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Rodgers and Hammerstein Make Song Lyric Thursday


When I was very little I discovered my mother’s collection of soundtracks. They were mainly Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals: Oklahoma, Carousel, The Sound of Music but she had Meredith Wilson’s The Music Man too, which is one of my all time favorites.

I would play them on the stereo in the living room. Dance around. Sing. Act out the parts – once I was old enough to understand that they were telling stories. I can’t remember when I reached an age where I was too self-conscious to perform “publicly”, but eventually the stereo was dismissed to the basement where my “productions” continued well into my early teens.*

Since then I have had a life long love of musicals, but not so much as something to watch. My affair is music and lyric based, and of course, all about the story-telling.**

Cinderella was one of my favorites growing up. I remember watching it on television yearly for a long time. I don’t remember the girl who played Cinderella but the Prince was portrayed by a soap actor on one of my favorite soaps, General Hospital.

The following clip is from the 1997 Whitney Houston/Brandy version. I used to show it to my students when we were studying folk/fairy tales. The multi-ethnic casting never seemed to bother them, a testament to the power of the story, I think.

The song is Ten Minutes Ago and it reminds me of both my husbands.

*I always wanted to get up on stage and sing, dance and act, but I was too shy and too aware of my size. The only time I tried out for a play in high school I was rejected because of my weight.

**The only musical I have ever seen live was Les Miserables, and yes, I know it is overwrought, but the songs are wonderful and story is compelling.

10 Ways I have Changed with Time


My friend Marsha at Breathings of the Heart subscribes to a blog by Dave Bruno’s.

She found him when she came upon on his “100 Thing Challenge.” He is the same guy who inspired my post on purging.  Anyway, she discovered a new post of his on the 10 ways that he has changed over time and decided to write one of her own.

I like the list so much that I decided to write one too. And it makes a nice change from all the death and dying talk of late. A person can only go to that well so often before it’s either – throw yourself in or fix the indoor plumbing.

  1. Once the mall was a weekend outing. Now I shop on line and only when I really need something and I find malls a bit overwhelming in a country mouse kind of way.
  2. Once I ran ten miles every day. Now, sadly, I can only walk several days a week and take yoga classes, but I am actually getting into better shape because the running was punishing in ways I wasn’t aware of at the time. Ah, the insulation of youth.
  3. Once I loved teaching and thought I could make a difference. Now, not so much.
  4. Once I used to fret and worry over what people thought of me. Now, a little less every day and that is progress.
  5. Once I watched a lot of television. Now I never watch to the point that I am puzzled by it when I do.
  6. Once I thought I would make a group of someones a great mom who would know all the right things to do. Now I know that there is no such thing as a great parent or such a thing as being born to parent. We do the best we can and kids do the rest. And it’s usually pretty good.
  7. Once I thought I wasn’t good enough to write for a living. Now I know that was crap.
  8. Once I thought that being thin would make me happy. Now I know it just makes me healthy.
  9. Once I hid from the world in books. Now I write books.
  10. Once I thought that if I could just hang on, have faith and work hard, I would be happy again someday. I was right.

Unetaneh Tokef


I found this prayer on GWP and, oddly I suppose, liked it. 

“On Rosh Hashanah will be inscribed and on Yom Kippur will be sealed how many will pass from the earth and how many will be created; who will live and who will die; who will die at his predestined time and who before his time; who by water and who by fire, who by sword, who by beast, who by famine, who by thirst, who by storm, who by plague, who by strangulation, and who by stoning. Who will rest and who will wander, who will live in harmony and who will be harried, who will enjoy tranquility and who will suffer, who will be impoverished and who will be enriched, who will be degraded and who will be exalted.”

Not cheery but as Girl mentions, hopeful, in a way that I wonder if most people ever really understand. There is karma in the world and a method to the madness. Perhaps it is not a bad thing to take time out to acknowledge it.