As any writer knows, good words aren't just happen chance. They come from the heart, often times out of deep emotion and/or meaningful circumstances. So it is with the words of a song. Every song has a story.
There is one song that I've been singing repeatedly this year: Silent Night. For whatever reason, my DS has asked me to sing it to him practically every night of the year since last Christmas. The words of this song have touched him in some inexplicable, childlike way. But for me, singing the same words over and over again has simply become more routine than ever.
Since I only knew the first verse by heart, I would just sing that one:
Silent night, holy night
All is calm, all is bright
Round yon Virgin Mother and child
Holy infant so tender and mild
Sleep in heavenly peace
Sleep in heavenly peace
When I was done singing, my DS would regularly ask me, "What is peace?" At first, I have to admit, the question totally stumped me. I wasn't sure how to describe peace so that a 2 year old could understand it. And finally I decided I would just go for it. The best I could come up with was, "It's an indescribable calmness that only God can give you." And with the biggest smile on his face, he would seem completely satisfied. Night after night he would ask me, and night after night, I would say the same old thing.
So I've been doing a lot of thinking about singing. And what I've found is that more often than not, that when I've sung the same song for years and years, I pretty much vocalize it on autopilot. My brain knows the tune. My mouth moves automatically. But I rarely think about the meaning of the lyrics. How sad.
On the contrary, my DS is just hearing the words of Silent Night for the first time. He is really listening. They are fresh. They tell a story. He is questioning their meaning. They are speaking to his heart.
How can I get back to singing the same songs like I'm singing them for the first time?
Most likely, I'll never get back there. However, I have discovered that if I read the words to a song on regular paper (not within the score), it is almost as if I'm hearing the words for the very first time. In this way, they speak to my heart.
So I looked up the lyrics to Silent Night. And sure enough, it all seems new. I've been thinking about some of the words in the lyrics. Silent. Holy. Calm. Bright. Tender. Mild. Sleep. Heavenly Peace. All of these words seem contradictory to the idea of giving birth in a barn after riding for miles and miles on a donkey. Only the miraculous birth of a Savior could be described like that.
Think about it.
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2 comments:
Oh, what a beautiful post!
Two things come to mind, upon 'thinking about it'...
The first is that when one sees the lyrics to these hyms, without the music, they are the purest form of poetry -- and the poetry of worship speaks to the human heart.
The second is the concept of peace. I read once that the Hebrew word for peace, "shalom" means completeness, wellbeing, nothing broken, nothing missing.
One of the most sacred moments for me at Colonial used to be the Christmas Eve service that ended with Silent Night and Peace -- just candlelight and human voices. I still carry that in my heart.
As I hurried about my morning, I kept saying to myself, "Do not forget to read Kristen's blog". I met obstacles every step of my morning, from simple procrastinating 1st graders, to rudeness in the carpool lane, to a preschooler who did not want the tangles out of her curls, and an almost two year old who was dropped off late by his parents, which put me further behind. Finally I sit to read my favorite weekly blog, and find the PEACE that I seek. Dear Friend, I am thinking about it, and although I know what Christmas is about, I had become caught up in the hustle abd bustle of other's Christmas, not Our Lord's.
When we lived in Michigan we would visit the German town of Frankenmuth. They love Christmas there, and it was such a joy to stand in a tiny chapel, a re-creation of the one in which Silent Night was written, and hear A small boys choir sing that precious song. Just like you, I "heard it for the first time again!"
Blessings to you friend
Holly
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