"The Way Back to Me" by James McNiel and Leo Adames

During worship on July 2nd, Leo Adames will perform a song he wrote in 2023 based on 2019 lyrics by James McNiel. Both Leo and James are members of FPC. James is currently a high school student. Their song is called "The Way Back to Me." 

Leo's comments on the song...

When I read James's poem “The Way Back to Me,” what caught my eye was the idea that there’s a center in the heart that holds a sense of unique innocence--a "garden" that holds the pure form of beauty, the basic elements of contentment, of happiness, and inspiration. The poem is a struggle of losing sense of direction, of being in a maze of emotional dead-ends, trying different paths to “get back to the garden” on the “way back to me”. “Where you will be” is the guiding light, the spirit that can be interpreted as maybe a parent, or someone that has passed away, or the God Spirit. The music is simple, gentle; it's a song trying to interpret the heart of a young writer.

Lyrics:

I wander lost and all alone,
What was then, now seems long gone.
I’ve searched every path to find a way, 
To a loss my heart has not yet found.
I’ll find my way back to Me, 

To what it was, to innocence restored.
So from where I’m now, to where I used to be, 

I’ll find my way back to Me, where You will be.
 
There’s a place I knew, like a garden, 

Where all good things come to be. 

But when darkness came, took my Faith and Hope, 

and the shadows hid the way back home,
I lost my way back to Me, 

To what it was, to innocence restored.
So from where I’m now, to where I used to be,

I’ll find my way back to Me, where You will be.

And what was broken then is now renewed.
Your guiding light has pulled me through.
 
I’m on my way back to Me, 

To what it was, to innocence restored.
So from where I’m now, to where I used to be, 

I am on my way back to Me, where You will be.