The Empty Chair - Christmas lyrics

Christmas approaches swiftly

Times of joy, of love, and thanks

Reflections of its close keeping

A time when the strays come home

Again a family, a union for a day

At Christmas time we must be

Thankful for friends and family

By God's will and benevolence

Our daily worries so distant

Unable to distort our holiday vision

That might make us disillusioned

Each Christmas makes things anew

The family ties that need rebound

Slipping often throughout the year

Fathers speak softly to your children

Mothers take time for reflection

Husbands hold your wives

Wives hug your husbands too

Adults keep the spirit with your children

Children remember adults were like you too

Family respect family, each equally, quarrel not

Friends appreciate friends kindly

Let your friendship glow and grow

Respect and revere your God

For next year reunions may be broken

A chair may be empty, a candle lit

Then the self quandary within comes

Did I drive away my children?

Or estrange spouses, friends neglected

Did I truly experience their being?

The sharing souls of life now gone

Departed from the temporal world

Where are they now? Could they come?

Where have they gone? Should I go?

The empty chair is a symbol of loss

To those that find only sorrow

Comforted only in old memories

Accompanying repentance, remorse, regret

None now bring solace in solitude

Could this empty chair be a gain?

Some austere throne of yule's regal epiphany

That the sternest soul gives ground to

The past is now only a futile search

A prospect cast off without question

Instead turn thoughts despondent

To fill the empty chair, this loss

With someone who truly needs the love

The time, an appreciation of compassion

Once given to those before, now gone

So that it will not be wasted within

This is not a plea to forget those dear

Whose fond memories warm the touched heart

Each, a fragment of the fabric of the soul

Do not live in tragically departed darkness

A bastion crumbling with passing time

A sincere heart, a smiling face

A sharing soul, forgeting frets

Finding shared warmth, in companionship

Selfless gifts of priceless measure

Kindred spirits that if only known once

In the passing of a lifetime

Will make a lasting impression

That burns as a vigilant light

A beacon to show on bleakest bitter night

The path to follow to warm yule fire

To find and fill an empty chair

A Christmas shared...