Have you ever heard the song Amazing Grace played on the bagpipes? No matter where I am or what I am doing, if I hear that song, I stop, and cry. Amazing Grace always makes me cry. The words seem so tender and when you add bagpipes, the sound goes right in. I have heard it played at many funerals, including my mother’s.
I haven’t really thought about the song in years. Then as I was walking to the subway this morning in the Bronx, I heard Amazing Grace being played on the bagpipes. The bagpipes stood out as it was 7:30 in the morning and a quiet, “suburban” section of the Bronx. I stopped to try to find where it was playing from, but the song just echoed around me. I watched as people kept walking and rushing to the subway. Did other people hear the bagpipes too and were ignoring it?
I stopped to listen to the beautiful bagpipes blaring, tears and all. I could hear the words:
Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.
Maybe the song doesn’t have to just be a memory of funerals. Maybe the song can be a reminder of life, of grace, and of sweet mornings. Maybe Amazing Grace is always around me and I just need to be reminded to listen to it more.
What is your “Amazing Grace?”
Mary Anne