Guest Post: A Walk in the Woods with John Denver by Lise Baur

I took a walk in the woods recently on a rainy but warm day, one of those bad days, (Aren’t we all having them cooped up in our homes for months?) I took my dog, Chessie, a sweet chocolate lab and we headed out to Wheaton Park in Silver Spring, MD.

We have our favorite loop, about three miles. As I started out, I didn't feel like being in the rain, but then my eyes caught the bright Spring green of new leaves on the trees. Beautiful and serene, it lifted my spirits. The only sound was the rain rushing through the leaves to the ground. I suddenly thought of Annie’s Song by John Denver. I took out my phone, found the song online, and listened. I couldn’t help but sing out loud, maybe a little too loud, but heck, I was the only one there!

Ever since elementary school, I’ve been a John Denver fan. My first favorite song was Thank God I’m a Country Boy, great for a sing along. In my Junior High Girls’ Choir, The Music Makers, I first heard Annie’s Song. We sang it for our Spring school concert one year, and I’ve loved it ever since.

As I sang the words during my walk, I thought about their meaning. It seemed so fitting to sing this song during such a beautiful and peaceful time in the woods alone with my 8-year-old puppy. I know John Denver wrote this song as a love tribute to his first wife. I also know he had personal issues with marital fidelity. But, in my opinion, that doesn’t take away from the beauty of the song.

The natural melody draws me into a soothing place. It seems to me that such a beautiful love song can become a meditation for our deeper, truer love for the Holy Trinity and the perfect love our dear Father in Heaven has for us.

Look at the first stanza:

You fill up my senses Like a night in a forest Like the mountains in springtime Like a walk in the rain Like a storm in the desert Like a sleepy blue ocean You fill up my senses Come fill me again.

This verse describes God’s creation, the very best of the earth as an indication of how deep His love is for us. He created such a wondrous place for us to live and enjoy to give us a taste of the heaven that awaits us which will be so much more. How filled with wonder for nature and its awesome beauty and power we should be! It points us to our beloved Creator and Father and invites us to ask Him to fill us with his Grace.

We experience God’s perfection on earth through His order in creation. No wonder, in such a precarious time, I find immense comfort in my walks in the forest. God’s perfect order surrounds and embraces me in the woods. I can lose myself in what ought to be instead of the madness in which the world ensnares itself through the modern denial of our Beloved Creator.

The second stanza is a little different:

Come let me love you Let me give my life to you Let me drown in your laughter Let me die in your arms Let me lay down beside you Let me always be with you Come let me love you Come love me again

The words could be Our Blessed Lord’s as He asks us to let Him into our hearts. A perfect gentleman He seeks our permission to let Him love us! How many times, due to the hardness of our hearts, we block Him out when all He wants to do is give us His peace and live in our hearts and souls. But He won’t do it without our permission.

Only God can truly and completely fill our senses. Just as St. Augustine said, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.” That is what this song conveys to me. It is almost is like a prayer.

I was heartbroken when I heard the news of John Denver’s untimely death. I love his music and I continue to pray for the repose of his soul. His public life seemed very tumultuous at times but I do not want to give up hope that a man who could write so beautifully of a perfect love would not be given His perfect Mercy in the end.