Books by Dale Harris

Books by Dale Harris
A Feast of Epiphanies

Though I Walk, A Novel

Daytime Moons and Other Celestial Anomalies, a book of poems

Second Wind

Second Wind
An album of songs both old and new. Recorded in 2021, a year of major transition for me, these songs explore the many vicissitudes of the spiritual life,. It's about the mountaintop moments and the Holy Saturday sunrises, the doors He opens that no one can close, and those doors He's closed that will never open again. You can click the image above to give it a listen.

The Song Became a Child

The Song Became a Child
A collection of Christmas songs I wrote and recorded during the early days of the pandemic lockdown in the spring of 2020. Click the image to listen.

There's a Trick of the Light I'm Learning to Do

There's a Trick of the Light I'm Learning to Do
This is a collection of songs I wrote and recorded in January - March, 2020 while on sabbatical from ministry. They each deal with a different aspect or expression of the Gospel. Click on the image above to listen.

Three Hands Clapping

Three Hands Clapping
This is my latest recording project (released May 27, 2019). It is a double album of 22 songs, which very roughly track the story of my life... a sort of musical autobiography, so to speak. Click the album image to listen.

Ghost Notes

Ghost Notes
A collections of original songs I wrote in 2015, and recorded with the FreeWay Musical Collective. Click the album image to listen.

inversions

inversions
Recorded in 2014, these songs are sort of a chronicle of my journey through a pastoral burn-out last winter. They deal with themes of mental-health, spiritual burn-out and depression, but also with the inexorable presence of God in the midst of darkness. Click the album art to download.

soundings

soundings
click image to download
"soundings" is a collection of songs I recorded in September/October of 2013. Dealing with themes of hope, ache, trust and spiritual loss, the songs on this album express various facets of my journey with God.

bridges

bridges
Click to download.
"Bridges" is a collection of original songs I wrote in the summer of 2011, during a soul-searching trip I took out to Alberta; a sort of long twilight in the dark night of the soul. I share it here in hopes these musical reflections on my own spiritual journey might be an encouragement to others: the sun does rise, blood-red but beautiful.

echoes

echoes
Prayers, poems and songs (2005-2009). Click to download
"echoes" is a collection of songs I wrote during my time studying at Briercrest Seminary (2004-2009). It's called "echoes" partly because these songs are "echoes" of times spent with God from my songwriting past, but also because there are musical "echoes" of hymns, songs or poems sprinkled throughout the album. Listen closely and you'll hear them.

Accidentals

Accidentals
This collection of mostly blues/rock/folk inspired songs was recorded in the spring and summer of 2015. I call it "accidentals" because all of the songs on this project were tunes I have had kicking around in my notebooks for many years but had never found a "home" for on previous albums. You can click the image to download the whole album.

Random Reads

From the Beginning: A Devotional Commentary on Genesis (IV)

I've read the Noah's Ark story any number of times before, but something sort of struck me recently in a fresh way. In Genesis 8:13, it says that "By the first day of the first month ... the water had dried up from the earth, and Noah 'removed the covering of the ark' and saw that the ground was dry." In my mind, I picture Noah already stepping out, onto long-awaited dry ground. But then in 8:14, it says, by the 27 day of the second month, roughly 57 days later, the ground was completely dry, and then God told Noah to come out of the ark (v.15).

 In other words, he saw the ground was dry on day one, month one, but had to wait 2 months (approximately) before God told him to come out. I'm just speculating, but I expect it was agony for Noah, waiting those 57-some-days in the Ark, staring day after day at the dry, inviting mountainside of Mt. Ararat, but not yet released from the Ark to go enjoy it.  This is a bit of an allegorical reading, I admit, but it got me thinking about the times in my life when "the ground" so to speak, of what God's doing in my life, "looks dry," but God's not ready, yet, for me to step out onto it. Sometimes in ministry, for instance, or in my family life, maybe, or in my long-range-life-planning, let's say, it may look like God's opportunity is right there, dry as a bone and shining in the sun, and just waiting for me ... and yet, God hasn't yet said to me, like he did to Noah: "'Okay, now, step out of the Ark and into it." 

 May we all have both the wisdom and the patience of Noah, today, as we wait to be "released from the Ark" (again, so to speak, whatever "waiting in the Ark" may mean for you or I today). May we, like him, have the wisdom to know when the time's right to step out, and the patience to wait until it is.

 

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