FARE THE WELL, FOR NOW (78 EATON WOOD GREEN)

I wrote this when I left Dublin in 1994. I lived in the house that Rich Mullins wrote an instrumental about. The first time he played it was in the front room. It was an iconic wee address. It was an amazing place to live. The neighbours called it the community! We enjoyed the fact we were!

My friend Fr Martin Magill is leaving his parish in Sacred Heart off the Old Park Road this week to move to Ballyclare. He asked for a few words of a song he could use at mass, to say goodbye. I searched high and low and then rediscovered this. I am quite fond of it. 

I think, apart from the address, especially verse two captures the universal feeling of moving on.

 

Life has us changing companions

I seem to change more than most

Memories of these years will linger 

Like a blessed and friendly ghost

We touched some lives together

And many more lives touched us

You taught me how to question

And that taught me how to trust

You gave me room to find myself

And what life is meant to mean

Home, the everyday most spectacular

78 Easton Wood Green.

 

I’ll just say fare thee well, for now

Because this is no long goodbye

There’s still too much for us to share

Both before and after we die

I remember the hurt and the frustration

The weddings, songs and brand new dreams

Tears at things that clouded our vision

And the laughs at the silver seams

You gave me strength for what’s to come

I go in the light of what has been

Stay the way grace is changing you

78 Eaton Wood Green.