Friday, December 21, 2007

One Voice :: The Wailin' Jennys

Friends, my apologies again for my late posting (though I doctored the posting date, so had I not openly confessed my tardiness, many of you unsuspecting readers would have been duped into thinking that I am in fact a timely person...)

The season-'O'-many-holidays-of-both-the-religious-and-secular-nature is upon us. Hanukkah, Christmas, the Solstice, the (Christian) New Year, Kwanzaa... This is the time of year when we sit around and eat a lot. I think this serves two purposes. The first, the more crude, physiological purpose (particularly for those of you in the upper Midwest) involves putting on some pounds to protect us from long months of bitterly cold winter days. Back in the day, before central heating, polar fleece and chai lattes, folks apparently did their best to feast in the weeks and months before winter really set in - to make sure their bodies had enough fat stored up to withstand what was to come. Which brings me to the second purpose that sitting around eating serves: togetherness. Few of us like to sit around alone in our apartments or houses and eat cookies by ourselves. Rather, we travel great distances to share a meal with those folks who are most important to us - whether they are the ones who harvested the grain or not, whether they hunted us a woolly mammoth or not, whether they baked us cookies or not. Each of the holidays we celebrate this month have specific religious or cultural meaning, but I think that at the core, each of them is a fundamental acknowledgement of something similar - a common human need to find companionship, express love and to have faith in something bigger than the individual - even if that something turns out to be each other.

On that (somewhat, but hopefully not outrageously cheesy) note, I offer this song, "One Voice" by the Wailin' Jennys, because it reminds me of all of the people I have been in communion with, whom I love, and in whom I have great faith.

May you be in peace with the people you love and make much harmony together.



This is the sound of one voice
One spirit, one voice
The sound of one who makes a choice
This is the sound of one voice

This is the sound of voices two
The sound of me singing with you
Helping each other to make it through
This is the sound of voices two

This is the sound of voices three
Singing together in harmony
Surrendering to the mystery
This is the sound of voices three

This is the sound of all of us
Singing with love and the will to trust
Leave the rest behind it will turn to dust
This is the sound of all of us

This is the sound of one voice
One people, one voice
A song for every one of us
This is the sound of one voice
This is the sound of one voice

1 comment:

gitfiddler said...

I'm in the middle of one of those visits with dear folks and sometimes the logistics of the trip can obscure the point. So thanks for the lovely reminder. Perfect song for it too!
All my love,
Aimee