I just came away from attending a symposium at a local church about how music influences our spiritual experience and how songs create social change. It raised awareness in me again of how precious singing and songs are to me. I started with parents who sang together. We sang together as a family regularly. My parents sang in the car on long trips, their harmony was beautiful. I remember my sister teaching me songs when I was very young and she was a teenager. I still remember those songs. But it didn't stop there. I grew up in a community that sang together a lot, most of it the form of spiritual songs or hymns, a lot of it in worship but not all. We sang for the fun of it too. And as an adult, I sing a LOT, church choir, voices of women, Singing in the Light, Morning Star Singers, and Village Fire Songfest. And oh the songs! How they fill my heart and sustain my life!
So today I thought I would make list of favorite Song Friends that have offered me strength, wisdom, courage and so much more over the years. Though not a complete list, here is a start:
Jesus Loves Me (in Malagasy & English)
Probably the first song I ever heard as it was my mom’s all-time favorite. She sang it often, even as we got older, even as she was aging. It seemed to be all she ever needed to know was that she was loved. And that was enough.
Children of the Heavenly Father
This is the first song I remember my sister Vangie teaching me. It was precious to me then and is now. Children of the Heavenly Father, safely in his bosom gather.
White Choral Bells
I had no idea what white coral bells were but singing a round with my sister was magical when I was 5 and she was 16. Sweetness!
Music Alone Shall Live
Another treasure from sister, this one planted that thought in my heart that music as forever, nothing could ever stop it.
When It’s too Hot for Popcorn
A goofy ditty from Dad that helped me understand that humor was part of life’s package. “It ain’t no sin, to take off your skin and dance around in your bones.”
How Great Thou Art
In first grade, at our missionary kids’ boarding school, this was one of the first things I remember Milla Thompson teaching us. She had it on a giant size board book with photos. The photos helped me know write away this was a song about stars, thunder, mountains and singing!
My Faith Looks Up to Thee
This sweet little old hymn was one of my first personal prayers when I discovered the spiritual side of life, when I discovered faith was something in me. “May thy rich grace impart, strength to my fainting heart.” A wonderful prayer indeed.
Amahl & the Night Visitors Soundtrack
My family listened to this opera on LP each Christmas and the songs in it became part of my skin. “Licorice, licorice, licorice…have some!”
In the Hall of the Mountain King,
This is one of my most favorite piano pieces by Edvard Grieg, Norwegian composer. I memorized it for my senior piano recital. Oh, how I wish I knew it now.
How Can I keep From Singing
This old traditional hymn as such precious words and carries that same thought of music lasting beyond all of life’s perils. I sang this nightly to my son Hans as he was dying of brain cancer at age 11. And now it lives in my heart forever.
Goodnight to you all
And speaking of Hans, my sister gave our family this precious song gift when she visited our dying son. Hans learned it too and sang it with us up until about his last day. “May angels around you their silent watch keep.”
Surrounding You
Barbara McAfee wrote this song and 2 or3 days later taught it to Morning Star Singers during a practice. By the end of line 2 I was sobbing, suddenly feeling as if my dead parents were sending me this precious message from the other side. “I wish you courage for the next step and the next, peace in the middle of the storm.” Until this moment, I had never looked at myself as a precious child, through the parents’ eyes. Whoa!
Hallelujah Chorus
I’ve enjoyed so many times of singing this timeless song. My favorite experience though was singing it alongside the Malagasy choir in Ft. Dauphin one Christmas. Oh, what joyful noise we made!
It’s Been a Good Day
Best line—“I may not have done all that I wanted to do, but oh, it’s been a mighty good day!”
Pass It On
This song was a popular campfire song when I was a teen. But I loved that idea that just a spark of love, of God’s love, could ignite a whole fire, a whole crowd with love.
This Little Light of Mine
I’m still learning this one, not how to sing it but how to live it, how to shine!
We Shall overcome
For many years at our current congregation, the Senior choir sang this with the Little kid’s choir during Lent. I cry every time I sing it with those kids, touched by the idea that all the generations do have this hope that together we will do better, be better.
Sanctuary
This is the precious song we sing each time we start a practice or sing with Morning Star Singers. “with thanksgiving I’ll be a living sanctuary for you.” This is regular prayer for me now.
Yes
Barbara McAfee’s anthem delights and invites me to live out in the light, in the Yesses. And she’s right, the yeses of life bring amazing opportunities for living.
Holy Angels
Sara Thomsen’s precious lullaby wraps us all in a blanket of love as we fall into sleep or death. Yum!
There's more, there's so much more but you get the idea! but with all this and more, how can I possibly keep from singing?!
