Brother James's Air

I got asked last night if I might be able to play the piano for one of our ward choir's songs in church today, so I spent an hour or so working on the accompaniment before I went to bed. Not too surprisingly, I woke up this morning with Brother James's Air stuck in my head. It has such a simple melody, that I almost dismissed it when our choir director first handed out the music, but there is something in its simplicity which makes it absolutely beautiful. I've long since fallen in love with this piece.
I was thinking about Easter this morning, and as I was thinking about Brother James's Air as well, I read over the psalm that provided the text for it. Psalm 23 is such a beautiful witness of Christ's role and His love and care for us. I decided to look around a bit and see what "Easter psalms" there are as well. I read through quite a few of the psalms, but then I came to psalm 49, which I instantly loved.

They that trust in their wealth, and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches;

None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him:

(For the redemption of their soul is precious, and it ceaseth for ever :)

That he should still live for ever and not see corruption.

...

Like sheep they are laid in the grave; death shall feed on them; and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning; and their beauty shall consume in the grave from their dwelling.

But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave: for he shall receive me.

This is such a beautiful reminder of the reality of the Resurrection! A thousand years before Christ was born, the psalmist confidently put his trust in God and His redeeming power. Money and influential friends aren't what guarantee the resurrection, those things don't last. It is God who ransomed us.

Death is certain. It will come for each of us. Last year, my grandma passed away, and it was one of the saddest weeks of my life. I understand better now what it feels like to lose someone, and it made me appreciate life and those around me so much more. But even more important (to me) is the way that it strengthened my belief that, as certain as death is, so too is redemption from the grave certain in Christ. One day, in the future, I will get to see and hug and talk to my grandma again.

And that is what I celebrate this Easter.

You'll Be in My Heart

Sigh...
I just watched this video for "You'll Be in My Heart" from Disney's Tarzan.
*SPOILER ALERT* If you haven't seen Tarzan, this music video shows the whole movie. Although, if you've somehow survived the last 14 years without seeing this movie, then I guess I feel even sadder for you. I really want to go back and watch this movie now. And every other Disney movie made. Ever. If only I had the time.
Sigh...
I love the empowering feel of this movie, and especially this song. According to Wikipedia, it won both an Academy Award and a Golden Globe. When the song really gets going, one of the lines goes:

Don't listen to them, cause what do they know...

They'll see in time, I know.

Ok then, first of all, who is "they"? 

"You know what they say..." (ever heard someone say that before?) "They can't all be wrong" or "it's just what they do." I want you to stop next to you hear someone say a phrase like one of these (or if you use them yourself!) and see if you can actually pin it down. Society in general is always giving us rules to follow and expectations to conform to. Often, they aren't bad, but that they can inhibit us and keep us from really being great. And you know what? We let them. Some of the greatest people in history have taken up this anthem that Phil Collins sings, and managed to tune out everything that "they" were saying. Think about :

• The Wright brothers
• Edison and the Light Bulb
• Any of these quotes

I'm not saying that there is nothing to be learned from or gained from the collective body of colloquial wisdom, but I just feel like there is so much we could possibly do. So let's do it! After all, time will tell who's right. 

They'll see in time, I know.

Daylight

So I haven't blogged in a while, but I'm hoping that this will make up for it. I have been working on this post for a while now. There isn't a "Music Video" for Daylight, but what they did do for the song was pretty cool. What they did inspired me, so this is going to be a vlog for me today!

This is my first attempt at recording/uploading, and it was a blast! Unfortunately, UMG has blocked the video in Germany, so if you're trying to watch it there, youtube won't let you. Hope the rest of you enjoyed it!

The Proof Of Your Love

I hope to be a better person tonight than I was when I woke up humming this song this morning. Happy Sabbath to all!

Hold Me

I love the way you hold me.
As we learned in my institute class this week: "How can one be warm alone?" That wasn't the main focus of the lesson, but I really do feel like that is a basic aspect of human nature. I know that there is a drive to connect, to be close to other people (or at least to someone). In my "Science in society" class, the article I chose for discussion looked at the things that we understand about the chemical oxytocin. Pretty much we figured out in the '70s that it was the main chemical which helped mothers bond with their babies and since then everything we've figured out about it may or may not be true and we don't understand it any more than we did then. The clear thing is, though, that the way body naturally works, it is super important for humans to connect.
When I went back and listened to this song, I realized that I couldn't figure out who Jamie is singing to. There are lines when I feel like it's a love song and she's singing about her boyfriend. With other lines, though, it feels like she's singing about her relationship with God (I did hear it on KLove the night before which is probably why it was in my head when I woke up). As I thought about it, I realized that I am totally ok with that.
I love God. A lot. When I picture my future wife and family, part of what I picture is how much I'm going to love them. There's no doubt in my mind that love is going to be in every part of my family. Even if I started building that love today, though, God would still have a 25 year head start on them. I'm hoping that my future wife is on the same kind of path that I am.
I've seen this triangle several times in various Sunday School and priesthood lessons:

There were dozens of versions of this when I searched for it, but I just loved the images for "husband" and "wife" on this one so much! :)

The basic idea is that there are 360° that a person can move. Odds aren't great that a random guy and a random girl are going to end up moving in such a way that they come together. The way to make this work is to have both of them pick a fixed point and move towards it. There are so many points which it is so easy to fix on (a career, a house, kids, each other, American Idol, a love of cheese, etc.), but those points aren't fixed. They can (and do) move. If you picked a moving point, then you're going to have to be continually adjusting and compensating. I took an entire semester devoted to tracking and adjusting to a changing point in process engineering. Believe you me, it's not fun.
I pick God. I believe that he isn't going anywhere and the only adjusting is going to be when I forget where I was originally headed and start wandering :) In this scenario, I imagine that my wife is going to be working through the same kind of thing, so that is why I'd want her to be focused on God as much (if not more!) than on me.
For me, until I've got my own special someone here to hold on to, I'm going to keep singing, "Lord, I love the way you hold me."

It's Always a Good Time

I was having a conversation with a friend the other day and I realized something about myself. Whenever someone asks me about how my day has been, my general knee-jerk reaction is to say "Good." And then I realize that that is a most bland of answers and I decide to come up with a compelling argument as to why the day is thus. Reasons have ranged from "I got to sleep in this morning" to "I got accepted to a master's program at ASU" to "I didn't completely suck at life in my classes today" (That last one sounds like it wouldn't be a valid reason to label a day as "good", but it actually was all that I could have hoped for at the start of that particular morning). As I recognized that pattern in my thinking and responding, I stopped to wonder about it a bit. Why do I do that?

Good morning and good night...

It's gonna be alright

We don't even have to try

It's Always a Good Time

This song is so happy it's almost sickly sweet. And yet I love it. The things that they list in the verses "What's up with this Prince song inside my head?", "Slept in my clothes like I don't care", "Freaked out, dropped my phone in the pool again" are some of the most random things, but no matter what they sing about, the chorus comes back around as an anthem singing out that "It's always a good time!"

While this "synth pop" rendition of positivity is a bit overboard, I love how it portrays such a real part of me. When you start your response out with "Today was a good day...", you naturally are looking through the past 24 hours trying to find instances to validate your statement. I firmly believe that they are there; that if you want to, you can find something about your day that was good. From there, it often takes some willpower, but you can build on that to make the entire day a good day. 

And you know what? People want to be around people who are creating a good day:

Hands up if you're down to get down tonight

It's a lot more fun to be around people who want to have fun and make today a good day. I know that sounds like circular reasoning, but it's true. If you're looking for things about the day to be upset about, you'll find them all day long. And they'll define your day. The opposite holds true as well though, and those are the kinds of party people I love to be around. I've got the power to choose, and I decide that It's Always a Good Time.

All I Ever Wanted

This blog took a very different turn from what I'd been normally writing about exactly one year ago today. I decided I was going to make a note of the songs that I wake up with stuck in my head, and use each as an embarkation point for posts. I think it is poetic that, after 366 days of blogging, I have very much the same topic as I did for the post when I started this exercise. I had no idea where this blog was going to go (or where my year would take me for that matter), but I have enjoyed looking back at the posts that have happened and the adventures I've lived since. What a list it is!

Wouldn't it be Loverly

We R Who We R

Nothing's Bigger than Love/I Dreamed a Dream

We Can Do It

Toreador

Till I Hear You Sing

Who Am I?

Meteor Shower

Seize the Day

Not Over You

Brand New Day

These are the Nights

Joy to the World

Call me Maybe

My Eyes

White Flag

Tattoo

Somebody that I Used to Know

What Do You Do With a B.A. in English?

Payphone

Part of Me

It's Possible

Lights

Dark Blue

The Fortunate

Fine, Fine Line

Love You Like a Love Song

Me Without You

We are Never Ever Getting Back Together

Gloria (My Savior Lives)

Check Yes or No

Adelaide's Lament

Good Morning, Beautiful

Set Fire to the Rain

Titanium

Everybody Talks

With Wond'ring Awe

That's How You Know

Some Nights

Les Miserables

My Paper Heart

A Tisket, a Tasket
One More Night

Such an odd collection! I hope you've enjoyed these as much as I have enjoyed being able to write and share with you. Don't worry, I'm not quitting, I just thought that this is kind a major milestone to hit and I should acknowledge that.

Sweet perfumes of incense

Graceful rooms of alabaster stone

All I ever wanted

Poor Moses: in this portion of the Prince of Egypt, his world has pretty much been torn out from underneath him and he is trying to decide what it means to him to be himself. At first he tries to find himself in the things surrounding him.

Here among my trappings and belongings I belong

and if anybody doubts it

they couldn't be more wrong

How easy it is to try an identify yourself through the world around you! I can see that a lot of my own personal identification comes out in which car I drive, what I do for fun, where I eat, what I wear. There is so much more than that though! My understanding of who I am is so much more deeply rooted. I know that the things that are in my life are wonderful, but that life would still be wonderful without those things.

I am a sovereign prince of Egypt

Son of a proud history...

I have high expectations and great visions for my life as a child of God. Every aspect of my life which is in my control is an opportunity to grow towards greatness. Sure, there are lots of little things that I want: to do well in school, to get a degree, to get a job, to have a family, to go new places and see new things. I want all of these things, and I am working towards them. BUT, even if they don't happen in my life, I know that I can and am living in a way that is in line with and pleasing to God, and, really, that's All I Ever Wanted.