Changing Times

©1985 Dan MacArthur

        Dan lives in the woods of Vermont, and tends them, sugaring, building houses from them. He works the fields around him, and cares for them as only a person could who plans to pass their bounty on to another generation. I've seen this: the things those MacArthurs touch (our hearts included) tend to bloom and grow because of their caring. And as though that weren't enough, oh, my word, you should hear them sing. (GB)

(first chorus:)
The grasses grow tall
Until the hay it is mown,
Then the fields lie still
Till the new seed is sown.

Many children standing here
Have watched the grass wave in the wind;
We're the ones who stand here now,
But many others will again.

Long, long ago these fields,
And the crops that they grew here,
Might decide a family's fate
For another coming year.
Like the grasses that grow tall
And get cut down for the hay,
So generations moved in here,
Made their mark and moved away.

(second chorus:)

And the fields lie still
Till the new seed is sown,
And the grasses grow tall
Till the hay it is mown.
Many children standing here
Have watched the grass wave in the wind.
We're the ones who stand here now,
But many others will again.

After clearing off the land
And piling up their long stone walls,
They walked miles for the seed,
Then they hoped the good rains fall.
And when the rains come down right
And all the crops grow tall and strong,
Families had enough to eat
For another winter long.

(first chorus)

Perhaps the time will come again
When these fields will mean more,
And we'll learn to care for them
As others did so long before,
And, like the seed that's newly sown
And springs to life with sun and rain,
People's lives may grow to know
The value of these fields again.

(second chorus)

We're the ones who live here now,
But many others will again.

Changing Times is recorded on the CD Minneapolis Concert