In Another Light

One of the greatest songwriters of the past 50 years is Wayne Kirkpatrick. I have sung his praises before. To my knowledge he has only produced one solo album, entitled, The Maple Room, and from that album comes the song, “In Another Light.” Although the song is obviously written about a marriage relationship (“Hey, that’s my ring on your finger”), perhaps it has something to say to all of us about seeing things in another light. How often do the “shadows of our yesterday” get in the way of our love for one another? Don’t we sometimes need a new perspective that “tends to the wounds of the past” but looks beyond the wounds of the past. In marriages and other relationships there will always be “demons that rummage through the past of what” we’ve done to each other. In a highly polarized, easily wounded atmosphere, life might be better if we took a step back and looked at things in another light.

On his Facebook page, Kirkpatrick says that he has been “married since 1985 to the same girl I went to high school with and we are still rockin'!” So, despite the challenges noted in this song, he seems to know how to navigate the ups and downs of married life. Take a listen to the song and see if it rings true in one or more aspects of your own relational life.

In Another Light

Words and Music by Wayne Kirkpatrick

Standing like statues

Stubborn unmoving but breakable

You say there’s nothing wrong

But that look is so unmistakable

Angry and wounded

Well I’m sure your reasons are justified

You’re searching for changes

Oh, but there are quite a few you’ve yet to realize

And you would see things differently

If you chose to look at me

In another light

Shadows of our yesterday,

Bow to love and melt away

In another light

Changing the angle

Well baby that could be our only chance

Some new perspective on it

That tends to the wounds of our circumstance

Cause I feel like screaming

Damned if I don’t, damned if I do

Chasing those demons

That rummage through the past

Of what I’ve done to you

You would see things differently

If you chose to look at me

In another light

Shadows of our yesterday,

They bow to love and melt away

In another light

Hey, that’s my blood on your sabre

Hey, that’s my voice in your dark

Hey, that’s my ring on your finger

Hey, that’s my love in your heart

That’s my love in your heart.

You would see things differently

If you chose to look at me

In another light

Shadows of our yesterday,

Bow to love and melt away

In another light

In another light.

Yeah, in another light.

In another light.

And, in another light.

Maybe a love should be strong enough to look beyond the past.

Oh, our love should be made to last.