Mikey He Writes It

Last week, my grandpa Rex LeRoy Christensen passed away. He was 92 years old. In his beautiful obituary, you can read about the many amazing accomplishments in life such as a missionary, a bishop, a patriarch, and a war hero. It also mentions that for 35 years, he taught seminary and institute for CES. This is something I knew about grandpa, but as far back as I can remember, he was a retired seminary teacher.

I may not have witnessed him teach a seminary or institute class, but that doesn’t mean that my grandpa wasn’t a teacher to me. As it was his chosen profession, being a teacher was not just a job, but a way of life. As any teacher knows, learning lessons from life experiences and being able to teach those lessons learned, is a never ending process. When I was little, I remember listening to grandpa talk. I guess when I was young, I never thought of it as “teaching,” but as grandpa just talking with us. He would tell stories, or tell us what he learned yesterday when reading, or tell us about some of the many people he had the opportunity to give patriarchal blessings to. I loved listening to grandpa talk.

One time, my brothers and sisters and I were gathered downstairs in his basement watching a movie. At the end of the movie, we began to run and jump around, which resulted in a light fixture overhead breaking at the hand of my older brother. Grandpa came downstairs to inquire what happened, and then calmly stated that we would need to buy a new one. So he took my older brother to the store and together they picked out a new light fixture, and my older brother paid for it. My older brother was in high school and didn’t have much money. But my grandpa took an opportunity to teach responsibility in a loving way to my older brother. And to us younger siblings who observed, we learned to never be too rowdy in grandpa’s house because if you break something, grandpa will make you pay for it!

When I was in high school, we moved about 20 minutes from grandpa’s house, which gave me the opportunity to see him more. As he was getting older, my mom volunteered me to help them more often. This usually meant mowing their lawn. At first, I wasn’t happy about it because I thought I had better things to do on a summer Saturday. But I soon started to look forward to mowing grandpa’s lawn. Of course, my grandpa insisted on paying me, which I happily accepted, teaching me the positive effects of hard work. But more than the money, I enjoyed spending time afterwards picking apples from their trees, drinking lemonade, eating a delicious pie made by grandma, and of course, eating ice cream!

Mmmmmm… yes. Ice cream. Something else I learned from grandpa. You can never have too much ice cream. Every time we went over, grandpa brought out the gallons and gallons of ice cream. It was amazing!

There is a hymn from an old hymn book entitled “The Teacher’s Work is Done.” I had never heard it before, but when I learned that my grandpa had wanted it sung at his funeral, I had the chance to learn it. Originally it was written as a beautiful male quartet, so I decided to take that quartet, and add a piano part and a soprano solo part. I’ve uploaded my arrangement of “The Teacher’s Work is Done” on my website under the “Free Music” heading. I also created a quick audio version to demonstrate my arrangement, and share the beauty of the song.

My grandpa served as patriarch and he gave 950 patriarchal blessings. 950! Including my own patriarchal blessing. It truly amazes me. He was always very close to the Lord. If he was not giving or typing out patriarchal blessings, he was studying and reading and learning. A teacher never stops learning. He read and read and read until literally his eyes could not read anymore. Then he would listen to scriptures and books and talks. He listened and listened and listened until he literally could not listen anymore. His life was one spent in the service of others and the service of God. I hope and pray that I can live as fulfilling of a live as my grandpa Rex LeRoy Christensen. I will miss you grandpa. You can rest now, your work is done.

 

“We feel it, while we miss the hand,

That made us brave to bear,

Per-chance in that near touching hand,

His work did wait him there,

Per-chance when death, it’s change hath wrought,

And this brief race is run,

His voice again shall teach Who thought,

The teacher’s work was done.”

A few months ago, we had a family reunion on my wife’s side of the family. The theme of the reunion was “I’m Ready Now.” If you’re wondering what that means, or why that would be a theme for a family reunion, here is some context behind that statement.

Ephraim Hanks was a well known Mormon pioneer and leader in the mid 1800’s. His story is truly an inspirational one, as depicted in the movie “Ephraim’s Rescue” by TC Christensen (no relation:)).

For anyone who hasn’t seen this movie, I HIGHLY recommend it. Whether you’re familiar with Mormon history or not, his story is quite moving. In 1845, he joined the Mormon church and traveled with other Mormon pioneers through the Rocky Mountains where they eventually settled in Salt Lake City, UT. At this time, Mormons sought refuge from persecution they faced in the east. The journey was not an easy one, and there have been many stories told about the hardships these courageous and faithful Mormon pioneers experienced.

Ephraim’s story is that of his ability to be prepared at a moments notice, both spiritually and temporally, to be able to serve and help those in need. In 1856, Brigham Young, the Mormon prophet at the time, called upon men to venture out across the plains in the Midwest in the middle of winter to assist those that were struggling, starving, and suffering on their journey to Utah. Some men responded that they could be ready in a week, some a few days, but Ephraim responded, “I’m Ready Now.”

Why is this so significant? Why would this story be known? Why would TC Christensen make a movie about it? And why would a family make t-shirts, have a BBQ, play silly games and show off goofy talents to each other about it?

Doesn’t he just sound like an overzealous boy scout?

Perhaps, but the importance of being ready, willing, and prepared, is one that I know I can do better. I sometimes find myself too immersed in my own life to really think about others around me. I make excuses. As a father of 3 very young children (ages 4, 2, and 1), our lives seem to be just non-stop chaos! Some days I barely feel like I can take care of myself, my wife, and my children before I pass out on the couch with food all over the floor, dishes piled high, smelly clothes that were washed 2 days ago in the washer and never moved to the dryer, grass outside that looks like the plains of Africa, DVD’s pulled off their shelves with half of them opened up all over the floor because they make good frisbees, and a stack of emergency room bills because our children are having a “how many stitches can you get” competition. The madness never seems to end!

 So how is it possible I can be “ready now” to serve and help others, when I’m barely able to manage the earthquakes and tornadoes in my own life?

Well, the truth is I don’t know.

And typically when I don’t know something, I try and find out. And trying to find out means a lot of thinking and pondering. All of that thinking and pondering results in silence (which usually only happens when I’m driving to and from work), which I then break by humming a tune. The tune evolves into a melody. The melody into ideas. Ideas into words. And next think you know, yup, I’m at the piano again.

I certainly don’t have all the answers. But how boring would life be if I did? Instead of answers, how about I share with you my thoughts in the form of song?

This song is one I wrote for our family reunion this past summer entitled… (you guessed it!) “I’m Ready Now”

You can find said song on my website, www.michaelchristensenmedia.com as well as other music to enjoy!

I firmly believe that music, while it may not give answers to all of life’s problems and challenges, it CAN help us be INSPIRED to find answers for ourselves on a deeper and more impactful level.

I certainly hope that I can be more like Ephraim Hanks and be ready NOW to serve, to sacrifice, and to help. Tomorrow it might be to late.

When our first child was born, it took us a few days to name her. Eventually we settled on Zoe Christensen. As we were driving back to the hospital to deliver some paperwork with her official name to put on her birth certificate, we were inspired to give her a middle name.

Dance.

Dance is my wife’s maiden name. I always thought it was a neat last name, especially for my wife and her family who are all gifted dancers. We wanted to preserve the Dance name for Zoe, and we also felt that dancing would be a part of her life.

Technology being the way it is today, it is very easy to pull out my phone at a moments notice to video Zoe when she feels inspired to dance. Usually, it’s when there is music playing, or when I play the piano, or after watching mom choreograph for her dance classes. And sometimes, even without music, Zoe is expressing herself through dance. It’s like another language for her, a way that she communicates how she is feeling and experiencing life. And it’s absolutely incredible to watch.

It wasn’t hard to throw a couple of videos of Zoe dancing, running, jumping, and experiencing life. She is always moving. And I am just in love with her. She inspires me. She is courageous, never afraid to try something new. She is passionate, both to our delight and our frustration as parents, and her 2 younger brothers. Sometimes she is sad, and that’s okay too. She always knows how to pick herself back up. She always wants to know what is happening tomorrow, like she is mentally preparing for her performance the following day. If I could see into her dreams, I imagine she would be rehearsing.

The song playing in this video is one I wrote for her recently that touches on all of these thoughts.

What is the deal with time anyways?

It really gets on my nerves. There are so many ideas rattling around in my brain and I want to write them all down right now! I wish I could just jump into a time machine and go 20 years into the future after all these ideas have been written and published and out there in the world… Will the books or music or posts I’ve written have impacted the world in any way? Will the people in the world be better off because of it? Will I have made any dent at all in the musical or literary world?

I hope the answers to those questions are yes. But in the mean time, looks like I’ll have to wait and find out.

I’m a husband to an amazing wife, and father of 3 beautiful children (ages 4 and under). That’s where most of my time goes.

I have a full-time job. That’s where a lot of my time goes.

I have other community and religious responsibilities. That’s where some of my time goes.

I like to stay active by running, biking, or swimming, etc. That’s where a little bit of time goes.

Whatever slivers of time are left, if they’re not spent catching up on sleep and cleaning up the house that seems to always be messy, I dedicate it to writing down my ideas.

As a matter of fact, in this moment, my 10-month old baby boy is crying when he should be sleeping. So much for this sliver.

Finally, I’ve created a website where I can post my ideas:

http://www.michaelchristensenmedia.com.

Mainly because my brain is overflowing and rather than let it all spill out and get lost and forgotten, this website will act as a pensive.

But rather than touch my wand to my temple and release a small silver string of memory, I write a song, book, or post, and keep it all in one place.

Thank goodness for phones with voice memo capabilities. So often at work, I start humming a tune, or contemplate an idea, and I quickly record it and save it for later. Then during one of those slivers of time, I complete the tune, or idea, and slowly it becomes more solid and complete. I’ve gotten to the point now where I have enough to start posting them.

My hope is that these overflowing ideas can be of some benefit to the world. And like a pensive, these ideas, whether in form of music or literature, can be extracted in the moment their needed, and help uplift and inspire.

If not to anyone else, then at least to me.