Beauty from Red Thread by Congregation Bet Haverim Chorus, Band and Strings

By Will Robertson
Lead vocal: Will Robertson; harmony vocals: Brad Davidorf, Ariela Freedman, Gayanne Geurin

Will Robertson wrote this song in the fall of 2011 as he admired the beauty of the vivid leaves around his family’s new home. At the time, he also felt unsettled by several things: a hasty studio rebuild, his son’s starting kindergarten, worries about an escaped pet, news of a former neighbor’s sudden death. In that context, the constancy of the beauty of nature felt like a calming, grounding anchor. “Maybe this sense is what has made this song stick around, and why folks asked to hear it in the early weeks of the pandemic in 2020, as the reality of our situation coincided with an unbelievably gorgeous Atlanta spring,” he says. “Even in the midst of change, churn and tragedy, there is always underlying truth and beauty that comes from the earth, and that is there for us if we just look around and take it in.”