I was inspired today by Lizard Eater at The Journey today who has a lovely analysis of her favorite song, "How Can I Keep From Singing?" It is a wonderful song and I like what she has to say about it.
It reminded me of my favorite hymn, "His Eye Is On the Sparrow" which I play when I am down. I have three different versions on my iPod and I played them all back to back last week when I was trying to perk myself up.
It always surprised me that these old hymns can have such an effect on me. I don't believe in God anymore, and if I did it would not be the God of those songs. But I love them. Maybe it's just comforting memories of childhood, but some of them are just so beautiful. I don't really feel like Jesus is watching over me, like the sparrow, but it still makes me feel better. Mountains still make me want to sing, "How Great Thou Art". I don't really have to understand it if it works, but it still puzzles me.
A couple of years ago, I realized that I knew so few sing-a-long songs to teach my girls and I wondered why that was when we sang all the time when I was a kid. Then it dawned on me: most of what we sang as a family was either hymns or praise songs. I guess I'll continue to sing Beatles songs and old folk tunes with les filles.
If you are looking for kids songs, the UUA does have a children's song book. Of course, I can't recall the title, but the songs are catchy and fun to sing. I also realized when I had children, I didn't know any sing-a-longs either!
ReplyDeleteI have always found "A-men" to be a good song to sing as well as "This little light of mine". Should you want to hear some very good hymns. Listen to Mahalia Jackson. A lot of world leaders found comfort in her music.
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