There's An Empty Chair

from When There Are No Words by Michael J Tinker

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about

Mum and Dad retired in 2020. They had their own home for the first time. They got to shape it how they wanted. And a year later he was gone. I can’t shake the vision of Mum sitting opposite an empty chair at the dinner table, eating alone.

I read an article where the writer was talking about the same thing. But he also pointed out that there’s another empty chair, waiting for us in eternity. I wanted to write something that expressed the present feeling, but pointed to the future reality.

It so often feels like this is the reality and ‘heaven’ is the shadow place, that eternity is somehow less than real.

But what if it’s the other way around? What if, as C.S. Lewis calls it, this is the shadow lands, and the new heaven on the new earth is reality? What if everything here is hinting and pointing, straining to get us to look there instead of being fixated here?

I love the idea that this world is full of whispers saying ‘look, look!’ Our gatherings here are mere rumours of something so much better there. And when that veil is lifted, when we arrive at THE party that every party here was simply a trailer, we’ll finally understand.

lyrics

There’s an empty chair
Across from me
That’s only filled
With memories
There’s an empty chair
That tells a tale
Of love grown in time
That now seems so pale

I can still hear your laughter
But the silence of it screams
I can still see your smile
But the walls stare back at me

Is there a light we cannot see?
Is there a mist surrounding me
So tell me where these memories go?
Is there a final tale to be told
Is there a light we cannot see

There’s an empty chair
Where others will rest
Am I the only one
Who can see the ghost

There’s an empty chair
That ends a line
While all else moves on
I feel paused in time

Chorus

Bridge
There’s another empty chair
In a far, far land
I’ll join you at the table
You will take me by the hand

For this world is just a rumour
Of a gathering so bright
Empty chairs are but a whisper
For waiting there is all the light
All the light we could not see

There is a light that we will see
Gone will be the mist surrounding me
And that is where the memories go
There is a final tale to be told
There is the light waiting for me

credits

from When There Are No Words, released March 24, 2023

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Michael J Tinker Bridgwater, UK

Michael J Tinker is a multi-faceted musician. You will find him on exciting musical adventures as he tours his latest show around the country.

Find out more at www.michaeljtinker.com

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