A Hundred Million Miracles are happening every day! Below are the words to this song from the Broadway Musical ‘Flower Drum Song’. It was the only Summer stock show I ever danced in and it had an impact on my life. Preview (opens in a new tab)
It is all ways important to be aware of the seemingly little miracles in your life. You never know where one event, experience or perception will lead. And perhaps more importantly everyday miracles bring us joy. Winter became Spring and now Summer in this year of the Pandemic but despite the toll and changes in your life you may have noticed that nature and the season weren’t paying the same attention. The weather shifted and the flowers bloomed…so will you in time if that hasn’t happened already! The opportunity is to open to a new appreciation of all that you may have taken for granted.
Just A Line…?
I loved the line in ‘Flower Drum Song’ where the father, in the show, says “All white men look alike.” Today, the general public is still having discussions about racism and people of color are still hurt, killed, and discriminated against. Why is that…?
I loved the line of dialogue because to this day I can’t tell which country an Asian person comes from or an African….I am color blind. I can only relate to people. person to person. How about you? And also if I was around more people of color, brown, black, yellow or green perhaps I would be able to discern country or planet of origin but is that the defining mark of equality?
I only discovered discrimination against women when I moved to Canada. I grew up in the dance world of New York City. What can I say. Talent and skill were the measure, not gender or color. One of my first boyfriends was the first black man in a symphony orchestra. I only learned this years after knowing him. Yeah, and my mother had an affair with Harry Belafonte…oi vey!
I also need to say as long as I am dredging up memories that I won a dance scholarship to an Ivy league school running up against a young black man. I won because of my grades and perhaps skill. One of the judges was black, Donald McKale…so I know it wasn’t about color. But you can see how these issues can get complicated.
I will say that one of my fondest memories of living in Toronto came when walking in the business part of town, a drunk was calling an indigenous person names. Several business men walking by said to the man “Don’t pay attention. He’s just drunk.” Now, Canada just has to make it law for those who are inebriated by there own insecurities….just a thought.
Back to Miracles
Let’s get back to the topic: miracles and ‘Flower Drum Song’. I meet my first love there while rehearsing for the show. He became a life long friend and his mother turned out to be the best friend of a beloved professor of mine, who had danced with my mother on what they call an industrial in the business. I saw this show when I was eight and remember it well. It had a flying car that dispensed ice cream sodas.
My father was in the original version of ‘Flower Drum Song’ on Broadway. He met the love of his life as the show pre-toured before coming to New York. Yeah, my getting the job in Summer stock was pure nepotism and also I had just graduated New York’s renown High School of Performing Arts, featured in the movies ‘Fame’. So yes, I could dance. My Father and his wife Nancy were together for nearly 60 years. My mother and he were friends until she died.
My old professor left me an inheritance and my first love’s sister sent me a beautiful scarf just before Christmas this past year. You never know where your story leads until you live it. Appreciate Your everyday miracles….
The De-Stress Check List will help you do just that!
My Father and his Wife Nancy Lober from their Dancing Days! A Hundred Million Miracles: lyrics…
My father says
That children keep growing
Rivers keep flowing too
My father says
He doesn’t know why
But somehow or other they do
They do
Some how or other they do
A hundred million miracles
A hundred million miracles
Are happ’ning ev’ry day
And those who say
They don’t agree
Are those
Who do not hear or see
A hundred million miracles
A hundred million miracles
Are happ’ning ev’ry day
Miracle of changing weather
When a dark blue curtain
Is pinned by the stars
Pinned by the stars to the sky
Ev’ry flow’are
And tree is a treat to see
The air is very clean and dry
Then a wind comes blowing
The pins all away
Night is confused and upset
The sky falls down
Like a clumsy clown
The flowers
And the trees get wet
Very wet
A hundred million miracles
A hundred million miracles
Are happ’ning ev’ry day
And when the wind
Shall turn his face
The pins
Are put right back in place
A hundred million miracles
A hundred million miracles
Are happ’ning ev’ry day
In ev’ry single minute
So much is going on
Along the Yangtse Kiang
Or the Tiber or the Don
A hundred million miracles
A swallow in Tasmania
Is sitting on her eggs
And suddenly
Those eggs have wings
And eyes and beaks and legs
A hundred million miracles
A little girl in Chungking
Just thirty inches tal
Decides that she
Will try to walk
And nearly doesn’t fall
A hundred million miracles
A hundred million miracles
A hundred million miracles
A hundred million miracles
Are happ’ning ev’ry day
My father says the sun
Will keep rising over
The eastern hill
My father says
He doesn’t know
Why but somehow
Or other it will
It will
Somehow or other it will
Miracle of making music
When an idle poet
Puts words on a page
Writes on a page
With his brush
A musical friend
Writes the notes to blend
Suggested
By an idle thrush
Then a young soprano
Reads what they wrote
Learns every note
Every word
Puts all they wrote
In her lovely throat
And suddenly
A song is heard
Very pretty
A hundred million miracles
A hundred million miracles
A hundred million miracles
Are happ’ning ev’ry day
