This is my song

Our church was graced this morning by the presence of the 60-strong choir from First Unitarian Church of Portland OR. Oh how I love choral music, especially religious music, especially Unitarian music. I was in heaven. I found myself getting teary frequently. There is something about those harmonies floating over top of each other that moves me to tears. There was probably an equal number of men and women, so the vocal range was spectacular.

And then our final hymn was one of my favourites, This is My Song to the tune of Finlandia. I was so moved that, as we joined our voices with theirs, I couldn't sing. I was too choked up.

Here are the lyrics:

*This is my song, O God of all the nations,
A song of peace for lands afar and mine.
This is my home, the country where my heart is,
Here are my hopes, my dreams, my holy shrine.
But other hearts in other lands are beating,
With hopes and dreams as true and high as mine.
*
My country's skies are bluer than the ocean,
And sunlight beams on clover leaf and pine.
But other lands have sunlight too, and clover,
And skies are everywhere as blue as mine.
O hear my song, thou God of all the nations,
A song of peace for their land and for mine.

Usually this song has me thinking of the world's most forsaken corners--Sudan, the occupied territories, Syria, the Congo, Guatemala. Today it hit me completely differently, as I thought of "my" land and "their" land. Today I wanted peace for my land--no more bonfires, no more Catholic-Protestant hatred and intimidation. And I wanted peace for the land of the Oregonians. No more police brutality, no more "troubled individuals" taking out 10 or 20 or 30 people, no more wars to "liberate" other countries, when so many Americans are struggling to survive. The sorrows of developing countries forgotten as I focused on the many fractures in our democracies.

It is a beautiful song because it makes me think and feel, as all good music should.
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