Now that Thanksgiving has passed, Merry Christmas! And - What?!? I have a blog???

With a name that means something deep?  This blog has existed for years.  I don't remember where or who I was when I created it.  I would go back and review my posts to determine those things, but there haven't been many of them!  I guess I forget that it is here, which is ironic, given how I love to write.  It is funny though, because I know exactly why I chose to name my blog, The Sounds of Singing Stones.

When I was a kid, I was surrounded by music and poetry and vocabulary and classic stories.  My dad quizzed us on vocabulary words, and the etymology of those words.  By the time I was 7 I knew that A.M. stood for Ante Meridian and P.M. stood for Post Meridian, and I knew what that meant.  My Dad constantly recited Poe's The Raven, or Hemingway's,  The Old Man and the Sea.  And he NEVER stopped singing.  Reggae, Simon and Garfunkel, and the MUSICALS?  Oh my!  the Musicals!  That was my Dad's legacy to me.  This gift he gave me has followed me through life. I have a vocabulary that doesn't quit.  I have a deep love of writing and appreciation for written works of art!  I also find myself singing.  Out loud.  ALL the time. Doesn't matter who is around or where I am.  Often times I don't even realize I am doing it!

This is part of who I am.

Another part of me is built around the fact that I have always believed in God.  As far back as I can remember I knew that He was with me. But when I was young it was more of a vague sense.  I knew that there were special days that we celebrated.  I even knew what those days represented in the religion I had been taught, but my awareness of God was somehow less specific and yet, more powerful than what those days represented.  As I think about that statement now, I suppose that is a good indicator at the profound wisdom a child can have, before their minds and spirits are polluted by our world.

And so I sang, and wrote, and spoke with big words, and knew that there was God.

In high school I was in the choir.  Senior year we sang "Hosanna" from Jesus Christ Superstar.  I grew up listening to my Dad singing Jesus Christ Superstar.  All of the songs, in order! I had heard the songs, I knew the lyrics.  But it wasn't until High School Choir that the meaning of those lyrics became clear to me.  It was then that I became a singing stone.

The song has a verse, sung by Jesus that says;

Why waste your breath moaning at the crowd?
Nothing can be done to stop the shouting.
If every tongue were stilled
The noise would still continue.
The rocks and stone themselves would start to sing:


The thought that even the rocks and stones recognize the divinity of Christ and sing in worship to Him awakened in my soul a true understanding of all of the Easters, and Christmases of my youth.  It suddenly added up.   It was life changing to me and in the development of my faith to really comprehend what these words said.  They spoke directly to my heart. As we enter this Christmas season, I am grateful for the legacy my Dad gave me.  I am grateful for the vocabulary, and love of writing, and singing.  I am also, SO grateful for the legacy my Father has given me.  I am grateful for the awareness that He is.  That He loves me. I am grateful to be a singing stone.

Sing me your songs,
But not for me alone.
Sing out for yourselves,
For you are bless-ed.
There is not one of you
Who can not win the kingdom.
The slow, the suffering,
The quick, the dead.

Merry Christmas!