Music

FINAL FOUR DAYS TO ORDER JANICE’S MOTHER’S DAY COLLECTION CD! CLICK HERE TO ORDER!

If you’re looking for a Mother’s Day gift that is guaranteed to please your Mom, I have a great suggestion for you-and there is still time to do it. It doesn’t cost anything except a little bit of time and thought. And the trip down memory lane will be a gift to you, as well as to your mother.

In 2003 my husband and I were serving a full-time mission in Santiago Chile when Mother’s Day rolled around. This holiday always causes me some introspection as to how well I have fulfilled my role as a mother. Usually my shortcomings come to mind more than my successes, and I can think of so many things I would like to do over . . . and better. But I usually come to the conclusion that we all just do the best we can with our families and then just hope it is enough.

Before leaving our home in Provo, Utah, to serve in Chile we had agreed with our family that we wouldn’t try to send gifts back and forth from such a faraway place, but then a few days before Mother’s Day a special email letter arrived from our daughter Lynne-one that I have treasured for over a decade. As I read it I laughed, cried and lost myself in all of the variety of fun memories it evoked. With Lynne’s permission I’ll share her memorable gift to me in hopes that some who read it might take the time to send such a letter to their own mothers.

Dear Mamacita:

I have been trying to decide what I could write to you that would be meaningful, but I seemed to be short on inspiration. Finally, I thought that I would just share with you a little list of things that I have appreciated about you, and also some of my favorite memories of you through the years. The list isn’t comprehensive by any means but hopefully it will give you some idea of how I feel about you. Here goes:

Going to sleep to the sound of your typewriter (putting Dad through graduate school)

Your infinite patience with my childhood insomnia

Teaching me early to pray to marry the right person (it worked!)

Your spiritual attitude about Richard’s death [Lynne’s youngest brother]

All those great letters you wrote when I was a missionary

Letting me have lots of your cool “stuff” after you de-junked

Being my songwriting mentor

Patiently listening to me whine over trivial matters when I was unaware that you were carrying tremendously heavy personal burdens

Opening your home to Bonnie and David, to Guy, to Jerry, to Mark and various others who needed your love

Pulling that despicable fumigation prank on Janean Call on April Fool’s Day

Having  “those lips” that attracted Dad to you

Walking through the woods with you in Burke, Virginia

Being with you on your first airplane flight (I may have enjoyed it just a bit more than you)

Having you enjoy my dating years with me and supplying excellent advice

Looking for your face in the Tabernacle Choir during Sunday broadcasts and General Conferences

Being so genuinely innocent in this wicked old world

Sharing your difficult, but spiritual, experiences with me which have deepened my understanding of the atonement

Being a true pioneer in the LDS music industry

Watching the emotional responses of people who have been moved or comforted by the music you have written

Appreciating John Stockton’s legs

The “birds and bees” talk you gave me when I was 14-I still remember the blush on your face

Our first program together, in Grantsville

Taking me to the Provo Library frequently

Never being impatient with me when I interrupted your typing even when you had a tight deadline

Not having a trace of vanity in your soul

“Praying up” a Junior Prom date for me

Writing your wonderful personal history and leaving me a copy when you left on your mission-such a treasure

Tending my babies, again and again

Getting up early and taking me to the Smith Fieldhouse and running by my side in order to help me lose weight before my Young Ambassadors audition at BYU

Your decision not to take a job at the drugstore because you couldn’t leave your children

Shooting baskets with me while we waited for my Jr. High bus to come

Having the guts to audition for Tab Choir

Polishing my white Sunday shoes the night before my wedding

Being my own personal Complaint Department

Staying up with my newborn babies in the middle of the night so I could get some sleep

Agonizing with me over my multiple YA’s auditions and callbacks, and rejoicing when I finally made it

Introducing me to The Carpenters music

Your ability to forgive. . . even the most difficult things

Coaching my fifth grade softball team

Making two large scrapbooks of my life that were waiting for me when I returned from my mission

Making it possible for me to produce my first CD, “Keeping Sheep”

Being fooled by the chocolate-covered cotton balls . . . twice (April Fools Day)

Making me feel like the world’s best accompanist, even right from the start

Taking hundreds of pictures of my little kiddies and giving me copies

Owning the best fast pitch I’ve ever seen in ladies’ softball

Coming to all of my performances through the years

Hearing your music being sung in both Relief Society and Primary as I walked down the halls of the Burke chapel as a missionary

Watching you receive the FCMA’s Lifetime Achievement Award and knowing how
deserving you were

Putting up your current missionary’s picture on top of the Christmas tree

Going door-to-door to peddle your early sheet music

Listening to BYU ballgames in one ear while playing drums in the dance band or
during Tab Choir rehearsal

Actually believing for a moment that I was a typing customer when I showed up on your front porch disguised, wearing a wig, and speaking with a heavy accent

Writing a song for my mission farewell and then asking me to write one for yours

Daring to leave your comfortable home and privileged lifestyle, and trading it all for
the headache of learning a foreign language, living in an ant farm, being far from a
chiropractor and good tuna fish and chocolate chips. Knowing that’s it worth it every
time little Samuel Silva runs up to hug you, or watching Abel stand in the baptismal
font with your good companion, or hearing your Spanish Young Women’s Choir
sing

Mom, It is an honor and a joy to be your daughter. Never have I felt anything but love from you. Thank you for somehow making me feel beautiful and talented and able to do anything.

There are no words to express what this simple gift from the heart meant to me. I have loved reliving these memories through the years. Thanks to my daughter for remembering the “good stuff” and overlooking the “other stuff.” I could write volumes about the beauty of her life and what she means to me. I would like to wish her a Happy Mother’s Day by sharing one of her songs that means so much to me. She wrote it when she was in the throes of raising her five little ones, and it might just be my favorite song ever. I know it is a very important message for our day.

[Click here to listen to “Keeping Sheep”]

Keeping Sheep
Words & Music by Lynne Perry  Christofferson
Soloist, Lynne Perry Christofferson

I have a little flock of sheep
And they are mine to tend and keep
And I must guard them every day
For little lambs, when left alone,
Will lose their way

So many voices say to me
“A sheep fold is no place to be
Your time in there is dull and slow
And lambs leave very little room
For you to grow

Chorus
   Oh (So) if I ever start to stray
   Deceived by thoughts of greener pastures
   Remind me Lord that keeping sheep
   Will lead to happier ever-afters
   Will lead to happier ever-afters

Oh surely there will come a day
When all the lambs have left my side
And I am free to roam about
And go exploring other meadows
Green and wide

Yet something whispers in my heart
That when my sheep have left this pen
I’ll long to stroke their little heads
To draw them close to me
And have them young again

Repeat chorus

So while they still are in my care
I pray that I will clearly see
These little lambs within my fold
Are tender gifts the Master  Shepherd
Has given me

I come from a long line of mothers who stayed at home to raise their children. In fact I know of no women in our family line who left the home to work while their children were young, even though many could have used the extra income. It’s the most important work we can do through that season of our lives, and definitely will “lead to happier ever-afters” for our children.

I wish I had written my mother a list like Lynne wrote for me, while she was still living. It would have been a long one! I wrote two songs about my mother, but only after she had passed away. I hope she was allowed to “look in” the day the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra performed “My Mother’s Love.” Every word and phrase of that song was inspired by my mother’s beautiful life. I don’t have access to that recording, but will share a version of the song we recorded on one of our own albums.

[Click here to listen to “My Mother’s Love”] 

My Mother’s Love (Tribute to Ruth Saunders Kapp)

Words & Music by Janice Kapp Perry

My mother’s voice, the power of her teachings
Live in my soul and guide me still today
Her caring ways, her timeless words of wisdom
Come forth to help me through each day
In each challenge, each choice, above the world’s noise
I hear my mother’s voice

My mother’s faith, her prayers of earnest pleading
Turned me to God in moments of despair
Her calm assurance of his tender caring
Taught me to turn to Him in prayer
Through my darkest of days, I reach to feel His grace
Such was my mother’s faith

My mother’s hands that lifted and protected
Those loving hands that soothed my fever brow
Were as a shield from ev’ry earthly trial
And still, the mem’ry helps me now
And my heart is aware, the strength that I now share
Came from my mother’s hands

    My mother’s voice will live in me forever
    A steady anchor for my reaching soul
    As generations climb the path together
    To sweet eternities untold

My mother’s love-the essence of her being-
Flows in and through me ev’ry waking hour
A quiet strength grew from her constant caring
A legacy of saving pow’r
By her words and her touch
She strengthens me so much
I felt my mother’s love

I hope Mother’s Day will be a happy day for every woman. I pray especially for blessings on those who have no choice but to leave their home to work and support their families, and for those whose chance at motherhood has been postponed for a season, and for those who mother other people’s children in such beautiful and helpful ways, and for those whose children (inspite of all the love and nurture they have received) choose pathways that bring unhappiness. There is so much hurting in the world, but also so much hope through the atonement of Jesus Christ that our sorrow will eventually be turned to joy if we remain faithful.

Janice Kapp Perry:  Composer, author, lecturer