Song of Graceful Praise — Where the Music Began
There’s a song of mine that almost nobody has heard. It was never released, never polished — and I’m keeping it that way. Some songs aren’t meant to be promoted. They’re meant to be kept, like a first sketch in an artist’s notebook.
“Song of Graceful Praise” was my Georgian Bay song.
It was the first week Craigleith Provincial Park had opened for the season — cold, but beautiful — and we were RV camping there.
The beauty of camping for me is the pause — taking time out of life to sit with God in nature.
Camping has become where so many of my songs begin. After the Rain was written while camping in July in Mont-Tremblant Park. I write sitting in nature — it is a reflective time, a time for meditation and prayer.
I was standing at the shore, looking out at creation — the water, the sky, the light, the sheer vastness of it — and the looking became words, and the words became a song directed toward God.
It has become my recurring thread, the pattern underneath almost everything I write: creation → noticing → gratitude → praise.
That song was also where it all began. It was the first time I truly wrote poems and lyrics, and the first song I ever produced and recorded.
Years later I simplified and reworked it, and it traveled into “Grace Was Always There” (released August 15, 2026) — the version you’ve heard. But this is the original. I’m sharing the video exactly as it is — not to improve it or launch it, but to document it: this is where the music began.
“I lift my voice in grateful praise
To You, my God, through all my days.
Your grace is near, Your love endures —
Forever Yours, my heart is sure.”
That was the first thing I ever sang into a recording. And somehow, all these years later, it is still the truest thing I know.
At the end of this month we take our last RV trip of the season, to Oka — and I will be sitting in nature again, listening.
Listen on Spotify, YouTube, Apple Music, and Amazon Music — Linda Lok.
Leave a Reply