Category: Music

Posted on in Aging, Amazing Creations, Challenge, Faith, Humor, Listen, Memories, Music, Nature, Praise, Spiritual discipline, Spiritual growth, Thanks

Bird Song and Merlin

My friend, Debbie, told me about a free app called “Merlin.” https://merlin.allaboutbirds.org/ Cornell labs developed it and I just love it! Pictured below is how the screen looks for Merlin.

Years ago Bob and I went on a birding adventure with the Cincinnati Nature Center in the Lake Erie area. We were surrounded on a boardwalk by people from many areas. The birds were mostly high in the treetops. Even with binoculars I was unable to see most of them. The birdsong was glorious! I was very humbled when the Amish children walking with us were able to identify the birds by their song. Yes I live in an industrialized society. Sadly most of us lost touch with that sort of skill. I was taught to identify some spring wildflowers but never to identify bird song. Bob and I were not shamed as much as amazed at the abilities of those children!

Shout for joy to God, all the earth!
2     Sing the glory of his name;
    make his praise glorious.
3 Say to God, “How awesome are your deeds!
    So great is your power
    that your enemies cringe before you.
4 All the earth bows down to you;
    they sing praise to you,
    they sing the praises of your name.”

Psalm 66:1-4 NIV

I have my morning prayer and meditation in my bedroom next to a south facing window. One recent morning the serenade was amazing. There were so many birds that I asked the Merlin App to identify who was singing. Twelve different birds! What a wonder and a blessing. Here is the list the app created:

  • Carolina Wren
  • Northern Cardinal
  • House Finch
  • Tufted Titmouse
  • American Robin
  • Song Sparrow
  • Blue Jay
  • Brown-headed Cowbird
  • Canada Goose
  • Carolina Chickadee
  • White-throated Sparrow
  • Red-winged Blackbird

Along with the bird names that were linked with the songs there were photos. I could click on any one of them and get more details.

I know there are many folks who do not like modern technology. I am not saying that all of it is unequivocally good. But to me, this one app is absolutely amazing! Sparrows abound in our neck of the state. So did I see the one pictured above or this one?

So many sparrows, so little time. Will I ever learn to identify all of them by sight? If not, I have Merlin to aid me.

Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. 7 Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.

Luke 12:6-7 NIV

The April 15 New Yorker just arrived. Here is the cover artwork!

“Undercover” by Peter de Seve
Posted on in Amazing Creations, Beagle, Faith, Humor, Music, Nature, Thanks

Letting the Dog In

As the weather warms as it has the past couple of days, Lucky the beagle loves nothing better than to lie on the deck and bake her bones in the sun. The other day I opened the screen door to let her in.

Zoom a bee came in with her.” “Oh crap,” I exclaimed. the bee headed for the stereo cabinet. I turned to grab a couple of tissues, (the closest thing at hand). When I turned back it had gone inside the cabinet. Opened the door and it was headed for a plastic storage bin. I knew I had to act fast or I might never catch it.

Do you remember the childhood song, “I caught a little baby bumble bee, won’t my mommy be so proud of me!”

Unbelievably, using the tissues I swiped at it hoping to keep it from the cabinet. Surprisingly I knocked it right into the dog’s water bowl! Bee was swimming and rather frantic.

As an adult I have never been one to kill a bee intentionally unless there is no other way to avoid getting a sting. I went to the silverware drawer and got a tablespoon. Scooped up the bee. Put the tissues over it. Took it outside, not knowing if it would survive its unwanted bath.

It flew away. I have since tried to look around the screen before opening it for the dog. Yesterday there was a sting bug crawling on the screen. Summer must be just around the corner!

Gracious words are a honeycomb,
    sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.

Proverbs 16:24
Lucky is aging.

The speech below was recorded 13 years ago. The need right now is even more urgent today. Even if you only watch 3 minutes of this I think you will enjoy it!

Posted on in Faith, Music, Special Event, Spiritual discipline, Spiritual growth, Thanks

Andrew Peterson’s Masterpiece

Just in time for the pandemic, this release drew Christians around the world together in praise of our Mighty God online. There is a saying if you sing, you pray twice. What a praise declaration to our God!

Knowing how many thousands of groups around the world posted this song just makes me smile. Some fussed because Christ Tomlin recorded the song and received great acclaim. Andrew, who wrote the song, was not perturbed and knew that if Jesus is proclaimed the target was hit spot on!

I love when the guy in the beret reaches over and kisses his wife after the line “From all peoples and tribes.” And those dimples when Andrew smiles! Bet God smiles, too!

Posted on in Faith, Listen, Music, Poetry, Spiritual discipline, Spiritual growth, Thanks

Song Calling to Me

I have mentioned before how the Lord often gets my attention through a song. A snippet here. A lyric there, and soon I am on a chase like a dog after a rabbit. This week it has been “O Sacred Head Now Wounded.”

The photo on YouTube must be the guy who posted video and lyrics. That is certainly not Fernando Ortega!

Wikipedia says:  The poem (lyrics) is often attributed to Bernard of Clairvaux (1091–1153), but is now attributed to the medieval poet Arnulf of Leuven (died 1250). Originally the poem had 7 stanzas referring to the various parts of Christ’s crucified body. The last 2 stanzas are the most famous today. Regardless it is a very old poem that was set to music over the ages in the 1700s and 1800s, etc.

I cannot seem to play this once, but sing it repeatedly! Why not listen again and see where the lyrics take you?

1. O sacred Head, now wounded,
with grief and shame weighed down,
now scornfully surrounded
with thorns, thine only crown:
how pale thou art with anguish,
with sore abuse and scorn!
How does that visage languish
which once was bright as morn!

2. What thou, my Lord, has suffered
was all for sinners' gain;
mine, mine was the transgression,
but thine the deadly pain.
Lo, here I fall, my Savior!
'Tis I deserve thy place;
look on me with thy favor,
vouchsafe to me thy grace.

3. What language shall I borrow
to thank thee, dearest friend,
for this thy dying sorrow,
thy pity without end?
O make me thine forever;
and should I fainting be,
Lord, let me never, never
outlive my love for thee.

How do you honor the Lord and His sacrifice on our behalf as Lent ends and Easter approaches?

Posted on in Amazing Creations, Book quotes, Faith, Just do it, Memories, Music, Spiritual discipline, Spiritual growth, Traveling

Rub Me Smooth

When we traveled (I think it was in Idaho?) this photo brought back a song I had heard in my heart many years before.

This is the lyric I heard and finally wrote down in 2016

Rub me smooth 			
Rub me smooth			
With Your living water		
Rub me smooth			 
I am a sharp stone		
Quarried from the earth
With Your Living Water
Rub me smooth

Allelu, Alluelu
by Your living water rub me smooth
I am a sharp stone
Quarried from the earth
by Your living water rub me smooth.

“Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness
    and who seek the Lord:
Look to the rock from which you were cut
    and to the quarry from which you were hewn;

Isaiah 51:1 NIV

When I studied this out here is some of what I found.

Standing above the water on a bridge, the water was so clear we easily saw the many stones in the stream bed.

 look unto the rock – The ancestors of the nation are compared to a quarry, the Israelites to the stones hewn from it,—a peculiar image found nowhere else

Cambridge Bible for schools and colleges

A river rock is a natural stone that has been smoothed and shaped by the flow of water in a river. Abrasion is a process of continuing the smoothing of rocks by water and by other rocks, making them smooth and round.

https://howtofindrocks.com/what-makes-river-rocks-smooth-and-round/
Where there is a rough edge. the water’s work is not yet finished.

Abrasion from the water reshapes the rock. What is harder than rock? At times my heart is! Yet that living water flows and shapes and corrects my rough edges until they resemble smooth stones.

For an enriching discussion about David and the five stones, etc. see https://graceintorah.net/2015/06/19/five-smooth-stones/#_ftn8

I challenge you to choose a stone and carry it in your pocket as a reminder of the Presence of God and the work of the Living Water in smoothing you. Yield to that life-giving work and show forth His glory in your life.

Posted on in Amazing Creations, Beagle, Faith, Music, Nature, Thanks

Spring

As I write this it is snowing out my window, though not expected to accumulate. I love that we are not in control of the seasons. Even though floods and blizzards and heat waves pound us, many refuse to remember the Maker of heaven and earth.

To me nothing says spring quite like yellow!

Even the beagle at the door sees it!

During October and November when our local forecaster says snow but no accumulation I am disappointed. In fact, this winter was a total disappointment as far as snow. Bah-Humbug!! Now in March when there are snow flurries there is a sort of dread. So many shrubs and bulbs and trees in bloom, and I do not want to see freeze damage to any of them. Fickle woman. So human and never satisfied for more than a moment.

One of my favorite musicians, Ludovico Einaudi. This song reminds me of snow falling.

The earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof,
    the world and those who dwell therein;
2 for he has founded it upon the seas,
    and established it upon the rivers.

Psalm 24:1-2 RSV
Posted on in Amazing Creations, Faith, Illness and Health, Just do it, Listen, Music, Spiritual discipline, Spiritual growth, Thanks, Yield

Forced to Wear A Sling for Six Weeks

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Posted on in Aging, Faith, Illness and Health, medical treatment, Music, Nature, Prayer, Spiritual discipline, Spiritual growth, Thanks, Yield

Joy and Restricted Movement

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Posted on in Aging, Faith, Family, Memories, Music, Prayer, Spiritual discipline, Spiritual growth, Worship, Yield

This Morning, Monday 1/8/24

For several days this has come on the local radio station and then just rolled about in my soul. Undoubtedly “His word is unfailing, His promise secure!” Such GREAT harmony from these three men! So wish I could memorize the Spanish, “Todo es va estar bien.” I know some of those words from high school Spanish.

This song was popular about 3 years ago. It is still fitting today. Especially as I face shoulder surgery this week. Aunt Norma (now deceased and my mother also deceased) used to sing “He’s got the whole world in His hands” to us when we were very young. I do not know if Aunt Norma ever went to church, but my mother, the child of a Methodist preacher, and Norma instilled this faith in us through their faith. Did someone sing it to you or with you when you were a child?

Regardless of the outcome of surgery the following will remain the song of my soul.

It never ceases to amaze me how the Holy Spirit can give us direction and comfort especially in uncertain circumstances. He is with us and in us.

On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.

Said Jesus recorded in John 14:20 NIV

“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me….”

Jesus prayed recorded in John 17:20-21 NIV

Everything will be all right. The whole world’s in His hands. He is my all in all.

Paul said, “In him we live and move and have our being”; as even some of your poets have said, ‘For we are indeed His offspring.”

Acts 17:28 RSV

It bears repeating Everything will be all right. The whole world’s in His hands. He is my all in all.

Have no anxiety about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

Philippians 4: 6 RSV