The Family Sing

I still enjoy the holidays. 

Over Thanksgiving we had a family sing-along.  Trust me, this was a You Tube enhanced event, completley spontaneous, with no leader but lots of energy.  It stated with the best of The Lion King, moved on to Mulan, tackled a bit of Rent and ended up with hymns and church songs. 

And oh, I loved it
.

I could hear my grandmother singing “Now Thank We All Our God” from her tiny parish pew in rural Illinois.  Grandma was not a good singer, but she sure belt out the hymns!  We spent a lot of time as kids at her big house on the river and her little church was the site of both her funeral and my parents’ wedding.   So many powerful memories in one song.

I was re-living Molly singing “Seasons of Love” with other girls during a high school performance.  It was such a great moment on the stage and I remember watching and hoping that she was sensing that she was part of something big and wonderful and special.  And I also remember a vague awareness that she was really not understanding how wonderful she was.

Lion King songs brought back the day that Molly and a cousin saw Lion King on Broadway.  We went to McDonald’s before the show (high class, right?) and had great seats for the performance.  Wonderful.

There are just three generations of us alive right now.  But the whole family was there to sing – in our memories, in our hearts, in our midst. 

And that’s why I still love the holidays.   The veil is very thin at this time of year.  We can almost touch the infinite.   I will hear my grandmother’s voice; I will hang my daughter’s ornaments.  And I will celebrate that love never dies and is never ever wasted.