My birthing mix

Friends,

I know I’m not very good at talking about music. That’s because I really don’t know much. I do love music…I’m just not one of those people who can wax eloquent on the smoothness of the bass rifts (is that even something?). What I can talk about is lyrics and why I love them.

So, in honor of today being my actual “due date” (come on, no one ever has their baby on their due date), I’m going to tell you a few of the songs (honestly most of them are hymns with rewritten music…which I can’t get enough of lately) on my birthing mix and why I love them. Love them. LOVE them. (By the way, my mix is much longer than this, because, seriously, it’s got to play for a loooooong time.)

1. You Can Sing – Lori Chaffer, 1Beginning (Probably my favorite mama song of all time: “You can sing / You can believe / You can be anything you want…”)

2. Satisfied – Red Mountain Music, Depth of Mercy (Lyrics written in 1875 by a woman named Clara T. Williams. Music written by Karl Digerness, our amazingly gifted “worship arts director” at City Church.) Every time I sing this chorus I tear up: “Hallelujah, he has found me, the one my soul so long has craved!”

3. Abide With Me – Matthew Perryman Jones, Indelible Grace, Wake Thy Slumbering Children. A couple of weeks ago, I had a conversation with a new friend who confided that the day before she gave birth to her second child, she got on her knees and prayed through this song. She felt a completely new peace as she went into her labor. “When other helpers fail and comforts flee / Help of the helpless, abide with me.”

4. In Feast or Fallow – Sandra McCracken, In Feast or Fallow. I already wrote a whole post about this one. Read it here.

5. Jesus I long for Thee – Red Mountain Music, The Gadsby Project. Another hymn by Red Mountain. This one’s a new one in my life and I can’t get enough of it. “I pant, I groan, I grieve / For my untoward heart” How good is that?

6. Welcome – Lori Chaffer, 1Beginning – Another fantastic song for a mama. “I don’t care what the world says about all this struggling / all I know is that now you’re here it’s so lovely.”

7. Come, Oh Redeemer, Come – Fernando Ortega, Give Me Jesus, EP: “Lord save us from the dark / of our striving.” So good.

8. Vito’s Ordination Song – Sufjan Stevens, Greetings from Michigan. I love hearing the Lord sing this to T-Rexy: “I always knew you / In your mother’s arms…When you write a poem / I know the words / I know the sounds / before you write it down…Rest in my arms / Sleep in my bed / There’s a design / For what I did and said.”

9. You Can Always Come Home – Andrew Peterson & Randall Goodgame, Slugs, Bugs and Lullibies. One of my favorite kid cds ever. When August was a baby (like 6 to 9 months), no matter how hard he was crying, if we rocked in the rocking chair to this song, he always calmed down. It’s just so sweet.

10. You Cannot Lose My Love – Sara Groves, All Right Here. Just a lovely little mommy song.

11. Good Good End – Waterdeep, Heart Attack Time Machine. I could go on but I’ll stop with this song. It was my theme for August during my pregnancy. I didn’t have a theme song this time. So I’m letting T-Rexy borrow it. “I’m amazed by life / and its amazed by me…it’s a long hard road / with a good good end / and if I keep on walking / past the crooked bend / I will meet my maker / I will meet my friend. / down the long hard road / with a good good end.”