Showing posts with label Music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Music. Show all posts

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Mothers' Day Song

My husband has a long time good friend who, every Mothers' Day since I met him 5 years ago, never fails to mention his frustration at the hymns chosen for church that day.

It's not that he dislikes the songs that are chosen, he just gets a little irritated that one particular song is not chosen.

I think that most likely the title itself takes it out of the running for any chorister who maybe doesn't know the lyrics. However, he firmly believes there is no better song to sing on Mothers' Day because it is the one and only hymn that mentions Heavenly Mother.

So, to perhaps put his mind at ease (probably not though) for this one Mothers' Day, the hymn -

O My Father

O my Father, thou that dwellest
In the high and glorious place,
When shall I regain thy presence
And again behold thy face?
In thy holy habitation,
Did my spirit once reside?
In my first primeval childhood
Was I nurtured near thy side?

For a wise and glorious purpose
Thou hast placed me here on earth
And withheld the recollection
Of my former friends and birth;
Yet ofttimes a secret something
Whispered, "You're a stranger here,"
And I felt that I had wandered
From a more exalted sphere.

I had learned to call thee Father,
Thru thy Spirit from on high,
But, until the key of knowledge
Was restored, I knew not why.
In the heav'ns are parents single?
No, the thought makes reason stare!
Truth is reason; truth eternal
Tells me I've a mother there.

When I leave this frail existence,
When I lay this mortal by,
Father, Mother, may I meet you
In your royal courts on high?
Then, at length, when I've completed
All you sent me forth to do,
With your mutual approbation
Let me come and dwell with you.

Text: Eliza R. Snow
(Emphasis added)

Monday, April 25, 2011

Temple Observation

I found this sweet blog post through the Atlanta Temple's facebook page. It's written by a woman of the Catholic faith who went on the Temple tour a couple of weeks ago. I love how respectful and appreciative she is. It made me think of the experience I had as a tour guide and how special that was for me. It was so sweet to have the opportunity to welcome people to the Lord's house on His behalf. I really felt like my job was to say a few words and then get out of the way so they could just soak up as much of the Temple beauty and spirit as possible. I was nervous but I knew the more I just relaxed and let the Spirit do His thing, the better the tour would be. This song sums up that feeling nicely I think:



Friday, April 22, 2011

Musical Confessions

Who here can't get enough of Pandora Radio? I for one love to put on my "MMMBop" Radio station whenever I'm cleaning and rock out to 90's pop tunes to my heart's content. I realize I may be dating myself a bit by that last admission and even more by this next one, but the first concert I ever went to when I was in junior high was Hanson. I went through various phases in relation to them over the years. I spent that first concert screaming, crying, yelling "I love you Taylor!", and talking my friend Julie into holding me on her shoulders so I could see better over the crowd. I went home and spent the next few months using my allowance to buy the Tulsa, Tokyo and The Middle of Nowhere tour video, the Snowed In Christmas album (on cassette tape) and every Teen Beat or Seventeen magazine with their picture on it I could get my hands on. I was mostly obsessed with Taylor (even after realizing if you looked at the two of us from just the right angle, we looked remarkably similar.)


That first phase also overlapped a bit with my next one, which was my "oh yeah, Hanson is lame" phase when I didn't have enough self esteem to have or express my own opinions on just about anything. Around the end of high school was my "Taylor's married?? I guess Ike just got cuter" phase. I was reintroduced to their music with "Penny and Me" on the radio around 2004 and was finally at a place in time where I was confident enough to acknowledge my likes and dislikes without thinking twice about it. I liked it.

I'm sure each of you will have your own powerful reaction ;-) to the knowledge that I will be 26 in May and am a one-time closet Hanson fan. I have screamed myself hoarse at a Backstreet Boys concert in my lifetime. If you care to know, I also love me some Country music. Darius Rucker is awesome as a country solo artist AND in Hootie and the Blowfish. Both my husband and I are suckers for sappy 80's love songs. I could go on but the question I have to put to you is: can it be a guilty pleasure if I don't feel guilty?

What are your guilty/not-so-guilty musical pleasures?