One last Christmas video. Despite some disappointing turns of events that prevented us from seeing some loved ones, this has been the most joyous Christmas season for me in at least three years.
May we always be grateful for God's incomparable gift of His Son. And may we always be looking for gifts of time, love, and service to give to Him.
What shall we give to the babe in the manger?
What shall we offer the child in the stall?
Incense and spices and gold we've aplenty.
Are these the gifts for the king of us all?
What shall we give to the boy in the temple?
What shall we offer the man by the sea?
Palms at his feet and hosannas uprising,
Are these for him who will carry the tree?
What shall we give to the man who was offered,
Rising the third day and shedding his love?
Tears for his mercy we'll weep at the manger,
Bathing the infant come down from above.
There are certain traditions and activities that embody the spirit of Christmas. Live performances of Handel’s Messiah are certainly in this category.
My wife had the opportunity to play violin in a community performance of this masterpiece and my son and I had the opportunity to enjoy it in the audience.
For a community choir and orchestra made up of volunteers, it sounded excellent. Singing along, especially with the Halleluja chorus, one couldn't help but feel the spirit of Christmas – the spirit of Christ.
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9:6 KJV)
Tonight I participated in our Stake “Choirside” (a play on the word “fireside”). All of the ward choirs performed a Christmas song centered on Jesus Christ.
At the end, the entire congregation sang O Holy Night together with piano and organ accompaniment and it was quite a powerful and moving experience.
Traditions like these really help me get into the real spirit of Christmas and set the tone for the season.
A favorite Christmas song of mine that has been covered countless times is David Foster's Grown-Up Christmas List.
The music and lyrics are brilliant and so beautifully echo my own desires at Christmas and all year.
I thought I'd share a lovely, little-known rendition I discovered some years ago.
Do you remember me
I sat upon your knee
I wrote to you with childhood fantasies
Well I'm all grown up now
And still need help somehow
I'm not a child but my heart still can dream
So here's my lifelong wish
My grown up Christmas list
Not for myself but for a world in need
No more lives torn apart
That wars would never start
And time would heal all hearts
And everyone would have a friend
And right would always win
And love would never end
This is my grown up Christmas list
As children we believe
The grandest sight to see
Was something lovely wrapped beneath the tree
But Heaven only knows
That packages and bows
Can never heal a hurting human soul
No more lives torn apart
That wars would never start
And time would heal all hearts
And everyone would have a friend
And right would always win
And love would never end
This is my grown up Christmas list
What is this illusion called the innocence of youth
Maybe only in our blind belief can we ever find the truth
No more lives torn apart
That wars would never start
And time would heal all hearts
And everyone would have a friend
And right would always win
And love would never end
This is my grown up Christmas list
This is my only lifelong wish
This is my grown up Christmas list
Another favorite Christmas video that I have watched every year since I first saw it is a music video of the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square singing Infant Holy, Infant Lowly.
The music is sublime, as always. But the video itself is amazing and symbolic on so many levels.
It depicts a prison inmate being released. They intentionally never show his face, I think, because we are supposed to imagine ourselves in his place. Are we not all prisoners of sin and death? Do we not all need Jesus Christ to set us free?
I think I first heard this song on a Christian radio station as I was driving one day. Scars in Heaven by Casting Crowns is a beautiful and comforting song for anyone who has lost a loved one.
Lyrics:
If I had only known the last time would be the last time
I would have put off all the things I had to do
I would have stayed a little longer, held on a little tighter
Now what I’d give for one more day with you
Cause there’s a wound here in my heart where something's missing
And they tell me that it’s going to heal with time
But I know you're in a place where all your wounds have been erased
And knowing yours are healed is healing mine
The only scars in heaven, they won’t belong to me and you
There'll be no such thing as broken and all the old will be made new
And the thought that makes me smile now even as the tears fall down
Is that the only scars in heaven are on the Hands that hold you now
I know the road you walked was anything but easy
You picked up your share of scars along the way
But now you’re standing in the sun, you’ve fought your fight and your race is run
The pain is all a million miles away
Hallelujah, hallelujah
Hallelujah, for the Hands that hold you now
There’s not a day goes by that I don’t see you
You live on in all the better parts of me
Until I’m standing with you in the sun,
I'll fight this fight and this race I’ll run
Until I finally see what you can see
It's a Thanksgiving miracle! I wasn't expecting my clarinet to be repaired for at least another week or so, but I got a text from the shop late in the afternoon today that it was ready to be picked up.
A loose key mount has been fixed, several key pads and corks have been replaced, and it's been oiled inside and out. When I got it home I played (fumbled my way through) some scales and an etude, and I felt that old but familiar joy that comes from playing a musical instrument.
I'm hoping to be consistent in practicing every day and get my “chops” back so that I can audition for our community orchestra or band.
The timing couldn't have been better. On the eve of Thanksgiving, I have been reminded how thankful I am for music and for musical talents.
Streaming music services like Apple Music and Spotify provide unprecedented convenience and instant access to more music than we've ever had before. But when it comes to my favorite music – music I want to be assured I can listen to whenever I want – I still purchase or burn CDs.
I work from home, so I don't drive very much. When I do drive, it's usually my trusty 2005 Honda Civic, manufactured two years before the first iPhone. It has a basic sound system with radio and a CD player and no aux input or USB ports. If I want to listen to music of my choice, it has to be on a CD. I used to have a Bluetooth FM transmitter that allowed me to play music from my phone through FM radio, but the reception and sound quality were not great. I prefer CDs.
But the main reason I still like CDs is that the music in your streaming music library may not always be available when you want to listen to it. Numerous times, regardless of the service, certain tracks in my library that I have been able to listen to before have suddenly become unavailable due to arbitrary licensing agreements. Some licensees like to rotate their music through different services over time. So they may make an album exclusively available on Apple Music for several months, then switch to Amazon Music, then switch to Spotify, etc. What good is it to have access to millions of tracks when you can't listen to the specific ones you want to?
So I have learned that if I want to absolutely guarantee my favorite music is available to listen to any time I want to, I either purchase it on CD and rip it to my library, or purchase it in a downloadable form – usually Bandcamp or another DRM-free provider – and burn it to CD. I like to have both digital and physical copies for redundancy and backup purposes.
There's something almost rebellious about listening to a CD or a standalone digital audio file in 2022. No internet connection is required. Nobody's tracking me. No subscription is required. It's just me and the music. As it once was. As it should be.
Listening to one of my music playlists on random, I was reminded of the existence of a beautiful piece of music performed by the supremely talented Norwegian soprano Sissel.
In the summer of 2019 she performed with the Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square. The entire concert is remarkable and worth watching. But one song in particular stood out above the rest for me and many who heard it.
You can't tell from the video, but all 18,000+ people in the audience were on their feet during the lengthy applause after the song. They knew they had just experienced something heavenly.
Sissel's performance of Slow Down by Chuck Girard, arranged by Sam Cardon, is one that I keep coming back to. It soothes and heals, reminds me to stop and take a deep breath. It refocuses me on what is most important. It reminds me that God is near.
I accidentally left a Pluto TV stream running overnight (the Judge Judy channel, don't judge me). I don't know what my data cap is with Comcast Xfinity, but I'm probably at risk of hitting it this month. So now seems like a good time to try an experiment. For the remainder of November, I am not going to stream any video or audio for personal use.
With one exception: I am a huge fan of the Star Wars TV series Andor (you need to watch it whether or not you are a Star Wars fan), and I will be streaming that when new episodes are available on Wednesdays. Unfortunately there is no other way to watch it right now and I am too invested in it.
Aside from that single exception, I will be relying on physical media or digital files already on my computer, as well as old-fashioned over-the-air broadcast TV and radio.
Perhaps I will get a little extra reading and music practice in, as well. I just started Book 4 of the Wheel of Time series. And while my clarinet will be in the shop for a few weeks, I have my penny whistles, recorder, and Native American flute!
