Talitha, koum! by Quiet Waters

'Then He took the child by the hand, and said to her, “Talitha, koum!” which is translated, “Little girl, I say to you, arise.”' - Mark 5:41

I wrote this song about a year and a half ago, in August 2023, just before I got sidetracked and released Wait & See actually. It was originally called 'Held'.

Held was written in the midst of a season of significant emotional pain and confusion in my life, one whos echoes I still hear now from time to time, but also a time of significant spiritual reawakening and renewal. No point sugar coating it - I had lost someone very dear to me, whom I had loved for a very long time, and whom I had envisioned growing old with, and I just felt utterly and completely lost without her. With this as my context, from a lyrical standpoint, Held was essentially just a song about being miserable. Which, truly, I was.

Somehow, I never managed to actually finish the lyrics. I tried multiple times, but I never managed to really convey what I was trying to say in a way that made sense, that did justice to the turmoil of the season while acknowledging the hope of the spiritual journey I was on - it always felt like when I spoke about one side of the story, I discredited the other. I would revisit it every few months, but never really get anywhere with it, and so I eventually just abandoned it.

Until yesterday.

Yesterday morning in a time of prayer, silence and solitude, I felt quite profoundly that I needed to release it, ASAP, as an instrumental piece, with a new name and a new context. The story I tell you here gives you more context than the lyrics I was writing could ever have hoped to, which is why I felt it important to share it. The new title, however, announces new life and renewal where once there was only darkness. In Mark 5 in the Bible, 'Talitha, koum!' is the phrase Jesus uttered when brought face to face with a child that had died waiting for Him to arrive (which is the story of the song Wait & See). Translated to English, this phrase means 'Little girl, I say to you, arise'. And arise she did (go read the story in Mark 5, I dare you).

'Talitha, koum!' is the breaking forth of promise in the face of absolute despair. It is renewal in the midst of the unrenewable. It is life in uninhabitable places, and it is hope, when there is none.

Child, arise.

Glory to God.

The Art & Music of Samuel Dishington - est. MMXXVI

https://linktr.ee/sacredtonguerituals