Ponderous Thoughts
“Time, it goes so fast when you’re having fun.” --The Bangles, “Manic Monday”
It’s an 80s moment for me this morning…this song is the brainworm of the day.
Don’t know what a brainworm is? It’s that song or fragment of a song (often one you dislike) that repeats endlessly in your head. Brainworms can be contagious (email me or leave a note on my Facebook wall if I spread this one to you), and sometimes they can be stopped. One recommended cure is to sing or listen to the song all the way through. Sometimes that works. Other times, the best you can hope for is to switch it to some other song you dislike less.
Apparently, not everyone gets these, or gets them with the frequency Ben and I do. Maybe it’s because we both like to sing along with the radio in the car or with music at home. I generally leave church with a hymn in my head; strangely, it’s rarely one we’ve sung. It’s more likely to be one on the page next to one we’ve done that morning. For example, yesterday (and replacing “Manic Monday” in my head as I type this) “Come Christians, Join to Sing” was the brainworm—not the whole song, just the “Alleluia, amen” at the end of each phrase. Can you hear it?
Christmas music, for some reason, also gets stuck in my head, which is why I just give up after Thanksgiving, tune the truck’s radio to an all-Christmas station, and get it over with. But I don’t start Christmas (except cookie-dough making and gift shopping) until after Thanksgiving. I read a blog by a woman who started a network last year called “Grace in Small Things,” which I have shared here before. Every day she and other members of the network try to post five small graces in their lives, in an effort to keep their minds focused on looking for things to be thankful for rather than giving in to frustration and depression. It’s a good exercise; I haven’t done it on my blog nearly as much as I would have liked.
So today, here are five (more) graces in small things I am grateful for:
1: the unconditional love of my dog
2: the youth group’s excitement over Pilgrimage
3: that people feel welcome to wander in to my office
4: the seashells on a shelf in my office
5: that the current song in my head is now “Surely God is with us”
Anne
the bangles... when i went to prom, once upon a time, in a limo... the bangles had ridden in said limo the very night before. and yes indeed at prom i WAS walking like an egyptian! :)
ReplyDeletei like the grace spaces...