Thank You Songs
Thank You: Songs by Harry van Bommel
We all experience loss. It may be the loss of a loved one through death or the loss of our identity because we do not know what to do anymore or what to believe in. The songs deal with loss and hope, fear overcome by love, and faith joined with gratitude. They are meant to remind us of what we have when we may feel we have little.
Harry van Bommel helped both of his parents and grandfather to live at home until they died. The tape begins and ends with the song Thank You. This song is written from the point of view of the person who has died. They are thanking you for all you did for them in their lives both in actions and through your love. Their gratitude is a starting point for healing.
A common theme of all the remaining songs is also gratitude. Your gratitude for everything you have now and in the past will help you through the most difficult times. These times are not easy. The path has been walked by others, like me. We share this path together and we can learn from each other. When you are ready, you will be able to help someone else walk this path. What a gift it will be. How grateful both of you will be for the gift.
Grief can hurt physically, emotionally and spiritually. It Hurts looks at this real physical response to grief. Our tears and pain are often overwhelming with the only words to describe it as "It hurts". No one can survive unending grief. It must change for us to survive. We change our response to the pain to help ourselves continue to live and be part of our families and community and in memory of the person who has died.
Always with Me is a song of gratitude that the people we love now, and have loved in the past, remain part of us forever. Their memories, their advice, their examples of love remain with us and guide us. The song is also a prayer of thanks to God for always being present to provide us with strength and comfort.
A Child is Born reminds us of the purity of love and joy experienced at the birth of a child. Individuals and families come together to share in the unconditional love and acceptance of the new born. Each child is the daughter or son of God and deserving of the best we can offer, always.
In van Bommel's family, the hymn Ave Maria has been played at weddings, special holidays and funerals. He often whistles it on solitary walk in a forest. Its soothing melodic cycle allows him to whistle it for a long time and lose myself in the music. Such times remind him of all that he have lost but also all that he has to live for and to enjoy. After his father died, he realized that he had spent so much grieving his mother and grandfather's deaths that he had not enjoyed enough of the remaining time with his father. Grief does not have to exclude those still living. In fact, van Bommel believes that in loving and helping those who are still with us, we pay the ultimate honor to those who have died.
Remembering your childhood may bring back memories of love, family and adventures or it remind you of experiences of fear, anger or sadness. For most of us our youth is a combination of all emotions. Our memories are mixed. What is true for all of us, however, is that our childhood forms our character. Some of what we do is based on what we loved best about our elders. Some of our other thoughts and actions are the opposite of how they did things, which is also a lesson on living. Stories are a Gift highlights the power within our stories to help us behave more positively now and in the future.
The Human Family is a reminder that we are all brothers and sisters within the human family regardless of how we look, what we do, and what gifts we have to offer. So much of our lives are spent dividing "us" from "them" at home, at school, at work, at play, and within our communities. It is in dividing ourselves that we cause grief to others and to ourselves. We lose the ability to see that each of us has something to offer the other. The song is offered in hopes that each of us returns to the spontaneous and true joy that we felt as infants when we experienced unconditional love and acceptance within the human family.
When Can Our Children Be Proud? is a song about doing what we know to be right. We know how to help others. We know how to provide comfort to those who are in physical or emotional pain. We know how to make a difference in people's lives because we know how we would like to be treated by others. Like us, our parents knew what to do but they may not always have done what is right either. We can learn from that too. Whatever we learned, we need to use the lessons of our youth to do the right things now to the point when our children, and all the children within our communities, can look at us and say, "You did the right thing – we are proud of you."
Often when van Bommel gives a speech he sees elderly wives and husbands sitting in the audience, holding hands. They are clearly still in love and it is inspiring. He imagined that their lives have been a mixture of joy and hardship, just like our lives. At the Other End of Young Love reflects on what the love of a kindred spirit means to someone. When that kindred spirit dies, the loss is overwhelming yet there are memories of decades together that no one can take away. The gift of a life lived with a kindred spirit is irreplaceable and it can always give us strength and comfort.
NOTES and LYRICS are enclosed.
Downloadable songs with lyrics, ISBN 1-55307-010-0, $20
Playlist
1. Thank You
2. It Hurts
3. Always with Me
4. A Child is Born
5. Ave Maria
6. Stories are a Gift
7. The Human Family
8. When Can Our Children Be Proud?
9. At the Other End of Young Love
10. Thank You
