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Tag Archives: Singing

My.Daily.Distraction ~ Post 162: Thank You For The Food We Eat

02 Thursday Apr 2015

Posted by duckykoren in Grief, Music, Poetry, Religion

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Tags

Delta, funeral, Grace, grief, Heaven, Music, Pizza, Poetry, Religion, Room Service, Singing, Toronto

Sometimes we can find joy and inspiration in the most unexpected places.

Case in point:

We have a traditional family song that we sing after saying grace. It’s a simple and pleasant little tune. It has been sung at all family celebrations that involve food.

The verse goes like this:

Thank you for the world so sweet
Thank you for the food we eat
Thank you for the birds that sing
Thank you God for everything.

Amen.

My Grandparents have sung this, my parents, my cousins, aunts, uncles, the grandchildren and great grandchildren have sung this too. We have all sung it hundreds of times.

I aways wondered where this song came from. If I had to take a guess, I would have assumed that my Grandfather wrote it.

Then came the day when my Father told me where the verse really came from.

This verse was from a hanging wall calendar. It was made from linen so that when the year was over, it turns into T-towel. It hung in our kitchen from 1970, and halfway through 1971. As soon as he told me this, I immediately remembered this calendar.

Now, if you will, forward a couple of decades

It’s February 2000, and my Mother has come to Toronto for my Grandfather’s funeral. It’s a very sad time.

Mother and I had just arrived at at the Delta Hotel, and it’s been an emotionally exhausting day of funeral preparation, travel and grief.

To keep thing simple, at the end of the day I suggested to Mother that we just order in pizza.

She grew very quiet.

After a few minutes, she said that there will be no pizza. Instead, she has decided to order room service.

Then picking up the telephone, she dialled the restaurant and ordered a rack of lamb for herself, and scallops for me.

After the food arrived, we sat down, said grace and then sang Opa’s little song that I referred to earlier: ‘Thank You For The Food We Eat.’

We then commenced with eating dinner.

Mother was absolutely enthralled with her rack of lamb. She told me that it was the best she ever had. After taking a few more blissful bites, she looked up at me and said:

“You know what?”

“What?”

“I’m so glad that we ordered room service.”

“I would have been just as happy just having the pizza for dinner,” I told her.

“No,” she said to me quite defiantly. “I knew that we had to order room service.”

“Why did we have to order room service?”

“Because,” she said raising her eyes from her plate to me…

…”I could never have sung ‘Thank You For The Food We Eat’ over a pizza!”

For the first time in days, I found myself laughing.

So was Mother.

Further, I have no doubt, that somewhere up in heaven, my Grandfather was laughing too!

My.Daily.Diversion ~ Post Eighty-Nine: Hospitality

18 Sunday Jan 2015

Posted by duckykoren in Church, English, Languages, Religion

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Tags

animated, benediction, Church, congregation, English, eyes, Family, feasting, German, grandfathers, Hospitality, innocent, Luncheon, mistake, morning, practice, pray, Prayer, pulpit, sermon, sick, Singing, speaker, Speech, storytelling, visit

HOS-PIT-AL-IT-Y

hos·pi·tal·i·ty n. pl. hos·pi·tal·i·ties

1. Cordial and generous reception of or disposition toward guests.

2. An instance of cordial and generous treatment of guests.

……………………………………….

It was an innocent mistake.

Really.

My grandfather had been invited to travel out of town for the weekend to preach at an English speaking church.

He and my Grandmother arrived on the Saturday and were invited to stay as guests of honour at the house of the Pastor and his family.

It all went so well.

His morning sermon was delivered perfectly. After all his years of practicing, his English was easy to understand even though he spoke with an undeniable German accent.

He was well known for being a powerful and animated speaker.

The sermon had been well received and he met many new people, and made as many new friends.

After the morning church service, there was a grand luncheon served in his honour.

There was feasting, story telling, and singing.

Later that day, after the evening service had been given by the regular pastor, my Grandfather was asked to come to the front of the church and give the closing benediction and prayer.

Arriving at the pulpit, he closed his eyes, and began to pray.

He prayed for the sick.

He thanked God for all of his blessings.

He thanked God for loved ones,

And then, with his eyes still closed in prayer, he thanked God for the kindness of the entire congregation and then proceeded to thank God for their…

…Hostility.

My.Daily.Diversion ~ Post Eighty-Four: We Need More Song Cues

13 Tuesday Jan 2015

Posted by duckykoren in Children, Children's Education, Education, Entertainment, Music

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Bram, Children, Family, Happy Thoughts, Lois, Nylons, Schnitzel House, Sharon, Sharon Lois And Bram, Singing, song cues, Songs, Television, The Elephant Show, The Nylons, tickle, variety shows

Does anyone remember singing?

No one ever seems to sing anymore.

There was a time when I couldn’t even walk to my fridge before a television variety show song cue introduced yet another famous celebrity singing a show tune.

But no more.

I know for a fact that there are lots and lots of fun little songs out there that can be sung alone or with someone else.

Singing was something people use to do to pass the time, to raise spirits, bring comfort, and to praise.

And who doesn’t enjoy a pretty melody from time to time?

One of my favourite joys are children’s shows which are always introducing youngsters to music. The lyrics are ridiculously easy to remember and they are humorous as well.

My kids were raised on Sharon Lois and Bram, the ones who gave us ‘The Elephant Show’ best known for it’s theme song:

‘Skinamarinkadink’.

If you have never heard them sing this song, then in my opinion…

…you have not lived.

Do yourself a favour and Google it one day. And while you’re at it be sure and look up their episode of when one of my favourite bands, THE NYLONS appeared on their show and sang “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.” Even Johnny Carson was bowled over with their version of that song.

And when I was young it was Sesame Street, Mister Rogers, Mr. Dressup, Howdy Doody, Captain Kangaroo, that got everyone singing.

Now, when I was a child, there was one song that was our personal family favourite. Every now and again my Father would reach back in time and dust off this wonderfully silly song decades later and take it for a test drive. Of course, I would always join in.

Grampa Schnitzel would both begin and end his half hour children’s show with these following tuneful lyrics:

‘The Schnitzel House’

“Is this not a little mouse?
Ya, this is a little mouse,
Is this not a Schnitzel House?
Ya this is a Schnitzel House,

…Little Mouse
…Schnitzel House

Inky dinky inky dinky
Inky dinky
Schnitzel House.”

You know, just writing that out gave me a tickle.

I really should take my own advice and sing that song every day.

Guaranteed happy thoughts…

Certainly, something this world can use a little more of.

My.Daily.Distraction ~ Post Eighty-Three: A Child’s Fable… “Harry Canary”

12 Monday Jan 2015

Posted by duckykoren in birds, Fable, flying, Science Fiction, singing, Stories

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Tags

birds, cage, Cats, fables, families, flying, Science Fiction, Singing, Songs, Stories

Harry Canary was born in that tiny little nest at a small pet store just like any other pet store you have visited.

His first vision was of three other little eggs just like the one he had hatched from.

Those eggs would be his two brothers Larry canary, Gary canary and sister, Mary canary.

Before long, the nest became very noisy with the constant peeping of the new little canaries Larry, Gary, Harry, and Mary. They kept mother, Cherry Canary very busy with her babies constant chirps to be fed.

Mother Canary it was very attentive to her new babies and was always feeding them.

Harry Canary however, was the loudest and the strongest.

Above his brother’s and sister’s peeps he’d cry:

“Peep peep peep
Cheep cheep cheep
Feed my beak or I won’t sleep.”

His little brothers and sister peeps were always drowned out by his loud cries for his Mother’s attention.

Before long, Harry Canary was the fattest of the four little birdies. Indeed he almost took up one third of the entire nest with his brothers and sisters almost being half his size.

More and more the mother Cherry Canary tried to satisfy Harry Canary’s hunger as he was almost always demanding more and more food.

And so it went until the little babies and not so little Harry Canary were almost ready to leave the nest.

Then came the day when the pet store owner forgot to properly close the cage after filling the mother canary’s seed cup with birdseed.

With the flutter of wings, mother canary found the open door which led to beautiful spring day outside.

She was quickly followed by Larry, Gary, and Mary canary.

They had all flown away leaving Harry Canary in the birdcage all by himself.

Harry tried once, twice, three times to fly out of the cage to follow them but found he could not because he grown too fat.

Alas, Harry was not able to fly. And so, in the cage she stayed until the pet store owner found the cage containing fat little Harry Canary.

One day, a family came into the store, and bought Harry Canary and took them to a brand-new birdcage in their home where they fed him lots and lots of birdseed.

To this very day he sings this song for his supper:

HARRY CANARY’S SONG

“Peep peep peep
Cheep cheep cheep
Fill my beak or I won’t sleep
I can sing, I can chat
Just don’t feed me to the cat.”

Quote

Memories Of Mother… Post 42: Approached By An Angel

15 Tuesday Jul 2014

Posted by duckykoren in Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Angels, Baptist, blogs, Breast Cancer, Brother, Cancer, Family, Father, Gott Ist Die Liebe, Minister, Missionary, Mother, Singing, Sister, Stories, True

image

The events and characters depicted in this story are true….

And the story is about the day that my Mother, her Brother and Sister encountered an Angel.

There is no doubt in my mind that this story is real.

I really believe that it happened.

First of all, I believe it because my Mother was never one to exaggerate, embellish, or tell tall tales.

She was pretty much stuck on the truth.

Secondly, Mother was never a particularly spiritual or religious person until her later years.

As a youngster, she was a bit of a rebel.

Seeing as her father was a Baptist minister and missionary, well…

…let’s just say that she was a bit of a nonconformist when it came to prayer and worship.

And now, on to our story:

 

Many many years ago…

In a country far far away…

It was early evening in the Scherer household.

The day had not gone well for the family, and the Father had sent his disobedient children to bed early.

My Uncle, Aunt and Mother all shared the same bedroom.

It was dusk time and the sun had almost set.

The Brother and two Sisters were in their own respective bedroom corners, quiet and reflective over the events that had led to them being sent to bed early.

The parents were in their own bedroom down the hall, presumably on their knees, praying that God would grant them more well behaved children.

My Mother was sitting on a ledge by the bay window when she spotted an unusual phenomenon coming down the sidewalk towards the house.

As it came to their front gate the unusual triangle of light suddenly stopped.

It stood approximately four feet high and hovered one foot off the ground.

Suddenly, the phenomenon disappeared right before her very eyes.

Simultaneously, their kitchen across the hall became suddenly bright.

Leaving the kitchen the glowing entity crossed through the hallway and  entered the children’s bedroom.

After a few moments of silence, the glowing phenomenon then instructed the children to sing a popular children’s hymn called “Gott ist die Liebe.”

This was a German children’s song very similar to “Jesus Loves Me” but with a different melody.

The children began to sing the song as they had been instructed to.

After they had been singing for about a minute the light suddenly vanished.

The glowing triangle was gone.

And the children continued to sing.

As they sang, their father suddenly came into the bedroom.

“What are you doing?” he asked them?

Almost in unison, they replied…

“Singing. “

My grandfather then paused for moment, thought for a few more seconds, and then without another word, turned around and returned to his bedroom.

Nothing more was said…

By anyone to anyone.

 

According to Mother, the story ended like this:

 

To the entire family’s surprise…

The three young children became respectful and well behaved.

There was peace in the Scherer valley for wonderfully long time.

The End.

 

 

 

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