Old Woman's Bucket

The following lyric is based on a true story told me by an old gentleman who came for screening to our "Take It to Heart" health van at Topsfield Fair in Massachusetts. When he learned of our efforts to help people adopt healthful habits which would promote long life, it jogged his memory concerning something he had heard as a boy growing up in the Appalachian Mountains. I asked him if I could quote him on the story he had told me. He said, "Why, yes. I wouldn't tell you a lie. This really happened. I knew the old woman myself when I was a boy."

I've set his bare outline of a story to meter, rhymn and music, and included God as the "Silent Partner" in the long conversation that follows.


Old Woman's Bucket

Old woman in her cabin in the Appalachian Mountains,
Far from the freeways and the bright city light.
She lived all alone miles beyond the nearest faucet,
And she prayed this prayer when she knelt at night...

"Lord, O Lord, why do I have to carry
My water so far in this bucket from the spring?
I'm a weary old woman, and the trail's so long.
Dear Lord, I keep listening, but You don't say a thing."

The long years passed as she prayed her prayer,
Each day was the same in the heat and the snow.
She trudged with her bucket to the spring down the mountain
Where the great oak grew and the clear water flowed.

"Lord, O Lord, why do I have to carry
My water so far in this bucket from the spring?
I'm a weary old woman, and the trail's so long.
Dear Lord, I keep listening, but You don't say a thing."

Wild flowers bloomed and autumn leaves swirled,
A long decade passed, and then a decade more.
She never got an answer to that prayer she prayed,
But she died last year...age ONE HUNDRED AND FOUR!

"Lord, O Lord, why do I have to carry
My water so far in this bucket from the spring?
I'm a weary old woman, and the trail's so long.
Dear Lord, I keep listening, but You don't say a thing."

Now what's your spring and what's your bucket?
What's the rugged trail that's so hard in your eyes?
The next time you kneel, thank the good Lord above.
Each trial He sends is a blessing in disguise.

"Lord, O Lord, why do I have to carry
My water so far in this bucket from the spring?
I'm worn and weary and the trail's so long.
Dear Lord, I keep listening, but You don't say a thing.
Lord, I keep listening, but You don't say a thing.

c2009 Skip Johnson

"Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will recieve the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him." James 1:12 NIV