Category: Music

Yesterday, I heard one of my favorite hymns (Softly and Tenderly) on Facebook. At the moment, I cannot remember who posted the link; however, I remember clicking through just to hear how the singer preformed the song. I must say Joey Feek did an amazing job singing one of my favorite hymns and I truly love her voice.

Joey Feek is a country singer. I have never heard of her before and it seems she sings with her husband and they are known as Joey and Rory. Reading the backstory about this lady was bittersweet. Apparently she’s in stage four cancer and has been sent home because the doctors can no longer do anything for her.

Rory, her husband, posted this on his blog. She’s spending her remaining days with her husband Rory and their daughter, Indiana.

 

I’m not going to tell you that I’m okay with this because ‘God has a bigger plan’.  Or that ‘we’ll understand His bigger purpose somewhere down the line’.  That logic  doesn’t really work for me right now.  I’m not angry at God.  I’m not angry with anyone.  I’m just disappointed.  I hoped that Joey would get to be one of the lucky ones that somehow overcome stage 4 cancer and get to hear words like ‘remission’ or ‘cure’, instead of ‘I’m so sorry’.

It’s hard for me to feel slighted, when I know that the career that Joey and I have had – this amazing last 7 years or so – has only been, because God reached out His powerful hand and chose us.  He lifted us up from our little farm. and let us see and do things beyond our wildest dreams.  And you can’t be in awe of an amazing road that God leads you down, and then be any less in awe of a corner that He has you turn.

I think in the end… the good and the bad, He just wants us to give it to Him.

And so we do.

Wow… what a powerful testimony and an inspiration for me, the times that I lose focus. While I might not know where the path I’m on will take me, as long as I rely on God, he will see me through whatever comes my way. It’s something I already know but to see this being practiced by others is always an inspiration.

Since I really love her voice, I’ll definitely look up a few more of their songs and of course keep her and all her loved ones in my prayers.

Yesterday, on my way home from work, I heard this song for the first time. I must say that I’m loving the beat. I never heard of Prince Royce, but of course, I’ve heard of Snoop Dogg. I used to have all his CD’s back in the day.

I do believe this song will be going in my iPod. I’ll be working out shortly after work today.

Earlier this week, I stumbled upon this song. I’ll be adding it to my iPad.

My daughter listened to it, loved it and said she’s going to incorporate it into one of her time lapsed drawing photo series. She’ll be posting the video on her site in a few weeks.

I included this version also.

I love this group.

This is the first time seeing this documentary about Megadeth but nice to see and up close and personal look at Dave Mustaine and the others that made up Megadeth.

Since I’ve acquired my Native American flute in the key of G, there has only been three days that I have not played anything at all.

I find it enjoyable and am thrilled that I’ve made the effort to set aside some time to play the flute consistently. Sometimes, I’ve been able to play for a few hours throughout the day. I really enjoy flute playing, learning, and becoming comfortable with a woodwind instrument. As I continue to play,  I know I’ll continue to see improvements. While the majority of my flute playing is creating sounds that are pleasing to my ear, at times I will play an actual song, like the one posted above.

Here in Maryland we’ve been experiencing some frigid temperatures, knowing what I do about honeybees, I’m not too worried them they should be fine. Today we reached a high of 4F, with the windchill bringing the temperatures well to about -15 F. In our area we received about 6″ of snow, other parts of Maryland received 11″ and some said they got more.

Because of the weather, the past few days, work  (along with my daughters school) has been closed but yesterday I did get a request to come in before the winter storm hit our area. There was some computer work that really needed to be completed and so “essential personnel” made it into work. I worked for about three hours and left right when the snow started falling. Perfect timing, right?

You would think with the extra long weekend, I would have been knitting, weaving or sewing, right? None of that happened! Instead, I spent a lot of time with my daughter.  In my down time I was practicing on my Native American flute. Today, I spent about three hours practicing on my Native American flute and even branched out into sheet music. Since I can read notes following along isn’t an issue.

Finlandia, Op. 26 is a symphonic poem by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. It was written in 1899 and revised in 1900.

He later wrote a stand alone song from the above symphonic piece which you can hear me playing in the clip I’ve included below. You can catch the part I played (in the above song) at around the 6:07 mark. The song, “Stille meine Wille, dein Jesus hilft siegen” aka “Be Still, My Soul” is one of my favorite hymns. It was originally written in German in 1752 by Katharina Amalia Dorothea von Schlegel it was later translated into English by Jane Laurie Borthwick.

While playing the above song, I immediately thought of this passage from Scripture…

My lips will shout for joy when I sing praises to You;
And my soul, which You have redeemed.

Psalms 71:23

New American Standard Bible

I still have a long ways to go, but I can see improvements each time that I do play my flute.

 

Be Still My Soul

Be still, my soul: the Lord is on thy side.
Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain.
Leave to thy God to order and provide;
In every change, He faithful will remain.
Be still, my soul: thy best, thy heavenly Friend
Through thorny ways leads to a joyful end.

Be still, my soul: thy God doth undertake
To guide the future, as He has the past.
Thy hope, thy confidence let nothing shake;
All now mysterious shall be bright at last.
Be still, my soul: the waves and winds still know
His voice Who ruled them while He dwelt below.

Be still, my soul: when dearest friends depart,
And all is darkened in the vale of tears,
Then shalt thou better know His love, His heart,
Who comes to soothe thy sorrow and thy fears.
Be still, my soul: thy Jesus can repay
From His own fullness all He takes away.

Be still, my soul: the hour is hastening on
When we shall be forever with the Lord.
When disappointment, grief and fear are gone,
Sorrow forgot, love’s purest joys restored.
Be still, my soul: when change and tears are past
All safe and blessèd we shall meet at last.

Be still, my soul: begin the song of praise
On earth, believing, to Thy Lord on high;
Acknowledge Him in all thy words and ways,
So shall He view thee with a well pleased eye.
Be still, my soul: the Sun of life divine
Through passing clouds shall but more brightly shine.