My mom and I have gone back and forth several times on this important issue:
Did Kermit the Frog sing What a Wonderful World or did he not?
We know for sure he sang Rainbow Connection (Melody’s favorite) and of course the classic “It’s Not Easy Being Green”, but for some reason I am convinced he also sang “What a Wonderful World” somewhere. My mother remains unconvinced. In order to prove it to her, I went on a hunt. I’ve searched the internet up and down and guess what – I can’t find ANY proof that he ever sang it. Could it be that once again my mom is right and I am wrong? (Good thing I’m used to that already.) The only videos I can find are…well I wouldn’t say they’re good impersonations of Kermit, but someone else must have a hidden childhood memory of him singing it or they wouldn’t be there. I did find this AWESOME impersonation – totally worth watching for both impersonations:
Actually it was my mom’s singing that sunk the words to this song even deeper into my heart. We were at Brave Girl Camp this last July, and she had her guitar out to sing us a lullaby before bed.
{This is clearly not a picture of my mom singing at night, but it’s such an incredible picture of her I couldn’t help myself. }
This particular night she sang “What a Wonderful World”. My mom sings like an angel. Somehow her voice sends every fear and doubt from my mind and leaves me feeling completely peaceful and content…like a kid again without a worry in the world. As she sang it, and I listened to it for the umpteenth time in my life, the words went into my soul. Words about bright blessed days and dark sacred nights….about colors of the rainbow and the faces of people passing by. But the words that hit me the deepest are these: ”I see friends shaking hands saying ‘how do you do?’ – they’re really saying ‘I love you’ “.
The reason those words got me is that in my run-away wild imagination, I pictured people shaking hands…I pictured my husband at work meeting someone for the first time and shaking his hand. And I know for SURE…for SURE SURE SURE that when he shakes hands with friends at work or at church or anywhere else, he is most definitely NOT thinking, “I love you”. :) When strangers shake hands, I don’t know what’s going through their heads…and in this case it really doesn’t matter what I think or what I believe.
Sometimes it matters what we believe…sometimes it matters more than anything else. Things that can be defined as either TRUTH or LIES are things we must work through…sort out the lies so we can throw them out and absolutely cling to the truth. That’s when it’s important…that’s when it matters.
But there are other times when it doesn’t really matter what we believe, not morally anyway. Sometimes the only reason it matters what we believe is because of what it does for the way it makes us feel inside. For example when Bob Thiele and George Weiss wrote “What a Wonderful World” (thank you Google), they decided to believe that when friends shake hands they are saying “I love you”. And now that I really think of it, when friends shake hands, that is probably what they mean.
The point is…sometimes we can choose to put whatever belief we want with something….and I think from now on I WILL believe that when friends shake hands they’re saying “I love you”….surely my world will be more wonderful if I do.
And to make it even more wonderful, what if instead of choosing to wonder if people don’t like the way I look or the way I talk or my ideas…what if instead of thinking that, I decided to believe that everyone around me…every single person I come in contact with…thinks I am the bees knees…..
{Meet Madi – Melody’s youngest daughter…a BLAST to be around and definitely the bees knees.}
Would it make a difference? Not to them, but it sure would to me. I have to admit, I have tried this before with people who used to intimidate me. People who used to make me feel small and dumb with small and dumb ideas. They can’t do that to me anymore because no matter what they say, no matter what their body language seems to say, I choose to believe that they just aren’t very good at expressing themselves and that what they are REALLY trying to say is, “I LOVE YOU!”. Almost makes you feel like a kid inside.
Or what if I chose to believe that every single thing my husband does, he does out of love for me. Because in reality I am sure that most things he does, he does for me…in the very best interest of our family. BUT being a man and not wired for expressing emotions, he doesn’t look me in the eyes every day, holding my face in his hands and say, “darling? Sweetest love of my life? I am going to work right now because I love you and our children with my whole heart and soul and I want to make you comfortable. You are the woman of my dreams and you are perfect in every way.” But in my heart I think that’s what he means when he rushes out the door. So I’m going to choose to believe that because when I choose to believe that I love HIM more and I treat him more like the way he treats me – lovingly, respectfully, joyfully. And when he gets home late from work (even though he told me he’d be home early), I can choose to think he is trying to ruin my day and he doesn’t care how I feel at all OR I can choose to believe that he really wanted to be home early and got caught up doing something important. I choose the second and because of it I am happier which (as you know) makes the world go ’round in a family.
The second we walk out our front doors…or even before that….the second we get out of bed, we have a choice. What we know for SURE is that we are going to come face to face with ugly things and beautiful things, right things and wrong things, things that make our blood boil with anger and things that make our hearts soar with joy. And when we see those things, the choice is ours…what are we going to focus on? Obviously ugly, wrong things need our attention sometimes, but only for as long as it takes to do as much as we can about them. But other than those problem-solving times, we get to choose to walk out the front door and focus on the beauty in the world and in the people around us OR on the ugly things around us and the yuckiness that comes from just a few people. (That could be another post all together…there is SOOOO much good…it doesn’t get as much attention as the bad, so it seems scarce…look for the good – it is SO easy to find!)
We can choose to see friends shaking hands and think they’re just being friends on the outside, but that inwardly they’re probably trying to figure out how to take advantage of each other. Or we can think they’re nothing more than business acquaintances. OR we can choose to think that a little handshake really means “I love you.”
You know what I’m going to choose….which will you choose?
