Songs change.

If you sing a song for a long time — a good song — it changes and grows just like a person. You get to see it’s personality. It shows you its funny side — or the pain it keeps hidden underneath.

I learned this song from Ysaye Barnwell in a workshop many years ago, and I’ll admit it troubled me a little. I wasn’t sure I liked singing about finding peace in dying and it made me sad to think of slaves singing this song and longing for the release of death. (There’s a lot of pain in that idea.)

But … when I got the news this weekend that the mother of one of my ATWI classmates had passed away earlier this week, this is the song I found myself singing.

And there was comfort in it (at least for me).

Like I said, songs change.

[audio:http://songtaneous.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Soon-I-Will-Be-Done.mp3|titles=Soon I Will Be Done]

More Bloggity Goodness

• Working with the Broken Pieces