In 1945, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein wrote a musical called Carousel. It was based on an earlier non-musical play by  Ferenc Molnár  called Liliom. A number of well known songs came from that musical. One of them though is particularly inspiring and has been recorded by numerous artists and even been adopted as theme for a soccer club in Liverpool, England. The song is called, You’ll Never Walk Alone. I’ve heard it countless times and more than once it’s brought tears to my eyes. 

Today, it’s been in my head a lot and I was reminded of it’s message today while I was in the Temple. I think one of the consequences of being rather shy and quiet is often a great sense of loneliness. Last night as I was tossing and turning, my thoughts briefly wandered to places where I wish they hadn’t.  The thoughts didn’t last long. They were replaced to some extent, by being hard on myself for even thinking that way (see Reclothe Us in Our Rightful Mind) and feeling the ever present weight of the loneliness. Sometime after 2:00 I finally fell asleep. I woke up a few hours later, and made my way to the Temple.

The point about never walking alone was illustrated vividly in a number of ways. Number one, it was an exceptionally full session. But along with the large number of people, there was also a very large amount of love and warmth there. I felt it as soon as I walked in the door. Not only was the Temple a refuge from the storms of life, but also a great source of warmth and love. It’s a little hard to describe adequately in words, but a lot of the loneliness I had been feeling was taken from me. I remembered the words of Elisha to his servant when he said, “Fear not. They that be with us are more than be against us.” I was also reminded that there are saints and angels all around both in this world and beyond the veil who are indeed aware of us and are walking beside us. The loneliness and discouragement may sometimes feel overwhelming, but we are never really alone.

Which brings me back to the song You’ll Never Walk Alone. In the play it is sung twice. The first time it is sung by Julie’s cousin Nettie after her husband Billy is killed when he falls on his knife after a failed robbery attempt and escape. It’s a very sad yet touching moment. It is sung again as the Finale as Billy and Julie’s daughter a very lonely teenager is graduating from high school and although unseen, she hears the message from her father to believe in the words that are being sung. Wether in 1945 on Broadway, or sung by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in 2013, or by the crowds of people in a stadium in Liverpool the message and the truth it conveys is the same:

When you walk through a storm, hold your head up high.
And don’t be afraid of the dark.
At the end of the storm there’s a golden sky,
And the sweet silver song of a lark.
Walk on through the wind, walk on through the rain,
Though your dreams by tossed and blown.
Walk on, walk on with hope in your heart,
And you’ll never walk alone!
You’ll never walk alone!

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