Always like the start of Garrison Keillor monologues on ‘Prairie Home Companion’: ‘It’s been a quiet week in Lake Woebegone’.
If it had been filled with less busyness on Currawong Crescent this past week, I would have done a blog or two more. Always happens just before Christmas – simple things become complicated, programmes don’t work, last minute details need a lot more attention …
Tomorrow night at St Stephen’s we’re going to play & sing a blessing I wrote 4 years ago: ‘May we hear the angels sing’. Originally just one verse, it’s got an extra one following requests / suggestions. I usually find it easy to resist such tips, but obviously something rang a bell. The second verse focuses on nature’s response to the birth of Jesus. Well, maybe just including some good pictures that act as background for the main event.
A bit like some of the Wheeler / James carols from 50 years ago or more. We’re doing their Carol of the Birds:
‘Out on the plains the brolgas are dancing … Orana! Orana!’
I think the additional verse is shaping up well, filling out the song:
May we hear the angels sing as they did that night;
see the star up in the sky shine with heaven's light
– 'Glory be to God on high, peace to all the earth' –
gaze with Mary's loving eyes at the Saviour's birth.
Early morning voices call, every magpie sings.
Jacaranda blossom falls — carpet for a king.
Agapantha glory shines under every sky.
Creatures great & humble too sing their lullaby: (repeat v.1)
Robin Mann © 2005
