My Sunday Morning Reflection:
In the 1970’s, I was in the Army and stationed in a small town in West Germany. My wife and child were 4753 miles away in Kansas City, Missouri. Since it wasn’t considered ‘manly’ to shed tears in front of your roommates, early Sunday mornings, while my comrades slept off another Saturday night, often found me walking the streets of Ettlingen alone. Feeling sorry for myself and pretty much hating the world.

I think that each one of us needs that time where we can block off the problems of the real world and reflect on who we are and where we want to go. Even today, though my life is in a much better place, I get up early on Sunday mornings and head out for a walk in search of inspiration and reaffirmation.

This song always comes to my mind as I hear my footsteps tap the empty sidewalks along silent streets. I remember the loneliness and depression of those days. How easily I could have slipped into the darkness and not returned. How narrow that margin is between who each of us are and the man living under the overpass.

I think about how we’re always complaining that the world is rapidly changing and we wish we could go back to our childhood. On my Sunday morning strolls, the church bells still echo through the crisp October fog, children still run and laugh in the city park, and the sun still manages to poke its way through the haze of the morning. In our busy lives, we just don’t see them as clearly as we did as children. But I see them on my lazy Sunday morning reflections and they make me remember also, the promise that I made to myself on those empty streets so long ago. I swore that once I was reunited with my wife, I would never leave her side again.

Songwriters: Kris Kristofferson
Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

Well I woke up Sunday morning
With no way to hold my head
That didn’t hurt
And the beer I had for breakfast wasn’t
Bad so I had one more for dessert
Then I fumbled through my closet
For my clothes
And found my cleanest dirty shirt
And I shaved my face
And combed my hair
And stumbled down the stairs
To meet the day
I’d smoked my brain the night before
With cigarettes and songs
That I’ve been pickin’
But I lit my first and watched a small kid
Cussin’ at a can that he was kickin
Then I crossed the empty street and
Caught the sunday smell
Of someone fryin chicken
And it took me back to something
That I’d lost somehow
Somewhere along the way
On the sunday morning sidewalk
Wishing lord that I was stoned
Cause there’s something in a sunday
That makes a body feel alone
And there’s nothing short of dying
Half as lonesome as the sound
On the sleeping city sidewalk
Sunday morning coming down
In the park I saw a daddy
With a laughing little girl
He was swingin
And I stopped beside the Sunday school
And listened to the song
That they were singing
Then I headed back for home
And somewhere far away
A lonely bell was ringing
And it echoed thru the canyon like
The disappearing dreams of yesterday
On the sunday morning sidewalk
Wishing lord that I was stoned
Cause therels something in a sunday
That makes a body feel alone
And there’s nothing short of dying
Half as lonesome as the sound
On the sleeping city sidewalk
Sunday morning coming down