Music, the universal language speaks to hearts, awakens senses, and illuminates the darkness so that we can behold truth.

“That’s the name of that tune” – was a catchphrase frequently used by detective Tony Baretta (Robert Blake), a streetwise undercover police detective in the fictional world of television.

But, what and who is the name of your predominant tune today?

I remember the music when I have forgotten so many of the details.

I remember the music more than the colors and shapes.

I remember the music more than the words that were spoken.

Speak a phrase and it will trigger a song.

Hum a bar and I will continue.

So many soundtracks of my life. So many tunes define those moments and days. So many harmonies and cacophonies gather around dreams fulfilled and broken.

It is the music I remember most.

Open the Bible to the middle and sing. You will find you have landed in the Psalms.

Harry Chapin gave us songs. His brother Tom helps us remember and adds his own. Now, another generation sings along.

That is how it is.

Let’s have a picnic!

When you have a picnic, everyone wears their own clothes and brings their own kinds of foods and games and usually, their own languages, but we all sit on the same blanket and figure out how to talk while enjoying each others’ food and company.

And, if we are fortunate, we sing. someone brought a guitar and everyone brought a song.

And many shed at least one tear.

Remembering.

Then, we go home, but we are a little different because we have met each other and realized that we have a lot in common.

Let’s have a picnic!

“Though rain may fall in the evening,

And rain may fall in the night

When the robin sings in the morning

I know the sun is bright.”

“Just remember in the winter

far beneath the bitter snows

lies the seed

that with the sun’s love

in the spring

becomes the rose”

May we all have “songs” of some sort that pass through us and outlive us on this pretty planet, this garden, this harbor.

With that, I will say, “Farewell” for now.