Singing the Seasons of the Church Year

The past two weeks have been busy – and yet thematically related.

• final edits on The Bishop is Coming
• rehearsals and preparation for a reading of A Man of No Importance for the Jen Waldman Studio‘s B-Sides
• setting up two new sites – one of which is The Calendar Song.

(this last bit I could never have accomplished without the help of Maggie McNeil.

…and the constants of meditation, prayer, practice, learning, and advising Rosie the Rotty on her Halloween costume.

I don’t know – waffled yellow just doesn’t say “ghost” to me.

The Calendar Song site reflects some of the work I’ve done over the years with children.  There are four free downloads available and you will get to see Barbara Desrosiers whimsical and beautiful logo design which is much better than the one you see below.

An excerpt from one of the free downloads (Singing with Young Children)  can be read on the blog Building Faith,  edited by Sharon Ely Pearson.  One of the more time-sensitve resources is an outline for a children’s chapel centered around St. Martin of Tours. This patron saint of veterans is near to my heart as I’m married to a combat veteran and retired bishop in The Episcopal Church. Martin also exemplifies someone who lived by the teachings in Matthew 25:38-40.  He is not necesarily to be venerated, but to be honored and used as a model.  Whether you’re part of a church or not, consider his gift of a coat to a stranger who was cold and offer the same.

The Rotary Club – Who Knew?

These days millions of us are praying for peace. With the knowledge that modern warfare means 10 dead non-combatants for every one member of the military, the thought of bombs killing more innocents generates grief and helplessness. It’s not the constitutionality of war that tears at my heart, it’s the proportionality.

St. Francis of Assisi said “Singing is praying twice.” In my search to find songs for peace, I ran across this story of the fifth founding Rotarian on the Songs for Peace site. Harry Ruggles was the person who introduced singing to the Rotary Clubs as a way to diffuse an argument. He just stood up and said “Come on boys, let’s sing!”,  leading them in “Let Me Call You Sweetheart.”

The world could still use a good song for peacemakers, one that unifies us, helps our vision, and even converts. In the meantime, it seems as if it’s enough to just sing.

One of many endearing versions of this 1910 song here.

Beginning My Studies

Beginning my studies the first step pleas’d me so much,
The mere fact consciousness, these forms, the power of motion,
The least insect or animal, the senses, eyesight, love,
The first step I say awed me and pleas’d me so much,
I have hardly gone and hardly wish’d to go any farther,
But stop and loiter all the time to sing it in ecstatic songs.

Walt Whitman

The concept of life as a song riding on the breath of the divine is simultaneously primal and sophisticated. Whitman, Rumi, the writers of Hebrew Scripture all understood this deeply.

Whether our vocations are those of singers and musicians, caregivers, activists, educators, comedians….it begins with mindfulness of the breath that moves us all.

The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you.
Don’t go back to sleep.

You must ask for what you really want.
Don’t go back to sleep.

People are going back and forth across the door sill
Where the two worlds touch.

The door is round and open.
Don’t go back to sleep.

Rumi