We’re all stampeding buffalos
“And my stampeding buffalo
Stops in her tracks and watches the snow
Falling through the old oak tree
When you give your heart to me”
Laura Veirs’ album July Flame is every bit of amazing. Recently, I’ve been completely obsessed with the song When You Give Your Heart for its lyrical adeptness as much as its ability to communicate the beauty of a heart in love.
What really gets me, what really grabs me and pulls me into the tiny narrative that’s repeated across a thousand plains, and mountains, and fills every crevice of this planet where a lover and a beloved might live, is the simplicity with which it conveys one simple fact: the gift of someone’s heart is a thing of splendor. Receiving such a gift given freely and unconditionally makes you stop and take note. Yes, you may be bouldering through life as a powerful and majestic beast, taking little note of what lies crushed beneath your feet, but the fortunate realization that someone has given such a unique and precious gift is enough to bring that motion to a complete stop. And it is here that one takes notice of the world that was blurry, a mere backdrop to whatever desires motivated the stampeding creature forward, and beholds, clearly and distinctly, a thing of beauty.
I’ve had little success with such things, a reality I’ve come to accept as simply a part of some logical proof whose premises I have yet to understand. Maybe it’s more than this, or maybe less. And maybe it has nothing to do with premise, premise, conclusion and everything to do with what comes between the signposts of a burgeoning love. With that, I leave you with the remaining lyrics from When You Give Your Heart.
When you lay my burdens
When you lay my burdens
When you lay my burdens down
All the troubles I’ve been
Dragging down this trail
Seep into the thirsty ground
Since you turned your light
Upon my darkened dale
The pollinators flex their wings
And take into the air
Spin their emeraldine
Cobs and webs across the swales and prairies
And my stampeding buffalo
Stops in her tracks and watches the snow
Falling through the old oak tree
When you give your heart to me
This is my song of love
Gathered from stuff above
The wires, feathers and clouds
This is a song for you
A spring comes bubbling through
The place whenever you’re around
And my stampeding buffalo
Stops in her tracks and watches the snow
Falling through the old oak tree
When you give your heart to me
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