The Singer

My mom loved music. She was not a vocalist in the choir or an instrumentalist, but she always had a song on her lips. If you said a paragraph of words, she'd often start into song with one of the words from your paragraph. Sometimes they were songs she'd written or made up; sometimes they were silly songs you'd find on a children's cd; sometimes they were hymns of praise. It really just depended. I remember many road trips where (much to my dad's dismay) we'd be having sing a longs. I remember one particular trip-I was 5, and it is my first memory of a road trip. We went down to TX to visit my mom's parents. And about half the trip, we were singing. Songs like "I'm being swallowed by a boa-constricter", "There's a hole in my bucket", "One dark night", "Amazing Grace", "I have decided to follow Jesus"....there was a realm of songs on that trip. Maybe mom sang them sometimes to distract the normal sibling fights on a road trip; maybe she did them because she loved songs. But regardless of why, it's a beautiful memory I have of my mom, and likely one reason why I love music so much myself.
 My co worker, Tiffany, and I often come up with silly games to play in between customers to just laugh. One day she said, "Let's play a game. I'll say a word, you break out in song based on that word. Go. Foot. " And I broke out into the song "Footloose". It was quite humorous, especially because she thought she''d found a word for which I'd never come up with a song . I thought of my mom in that moment and how she had a song for every thing.  It is quite fitting that my mom's favorite Psalm in the Bible had to do with singing. And it fits for so many reasons. My mom was full of joy. She was always laughing or smiling. It was natural to see my mom smiling even when she was just doing simple tasks such as dishes or picking up toys. In fact, she even had songs to go along with those, to help us do them with good attitudes. She was so joyful and always praising God. Or singing to bring laughter. Here are thewords to her favorite Psalm. Pslam 96
      1-Sing to the Lord a new song. Let the whole earth sing to the Lord!
     2-Sing to the Lord; praise His name; Each day proclaim the good news that he saves.
     3-Publish his glorious deeds among the nations, tell everyone about the amazing things he does.


The Psalm goes on to talk about the heavens and the seas and the fields and the trees and the animals all  bringing forth a song in some way to "sing to the Lord". And that is what my mom was always doing.  My mom knew her time was drawing near and for her funeral she chose her own songs. The titles she chose were: "I know Whom I have Believed" and "God Hath Not Promised." Both have beautifully written lyrics that describe just a piece of what was in mom's heart.
 
The 5k in mom's memory is just one event in the scheme of what is the larger object: to raise funds for mom's scholarship.  It is exciting to watch it come together each day a little more. In light of mom being "The Singer" as my title goes today, we have a band this year for music, and I am so excited about that. It will be a new thing, so we'll see how it goes.
 Some may say that my blog is weird, and that I might be "stuck" in a need to always write about my mom. But this is just one of the simple ways to keep her memory alive. My mom was my hero, and I love remembering all these little things about her-they inspire me still. So I'll keep writing. And I'll keep the 5K going. And we'll grow her scholarship fund. One day at a time. In memory of the  most wonderful woman I've ever known: my mom.