Today It’s All About Hope
This may be a lengthier interview, I sense, because I’d like to tune into Karyn’s sharing of “Hope in the Mourning: Who Will Lullaby the Fathers” in honor of Father’s Day and then discuss Hope in general.
Lost hope and how to regain hope are very important topics. Also by our article’s end, we will share valuable insights and tips that will help those grieving, those not grieving or mourning and those who are inspired to share and reach out (with some of what educates or touches them here today) to others to offer them healing and hope. We all can make a difference.
Our world is becoming more riddled with destruction, despair, turmoil, loss, nation against nation, people against people. To some, it has become an almost “normal” state of affairs, yet it isn’t what we need to settle for or have to choose. We can make the choices that make the difference not only in our own lives, but in others. The simplest of gestures or acts of kindness can mean the world to another mourning or suffering or feeling lost. Equally as important is the coming together of those who are helping and assisting others to find lost hope, whatever that may mean to each individual’s enhancement of life.
I hope that today’s discussion with Karyn Lynn Grant, LMT, The Singing Massage Therapist, brings you to a place of joy, newly found hope and inspires you and those who you may touch or help because of this article and because of who you are.
At this time, I’d like to welcome you back Karyn. Such a pleasure. Our last conversation about “Angels in the Mourning: Ministering to the Broken Hearted” was so great. Many tips and helpful suggestions. It was truly one of my favorites Karyn. Thank you again.
Karyn: Thank you as well Carol!
Carol: I am so looking forward to this discussion today, for multiple reasons. I can’t wait to delve in. How are you today?
Karyn: Wonderful!
Carol: Let’s begin with what lead to “Hope in the Mourning” being connected with “Who Will Lullaby the Fathers?”
Karyn: “Hope in the Mourning” is about Honoring Father’s Day. Bringing “Hope” to Men in times of heartache, sorrow, grief and disappointment. It’s intended to mend the broken hearts of the men in our lives and to inspire the women who love them!
As far as the connection ( it will become most evident as I share) that many years ago, when I was visiting, speaking and singing to the men at a prison where I was asked to speak, I realized that often those men who have made the biggest mistakes, errors in judgment, or who have caused heartache to their mothers, wives and children, stand in need of “Hope” in their times of mourning.
One of the sweetest and most memorable experiences I had after speaking and singing to a group of about 90 men at that prison brought me into the startling awareness that even those men who have made mistakes have avenues to their hearts that may not yet have been opened.
Once after speaking about “The Woman at the Well,” whose story is found in the New Testament, I was closing my talk when a man at the back of the prison chapel raised his hand and said humbly, “What can WE do for you! You have touched our hearts deeply with your songs and stories!” I thought for a moment, wondering what I could ask of these 90 plus men, dressed in white, with the word INMATE stenciled on the back of their shirts. After a moment’s pondering, I announced resolutely, “You can sing for me! I have never had a chorus of men’s voices lullaby me!”
The room got quiet and even I wondered what song these men might know in common. One stammered, “How about Michael Row Your Boat Ashore?” Another called out, “We could sing Row Row Row Your Boat!” The room fell silent once more and then from somewhere in that audience I heard a man’s voice speak meekly, “I think we all know, “I am a Child of God!”
My heart broke. I felt the tears begin to flow and stream my cheeks as this chorus of men’s beautiful voices began to sing, “I am a child of God and He has sent me here…” Slowly they stood and began to form a single file line, each one waiting their turn to shake my hand. I was astonished as I gazed into the faces of men who no longer looked like hardened criminals, but whose faces reflected the deep remorse and humility of little boys. Tears streamed their cheeks as they approached me singing and stopped to whisper, “I’m sorry!” just loud enough for me to hear, as though apologizing to me, a single ordinary woman, would relinquish their pain and subdue their sorrows for the mistakes they had made.
One man whispered, “My mother needs your lullabies. I have caused her so much pain!”
Another whispered, “I need your songs for my truck when I get out of here. I believe they will help me to remember what I really want to create with my new life.”
Man after man whispered words of tender accountability for the pain that each one had caused themselves, their parents, their families, their children, their communities and their country.
I have never in all my life ever been so deeply touched by the humility of an audience before or since. From that experience I learned that every man deserves deep forgiveness for the wounds he has caused another.
