In an interview, Bruce Cockburn spoke about writing this song. He had been out to dinner with someone in Ottawa and they were discussing the state of affairs between Russia and China at that time. He learned that Russia and China were potentially on the brink of a nuclear exchange. This is where the opening lines come from - sun's up, looks okay, world survives into another day (which I assume he was pretty thankful for). In addition, at the time he had been having dreams about lions and Bruce Cockburn was. Is very interested in dreams, interpreting his dreams, and specifically Carl Jung's works. (Subsequently, Marion Woodman's work interested him as well and he did some Jungian dream study in the '90s). The lion symbol is a very interesting one - often associated with wisdom, power, dignity, courage and strength. Like any poem, the images are supposed to be thought provoking but clearly he is contemplating his personal, mystical connection with life, with others, and the with the world - standing in appreciation of the joy of his emotions. (Some kind of ecstasy's got a hold of me).