Good morning…
“My brain is 95% song lyrics,” said the little boy’s t-shirt at the airport on Friday. While waiting for our plane, my three traveling family members scoffed at me as I pulled out my journal and recorded the quote. Then my husband and I proceeded to laugh with our two daughters, 20 and 22-years-old, as together we recounted memories from their childhood, many involving song lyrics.
“Make new friends but keep the old, one is silver and the other’s gold.”
“Who stole the cookie from the cookie jar? Who me? Yes you. Couldn’t be. Then who?”
“I’m a little teapot, short and stout. Here is my handle. Here is my sprout. When I get all steamed up, hear me shout, “Tip me over and pour me out.”
“How could anyone ever tell you, you are anything less than beautiful? How could anyone ever tell you, you are less than whole? How could anyone fail to notice that your loving is a miracle? How deeply you’re connected to my soul.”
“God will make a way when there seems to be no way. He works in ways we cannot see. God will make a way for me. He will be my guide. Hold me closely to His side. With love and strength for each new day, God will make a way. He will make a way.”
Waiting for our plane, we revisited these and other lyrics. After boarding the plane, we waited again on the runway, and a baby two rows up began crying uncomfortably. Crying babies make me want to pick them up, rock them close, help calm away their angst. My brain had a knee-jerk reaction and could not help but silently sing to myself lyrics from long ago.
“It’s alright to cry, crying gets the sad out of you. It’s alright to cry, it might make you feel better. It’s alright to feel things, though the feelings may be strange. Feelings are such real things, and they change and change and change. Sad and grumpy, down in the dumpy. Snuggly, huggly, mean and ugly. Sloppy, slappy, hoppy, happy. Change and change and change. It’s alright to know, feelings come and feelings go. And it’s alright to cry, it might make you feel better.”
I wish they made this quote on an adult-sized t-shirt. With the joy of the LORD, I unapologetically don this truth daily, “My brain is 95% song lyrics.”
The whole earth is filled with awe at your wonders; where morning dawns, where evening fades, you call forth songs of joy (Psalm 65:8, NIV). If the joy of the LORD is our strength (Nehemiah 8:10), what song lyrics well up in your brain when strong emotions get all steamed up?
…Sue…
P.S. If you feel compelled, send me your brain’s knee-jerk reaction and together we will bring out into the open the lyrics living inside.
