Simple Gifts

As a worked on the blog about simplifying Christmas I typed in the term Simple Gifts and it struck a chord in me and reminded of another time some 10 months ago.

We have cable TV at my day job so we had President Obama's inauguration on. When Yoyo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, Anthony McGill and Gabriella Montero performed John William's arrangement of "Simple Gifts" I wept. Not only was I touched by the shear beauty of the music, I also knew this was a simple Shaker hymn written by a man in 1848 who knew and embraced the simple beauty of life.

Here are the words:

'Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free,
'Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be,
And when we find ourselves in the place just right,
'Twill be in the valley of love and delight.
When true simplicity is gain'd,
To bow and to bend we shan't be asham'd,
To turn, turn will be our delight,
Till by turning, turning we come round right.

I also wept because I live in America. While we are racing around, we seem to loose sight of the simple joys. We live in a special country. When we wish to honor the man who holds the highest office in the land, we do not bow before him and pay homage with costly gifts of gold and jewels. We play him a hymn called "Simple Gifts".

I pray you will have a blessed holiday full of simple gifts that will remain treasures over time.

Happy Cheapness!