You have to hear this song.

I mean, really.

Really.

Take a minute out of your busy life, click play, and listen. Because it’s so good.

[youtube width=”430″ height=”325″]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BA1J0JMRAQk[/youtube]

I had tears in my eyes the first time I heard it, last Saturday night, under glistening strings of white lights at the Oddfellows Hall in Thessalon, Ontario, during my time there with Stories in the North.

Called Plant a Seed, the song was written and performed by Christina Foster and Greg Maclachlan of The Crossroad Magdalenes.

Written for Swarm, it perfectly captures the yearning of living life up against the risky edge of a crumbling society, with so many options stripped away.

“Everything is dead / the world has turned blood red / dark and cold but I still want it. / Everyone will die the birds will still all fly / I plant a seed that I still want it all,” they sing.

Christina gets it, for special reasons.

The recipient of a double lung transplant, she talked to me after the event – as we drove west on the pitch black highway to find the dirt laneway that would bring us to the after-party – about what it was like to look death in the face.

It was the same stretch of highway where my own mother and brother had almost died thirty-four years ago.

So isn’t this a human truth?

How we yearn for what we could have. How we strive, while hauling the bulky weight of the past along with us. They got it: that’s what Swarm is about.

The Crossroad Magdalenes (Greg Maclachlan and Christina Foster) and me

Cold and dark but I still want it…

Like it is for the refugees, my mother said, after I played the song for her. Like it is for so many in the world living what we would experience as “post-apocalyptic realities.”

Plant a Seed is a beautiful song, and not only for me, the author of the novel it’s written for. I feel awed by such talent echoing my own words.

Thank you, Greg and Christina, and Angie Gallop, and the board, of Stories in the North, for helping facilitate these profound connections.

9 Comments

Linda Chisholm on October 7, 2015 at 10:04 pm

Fervently conveys the thirst for life, no matter the situation .Haunting; doesn’t leave the psyche. What a special gift you have received for giving your special gift to the world/
- Lauren on October 8, 2015 at 1:43 pm
  
  It is SUCH a special gift!
Pauline Clark on October 6, 2015 at 7:50 am

Hi Lauren:

I love the song too. I play it over and over. Beautifully done.

Now, thanks so much for this post that explains how it feels to you. I’d wondered about that–how an author would feel to listen to something written for their writing. It’s great to know that, with Stories in the North we’ve managed to strike some chords that go beyond that weekend’s events.

Keep on writing!
- Lauren on October 8, 2015 at 1:42 pm
  
  Thanks for the comment, Pauline. That event was one of the best I’ve been to. So well organized, and with such warm people! Loved it!
Marlene on October 4, 2015 at 8:41 am

Lauren, I loved this as well. I look forward to these every week. I can’t be where you are in person, but am in spirit.
- Lauren on October 4, 2015 at 9:19 am
  
  Thanks, Marlene 🙂
Naomi on October 2, 2015 at 6:47 am

I love it. It’s beautiful!
Mohamad on October 1, 2015 at 10:09 am

Thank you Lauren for the lovely post. It seems more current news than a destipic idea. Hope all is well. Are you working on a new project?
- Lauren on October 1, 2015 at 10:50 am
  
  Thanks for this, Mohamed. I know it’s close to home for you. Yes, working on quite a lot, and hoping to get a new book out soon. I hope your writing is going well 🙂