When My Baby’s Beside Me – Lyrics
Don’t need to talk to my doctor
Don’t need to talk to my shrink
Don’t need to hide behind no locked door
I don’t need to think
‘Cause when my baby’s beside me, I don’t worry
When my baby’s beside me all I know
When my baby’s beside me, I don’t worry
When my baby’s beside me all I know
Read all my books and talked about
Listen to my radio
Been in school and dropped right out
Tryin’ to find what I didn’t know
But when my baby’s beside me, I don’t worry
When my baby’s beside me all I know
When my baby’s beside me, I don’t worry
When my baby’s beside me all I know
Don’t need to talk to my doctor
Don’t need to talk to my shrink
Don’t need to hide behind no locked doors
I don’t need to think
‘Cause when my baby’s beside me, I don’t worry
When my baby’s beside me all I know
When my baby’s beside me, I don’t worry
When my baby’s beside me all I know
When my baby’s beside me, I don’t worry
When my baby’s beside me all I know
When my baby’s beside me, I don’t worry
When my baby’s beside me all I know
Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: Alex Chilton / Christopher Bell
When My Baby’s Beside Me lyrics © Birdees Music Corp., Koala Music (us), Koala Music, Inc.
Friday, May 8, 2026
Set me as a seal upon your heart, a seal upon your arm,
For love is as strong as death, passion fierce as the grave.
Its flashes are flashes of fire, a raging flame.
—Song of Songs 8:6
Mirabai Starr describes how the language of romance and erotic love is the universal experience of mystics across religious traditions:
Every spiritual tradition on the planet seems to have some version of the Song of Songs. The language of romantic love describes and evokes the soul’s relationship with the divine more accurately than any descriptive theological language ever could. I guess that’s why the Song of Songs, which is quite revolutionary and hard to explain, made it into the canonical texts….
All of the love language with which the mystics speak is arising from that same wellspring from which the Song of Songs unfolded. There is this place in the heart that is the truth of spiritual communion, of spiritual longing. The longing becomes the portal to union and communion, and that union becomes the reference point for the longing. Any time any of the mystics touch upon the themes of yearning, anguish, separation, and the sweetness of taking refuge in the arms of the beloved, they’re singing this essential song, this Canticle of Canticles, whether or not they actually are familiar with this particular text…. The Song of Songs is an essential blueprint that’s instilled in all our souls, the fuel that propels us on a spiritual path, even if some of us never get around to it. I think it’s in all of us. [1]
In the Song of Songs, the lover sings of her search for her beloved:
At night on my bed I longed only for my love.
I sought him, but did not find him.
I must rise and go about the city,
the narrow streets and squares until I find my only love.
I sought him everywhere but I could not find him. (Song of Songs 3:1–2)
Starr describes longing as an essential aspect of nuptial mysticism:
Something in our souls recognizes this dynamic of exile and return. We remember that our source is Love. We suffer from the illusion of having been pulled up from our soul roots. We long to go home. We engage every practice we can get our hands on to restore our birthright of belonging. And when we attain those fleeting moments of union, we realize we were never two to begin with. We were always one and always will be one.
The language of love is like a spaceship that blasts us through the layers of illusion and delivers us to the truth of our essential connectedness with the Divine and our interconnectedness with all of creation. There’s nothing like a passage of mystical poetry, incandescent with the fire of longing and besotted by the wine of union, to evoke our own burning yearning and reveal our capacity for melding. [2]
References:
[1] Mirabai Starr with James Finley and Michael Petrow, “The Song of Love Lost and Found,” The Living School: Essentials of Engaged Contemplation, Center for Action and Contemplation, 2025.
[2] Mirabai Starr, Wild Mercy: Living the Fierce and Tender Wisdom of the Women Mystics (Sounds True, 2019), 57.
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Sarah Young – Jesus Calling
It’s all right to be human. When your mind wanders while you are praying, don’t be surprised or upset. Simply return your attention to Me. Share a secret smile with Me, knowing that I understand. Rejoice in My Love for you, which has no limits or conditions. Whisper My Name in loving contentment, assured that I will never leave you or forsake you. Intersperse these peaceful interludes abundantly throughout your day. This practice will enable you to attain a quiet and gentle spirit, which is pleasing to Me.
As you live in close contact with Me, the Light of My Presence filters through you to bless others. Your weakness and woundedness are the openings through which the Light of the knowledge of My Glory shines forth. My strength and power show themselves most effective in your weakness.
RELATED SCRIPTURE:
Deuteronomy 31:6 NLT
6 So be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid and do not panic before them. For the Lord your God will personally go ahead of you. He will neither fail you nor abandon you.”
1st Peter 3:4 NLT
4 You should clothe yourselves instead with the beauty that comes from within, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is so precious to God.
2nd Corinthians 4:6-7 NLT
6 For God, who said, “Let there be light in the darkness,” has made this light shine in our hearts so we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ.
7 We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves.
2nd Corinthians 12:9 NLT
9 Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me.
Additional insight regarding 2nd Corinthians 12:9: Although God did not remove Paul’s affliction, he promised to demonstrate his power in Paul. The fact that God’s power is displayed in our weaknesses should give us courage and hope. As we recognize our limitations, we will depend more on God for our effectiveness rather than on our own energy, effort, or talent. Our limitations not only help develop Christian character but also deepen our worship, because in admitting them, we affirm God’s strength.
Five on Friday – John Chaffee
1.
“Everything that rises must converge.”
– Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, 20th-century French Jesuit
In the summer of 2016, I binge-read the works of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. I did not read everything, but I did knock out 7-8 of his books and another 2-3 about him.
His integrated theology, which seems to me like a modernized, evolutionary form of Ignatian Spirituality, gave me a complete and utter paradigm shift. Prior to reading him, I would say my spirituality was more “static” (meaning, figure out God’s divine plan and live stoically according to it). After reading Teilhard de Chardin, my spirituality became much more “dynamic” (meaning, it was more focused on personal growth and growth in virtue).
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin taught me a spirituality of becoming.
Am I becoming greater or less? Am I active or passive in the events of my life? Do I see it as a form of love of neighbor to work on myself as much as possible, to heal my traumas, and invite others to do the same? Is my life integrated, or am I working against myself? Is the direction of my life in the direction of greater or less health and holiness?
If I live by these things, I will eventually come into contact with others who are also “aiming high.” After all, “Everything that rises must converge.” If you are reading this, it is possible that we are “converging.” You were drawn to read this newsletter, and this quote, and my typing this is somehow our common spiritualities finding a friend for the journey.
2.
“For me to be a saint means to be myself. Therefore, the problem of sanctity and salvation is in fact the problem of finding out who I am and of discovering my true self.”
– Thomas Merton, 20th-century Trappist Monk
Merton’s teaching on the True Self and the False Self was a game-changer for me. This quote comes from Chapter 5 of New Seeds of Contemplation, and the first time I read that chapter, I teared up.
(In fact, I love this teaching so much that I am incorporating it into the next online class I hope to offer this summer.)
The teaching of the True Self/False Self is not so much a question that you answer once in your life and be done with it. Rather, it is more of a question to be holy haunted by for the rest of your life.
The True Self/False Self teaching requires me to ask myself certain questions…
- Am I being my True Self?
- Am I saying or doing things born out of my identity or from the expectations of others?
Am I being a False Self that I believe others will like more? - Why is it that I am my False Self when I am with this or that group of people?
Who in my life allows me to be my True Self? - Who in my life encourages me to find my True Self?
- Is there anyone in my life who does not want me to be something other than my False Self?
- Can I have meaningful relationships if I am only my False Self?
- Can I join God in God’s own understanding and love of my True Self?
- If Christ was his own True Self, can that inspire me to be my own True Selfless?
The list could go on!
I think this teaching resonates with me because sainthood, then, is less a matter of moral perfection, and more a matter of constantly discovering my True Self (which is loving, gracious, virtuous, joyful, etc.) and living from that center or ground.
3.
“Christianity is an entirely new way of being human.”
– Maximus the Confessor, 8th-century Syrian Monk
If Adam is the Old Man, and his progeny are the Old Humanity…
Then Christ, as the New Man, leads the way for a New Humanity.
I believe Maximus the Confessor made this comment after reading Ephesians 2, which talks about creating a New Humanity that operates by a completely different set of values.
The New Humanity has different values because it has different goals, and it has different goals because it has a different starting point. For the New Humanity, the starting point (and ending point) is always Love. And, since Love seeks to do no wrong to anyone, and instead to help carry one another’s burdens, Love is the fulfillment of the Law.
To me, Christ invites me to a completely other mode of existence. I sincerely believe there is sophiological importance to the Gospel teaching. There is more wisdom in the faith about how to live life than I believe most know.
To follow the teachings of Christ is inherently rebellious to a culture that is hedonistic (pleasure-seeking), sees people as a means to an end, focuses on what can be gained rather than who can be helped, and refuses to participate in anything that diminishes oneself or others.
Truly, it is a new way of being human.
4.
“The important thing is not to think much but to love much, and so to do whatever best awakens you to love.”
– Teresa of Avila, 16th-century Spanish Carmelite
I am a recovering Enneagram 5.
This means I live in my head, and fear often gets the best of me.
So, when I first read Teresa of Avila’s masterpiece, Interior Castle, I was gut-punched.
I am far too cerebral in how I live my life. Too much of my focus is on my own interior life, on thinking big thoughts, and trying to assemble theories for why certain things are the way they are.
Add to this that I am a professor and occasionally have the opportunity to preach, and you have a recipe for someone to share what they know, yet perhaps not always grow in love.
It is good for me to shut off my darn brain, with its scarcity mindset and fear-mongering, and just try to love better.
5.
“All will be well, all will be well, in every manner of thing, all will be well.”
– Julian of Norwich, 14th-century English Mystic
Julian of Norwich was potentially dying from either the grief of her whole family being lost to the Bubonic Plague and/or dying from the Plague herself.
On her deathbed, the whole world was closing in around her until she essentially had just tunnel vision straight forward to where there was a crucifix hanging on the wall opposite her.
It was then that she had a mystical experience of the Christ, and the two of them had 16 different conversations.
Miraculously, and much to the surprise of those attending her final moments, Julian recovered. It was not long before Julian put to writing the content of her conversations with the Christ.
Julian’s understanding of God is utterly kind, patient, paternal, and maternal, joyful, compassionate, and tender. Much like Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Julian caused me to shift my paradigm for understanding and relating to God.
The God revealed in the person of Jesus is completely hopeful. And at those deathbed conversations, God showed Julian that even with all the darkness and vice and sin in the world, “all will be well.” God, who is infinitely creative and infinitely capable, is going to turn all things for Good.
Reflection
The first two readings suggest that intimacy with God is less about achieving and more about returning — again and again. What does that kind of practice look like in your daily life?
A Prayer to Close
Lord, set me as a seal upon Your heart. In my longing, draw me near. In my weakness, shine through. Let me not be surprised by my wandering mind or my restless heart, but simply return — again and again — to You, the source of all love. Amen.
