Turn With Me, If You Will, To Page Five Hundred Sixty-Five

Word of the Post
Today's word is: quicken
/quick"en/ verb
To come to life; to make alive, resuscitate; to stimulate or revive; to show signs of life; to move, as in a fetus in the womb. I remember a song in church about being "quickened from the dead", referring to Jesus. I also was influenced by the "quickening", which seemed to be the transference of life-force from one Immortal to another in the Highlander movies and series. There can be only one, after all.
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I am my Father's child. It drives me nuts when someone asks me to turn to the Page, instead of what they really mean: the Number. The songs are often placed more than one to a page, so a book with 900 songs can have a mere 750 pages. Yep, I am that crotchety old woman who insists that the English language be used correctly. How sad for me. One of the guys who leads singing sometimes says "Notice with me number..." That is cute. Different than anyone else, and probably more accurate.

Music is a strong signal of memory. For me it is second only to smell, and the two are very close. A tune can bring me back to a time in my childhood long forgotten. In our songbook at church, called "Praise for the LORD", there is a song that I have known pretty much all my life. The title is listed "Savior, Thy Dying Love", and is also more commonly known (in previous editions of the books?) by the title "Something For Thee".

Those of you who have not grown up knowing this piece from church would probably recognize the music if I could play it for you. Elvis Presley used a very similar tune for his hit, Love Me Tender. Now I know that I probably heard Elvis use this tune first, which is really funny to me. The tune was written in 1871, and the song lyrics we use in church were written in 1862. I know Elvis isn't near that old. He's 72, living out his life in some rural part of the country. Just makes it hard to concentrate on church services, when you have Elvis running around in your mind, singing Love Me Tender, and Blue Suede Shoes.

Mom is an Elvis fan. DH is a Beatles fan. I have found that people who like the music from the decade of the 60's are fans of either one or the other. It is very rare to find anyone who likes both equally. It becomes almost an argument about serving two masters... fans often love one, and despise the other.

I don't know why that really struck me today, it just did. Many times I find myself thinking farther back than music in my memory. A simple thumbtack, and I am thinking of watching my friend jump up off the staircase we were sitting on to talk, because she sat on one. I was about 5. Which leads me to think of the Vacation Bible School song about the Devil sitting on a tack if he didn't like us praising Jesus. (OUCH!) A cheap kid's perfume reminds me of the Christmas my cousin and I got matching presents. I can still see the perfumed spongy dabber, the silly comb that was shaped like a fudge Popsicle, and the matching dolls in different colored dresses. I don't remember liking that year, because we both wanted trucks, (neither of us was a girlie girl, we were both very tomboy at the time) and we didn't like the colors we were given. I think we even tried to switch before the day was over. We talked about it years later, and decided that the parents didn't want us feeling jealous of each other, but we felt we both lost out on the specialness of thought toward our gifts.

There is a group of people at church who are learning new songs written by a man who lives in St. Petersburg. He has written whole symphonies to God in Russian, and many of the songs he has allowed to be translated into English. He visited here about a year ago, and he had a group of his music students with him, to sing for us. His music is phenomenal. There are not words to describe it, truly, until you hear it. He spoke in Chapel at Oklahoma Christian, and said (in complete honesty, and with all frustration) that when our groups went to his school in Russia, that it was neat to have us there, but our music was terrible. Knowing the Contemporary Christian stuff they are promoting these days, I would agree with him. I sing whatever I don't hear, so I am learning these in Soprano for now. I will move to Alto (more my comfort zone) when we get more Sopranos learning, or we get the whole congregation singing them correctly. I really love being in a group again. I would even be willing to perform, given the right situation.

On a totally unrelated topic, I never had indoor pets as a kid. Mom was allergic to the cats I wanted. We always had outdoor cats, because mom would let us feed them dry food sometimes, and of course, they would just stick around for the free lunch. I feel lucky to have indoor cats now, I love having something to purr next to me when I am feeling lonely, or to make me laugh when I am feeling depressed.

The rescue, Marvel, is my sweet boy. He is very happy with his schedule (not pronounced with the K sound in it, but like shed-ule, imagining Rush Limbaugh and his fake British accent) around here. Eat, drink water dripping from the bathroom faucets, run like mad all over the place, beat up the sister, and nap. (Lather, rinse, repeat.) He is always so clean and soft, it is amazing. Here he is being a 12-pack of Dublin Dr. Pepper cans.
Little Girl, Mystic, is just the cutie pie, who makes you want to pick her up. Which she doesn't like, so she squirms to be released. She does a push-twist-stretch that would be perfect for Cirque du Soleil. We fondly call her "Princess Touch-Me-Not". She is very good at knowing just how far away she can step, so that you can no longer reach her, then turning and looking at you. It is as if she is challenging you to try it again. This is Mystic, from the comfort of being in my way.
This is their mutual favorite spot, on top of the thing I am looking for or the thing I am using. This bag is permanently their property, so I guess I can't ever throw it away. Not that I want to, it is a good bag.

Look for your memory triggers. Is it music, smells in a kitchen, or the sounds of traffic rushing by? Is it something that you do the same way as someone taught you? Is it the thing that you once said you would Never do? Take some time today to remember more innocent times, and see if you can learn something new from your past.