I woke up to a crackling fire and the coffee brewing (Dave is sweet). A soft snow is falling and it is so cold outside. It is the second Sunday of Advent. Each day I am taking the time of at least the length of a song and observing the days of longing and desiring, the centuries of waiting for the Messiah. People living in darkness waited so long for Him. Then He came. We are so blessed. I love the musical meetings in His Presence leading up to the Christmas celebration.
You’re the Lord of all creation
And still You know my heart
The Author of salvation
You’ve Loved me from the start ~ waiting here for you…
Waiting Here for You, Christy Nockels
Sometimes I wonder how our views of God can be so off course, like He is up there looking for reasons to kick any of us to the curb. He is the Author of Salvation. He is the One who so-loved-the-world that He gave us a Savior, a Savior! Wow, that is love. He first loved us and now we LOVE Him back!
This is one of those songs I sing with fervor and devotion, hoping He’ll somehow see how much He means to me. I kind of think He answers me lightheartedly: Wonderful ~ because I have already been here waiting for you! :)
Waiting here for you
With our hands lifted high in praise
And it’s You we adore
Singing Hallelujah
You are everything You promised
Your faithfulness is true
And we’re desperate for Your presence
All we need is You
Counting down the days until the Christmas Celebration with songs. Because I love song. Sing with me! :)
Waiting here for you
From the Nativity photo shoot of 2012
UPDATE 12/12/13: The sweet daughter Tredessa couldn’t believe I didn’t use THIS live-version of this song with {my favorite} Martin Smith and {my other favorite} Kim Walker, singing this song. And I was like – OMYGOSH! So true! I LOVE-LOVE-LOVE this one! So here it is now…
Here we are on day 7 of Advent and I cannot help but think of high school choir. Mrs. Weatherly stretched our 70s-pop-radio-station minds and voices when she pulled out the rugged old copies of Handel’s Messiah (1741) and taught us several numbers. At first it seemed nearly like a foreign language, but over the course of rehearsals, we came to love it, our delivery getting better, more crisp and mature. The thrill of it was getting to perform at midnight mass on Christmas Eve at the big Catholic church in town – way outside “my” church walls.
This was December 2011…how quickly they grow…
I’ve only attended a couple of full-fledged performances of traditional Messiah performances and have never managed to get to see Young Messiah (yes, they found a way to make it pop), but each time was a musical thrill and how happy I am when I can hear and quietly sing along on complicated parts (alto and second soprano) I can still remember from high school.
Comfort Ye
First the more traditional version with a full symphony if you’re up for a beautiful musical adventure. If not, I have included a second version from the The New Young Messiah (what? “young” wasn’t good enough already?!), a more contemporary rendition. It doesn’t matter how you listen, it IS the good news and a promise from God that our sins were being forgiven! Oh, yes!
Comfort ye, comfort ye My people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to
Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her
iniquity is pardoned. The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness,
prepare ye the way of the Lord. Make straight in the desert a highway for our God. (Isaiah 40:1-3)
I love that the God of the universe, the just and True God, the God of Righteousness and holiness still looks at us in our mess of living and says these words which have marked this year for me,
I already used this song Sunday, a Francesca Battistelli version, but it is so beautiful and totally embodies the whole thing about Advent. (Just as a humorous sidenote, Catholic Online uses a Wikipedia definition of what Advent is, haha). I am still learning. Should have known to go straight to Wikipedia. Kinda funny!
The Piano Guys are awesome and have a really festive “Angels We Have Heard on High” video making the rounds these days, but this rendition of O Come, O Come Emmanuel is just exquisite {- exquisite} and will bring you peace for the weekend. At the end they have a link to a special Christmas version of it. In case once isn’t enough (and it wasn’t for me).
O come, Thou Day-Spring, come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night
And death’s dark shadows put to flight.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.
Stop what you’re doing. Put that long list of things to do away. Listen, shhhhh….listen by candlelight and pray it, too,
O Come, Emmanuel…
NOTE: These photos are some of the unedited (or at least unfinished) pictures we didn’t use on the 2010 Christmas card. Four cameras going, less than 30 minutes start to finish includes getting the kids out of the car and into the cold, dressed, bringing all the animals in and snapping like wild. Later a lovely card and “Baby Jesus” (depicted by little Miss Sawyer) was suddenly wearing blue. ;) But this? Is what is REALLY looked like! Haha.
I am waiting in a silent prayer
I am frightened by the load I bear
In a world as cold as stone
Must I walk this path alone?
Be with me now, be with me now
Today, I choose Breath of Heaven by Amy Grant. It is totally not meant for Advent, since the secondary title is “Mary’s Song,” but it is very prayerful. That seems to be the theme with me lately. That seems to be the state I am in: prayerfulness.
Do you wonder as you watch my face
If a wiser one should have had my place?
But I offer all I am
For the mercy of Your plan
Help me be strong, help me be, help me
And it isn’t the public kind, all flowery with beautiful words coming from my well-developed church vocabulary (churchish is my native language). It isn’t the authoritative supplications of an anointed intercessor born to change the world with loud and powerful sentences while pacing platforms in decided strides. That isn’t the kind of prayerfulness I am in, though I have done my share of those.
It’s the closet kind, in a whisper. It’s the kind the Father and only the Father can hear. It’s the slave of Romans 8 collapsing, finally into the arms of his Adopter , his Abba, realizing fear has no place – safe. I am HIS child. His.
It is that kind of prayer. Crying out to that kind of Father – the kind that sees me as a joint heir with the Savior of the universe: even me ~ a sinner, flawed and fearful, a bundle of weirdness and insecurity, a weakling, a moaner, an anxious worrier, a broken vessel, a liar, a cheat, a thief…I have to confess it all and plead for mercy. It’s safe because He is Mercy. And He is my Father. These are the times to run to Him, to Him, not away. The papers are signed, adoption final. I am His daughter.
And I search His face for signs He is disappointed in His choice. And from this very close and prayerful vantage point, there are none. I am His.
Breath of Heaven, hold me together
Be forever near me, breath of Heaven
Breath of Heaven, lighten my darkness
Pour over me Your holiness for You are holy
Breath of Heaven, Breath of Heaven
Take a few minutes to observe Advent today, with a prayerful song.
“Advent as a season is meant to make the journey toward Christmas full of meaning; it’s meant to put us touch with our deepest longings and greatest hopes; it’s meant to teach us to bring all our desires together on one object: Christ. While “Christmas” as a season (properly) begins on December 25 and goes twelve days (yes, there’s a song about that!) until January 6th, Advent is all about the build-up to it. It begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas and takes us right up to the glorious celebration of the incarnation.” -Glenn Packiam
So, we just passed the first Sunday of Advent. This first week traditionally, at least so I am reading, is all about the Patriarchs and Old Testament figures from God creating the heavens and the earth, the fall into sin with Adam and Eve, through the lives of Noah, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as the promised is being revealed and God’s great plan of salvation is put into motion. So much happened to get a Savior to us, those whom God so loves, didn’t it?
So today, I chose a Phillips, Craig and Dean song (Dave loves them), Shine on Us. It is prayerful, an invitation of all God is to come and just be welcomed in us, on us, around us. Go sit in the light of your Christmas tree and listen for 4 minutes, and pray it. Then receive it.
So, I just feel like today, as the temp is dropping, a nice, upbeat, dancing number is in order (just to keep us warm, for crying out loud). So we’ll listen, sing with, and dance to:
Filled with Your Glory by Starfield
Stephanie took this shot of our 6 grandbebes last Christmas. Now we habe 8. Soon…
I love the powerful imagery created by the words: Angels and men adore, mountains bow and oceans roar. Creation longs for what’s in store… Well, YES! Don’t you just have the sense that we’re all really pretty well sunk if the LORD does not show up and fill the earth with His very Glory – just like the water fills the sea? I think Creation is crying out for His Presence and Glory and we better do that, too. Though we live in so much light (because {Jesus} the LIGHT came), we sure are managing to embrace living that darkens the future for our planet, for nations, for the hearts and souls of children. Arise and shine, people of God, for the glory of the LORD is risen upon you!
I’m kind of with the ocean on this one: maybe we need to be letting out a roar for His glory!
TV Themes really are woven into our musical-brains in a unique way. They signal certain years and seasons of our lives with distinct and focused clarity. If we loved the show, the theme probably added to it. When we heard it coming on, we ran from the kitchen with our popcorn and Pepsi in hand, it’s time, our hearts beating faster. **Smile.
In these days of Tivo and Apple TV, Netflix and Hulu-Plus, we watch whole seasons in a week or two, treating shows more like a mini-series than episodic TV, and if you watch more than one episode at a time, it does become monotonous to hear many of the themes over and over. But if the theme actually adds to the fun or the intrigue or the feel of the show, then I must insist on experiencing the song again and again.
Like with Mad Men: the musical theme is a must. It sets a sexy tone of intrigue whether I am marathoning or just fitting one episode into my evening. When the grandbebes are here, they beg to watch Gilligan’s Island over and over and the song is key to the slapstick fun!
I want my own theme song
Wouldn’t that just be fun? If, right before you arrived to meet your friend for coffee at Starbucks, or as you were coming down the stairs in the morning, a song started playing – a song that captured your essence and impish sweetness and set the tone for a special half-hour with you? I want that, dangit! I want to be wearing a yellow dress, just sort of gliding through life and have the world break forth in song in my wake. Hahahahaha! I laugh, but I may not actually kidding…*ahem
I sat down with a pen and wrote a quick list of some of my favorite TV theme songs from my growing up years. It is one of the fastest lists I have ever made. I had to keep crossing things off to keep the list from being my top FIFTY favs to just being 20…or so. ;)
A Spotify Playlist follows.
BEST TV THEMES from the 1960s and 1970s (in my humble opinion) ~ In no particular order…
Brady Bunch. Well, I mean, if you were going to have a blended family, how wonderful for every single person to be so cute, looking at each other sweetly from blue boxes. The Brady Bunch was a social-landscape-changing show, and like many shows of the time, told the whole background setting in the 30-40 second theme song. Hilarious! “Here’s the story of a lovely lady,” sing along with me now!
Partridge Family. OMYGOODNESS!!! Have you never read this blog before? This is THE quintessential show of my childhood and really – the theme of my life in its’ entirety, is it not??? Everybody – let’s SING!
“Hello, world, here’s the song that we’re singin’
C’mon get happy!
A whole lot of lovin’ is what we’ll be bringin’
We’ll make you happy!
We had a dream we’d go travelin’ together,
We’d spread a little love and then we’d keep movin’ on.
Somethin’ always happens whenever we’re together
We get a happy feelin’ when we’re singing a song.
Trav’lin’ along there’s a song that we’re singin’
C’mon get happy!
A Whole lot of lovin’ is what we’ll be bringin’
We’ll make you happy!
We’ll make you happy!
We’ll make you happy!”
Rockford Files. Instrumental. It was really my dad’s show. But the song charted on pop stations and is an earthy, sexy, adventurous, upbeat, ornery-cool song. Mike Post won a Grammy for best instrumental arrangement in 1975. Can’t sing to it, but can love me some James Garner – and those cute answering machine messages he’d leave for his creditors!
Happy Days. This show just took the early 70s by storm. It was set in the late 50s-to-early 1960s with Poodle skirts and saddle shoes and the Fonz. I recall my mom totally not getting the appeal, as she had “already lived through that era” and was glad it was over. But the jukebox and the bobby-soxer were the rage and this show was just the thing! Thumbs-up, “Aaaaayyyyy!”
Andy Griffith Show. The whistle. It was one of the earliest shows of my memory. I watched it with my mom while she’d be ironing clothes and she always whistled along. She taught me how when I was 3 or 4. But I can’t do it now. What’s up with that?
The Beverly Hillbillies. A little Bluegrass, here. Just such a fun song to sing, and again, one of those that gave you the whole back story in a theme song. Genius! “Come and listen to a story ’bout a man named Jed…”
Gomer Pyle, USMC. This one didn’t have words, either, but what a rousing, fun intro that made you want to watch Gomer smile that big, goofy smile and stand at attention in an attention-getting way and say, “Well, goll-ll-ll-ll-y!”
I Love Lucy. Who wouldn’t love Lucy? Partly why I always wanted to have red hair.
Perry Mason. Those eyes ~ and the broadest shoulders on TV ever! I LOVE a man in a well-cut suit and tie. Don Draper does it best these days (besides Dave, of course), but Perry was my man. I still think about becoming a lawyer and shaming people into a confession!
Sesame Street. This show came on when I was all of about 10 and I just remember thinking, “How wonderful that the little children have such a cool show they can watch now.” Secretly, I wished I could, too, because of this TV theme song which got lots of play on the pop stations in its early days.
The Dick Van Dyke Show. Perfect example of an instrumental TV theme that absolutely captured the fun and sophistication of the cast and characters and everything about this show. It really has to be one of the greatest ensemble casts with more talent per square-minute than almost any other, ever. It was beautiful, it was funny, and this song was the platform for the genius performances. SO good!
Batman. It had words. Na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na Batman!
The Love Boat. In one hour, all your romantic problems could be fixed on the high seas. “Love exciting and new, come aboard. We’re expecting you…” I came aboard every Saturday night for 4 years. :)
The Monkees. Now this one is weird. Because I love the theme, but the actual show was totally beyond me, really. I wasn’t in tune to the humor, but I watched because I thought if I kept trying, I’d get there. But I loved their songs. Still do.
I Dream of Jeanie. Well. Don’t make me explain why I had to like this one.
Welcome Back, Kotter. A teacher returns to teach at his old school after his dreams had been his ticket out. John Travolta = Vinnie Barbarino. Good song. Cute Vinnie.
The Patty Duke Show. See what I mean? Not only did Patty Duke get to have her own theme song, she got to be 2 different characters. Ok. That’s it! Now I want my own theme song AND I want to be able to have more than one personality! But both – engaging and wonderful!
The Courtship of Eddie’s Father. Well, mid-century-modern cool, period. Seeing a dad as a friend was foreign to me, but I was very impressed at how Bill Bixby did it. I think it changed American perceptions about dads. The images during the theme song (not to mention those voice-over low-key conversations between a boy and his dad ) are undeniably strong.
Green Acres. “Green Acres is the place to be. Farm living is the life for me!” I could not have sang that better myself! I get Mr. Oliver Wendell Douglas. I get him. Now where is my version of that house and farm and cast of silly characters, including a pig named Arnold? Where, I ask you?
My Three Sons. This theme song also has a particular visual I could not NOT watch! It is so scaled-back hip, animated line-drawing cool! HAD to watch it whenever I could!
I recall quite a few shows for a girl with no TV at home from the mid-60s until the World Series of 1971, huh?
Bonus info…THESE two shows (also my favs)…
UNO:::The Mary Tyler Moore Show, “Who can turn the world on with her smile?” I wanted to grow up and wear the outfits she was wearing and “take a nothing day and suddenly make it all seem worthwhile,” and toss my hat into the air in the middle of the city just like Mary. The great strength of this show was an incredible supporting cast, strong characters and how it visually captured changing times. Great lyrics, warmth, memory-making, fun-to-sing! One of the best ever ~ and the one that sparked me thinking about TV themes because this actually could be a theme song for my great niece, Emilee. :)
DOS:::That Girl! (Marlo Thomas) I loved this show, but Marlo carried most of it. She did have the amazing Donald (her TV boyfriend), but her supporting cast didn’t do enough for her, I don’t think. “She’s everything that every girl should be….That girl!”
have led to today’s:
Uno + Dos + Tres = ::: New Girl starring Zoey Daschenal. This is one of my fav TV show themes ever, really! “Who’s that girl? Who’s that girl? It’s me!” Oops, “It’s Jess!” Well, I mean – I was wishing for some props like these and ya know: my own theme song.
Here is a YouTube playlist of all three openings. That Girl ~ Mary Tyler Moore Show ~ New Girl. Do I need to submit any further evidence of the need for a personal theme song? It ensures good lighting at all times, a fabulous wardrobe, and hats and good hair days, together or on their own. *sigh….
The MAIN problem I had was when I went to create this playlist on Spotify…
I saw so many other shows with great themes, too. Like Room 222, which I think I wrote a whole blog post about a few years back. Of course you cannot deny the power of Gilligan’s Island to make. you. crazy!!! I hate it, but the theme song is catchy. There was Hawaii 5-0, Bewitched (which I wasn’t supposed to like because of witches), and Family Affair, not to mention The Munsters…and so many more!
Many of these are not actually the original, but this is a fun, happy, good-memory kind of playlist, anyway!
What were your favorite TV themes? Do you have 20 or 50-some like me?
YAHOO News [10.29.13]: Nothing is stronger than the bond between mother and child. This certainly rings true at the Leroux household in Ontario, Canada. Their daughter loves one of her mom’s songs so much, it send sher into floods of tears, every time she hears it. Mom Amanda Leroux told Storyful: “No one can explain why, not even I. I can sing any other song and do not get the same reaction from her. It’s to adorable to keep all to ourselves.” Update: The song is “My Heart Can’t Tell You No,” which has been performed by both Rod Stewart and Sara Evans. Credit: Alain Leroux.
Don’t try to tell me this baby doesn’t already understand the power of melody, the emotion in a song. This is amazing! Her response is so subdued, she chokes back her emotion while tears shoot out. It is mesmerizing to see and I just want to scoop her up and sing a happy song for her. Hope her mommy did!
The sun is bright, the sky is blue, the blue I am addicted to seeing (thank-you for these skies, Father-in-Heaven). There is the slightest breeze which comes and goes – barely perceptible on this cool morning. Oh, but the tree is ready, waits for the slightest encouragement – ready to abandon its’ hold…And the leaves, in all their glorious color, are falling in silent, slow motion~ drifting gracefully, gently to the ground. Today is the day of falling. Falling slowly.
This image looks really early 1900s. I google-searched for poets named “Mamie” and there are actually quite a few.
I like October because it reminds me of innocent childhood, shuffling through piles of leaves on the way to school, before the days when people felt the incessant need to banish the sight of them immediately at all costs. Have you noticed, in these newer neighborhoods, it’s almost impossible to get a decent pile for jumping in?
Because I’m still in love with you
I want to see you dance again
Because I’m still in love with you
On this harvest moon. (Neil Young, lyrics – Harvest Moon)
I like October for the crimson and pumpkin, for the eggplant and rust, and all the colors of the deepening, mature, lusty, whole and passionate part of the year when the autumn moon hangs heavy in the sky like the warm embraces of a tattered, weighty quilt sewn years ago for the need of heat and not some contest of a county fair. Have you ever been covered in one of those?
I like October because the coffee is richer, the evening cricket is less frantic, more rhythmic. The sun slants and schedules fall into an easy ritual, the day in and day out are much more organized. Tans fade, memories are made, soup is stirred, cakes are baked, sweaters come out and life is rich.
Well, it’s a marvelous night for a moondance
With the stars up above in your eyes
A fantabulous night to make romance
‘Neath the cover of October skies (Moondance, Van Morrison)
I like October because my neighbor’s Maple tree explodes into multichromatic, vibrance and dances merrily in a dazzling production for me through my big window each time I walk through the room. From dark, living green to lime to yellow to orange to scarlet to blood-red and back. Then, just as all the colors begin to subside, like the finale of a summer fireworks display, a wind scatters the leaves far and wide and they glide and twirl and settle on the lawns with a promise to do it all again – same time next year.
The tree of which I speak…from the window (this was 2 years ago)
I do like October. Love it, even.
And yes, in all of it, like the poet said, “the opulent Giver I see.”
