Simple Gifts

I woke up early this morning. I'm doing that as I get older. My mother has been an early riser for as long as I have known her. I remember disdaining this habit of hers during my teenage years. Mostly because it seemed that the longer she was awake, the more disgusted she became with the number of hours her daughter could "waste lying in that bed." My mother was the daughter of a tenant farmer, and her family of 12 spent long hours working a farm they would never own and would sometimes be removed from for inability to pay the rent. She says she never knew hunger, but has talked about eating lard on bread when there was no other food in the pantry. Seems Dickensian to us today, doesn't it? She picked corn by hand for a dollar a week and left school after eighth grade to work "in town" as a maid for the local doctor's family. Reflecting on her experience, it's no wonder she banged around furiously as the hours rolled by and I remained sleeping after a night of high school merriment. Little did I imagine then that my own years of rising early to make a living would create a similar habit of finding it nearly impossible to sleep after 6 a.m.

My computer sits in front of a window in my apartment, and even when it's cold, I open it to smell fresh air and hear the sounds of the outdoors, especially in the early morning. Today, I heard geese honking overhead as they migrate south. I've lived in Minnesota for six years; there are lots of opportunities here to witness this, but I still pause to listen to their magical sound. If I'm outside when I hear it, I look up to view the birds flying in formation. I hope I never get over the mystical, symmetrical beauty of it.

Thanksgiving is coming, and maybe it's what prompted me to listen to one of my favorite mp3s. It's Yo-yo Ma's gorgeous cello playing the Shaker hymn "Simple Gifts." Alison Krauss' pure voice joins in with the lyrics. It's a lovely rendition of this beautiful song:

'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,
It will be in the valley of love and delight.

When true simplicity is gained,
to bow and to bend, we will not be ashamed.
To turn, turn, will be our delight,
'Til by turning, turning, we come round right.


The brief lyric is packed with valuable advice, don't you think? I wonder about the "turning" in the hymn. Is it a reference to something in Shaker beliefs? Ah, the beauty of the internet for research!