From the recording What I Heard, What I Saw
"What I Heard, What I Saw" was born from nearly a decade of wrestling with, and re-discovering, some of the stories which fed Kristen’s youth. Pulled from the pages of the gospel of Mark, these songs render flesh and bone, ache and longing to the outcasts, prophets and would-be followers that inhabit those ancient stories. More than that, the album is a confessional: a candid retelling of Kristen’s own journey stumbling through hard questions towards faith, finding meaning in the grit and dust of roads unknown. Collaborating with award-winning producer/guitarist Murray Pulver (The Bros. Landreth, Steve Bell, Red Moon Road), Kristen offers a folk meditation on these challenging narratives which have informed deep conviction and creativity among the religious and non-religious alike for generations.
Lyrics
I’m here in the garden
But I’m not out of the woods
And the earth here is hardened
By the wounds that she took
So go easy on me
When you’re breaking the ground
When you’re planting the seeds
May the roots grow deep down
Can you grow in the dirt here
The fruit of your labour?
Out of the cluttered earth
Will you root out the anger?
So that I can believe
That when you’re breaking the ground
You’re just planting the seeds
Where the roots grow deep down
Are you here in the garden
Pulling stones from the dirt?
When you dig where it’s darkest
Can you feel how it hurts?
So go easy on me
When you’re breaking the ground
When you’re planting the seeds
May the roots grow deep down
I saw your hands all covered in dirt
And there was blood caked under your fingernails
But still you dig, though you suffer the worst
As you tear at the earth
As you expose all the dirt
Don’t you give up on me
When you’re breaking the ground
When you’re planting the seeds
May the roots grow deep down