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Dragonfly Song
Since moving to Loretto, Kentucky, I started going to the Loretto Child Care Center and the Loretto Head Start Program. I take my banjo or guitar, and sing with the children, teaching them new songs and singing songs they already know. I also spend much time in the fields and around Mary's Lake at the Sisters of Loretto Motherhouse. These two experiences, with children and with nature, inspired me to write some new songs for children. The first was "The Dragonfly Song", since I have a great love for dragonflies, and during the summer they are plentiful around the lake. I love to sit and watch them fly in all directions. But sometimes, they just "stop and look around" with their amazing eyes that can see 360 degrees around them. Aren't we a bit like dragonflies, too? We can be very busy, going this way and that. But don't we also sometimes need to "stop and look around"? DOWNLOAD the Sheet Music PDF
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Bill the Bullfrog
I'm not sure how this song came to be, except that I was thinking about a second song about nature to write for the children. There are some bullfrogs around Mary's Lake, and they sing their "harrumph" song now and then. So, I just started thinking about these big old frogs, sitting by the water morning until night. I read that they will eat just about anything they can get into their big mouths, including flies, of course. And in the evening, their big bass song has a loveliness about it. What name would I give this creature but "Bill"? DOWNLOAD the Sheet Music PDF
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Cloud Song
We all love clouds. They give us pleasure and peacefulness as we contemplate their changing shapes and hues, as we watch them season to season. So, I thought there should be a song about clouds. And it ended up with the clouds singing it themselves, with us singing along. I think the feel of the song is just about right for us to float along with the clouds. DOWNLOAD the Sheet Music PDF
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Care for the Earth
This song emerged as a kind of theme song for my new songs for children about nature. It works for the older ones, as well. I was driving home one September evening, at the end of a long journey. The sunset was glowing softly, shedding a rosy light over the rolling Kentucky hills and farmlands. These simple words came to mind: Care for the earth. Then, care for the sky. And care for the creatures, like Bill the bullfrog. We need to care for each other if we are going to make it as a human family. And we also need to care for our own lives, take care of ourselves in mind, body, and spirit. Everything that we enjoy, that gives us pleasure and delight, that sustains our lives, we have to care for and make sure it is all here for those who come after us. DOWNLOAD the Sheet Music PDF
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Why Did God Make the Gnats?
When our son Kent was about six or seven years old, he and I were out in the yard throwing a baseball. It was in the summer, in Lynchburg, Virginia, where there are always hordes of gnats filling the air. A gnat flew into Kent's eye and bit him. As I tried to get the gnat from his tear-filled eye, he said to me, "Dad, WHY did God make gnats?" I guess he figured that since I was a minister, I should know such things. Also, he was demanding that God answer for creating things that hurt. Later that evening, I started writing a song about it. Maybe we don't know why there are things in the world that cause pain, and we just have to learn to live with it. Meanwhile, there is much, maybe more, about life that makes us glad to be alive. DOWNLOAD the Sheet Music PDF
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How Gentle the Rain
I wanted to write a song for children about the rain. It turned into a song about the rhythm of the day and night, and of growing things. When you sing it with children, you can sing the first line of each verse, and the children can sing the second line with you. That way, you "line out" the song for them. DOWNLOAD the Sheet Music PDF
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The Greatest Things
The theme of "the greatest things in life are free" was behind this song, I suppose. Yet I was just thinking about all of the things around us that are simply there for us to enjoy, aspects of the world that sustain us physically, emotionally, spiritually. We are surrounded by a world that can uplift us when we think we're all alone. DOWNLOAD the Sheet Music PDF