It's Independence Day!

Today is so beautiful, so temperate, so atypical for July 4th.  It's hard to sit inside; I want to be out, soaking in the sun. Perhaps once I've finished this little missive. 

What are we doing in the musical world this Independence Day?  I started my day in church. The choir anthem this morning was Finlandia, music by Jan Sibelius, words by Lloyd Stone. 

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.

I am quite familiar with the music, but had never known the words. How lovely, how utterly apropos for Independence Day.  This day, of all the days of the year, we celebrate America's independence, but we need also acknowledge the interconnectedness of us all.  We all have hopes and dreams, and we share these hopes and dreams across borders.  The blue sky, the bright sun shines over all.

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.

Oh hear my song, thou God of all the nations,

a song of peace for their land and for mine. 

As I come to the end of my thoughts today, a small wren has perched outside my window.  Can you hear its song?  It too sings of peace throughout the land.  May your Independence Day be safe, and our nation be at peace.