A psalm is a little song of praise.
Which is a lovely thought — an endeavour hardly anyone could argue with.
Kind of like reciting gratitudes.
So I’m working on writing one, at the invitation of a grad school poet friend of mine, but I’m positively slopping through irony over here.
For one, my religious background goes something like this: interfaith Sunday school when it doesn’t interfer with ski team. (I do have fond and visceral memories of my granddad singing the Doxology before Thanksgiving dinner, and I have one intensely spiritual daughter, but still…)
For another thing, I’m currently traveling on a low road and finding it harder than usual to recognize all that there is in the world to praise. It seems as if many of the people I love are suffering and the music I click on and the things that I read make me heartsick and the sunshine is barely strong enough to cut through the chill.
And third, I’m not tone deaf but not exactly musical either.
So.
Here I sit.
Working on a little song of praise.
Maybe it’s those kinds of ironies that bring us to the blank page most fiercely.
One can hope…
David wrote many, many psalms while in the depths of a deep depression; they were always comforting to my sister, when she was struggling also. I personally prefer the bluntness of Ecclesiastes when I’m feeling heartsick.
Anyhoo, I don’t think you should avoid how you’re feeling when you write this “song of praise.” Praise isn’t all sweetness and light, you know. Praise is the awareness that even if we’re capsizing, something in us is bailing water (with a bent spoon, perhaps, but bailing just the same.) Praise what’s bent and broken and still going onward and you have true praise indeed.
Hallelujah and amen, Sara.
You are, of course, absolutely right.
But you know how sooty and ashy things can get…
One of the loveliest things I’ve ever read is “Lord, I do fear Thou hast made the world too beautiful this year.” The phrase, which sounds a lot like a psalm, comes to mind whenever I alert my mind and eyes to really LOOK at nature. Nice things to think about.
Mmm, that is lovely.
Reminds me of that Mary Oliver line: There is no end, believe me, to the happiness your body is willing to bear.
You wrote a moving psalm of praise about your daughter last week. Draw your inspiration from all the things you love about her. Good luck! KYM
Sara said what I was going to say…and she said it better. Dang her.
I think the strongest, most powerful, most meaningful praise comes not from people who see the world as filled with butterflies and rainbows, but from those who see and experience all the harshness of life and still are filled with love and tenderness for it anyway.
Good luck!
i can’t wait to see what you come up with, sister. i’m sure that once you’ve struggled to find your words, they will serve as a catalyst to your own blue skys as well as providing a much needed uplift to anyone who reads them. in the meantime please let me know how i can help out while you’re washing the mud off your boots.
highs and lows and lows turned high
Do you think the lows are necessary in order to see the highs? Sometimes I think that’s the case but I guess I only realize it once I’m comfortably placed in the highs.
I’m thinking the lines…
So.
Here I sit.
Working on a little song of praise.
Might be the lines of a sweet little guitar ditty. If’n of course you know a sweet little guitar ditty player which I think you just might.
xo
Not all of the psalms are sweetness and light, even if they are praise. Some of them pretty much say that even though everything is dark, and everything completely and totally sucks, still will I hold on to a belief in something good.
And I know you well enough to know you can manage that with truth and feeling.
Ah. And now I see that Sara already covered this ground. I should have known to read the comments before adding on!
Amen to what everyone else said. I’ve found that the psalms are most appreciated when one needs them most. Draw on your sorrow and be inspired by hope. The words will flow out.
Thank You
You guys. I am moved beyond measure by all of your wise and loving and encouraging words. Logically, I know it’s all true. And a little reminder now and then is an awfully good thing. So thanks. Y’all are swell….