Let it Be

“When I find myself in times of trouble, Mother Mary comes to me / Speaking words of wisdom, let it be / And in my hour of darkness, she is standing right in front of me / Speaking words of wisdom, let it be…

And when the broken-hearted people living in the world agree / There will be an answer, let it be / For though they may be parted, there is still a chance that they will see / There will be an answer, let it be…

And when the night is cloudy there is still a light that shines on me / Shine until tomorrow, let it be / I wake up to the sound of music, Mother Mary comes to me / Speaking words of wisdom, let it be / Let it be, let it be, let it be, yeah, let it be / There will be an answer, let it be…”

That is a song written by Paul McCartney after the death of his mother, Mary. She had come to him in a dream at a difficult time in his life and told him to let it be, that things would be okay

Let it be.

For the longest time, I thought that was all the song was about, just waiting things out. Sort of like: be patient, step back, take a breath, give it time, leave it all alone for now. Let it be.

But I believe what the song also says is, Please, let these things happen, let them come to pass, let them be.

Let wisdom speak to us. Let the broken-hearted get an answer. Let the light that shines on us shine again tomorrow. Let us wake up to the sound of music, assuring us in words of wisdom, there will be an answer—to the darkness, to the pain, to the brokenness, to the divisions, the hatred, the ugliness, the despair, the prejudices and bigotry, the cruelty and the arrogance and the shameful betrayal of all we know to be good and right.

Poet Robert Penn Warren wrote of leaving our homes each morning and going out “into the convulsion of the world, out of history into history and the awful responsibility of time” and making life count for something.

That’s an answer. Let that be.

Harvard trained career coach, Tama Kieves, has said, “Transformation of any kind always exacts a holy tussle. The newborn butterfly struggles to open its wings so it can conjure up the strength to fly.”

Let that be, for sure. I want in on that “holy tussle.” I want to be transformed in a day when stifled morality, dull thinking, mean-spiritedness, and lack of respect for anything sacred pulls me in to participate in that hopeless mediocrity.

I refuse to be bound and marooned by a corrupt political system. I welcome the tussle to fly. To live above the settled plight society has assigned me.

Writer Brian Andreas puts it this way, “In those days we finally chose, to walk like giants, and hold the world in arms grown strong with love.”

Let that be. Now and always. For that, without question, is an answer for these times and all times.

© 2019 Timothy Moody