My life flows on in endless song;
Above earth’s lamentation,
I hear the sweet, tho’ far-off hymn
That hails a new creation;
Thro’ all the tumult and the strife
I hear the music ringing;
It finds an echo in my soul—
How can I keep from singing?
What tho’ my joys and comforts die?
The Lord my Saviour liveth;
What tho’ the darkness gather round?
Songs in the night he giveth.
No storm can shake my inmost calm
While to that refuge clinging;
Since Christ is Lord of heaven and earth,
How can I keep from singing?
I lift my eyes; the cloud grows thin;
I see the blue above it;
And day by day this pathway smooths,
Since first I learned to love it,
The peace of Christ makes fresh my heart,
A fountain ever springing;
All things are mine since I am his—
How can I keep from singing?
Today is my 62nd Birthday and I can hardly believe that I have lived over 6 decades. In so many ways I still feel 20, and optimistically I still have my whole life ahead of me! Reality is….I have lived a full life and am beginning to look back as well as ahead as I live day to day.
I hear some people talk about things they regret in their lives and I really do not regret a single thing. Most of my life decisions turned out to be good ones and even those paths I chose that may not have been the best, I can still see how they helped me grow and taught me things about myself and life.
This song is almost a mantra for me…I first fell in love with it when Enya sang it on one of her albums in the 1990’s. I fell in love with it more when my Mom was in hospice and the tune kept running through my head so I sang it to her in her hospital room. Even though we were so sad at the prospect of losing her, the fact was because of my faith I knew she would be in a much better place of peace.
We are living through a very strange time right now during the Covid Pandemic. I do not want to get into particular issues here but I can say with all my heart “How can I keep from Singing? And I have found that music has been a constant companion to me during this pandemic. I hope you enjoy this song.
“How Can I Keep From Singing?” (also known by its incipit “My Life Flows On in Endless Song“) is a Christian hymn with music written by American Baptist minister Robert Wadsworth Lowry. The song is frequently, though erroneously, cited as a traditional Quaker or Shaker hymn. The original composition has now entered into the public domain, and appears in several hymnals and song collections, both in its original form and with a revised text. Though it was not originally a Quaker hymn, twentieth-century Quakers adopted it as their own and use it widely today.
MJmusiclady 