I went to bed at midnight, and I should still be tired, because it’s only 5:27 AM, but we took a long nap after church, yesterday so I’m actually pretty well rested.

The tradition at our church, we learned yesterday, is that the choir doesn’t sing over the summer – a notion I understand but don’t like – and that, instead, people get to suggest favorite hymns, and the weekly music is picked from the most relevant of the suggestions, so I went through the hymnal after my nap and found that of the 710 or so songs in it, there are a total of six that I was familiar with (not including the national anthems of the UK and US, which are both in there, or “America the Beautiful,” which is also in there) BEFORE we started singing with the choir. And of those six, I only like five of them.

So I’m sitting here, with my scalp itching because I’m hot (it’s not hot in the house, I’m just hot), and my brain running circles, trying to decide if I should bother submitting my suggestions at all, because two of the three are sooo cliche as to be over-done.

What are they? In numerical order:
(8) “Morning Has Broken” – cuz I’m a true child of the ’70’s
(376) “Joyful, Joyful” – can there ever be too much Beethoven?
(405) “All Things Bright and Beautiful” – which really should be sung by freshly-scrubbed school-children in uncomfortable outfits, for maximum effect.
(416) “For the Beauty of the Earth” – it’s a really simple melody, and actually it’s inclusion in the Episcopal hymnal surprised me, because I think of it as being sort of Quaker, though I suppose it’s really not.
(671) “Amazing Grace” – a song I’ve loved forever, actually, and have always associated (erroneously, as it was written by an ancient Anglican) with Southern religion.

Clearly, my knowledge of liturgical music is lacking. Must work on that.

But as I sit here, waiting for the first rays of light to paint color in the sky, the birds are stirring into the ultimate dawn chorus, and I’m wishing someone could capture THAT in a hymn.