As Karyn Lynn Grant and I move on to our 11th interview of the 2019 The Year of Joy Series, we find ourselves in the month of November where many celebrate thanksgiving with glad and happy hearts, we trust.
Wikipedia’s definition of Thanksgiving:
“Thanksgiving Day is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in the United States, Canada some of the Caribbean islands, and Liberia. It began as a day of giving thanks and sacrifice for the blessing of the harvest and of the preceding year. Similarly named festival holidays occur in Germany and Japan. Thanksgiving is celebrated on the second Monday of October in Canada and on the fourth Thursday of November in the United States, and around the same part of the year in other places. Although Thanksgiving has historical roots in religious and cultural traditions, it has long been celebrated as a secular holiday as well.”
So, today Karyn has led us to our topic:, A Merry Heart in the Mourning:
“When the Spirit of Praise, Rejoicing and Faith Becomes the Heart”
Carol: Karyn, I am curious. What led you to this specific topic during this month?
Karyn: November is the month of Thanksgiving for many across America and beyond! For me, I celebrate another one of my most cherished blessings. November 25th is a beautiful day in my heart and in my mind as it is the day of my mother’s birth. There is something beautiful my mother taught me and I would like to reminisce about her gift of a merry heart.
Carol: Ok, let’s go with it. I have to say that I miss my mother dearly. She passed away on the morning of Christmas Eve. She was my best friend and my Mom and she is who taught me of true love. I miss her unbelievably. I will be forever grateful to her.
Karyn: As a child, my earliest memories go back to my mother’s smile…but most especially her sense of humor. My mother, now approaching 89, is still a joy and a delight! Her sense of humor is glowing brightly as she continues to make me laugh and smile.
Carol: How wonderful. Your Mom sounds like a special woman.
Karyn: One of my happiest memories of my mother is how she greeted each new day! She greeted me every morning with a prayer in her heart and a song on her lips. She would enter my room each new morning, dancing over to the window where she would toss open the curtains while singing, “Rise and shine and give God your glory, glory! Rise and shine and give God your glory, glory!” (You can google that song for all the lyrics!)
Carol: Oh my goodness Karyn. That gave me the chills. My mom would wake us up saying: ‘Rise and shine. Time to get up !”
Karyn: My mother was happy in the morning. She greeted each new day as though it was truly a gift from God. She exemplifies to me, even to this day, “the gift of a merry heart”.
Carol: ah, thus our subject of today’s conversation ????
Karyn: I believe that all my “Joy Coaching America” dreams link back to my sheer gratitude in having my childhood rooted in my mother’s nurturing and attentive love and affection. She shared her gift of a merry heart with us in the evenings too, when she went from bedroom to bedroom for each of her children and sat on each one of our beds, giving us some very precious one-on-one, mother-daughter time.
I remember feeling excitement in my heart when she would walk through my bedroom door and sit down on my bed. Soon, her kindly hand would begin caressing one of my curls and she would begin to whisper about her love for me and about God’s love for me. No matter how many little sorrows had arisen in the day, my mother knew how to share her faith and fortitude by expressing her love with an assuring smile, a bit of wit and her delightful sense of humor.
Carol: just taking it in …
Karyn: My mother’s gift of a merry heart did not stop there. She expressed praise and encouragement, always. Truly, she has been my ministering angel in my life. It is because of her “Night-Time-Nurturing” with me, that I created “The Lullaby Connection”: a set of 8 cds for mothers and grandmothers (and even dads!) to tuck their children in at night.
Carol: That’s beautiful. Any others?
Karyn: My mother’s ability to caress away a tear with her healing touch, inspired “The Healer’s Touch Method,” the method I have created for combining all five senses into a glorious relaxation therapy for those who are suffering from a broken heart and a wounded mind.
There is never a time when my mother does not celebrate the gift of laughter with me! Whenever we are together, there is some playful pun, some stroke of genius in her wit, some kindly smile that lets me know that “It’s gonna be alright!” Those are some of the very lyrics in a song I wrote about my childhood, “Mama’s here, Jesus near, things gonna be….alright!”
Carol: Karyn, how precious and how very interesting how this all came to be; how you were inspired and what you’ve done with that inspiration.
Karyn: I realize that not every child had the gift of a “merry-hearted” mother. It is for those who I have consecrated my song-writing, my love of nurturing, my desire to pass on the legacy that my mother so generously offered to each one of her little children…on into our adult years.
