walk, I’ve never known anyone with a more observant eye to discern every creature and speak their names. It’s built in to who he is; almost preternatural. More than once I’ve seen him pick out a four-leaf clover from ten feet away. In another age, his penetrating eye might have cast him under suspicion of witchcraft, but it’s a God-given gift. He’s an embodied answer to Francis Schaefer’s prayer in Pollution and the Death of Man that we might treasure each buttercup on a Swiss mountainside.
And just a few weeks ago, Candace penned a letter to our Turnpike Authority voicing our lament by, and drawing renewed strength from, “speaking the names” of the creatures in our particular place, who live with us on the borderlands where the prairie of the great plains meets the forests to the east.
These several threads interweaving prompted me to meditate on “The Lost Words: Blessing.” This inspiring song accompanies the book The Lost Words (2017), by the renowned nature writer Robert Macfarlane, wondrously illustrated by Jackie Morris. Every nature-lover will treasure this stunning, large-format book. Hundreds of copies have been gifted to schools and hospices all over the UK. The John Muir Trust offers Explorer’s Notes for teachers, educators and parents to download free. The book invites us to recover nature words deleted from the Oxford Junior Dictionary (read the story here and here).
The “Blessing” is the final song on the album “Spell Songs” (2019) which accompanies the book. They released this video of the creative journey behind the album:
Julie Fowlis describes singing “The Blessing” live (above, top) as “always profoundly moving… I rarely leave the stage without weeping. However, it must be said that Spell Songs live shows are also filled with so much love, laughter and pure joy.” That live version of “The Blessing” is released on “Gifts of Light” (Hudson Records, 2023), performed at Birmingham Symphony Hall. Performers are Karine Polwart, Julie Fowlis, Rachel Newton, Beth Porter, Jim Molyneux, Kris Drever, and Seckou Keita. A Spell Songs II album was released in 2021.
In The Lost Words, Macfarlane describes each of the following creatures, omitted from the dictionary, with a poem: acorn, adder, bluebell, bramble, conker, dandelion, fern, heather, heron, ivy, kingfisher, lark, magpie, newt, otter, raven, starling, weasel, willow, wren. The lyrics to “The Blessing” quote from or allude to these poems. The Spell Songs and Gifts of Light albums include additional songs about creatures not in The Lost Words. These are indicated below in quotation marks, e.g., “Silver Birch” (from Spell Songs II) or “Charm on, Goldfinch” (from Gifts of Light).
Enter the wild with care, my love [bluebell]
And speak the things you see
Let new names take and root and thrive and grow [dandelion]
And even as you travel far from heather, crag and river [heather]
May you like the little fisher, set the stream alight with glitter [kingfisher]
May you enter now as otter without falter into water [otter]
Look to the sky with care, my love
And speak the things you see
Let new names take and root and thrive and grow [dandelion]
And even as you journey on past dying stars exploding [lark]
Like the gilded one in flight, leave your little gifts of light [“Charm on, Goldfinch”]
And in the dead of night my darling, find the gleaming eye of starling [starling]
Like the little aviator, [heron]
sing your heart to all dark matter [lark]
Walk through the world with care, my love [bluebell]
And sing the things you see
Let new names take and root and thrive and grow [dandelion]
And even as you stumble through machair sands eroding [“Thrift”]
Let the fern unfurl your grieving, [fern]
let the heron still your breathing [heron]
Let the selkie swim you deeper, [“Selkie”]
oh my little silver-seeker [“Silver Birch”]
Even as the hour grows bleaker, be the singer and the speaker
And in city and in forest, let the larks become your chorus [lark]
And when every hope is gone, let the raven call you home [raven]
Lament for Lost Words
Malcolm Guite has a Spell in the Library episode (2021) devoted to The Lost Words. He reads his poem, “Lament for Lost Words,” which he wrote and sent to Robert Macfarlane after Macfarlane published an article about the lost words (before The Lost Words book was created). Malcolm shows his copy of the book, with a wonderful inscription.
With the last line, I cannot help but think of Mr. Raven, the Sexton, in George MacDonald’s fantasy Lilith (1896), who invites the protagonist to enter into the sleep of death and awake to resurrection. For an introduction to Mr. Raven, watch Malcolm Guite, “When a Heart is Really Alive” (the Mr. Raven segment begins nearly 28 mins in). This was the keynote address for the George MacDonald bicentennial gathering held at Wheaton College in May, 2024.
For MacDonald, nature is the storehouse that fills and shapes our imaginations to make it possible for us to apprehend beauty and love, in one another and in God as well as in nature. Not even the gospel makes sense to us if our thought is not first deeply shaped by the forms of nature, which grow out of the very heart of God.
“If the world proceeded from the imagination of God, and man proceeded from the love of God, it is easy to believe that that which proceeded from the imagination of God should rouse the best thoughts in the mind of a being who proceeded from the love of God.” — George MacDonald, “Wordsworth’s Poetry,” A Dish of Orts
Our grandson in the Olympic forest, our friends in the Swiss mountains, our home in the Cross Timbers, the creatures remembered in the Lost Words, and George MacDonald all disclose to us that when we love others as ourselves, we count the creatures of the Earth among our dearest neighbors.
How do we begin to love? Speak and sing their names.
As God has spoken them into being and calls them each by name.
By doing so, we participate in the love of Christ who is the Priest of all Creation.
Speaking the names in love is a practice of anticipating the New Creation. It is a way of entering into the Love of God that is carrying us there.
Update, November 2025: With the above thoughts in mind, Candace and I and Karen Noad led a devotional at the Torrance retreat in Killin, Scotland.
Candace
Isaiah 40:26: “Lift up your eyes on high and see: Who created these? He who brings out their host and numbers them, calling them all by name; because he is great in strength, mighty in power, not one is missing.”
Kerry
Oh Lord, you who create all the stars of the heavens, not one is excluded from your love. You see them all and speak their names.
Karen
Psalm 147:3-4:
The Lord heals the brokenhearted,
and binds up their wounds.
He determines the number of the stars;
he gives to all of them their names.
Kerry
Oh Lord, you who create the stars of the heavens, you see our wounds and heal us all. You see us all and speak our names.
Candace
“So out of the ground the LORD God formed every animal of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every animal of the field.” (Genesis 2:19-20 NRSV)
Kerry
Oh Lord, you have set us upon this Earth to care for it and all living things, to love them and speak their names.
Our then 18-month-old grandson was touring wild areas of the state of Washington and the Olympic National Forest this past summer with his parents. They sent us adorable photos of him utterly absorbed in watching, looking, touching, learning the names of every created thing. Starfish on the beach, waves upon the shore, the bark of trees in the forest, snow upon the mountains, whales out in the ocean. Our little word-acquirer walking through nature wide-eyed, learning to speak whatever he is seeing. As he grows, he is growing in love for all that he calls by name.
Do you have a child in your life who is learning to speak the names of what he loves around him?
Just a few days ago, we talked with him on FaceTime. He gently caressed our daughter’s cheek, saying Mommy. He reached out his other arm to pat Stephen, saying Daddy. His parents then patted him on the chest, saying Ethan. He gave a sigh of delight and nestled snugly into his mother’s arms.
Speaking one’s name is always a part of what it means to love and be loved.
Karen
Matthew 1:12-16: “Jechoniah was the father of Salathiel, and Salathiel the father of Zerubbabel, and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, and Abiud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor, and Azor the father of Zadok, and Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eliud, and Eliud the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar the father of Matthan, and Matthan the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called the Messiah.”
Kerry
Remember now those you love by quietly whispering their names to God in prayer. Close your eyes if you like. Know that as you speak their names, your love for them is grounded in God’s love for them. You are participating in God’s own love for them. Whisper their names in love…
- Someone you love
- Family and friends
- Those in your church, workplace, and neighborhood
- Someone others tend not to see
- Someone you know who is poor
- Someone you know whose life has been marred by evil
- Someone you know who has been abused, oppressed, and suffered trauma
- Someone you know who has passed into the communion of saints
- Someone who has shaped you but whom you have never met
- Some forebear whose name is unknown to you
- The face of someone whose name is unknown…
- Someone you know who is in need of hope
May God deliver them. May they hear his voice call them by name.
God loves them all into being and part of his loving them is also his care for you.
Karen
John 20:13-14: [Mary Magdalene] turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” Jesus said to her, “Mary!”
Kerry
Do you hear God call you by name?
Candace
Isaiah 43:1-7: “But now thus says the LORD, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.
For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I give Egypt as your ransom, Ethiopia and Seba in exchange for you.
Because you are precious in my sight, and honored, and I love you, I give people in return for you, nations in exchange for your life.
Do not fear, for I am with you; I will bring your offspring from the east, and from the west I will gather you;
I will say to the north, “Give them up,” and to the south, “Do not withhold; bring my sons from far away and my daughters from the end of the earth—
everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.”
Kerry
He speaks your name, in love.
When Jesus speaks our names, he brings a new reality into being. As Alan said last night, Jesus reconstituted Simon through speaking his new name. As Bob said this morning, his word is truth. He speaks a dynamic, creative word.
Karen
Matthew 16:17-18: “And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter.”
Kerry
God will address you, too, and give you a new name that is good beyond your boldest imagination.
Candace
Revelation 2:17: “Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches. To everyone who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give a white stone, and on the white stone is written a new name that no one knows except the one who receives it.”
Kerry
Oh Lord, you who create all the stars of the heavens, we here and now, in the midst of sorrow, are not excluded from your love. Even our darkness is not dark to you. You know our names. You are the God who speaks from all eternity. See us all now, know and behold us, and speak our names. Open our hearts that we might hear when you call, that we might hear you speak our names. For we bear your name. Amen.
Karen and Candace:
Will lead us in singing a slightly revised version of “Fear Not, For I Have Redeemed You,” originally by The Fisherfolk, based on Isaiah 43.
