The music of my wife and life

Julianne can sit down at the piano and just play whatever she wants. I cannot. She has a good sense of when the left hand will sound well with whatever the right hand is doing, and that allows her to improvise harmonies with standard church melodies. Lord, Dismiss Us, for example, and How Firm a Foundation in particular. 

This is very soothing to me. Something that will immediately peel back some layers of troubled spirit is to sit and listen to her play. Lord, Dismiss Us, Come Ye Children of the Lord, Come Ye Thankful People Come, Let Us All Press On, and They the Builders of the Nation are some songs that for me act as soundtrack to the Restoration of the Gospel.

They the Builders starts off with a very manly, pioneer-y approach to life. Forging onward, Building, Blazing on the wild frontier. Then the sisters come in with the Charity-never-faileth-like second verse of service and helping others, and then the third verse reminds all of us to consider where we came from and who are our forbearers. 

Lord Dismiss Us as sung by the MoTab in conference a few years ago is one of the most simple and stunning pieces of music I've ever heard sung. I don't know how else to describe the unconventional bass line: it's bad.  Bad like good. If I am in a mood, wearied or harried, I can listen to that song and instantly cry it away.

There is something so moving about the third and fourth verses of Come Ye Thankful People. We don't have them printed in our hymn book, and consequently don't sing them. But we should.

Even so, Lord, quickly come,

bring thy final harvest home;

Gather thou thy people in,

free from sorrow, free from sin.

There, forever purified,

in thy presence to abide.

Come, with all thine angels come,

raise the glorious harvest home.

That concept of being with my loved ones, purified and gathered in, free from the cares, tendencies, and disappointments of this world, is about the most awesome thing imaginable. That actually is another huge tangent that I'm not going to take here, but I'll briefly say that I don't believe those things will be eliminated, rather we will have the understanding to deal with them in a joyful and happy manner, just like God must surely be able to deal with disappointment and cares.

It makes me want to stand and reach out to the angels that are coming to herald Him in. It makes me want to be in that number. I want to be one of them. I want my dear wife to be next to me. I want my children to be there as excited as we are. And their spouses. And their kids. 

Anyway, Julianne can bring this all to my heart just by sitting at the piano and doodling away. The piano to her is a canvas. She has her own version of pthalo blue, her happy little trees, and her kind-hearted way of using them to calm my troubled heart.