Trample Prancers' Shenanigans

Not so long ago I spent a lot of time, energy, and a bit of financial investment in ideologies that would no longer hold significance for me. Leaving religion can be to varying degrees traumatic; my religious practices provided much happiness and little strife. Letting go of spirituality, like any satisfying habit, was difficult to say the least. Aside from a few social associations of less -than-pleasant natures , my spirituality overall was delightful and emotionally satisfying. However, the past few years have involved some dramatic and intentional shifts in my thoughts on spirituality. It can, in many ways, interfere with critical thinking, and impede appreciation of what reality has to offer.      My sense of wonder and admiration for the world was tied to things of a metaphysical and faith-based nature. Emotional responses to the world around me became so emmeshed in my superstitions that when I realized the detrimental, deleterious effects of magical/ wishful th...

  8 Rejoices of Winter (The 7 Rejoices of Mary)   I am most familiar with Loreena McKennitt’s version. The melody has long been in the public domain and has been used in many songs. This is the first one I did. I spelled it with the numeral so it could be alphabetized first in honor of that. I crowd-sourced through Facebook what people’s favorite things about winter are, specific to the season and nature. This was a great one to start with as diving into the list and supporting details helped with future songs like “In the Bleak Midwinter.” In the second line I used the archaic term “wilt” instead of “will” for anachronistic and rhyming reasons. But even though I’ve recorded it already I think I’ll go with the less-accurate rhyme and keep the modern term going forward .       The first good joy of winter, it is the axial tilt   The angle of our journey changing seasons as it will   To see the change of season, as we see our breath like clouds...

  Away in A Burrow (Away in a Manger)     This one was so quaint and adorable that I had a tough time recording it without laughing. Since recording it, I changed 1 word in the last verse, but I’ll likely not bother going back to re-record. The most popular musical setting in the United States is commonly known as "Mueller". The melody was first published, under the title "Luther's Cradle Hymn", by James R. Murray in his collection Dainty Songs for Little Lads and Lasses (1887) (Wikipedia)     Away in a burrow   some leaves for a bed   The dear little marmots    Lay down their sweet heads   The stars in the sky    Look down where they lay   The sweet little marmots    Asleep night and day       Coyotes are laughing   The prey, not so much   These wintertime antics   Provide them some lunch   The great snowy owl   Looks down from the sky   Above the wild forest ...