I was having a “Leonard Cohen” weekend; listening to all the recorded music of his that I own. One of my favorite albums of Leonard’s is “Live In London”, which was recorded in 2009. When I got to the song, “If It Be Your Will”, which on this album is performed by the Webb Sisters, the lyrics of the song really hit me. I mean, the beautiful singing that the Webb Sisters did and the simple instrumentation behind their singing really hit me, too. But it was while listening to the lyrics this time that the meaning of the song sunk in deeper than it has in the past.
I was reminded of the term “Amor Fati” (Love Fate), which was originally coined by Friedrich Nietzsche and adopted and used by followers of Stoicism. This song beautifully captures the meaning of this term. In addition to the Stoics, Byron Katie, who came up with a process called, “The Work” for dealing with our stressful thoughts, calls this idea “Loving What Is”.
On this live album, Leonard introduces the song by saying this, “”It was a while ago, faced with some obstacles that I wrote a song, well it’s more of a prayer…”
I agree that it’s a prayer.
Here are the lyrics to the song:
If it be your will that I speak no more
And my voice be still as it was before
I will speak no more, I shall abide until
I am spoken for, if it be your will
If it be your will that a voice be true
From this broken hill, I will sing to you
From this broken hill, all your praises they shall ring
If it be your will to let me singFrom this broken hill all your praises they shall ring
If it be your will to let me singIf it be your will, if there is a choice
Let the rivers fill, let the hills rejoice
Let your mercy spill on all these burning hearts in Hell
If it be your will to make us well
And draw us near, and bind us tight
All your children here in their rags of light
In our rags of light, all dressed to kill
And end this night, if it be your will, if it be your will
But loving what is, or loving fate, doesn’t mean that a person can just sit around and do nothing. Here’s a quote from Epictetus, found in “Discourses, 4.1.89”:
“But I haven’t at any time been hindered in my will, nor forced against it. And how is this possible? I have bound up my choice to act with the will of God. God wills that I be sick, such is my will. He wills that I should choose something, so do I. He wills that I reach for something, or something be given to me – I wish for the same. What God doesn’t will, I do not wish for.”
General Dwight D. Eisenhower lived this concept of doing and then leaving the success or failure to the forces that he acknowledged were greater than he was. He did everything in his power to prepare for the invasion of Normandy, then he said this, “Everything we could think of has been done, the troops are fit, everybody is doing his best. The answer is in the lap of the gods.”
Loving fate, but doing what needs to be done; whatever that is.
And since I like to add copies of my photos to my posts, here are some of my favorite photos of sunsets that I have taken over the past few years:
