On a Wing, On a Prayer, On a Song

a love song written by my husband and a wood thrush

Two years back, Randy heard a bird singing the same notes over and over in our backyard. He recorded it on his phone, looked it up, and learned it was the song of a wood thrush. Inspired and in awe, he started putting the bird’s little melody into the hook of a song. He played around with it for a while, and then the song kind of fizzled out and I forgot all about it.

A few weeks ago, I started hearing him play the wood thrush song on piano again. He hadn’t given it words, but I could hear that he was putting it together in his head. A lot of times he doesn’t let me hear a song until he’s all through with it.

We went away for our 21st anniversary, and while we were gone, Randy surprised me by singing it for me. A love song. For me.

It is called On a Wing, On a Prayer, On a Song, and I love it because it reminds me of that carefree way we entered into love, not really knowing what in the world we were getting into. So much of that early love, even though it was sincere, was a shaky desire, a longing to be loved, a hope of finally finding the dream-come-true life. When we said better or worse, we were imagining better. When we said till death do us part, death felt so far away that it was practically a myth.

But we have lived out our love for twenty-one years. We have seen babies born and parents die. We have experienced changes that neither of us could have anticipated. We have been shaped by joys and sorrows. We are not the same people we once were. We are learning how to give and forgive, to fight for the marriage we hope for, to give our longings to God and ask him to help us be what the other needs.

It isn’t always easy, but it is making us more whole. Our marriage is real. It is not perfect because we are still learning to lay aside our own desires for the good of the other. But marriage is a real place that holds us close and helps us through our lives. It has made a place for these children that we love and adore to come into the world. It has held us together when our worlds felt they were falling apart. It is a place of deep companionship, quiet desire, and the comfort of knowing and being known. God is in it. He made it. He sustains it.

Life is not easy. Marriage has its seasons. But it can be really, really good. It can be even better than we even hoped for, not knowing how it would turn out, coming in on a wing and a prayer. I am so grateful to have made it to this place.

I hope you like this fun love song. Randy recorded it in my daddy’s garden where we were married 21 years ago.

Sending love and sincere thanks for being here and celebrating with me,

Mackenzie

From the Family Archive:

This isn’t the first song Randy stole from a bird. Here’s another.

More thoughts on marriage from last year’s anniversary post—Love is an Ocean.

https://substack.com/home/post/p-123050674