What I listen to

I am about to be soundly made fun of...

Per the question of the day, I'm listing 5 of my all-time favorite CD's.

(I was asked.) :D

1.  Josh Groban.  I'm sorry.  I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry... but yeah.  What a voice!  Relaxing and beautiful. I think of Pepper with this one:

2.  I love polyphony (many voices, no instruments.)  So reflective and prayerful.  One of my favorites is Voices of Ascension and the works of Palestrina.  Love singing it too...

3.  Pink (I'm going to make EVERYONE annoyed today, absolutely everyone, not a friend, fan, or follower left I tell you.)  Not sure what my favorite CD of her's is, and I choose to reinterpret some of her lyrics because I don't like disgusting stuff but... yeah.  If I want loud, angry music, it's Pink. Here's a karaoke version so you don't see anything untoward... it's kinda pro-marriage, this one, right?

4.  Simon and Garfunkel.  Cuz it's fun

5.  Loreena McKennitt: Love her version of "The Lady of Shallot."  English major, Anne of Green Gable stuff and all that....

Favorite English professor got me hooked on this group in college: The Anonymous Four.  Middle English.  Neat.

Glee clubs in general, like this from WPI which my husband sang with back in the 90's. Accapella is so much fun...

Okay this was more than five but... I'm also blessed to know people with some amazing voices personally.  I'm proud to say I was in choir with countertenor Christopher Lowrey when he was a kid... his voice is amazing.  Really like butter.  Ridic. (Short for ridiculous... can I have that word?  I want that word...)

And Imelda Franklin Bogue, fellow mom and blogger... I've plugged her before, but for real, she's onto something good... looking forward to that!

Got a birthday party tomorrow; see you then! :)

Magnificat

So I was going to write an humorously inspiring post on the Assumption (which is today, I remembered!), really I was, but then I cleaned the house instead.  Now I would post a picture of my work, except, darn it, it doesn't show how much I did.

Instead, since it's 11:19 and I'm trying to post every day, I'm going to leave you tonight with Mary's own words.   Whenever I despair of relating at all to a woman who was sinless and perfectly beautiful, I read this... it's her trust in God's plan, and humility in the amazing role He gave her, that's absolutely breathtaking.  And more relatable, because I can at least aspire to trusting God and being humble.  

Oh, and it's "hot."  Been totally ignoring the theme here...  Humility is really hot.  Trust too.  (sigh)

Here we go, the Magnificat!  I'm including a clip of this Bible passage sung by Ecclesia Consort which my husband and I sang with for years in the beautiful Church of the Blessed Sacrament, under the direction of the talented Pierre Masse.  (This choir sang at our wedding too.  Lucky us! :)  This piece is by Palestrina (my favorite, love singing this.)  Enjoy!

My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,

my spirit rejoices in God my Savior

for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant.

From this day all generations will call me blessed:

the Almighty has done great things for me,

and holy is his Name.

He has mercy on those who fear him

in every generation.

He has shown the strength of his arm,

he has scattered the proud in their conceit.

He has cast down the mighty from their thrones,

and has lifted up the lowly.

He has filled the hungry with good things,

and the rich he has sent away empty.

He has come to the help of his servant Israel

for he has remembered his promise of mercy,

the promise he made to our fathers,

to Abraham and his children for ever.

Luke 1:46-55

Life of Christ in Song

As a participant in the 2013 WordCount Blogathon, we have been encouraged to swap posts with fellow bloggers.  I will be doing this both today and tomorrow.  Will let you know when I complete my post "The Music of Motherhood" for my dear friend here...

Today, I get to introduce fellow blogger (www.lifeofchristinsong.net) and fellow alumna from Christendom College, Imelda Franklin Bogue.  Possessing a voice straight from heaven, Imelda is a Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions Regional Finalist.  Relocating from her native Pacific Northwest to tristate area in 2006, she is a professional classical singer and teacher concurrent with being full-time mommy of two.

She is also the author of the following... which I blush to publish.  No, I did not require her to write this absurdly flattering piece.  Good grief.  Do skim the laurels and read the end... I am very excited to hear the new CD she is recording with her most inspiring poetry on Bible stories.  Without further ado, fellow comedianne, Imelda Bogue!

Greetings to the constituency!

Fools rush in where angels fear to tread; in this case, a humbler pen steps up, virtually, as it were, to
address a crowd accustomed to the eloquence and verbosity of my dear friend Mrs. Dancause, i.e.
T.L.C. In moments of such pressure I recall a family member's assurance that “if it can be said in a
sentence, Imelda will find a way to say it in a paragraph”, and calm my nerves by the reflection that
what is lacking in wit in these typed scribbles may, at least, be atoned for by that certain indefinable
lack of brevity.

I enjoy the witty T.L.C.'s posts immensely . . . even when they make me cry, which has been frequently
of late . . . and it occurs to me that she is actually one of the only women I knew whose urge to crack
jokes under the most heinous or weighty circumstances is apparently as irresistible as my own. During
the three-day duration of labor with my eldest son, during which time I met everyone on the ward,
some coming in for a third shift, a not insignificant part of my psyche saw an opportunity to inflict my
wit on a captive audience. (What kind of jerk is going to walk out on a supine comic dialated to seven
centimeters?) Authoress of The Comedy Bible Judy Collins says, “no, it's not normal. You're not
normal. You're a comic.”

Lately, however, for heinous and weighty circumstances, Katie's got me beat.

The lady is funny because she is profound. Humor is profound and, in my view, one of the greatest
gifts of Divine Providence to a suffering world. In the moment we laugh, we're free – just for the
moment, you know, a flash of metanoia that this present darkness too shall end and that all will yet be
well, and all will be well, and all manner of things will be well. What Chesterton calls “that beautiful
madness” snaps us into eternity in the whirlwind courtship that is a moment of grace. And to be able to
give it to others? Damn straight it's that good.

Anyhow, if I can be serious for a moment, har de har har, Katie was kind enough to ask if I would share
in this guest post the story of my current musical project.

I am a classical singer and recently have commissioned an exciting neAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAGAG ME WITH A
SPOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON

I'm terribly sorry. I recently finished a successful fundraising campaign for said musical project, and
fundraising campaigns involve talking and writing about your project to the point that the mere thought
of your project fills you with a loathing that it is impossible to describe. (Isn't that sweet?)

No, really, I can do this! Let's all say a little prayer, shall we? Let's focus. Breathe in and breathe out.

Very good.

I am a classical singer and recently have commissioned an exciting new work which I will be learning
this summer and taking to the studio in August or early fall. Five for Joy tells the story of five of the
first events in the life of . . . you'll never guess!! Mahatma Ghandi? No! Josef Stalin? No! Pol Pot? Not so much! I don't know, um, gosh, an itenerant preacher from Nazareth a while back? The Alpha and the
Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end? Jackpot!

There's tons more about the story of Five for Joy at
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/576908451/mysteries-of-light-part-one-five-for-joy , and if you'd
like to join us for the creative process this summer – I promise solemnly to make the creation of this
work as good a story as in me lies – please drop by Gargoyles, my somewhat unusual classical singer
blog, for some long-winded yarns of faith, music, motherhood, and . . . . of course . . . gratuitous
verbocity at www.lifeofchristinsong.net.

Hope to see you soon! I've got a great story to tell you.

To Dance With No Music

This is my mother. 

This is her with my kids. :)

They are at a park, and simply decided to dance. So my mom hums something, and they do.

Growing up, I did not know Shakespeare said that "all the world's a stage." In my family, I simply knew it to be true.  At any moment, my mom could break into a jig or a song and require me to join. Wherever we were.  Whoever was watching. And I always did, shy as I was, because I knew it made her proud.

I'm not saying it was not sometimes more than a little embarrassing. My humble piano, recorder, and even guitar skills (of which I knew five chords) were trotted out at every nursing home.  Company over for dinner was always treated to some sort of performance by the Mitchell kids. "So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen" etc... remember that song? Yeah, did that every time we kids went off to bed and left my mom and the other adults to chat. Oh no, I'm quite serious.  Thankfully, there are no pictures...

My mom's confidence spurred me on through auditions, acting in plays, performing in choirs. Whenever I sang--and even now, as recently as this Mother's Day in church--my mom signs an "L" to me. Nope, not for "loser"... It meant "loud" as in "sing louder!" :). And for her, I will sing a forte.  She gave me the ability to face life with song, with confidence, optimism, and joy.

My mother and I are different. I'm a bookworm... My mom claims she does not like to read, though she frequently researches things on Google.  I'm not sure she knows about blogging yet, and she still does not trust Facebook. :) Yet, my love of reading is from her. I can still hear the cadence of her voice as she read me endless Madeline's growing up, sitting on her lap on the old tweed couch. She wanted me to love something because she knew was good, even though she didn't love it herself. 

My mother and I are the same. We eat to live. Mind you, she can cook well--no one could beat her chicken cutlets or lasagna, and her chocolate chip cookies have won competitions.  But the usual fare of my youth?  A can of green beans, instant potatoes and extremely well-done hamburg was a perfectly acceptable dinner... Come to think of it, how about just grab an apple and forego the whole cooking stuff altogether?  I married into a family that was horrified at my culinary techniques.  One I'm still teased about: Drop block of frozen ground beef on a frying pan.  Scrap off meat as it cooks and thaws.  Yes, this results in some burnt bits with medium rare hamburger.  I was trained in more acceptable defrosting techniques.  My dirty secret?  I prefer my mom's original way to this day, burnt bits as a spice that remind me of the home I grew up in.  

My mother taught me what was most important: to thank God for everything, in everything, through everything.  When I sulked during adolescent, my consequence was to write what I could be grateful for in a "Blessing Book."  I kept it from the age of 13 till I started this blog.  :)  My mom taught me to cherish children: to treat them as the individuals they are, who can't help being young.  She taught me to love one's family, to have compassion, to not cry over spilled milk; when I broke something, she would help me sweep up the fragments while telling me not to worry about it. I learned that women did not have to be squeamish.  When I got sick, she would hold my hair back till things were over, telling me I was going to feel so much better soon.  She imparted a love of animals: to my father's dismay, we would regularly seek out and rescue birds for mom, usually pigeons. I remember being up late one night with her, bathing a fat bird that had gotten tar all over, gently scrubbing its feathers with old toothbrushes.  We would release them later, holding hands in pride and some wistfulness as they took to the sky.  

Yesterday was my mom's birthday. Having retired from teaching some years back from the school she taught at with my father--from whom she is inseparable--she now spends most of her days indoors: at church, then to the nursing home for her mother-in-law, followed by visiting her homebound dad.  But knowing how she loves to be outside, my sister and I prepared a picnic. Someday, we hope to finally get her to Ireland, her lifelong dream, but for now, a day by the water with grandkids will do.

Now that I'm a mother myself, I appreciate my own so much more. I understand why she was the last to sit and the first to rise form dinner. I admire how she hosted so many parties, so readily, at the drop of a hat.  I laugh thinking about how she made dad take us camping. I honor her childlike spirit, the one that believes the good in everyone and encourages it to bloom.  I love that she taught me to make my own music and dance despite the world, and that I will pass this on to my children.

"Awake, my soul!  Awake, lyre and harp!  I will awake the dawn." Psalm 57:8

My Scariest Things

On a day that looks at the dark side of things:

My Scariest Things

Potty training running late Sunday morning,

Sitters that cancel without any warning

(Who knew that Advil was so habit-forming?)

Washing baby, earring goes down the drain,

These are the things that drive me insane.

Pediatric enemas, nasal syringes,

Playdates where toddlers go on munchkin binges,

Coffee runs out; from work, husband is late:

There are the days I am tempted to hate… ®

® When the dish drops,

When the clocks change,

And baby wakes at four,

I simply remember my scariest things

And that I could feel… bad more!

Standing on high chairs, and carts while out shopping,

Caillou’s voice whining without ever stopping

Gastroenteritis of kid on top bunk

These are the things that put me in a funk. ®

On the plus side, I am forever grateful none of my scariest things involve war, gunfire, explosions, or starvation.  We are so blessed.  Happy All Hallow’s Eve everyone!  -TLC

“Mind the things that are above, not the things that are upon the earth.” Col. 3:2