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I danced to this with my young cousin in church today. We choreographed it ourselves, and danced it as a worship offering --"special music."
It's today's Song for Sunday, because these lyrics caught my attention.
Bring your brokenness and I'll bring mine 'Cause love can heal what hurt divides and mercy's waiting on the other side, If we're honest.....if we're honest.
They seem apropos to a few situations I'm involved in just now.
I heard on the radio the other day that one third of all
traffic accidents involve a driver under the influence of alcohol. One
third.
And that’s only some of the preventable accidents. Other
forms of impaired driving involve distractions like texting, cell phone use or
playing games on devices. Inexperienced drivers are also often distracted by
other passengers, by the radio, by food or by coffee and other soft drinks.
Everyone who drives while impaired or distracted has made a choice to do so. In
some cases, others on hand have allowed it.
Friends, our choices matter.
They mattered to Tom Serewicz and his family. Tom was just
24 when he and his best friend were on their way home from a night fishing
trip. Their car was struck by the car of a drunk and drugged driver who was
going the wrong way on the highway. All three were killed. It was June 17, 2011.
Tom left behind a wife, two very young sons, a mother and
two sisters. Their heartbreak continues five years later and will continue as
long as they live. That woman’s choice ended her life, and two other lives, and
had a horrible impact on two families.
One of Tom’s sisters is a dancer. She choreographed the song
Details in the Fabric by Jason Mraz as a testament to
how the family clung to each other after the accident and supported each other
in their grief. It is a moving testimony to their love for Tom and each other.
A sample of the lyrics:
Hang on Help is on the way And stay strong I'm doing everything
Details in the Fabric is
today’s “Song for Sunday.” Here’s
a link to it.
Live Kindly, Choose Responsibly
Learn more about Tom and how to end drunk driving here:
I met Tom and his wife, Cherise, at the Christian YouthConference at Ocean Park (CYC), when they were teenagers. It was where they met
and decided to marry. (I looked after Cherise’s engagement ring once while she
was out on a service project doing physical labor.) CYC meets for two weeks
every August in Maine and is open to all high schoolers. There are still slots
available for the 2016 conference. Check it out!
Spring actuallty began weeks ago, but now it's beginning to feel like Spring. Maybe that's because I have been planting seeds and spreading compost. Spring is the time of beginnings in the natural world.
Today's Song for Sunday is the Spring movement from Vivaldi's Four Seasons. A rare departure for me from songs with lyrics.
I used this once in a music and movement class. I had the students
begin sitting cross-legged and curled over, then open up and grow,
juggling scarves as they stood up. It represented those beginnings.
Erwin Schuloff was poised to become one of the premier composers of the 20th century. He was prolific. His music was varied. He was acclaimed.
But, his life was cut short in August 1942. when he died in a Nazi concentration camp. His full potential was never realised.
Many lives were cut short by those concentration camps. Also in the Khmer Rouge, the Armenian genocide, the slaughter of Tutsis in Rwanda.
And the shooting of nine students at a community college in Oregon.
Here, we lost a future pediatric nurse, a prayer warrior, an assistant professor of English and many others. We lost a lot of promise, a lot of potential.
As we did in all cases of violence against people.
I heard Schulofff's story at a concert by the Aeolus Quartet which featured Schuloff's Five Pieces for a String Quartet. It was inspiring to hear them, to view them and to speak with them afterwards. They are a group that formed in music school and is dedicated to reaching out to the community with music. They spend a lot of time in schools.
The composition is formed of five dances, including a Viennese Waltz, a serenade, a Czech folk dance, and a tango. The last movement is a tarantella, a "dance against death." I have made it this week's "Song for Sunday."
This is a link to a perfomance of the fifth movement of the composition, played by the Kontras Quartet.
Let's "dance" against death, working to end violence in all it's forms. Amen?
Today I get to watch one. So I am kinda keyed into them.
At church this morning, two beautiful girls visited from an Episcopal church and performed a sacred dance as part of our worship. In the Episcopal Church, they baptize infants and the dance was originally for a baptism. They song they used is called "The Blessing" and is sung by a parent to a child.
The song was written by Brendan Graham and David Downes and it is very beautiful. It is today's Song for Sunday.
"Don't rest in peace, Charlie. Dance in peace... and joy"
In the midst of all the remembrances of my friend who died a few days ago, I found one with the sentence above. It seems fitting.
First of all, Charlie was never one to rest much. Even ill he kept going and going. He loved music and he loved to laugh. There are loads of pictures of him smiling. Dancing seems more like him then resting.
I also wonder if dancing is more what Heaven is about than resting. Certainly, when we believers reach Heaven, we enter into God's rest. Theologically, that means God will have completed us. We willl no longer be being worked on, created. We'll be "finished products." Does it mean that we will be in a perpetual state of rest? In some places there is mention of praising God in Heaven. The Bible talks about praising with singing, tambourines, lutes, lires and, yes, dancing! Sounds pretty active...but I think in Heaven we won't get tired.
It's just a random thought that popped into my head because of a sentence. What do you think? What will Heaven, the final version of Heaven, be like?
