Skip to main content

Oh Shenandoah






"Oh Shenandoah,
I long to see you,
Away you rolling river.
Oh Shenandoah,
I long to see you,
Away, I'm bound away
'Cross the wide Missouri.

'Tis seven long years
since last I saw you,
Away, you rolling river.
'Tis seven long years
since last I saw you,
Away, we're bound away
'Cross the wide Missouri."

These are the words of a well-known American folk-tune, one of my absolute favorites. I became familiar with it as we practiced and performed it in my choir class in high school. "Mama J," our instructor, was a brilliant, fierce woman. When we lacked feeling while singing, she stopped us short and asked us to envision the anonymous author's yearning--seven long years since seeing his beautiful homeland of Shenandoah. 

 At that point in my life I had never been away from home for any amount of time longer than a week (which was usually spent in Disneyland, where I was too busy having too much fun with my family to have any amount of longing for anywhere else).

This past Sunday afternoon I found myself in Virginia, driving through the lush landscape of the Shenandoah Valley for the first time. As I crossed the river, the words of this gorgeous song and my experience learning it came flooding back into my mind. I thought of my longing for home when I lived abroad in South America, and how really small things--like a rare package of Skittles or the smell of a perfume that mimicked my mother's--sent me crash-landing into a wave of homesickness. I thought of how, at times, I have stifling moments of missing Argentina, with it's impassioned people and its queso cremoso and its cattle and its steaming copas de mate. I felt--at that present moment--my ferocious longing to hold my husband and my infant son, who I had left for just four days for this trip through history. 

 Those two, they are my Shenandoah.

What's yours? What (or whom) do you love and long for?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Problem with Chick Flicks.

I really, really, really enjoy a select few movies that I willingly watch over and over again. Pride and Prejudice is one of them. You see, Elizabeth's defense of her family, her sense of self respect, her ability to admit that she was wrong and to appreciate Darcy despite all his quirks, and quizzical brow-ness... it's marvelous. My husband doesn't share the sentiment, could you tell? ... and that's okay. There's rare a chick flick I enjoy near as much as I enjoy Pride and Prejudice or A Walk To Remember , and I wanted to explain why. You see, there's more than just a few problems with (many, not all) chick flicks:  (and if you have a chick flick that escapes many of these pitfalls then please oh please leave it's title in the comment section!) The heroine (or suitor) is less than honorable. I have a hard time rooting for a girl to get a gentleman when she's spending her time being scandalously loose with other men ( #thenotebook) . An...
10 comments
Read more

Where's Number Three

A neighbor in her mid-thirties. A woman in her seventies. Their single commonality? They both asked me: Where's number three? I have a son, his name Charlie And then McKay, he's not quite three In my heart, both fit perfectly Yet others ask: Where's number three? Perhaps it's that I miscarried, My spouse's infidelity, The ache of infertility, A battle raging mentally, Illness on a crippling spree, Our family is complete, maybe. The reason's one or more of these, Yet you dare ask: Where's number three? In this question, running free Are judgements, jeering icily "You're not enough, Mik, can't you see? Buck up and give us number three!" I used to flounder, squirm, agree Or curl up small, cry, and plead. With time, I've seen things differently. I won't explain for number three. The questions of maternity Are just between my spouse and me And Parents, guiding Heavenly So please don't ask: Where's number three? Artwork Credit: Be...
4 comments
Read more

Have You Ever Read a Book That Made You Grieve? Rejoice? Weep?

Have you ever read a book that spoke so deeply to your soul that you wept while you read it, couldn't put it down even for the pain, and thought about it for days after you finished? I have. I've been fortunate to wander upon many books that have done such for me, but the most recent literary treasure of this variety in my life has been "Between Shades of Gray" by Ruta Sepetys. I don't want to give much away, but I will say this: this book brought to my awareness of the WWII era histories of many Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian people. Previous to this novel I was aware that Jews (and other persecuted groups alongside them such as gypsies, the intellectually disabled and homosexuals) were victims of holocaust crimes under Hitler. But I was not aware that Stalin held his own "cleanse" and subjected millions of people to labor, cruelty, and death. The reason why I loved this book was because of the humanity and true charity many victims chose ...
1 comment
Read more