Whatever Will Be Will Be God's Will

When I was a little girl, my mother sang lots of songs to me.  Funny songs, happy songs, sad songs, sentimental songs.  One of my favorites was:  "Mama's little baby loves shortnin', shortnin', Mama's little baby loves shortnin' bread."  (My children are all familiar with this song so we're going to try this shortnin' bread recipe for breakfast real soon!)

But I never knew my mom was a fan of Doris Day, much less got music inspiration from her.  Never knew.  I always thought Doris Day was a bit cheesy, but I guess most lady actresses were in the early days of television.

I, like most young and oh-so-wise American kids, grew to an age I suspected Mom was as cheesy as Doris Day and I didn't want her singing to me...neither Doris Day or Mom.  I was a Jive Talkin' teenager, into Michael Jackson's Thriller, Prince's Rasberry Beret and 1999, wishing Phil Collins was as cute as his singing voice, and Stayin' Alive! with The BeeGees!  I was part of the Boogie-generation.

Yeah, that's what I'm talkin' about.

Then came a day I was forty-one years of age and a commercial came on.  The song used as the jingle caught my ear like a mini-megaphone.  I looked up from the book I was reading because I really don't watch television.  I use it as an instrument to tune out the rest of the world when I'm reading.  The jingle was a small section of a song my mother used to sing to me when I was a little girl and it broke down the barrier the years and my self-inflicted wisdom had built up.

The song was (is) Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be) and was a hit song recorded by Doris Day in 1956.  That would have put my mother in her pre-teen years .  What High School Musical and the songs strummed thereof are to my ten-year-old daughter, Doris Day and Que Sera, Sera would have been to her twelve-year-old grandmother. It later became the theme song for The Doris Day Show (1968-1973).  That dates this 1966 baby pretty clearly as well. I find myself caught between two generations...knowing both, loving both, feeling both, relating to both.

After so many years of not hearing this song, I felt the familiar pluck of it on my heart-strings.  At forty-one years of age, I can listen to the lyrics and see that, like old sheets of music, they were left barely hanging in the music book by the staples. They've always been there. Barely hanging on, but there.  And, this day the minstrel chose to play a refrain that has, eerily (or not so eerily) stayed with me through my life.  Whenever I wondered about what life held down the road, what I would do with my life, what would my children do and be, would I be pretty, would I be rich; my mother's wisdom (and Doris Day's) triumphed the wisdom of the years and I knew that whatever would be, would be.  The future's not mine to see.  And I go on living and accepting this knowledge with the simple trust and certainty of a little girl whose mama told her so. 

Sometimes I wish I could share with my children these same sentiments and what years of wisdom have taught me.  I can share, but I can't teach it.  Only time and experience will do that.  So I stop the minstrel and reflect how the message was shared with me.  It wasn't through a long lecture or dictation; just a simple song.  My mother (and dear Doris Day) conveyed a little bit of wisdom whose "distant footsteps echo through the corridors of time" and guided me through a life full of decisions and discernment and reflection of knowing that God is in control and whatever will be is in His will and His plan for me.

Here's what they said to me:

Que Sera Sera Lyrics (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)

Lyrics by Evans and Livingston

When I was just a little girl
I asked my mother, what will I be
Will I be pretty, will I be rich
Here's what she said to me.

Que Sera, Sera,
Whatever will be, will be
The future's not ours, to see
Que Sera, Sera
What will be, will be.

When I was young, I fell in love
I asked my sweetheart what lies ahead
Will we have rainbows, day after day
Here's what my sweetheart said.

Que Sera, Sera,
Whatever will be, will be
The future's not ours, to see
Que Sera, Sera
What will be, will be.

Now I have children of my own
They ask their mother, what will I be
Will I be handsome, will I be rich
I tell them tenderly.

Que Sera, Sera,
Whatever will be, will be
The future's not ours, to see
Que Sera, Sera
What will be, will be.

Play it again, Sam.

To watch Doris Day singing this in Alfred Hitchcock's movie with Jimmy Stewart, click here:  The Man Who Knew Too Much

Song Facts of Que Sera, Sera

Comments

[Courtney]

Beautiful, Cay! And your children are beautiful as well! I remember hearing that song while watching the Doris Day show. I never really paid attention to the lyrics. Thanks!

[Colleen]

That's so lovely, really. And the gorls looked beautiful...and that handsome man too.

[Karen]

Oh, I noticed your lovely picture of Mary is gone. Please, who is it by?
Thank you so much.
Karen

[Cheryl M.]

Beautiful photos - great post and I've been humming Que Sera Sera for much of the day....I also like "Please Don't Eat The Daisies" :))

[KC]

Your daughters are beautiful!! Beautiful post, Cay. Oh, handsome son too!