From the recording Song of the Awakened Heart
“Song of the Awakened Heart” is a neo-folk, symphonic country anthem of grief, revelation, and sacred belonging. Born from a Cancer Warriors healing circle, the song transforms sorrow into a collective awakening where the ancient fear of separation gives way to the mantra: My heart is your heart. Your heart is my heart. With the emotional honesty of Johnny Cash, the communal fire of Mumford & Sons, the mystical depth of Leonard Cohen, and the cinematic spiritual atmosphere of Loreena McKennitt, E. Craig Hendricks carries listeners through illness, death, memory, and love’s eternal return. At its heart, this is not simply a song about healing. It is a declaration that no soul awakens alone.
Lyrics
Song of the Awakened Heart
By E. Craig Hendricks
[Intro]
(Soft fingerpicked acoustic guitar... distant cello... low ambient choir rising like dawn over the hills)
Before the sun had found its voice,
Before the birds had sung their names,
I sat alone in morning’s hush...
And three old fires called my soul again.
Teresa... Jesus.... and Carl J….
Three messengers dressed in symbols,
Three voices older than time.
[Verse 1]
I asked not with the mind of men,
Not with the words that measure things,
Not with the thoughts that break apart
What only love can truly bring.
I asked with this old weathered heart,
This heart that’s walked through war and pain,
Through nights of silence, years of healing,
Through loss and fire and holy rain.
And from somewhere deep within me,
A whisper rose I’d always known...
Like an ancient road beneath me,
Calling this wanderer home.
[Pre-Chorus]
Oh brothers...
Oh sisters...
Can you feel what’s moving now?
Something old is waking...
Something sacred breaking out...
[Chorus]
My heart is your heart...
Your heart is my heart...
Like a fire in the darkness,
Like a song among the stars.
No death can divide us,
No shadow goes that far...
When love remembers love,
We awaken who we are.
My heart is your heart...
Your heart is my heart...
And the soul was never meant...
To awaken alone.
[Verse 2]
Five souls gathered in the circle,
Though by the end, there were no names.
For when grief walks in with honesty,
The walls of Jericho break.
One held the sorrow of a loved one
Standing near the river’s side.
One held the ache of sudden heartbreak,
A child called home before his time.
One carried words from the shaman's lips
That shook the body to the bone...
And all of us were carrying
The oldest fear mankind has known.
Can love be lost?
Can love be broken?
Can death erase what Spirit knows?
[Pre-Chorus]
Then silence...
Holy silence...
Fell between our breaths like light...
And something rose among us...
From the deepest part of life...
[Chorus]
My heart is your heart...
Your heart is my heart...
Like a fire in the darkness,
Like a song among the stars.
No death can divide us,
No shadow goes that far...
When love remembers love,
We awaken who we are.
[Bridge]
(Full symphonic lift—strings rising, drums entering, steel guitar soaring)
Teresa... I saw beneath the illness.
Beneath the fear... beneath the pain...
And there I found a love that lived
Before the body knew its name.
Oh, Jesus, Son of Nazareth, not of stone,
Not of stories carved with bone...
But Francis of Brother Sun...
Of knowing we are never gone.
And Carl J….
Oh, I’ve walked that sacred land...
Where the room becomes a temple,
And every soul remembers...
Who they’ve always been.
[Final Chorus – Big Lift]
My heart is your heart...
Your heart is my heart...
Hear the choir of generations
Singing through the dark.
Something ancient’s calling,
Something waking in our scars...
And the Awakened Heart is rising,
Like a thousand burning stars.
My heart is your heart...
Your heart is my heart...
And the soul was never meant...
No, the soul was never meant...
To awaken...
Alone.
[Outro]
(Acoustic guitar fades... cello holds... distant choir whispers)
Come with your wounds...
Come with your questions...
Come with your trembling...
Come home...