I am not a song composer. This fact really saddens me, because a good part of my life has been spent living Glee. The reality is that my voice is average, at best, and that I have no talent writing music or song lyrics. Thankfully, someone else is talented at all of this. His name is God. And occasionally, He chooses to write a song lyric or a post or a poem when I’m not “looking.” He did this one Saturday morning in late March, which is really irritating. Because I hate mornings with a passion and am a chronic night owl. But, I have learned, through the years, that if the Muse (aka God) wants to write in the middle of the night or in the early morning hours, I am better off getting up and jotting down what He is composing in my head (It will be gone when I wake up later.). How do I know it came from Him? It’s simply eloquent in a way I can’t write. I have often said that I am the pen and God is the writer. Here is what I think may be proof of that–a simply lyric that I hear in my head sung by professional male opera singers (Weird, because I “hear” this lyric as a folk or a country tune!), preferably 3 baritones. And even weirder because it’s written in honor of a woman, but from the perspective of men!

But, I do have a favorite songwriter in mind to put this lyric to music for me and I hope it makes him extremely wealthy. He would deserve that! If I have written this lyric, that probably won’t happen, but if God did the writing, who knows?! And no…I do not think this song is about me, but I hope it reflects the thoughts of 3 men somewhere for the daughter, wife and mother that get to call “theirs.”

Father:

I call your name
And you instantly come runnin’.
You leap to my arms
With abandon and great huggin’.
I can’t explain how
I love those small arms,
But all I know is I’m glad
To be your man.

Husband:

I call your name
And you instantly come runnin’.
You kiss my day
Far away and keep on workin’.
I can’t explain how
I love your sweet ways
But all I know is I’m glad
To be your man.

Son:

I call your name
And you instantly come runnin’.
You touch my head
And hug me tight
Until the hurt quits on hurtin’.
I can’t explain how I love
Your calm voice,
But all I know is I’m glad
To be your man.

All:

We are the men
Who have loved you on sight
And as we watch you,
Your love for us shows with
Surprising gentle might,
Our love only grows
As you fight each good fight.

All:

And so, our darling,
We live in your light,
For we are the men
Who still love you tonight.

Monday’s Post: So, just what is a thimblerig?

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Last week’s honoree was Nancy Lanza, mother of the Sandy Hook shooter, Adam Lanza. Sadly, Nancy was the first victim in the shooting. I wonder if that was because she was desperately trying to stop her son from committing this terrible act or if Adam realized that she would intervene if he left the house with guns, etc. Either way I’m sure that Nancy felt great responsibility for what her son was about to do and thus, felt guilty.

This is every parent’s worst nightmare–that the choices we make or don’t make will produce a child who is capable of great harm to the community. The hardest job in the world is to parent and it is often a very thankless job. So, this week I decided to do something a little special for a young mom in my community who is doing her best to get it right. Since she is in the “active phase” of parenting and doing it on pretty much on her own, it’s easy to be stressed. And on those days in my own life it was nice to know some “veteran moms” understood completely what I was enduring. Their own acts of kindness often helped me hang in there. So, I hope my small act of kindness helps her, too. Just paying it forward!

How about you? What did you do to honor Nancy? Please let me know via the submission box below or via the Contact page that you participated. Right now we stand at 26 acts of kindness to date!

Today’s honoree is Jesse Lewis. Jesse was into horses, something that will probably sound familiar to the folks in my community, since I live in rodeo country. Here’s what CNN had to say about Jesse:

Jesse Lewis, 6

Tomorrow’s Post: A Look Back…