I'm playing along....

Okay - I'm always looking for new subjects about which to blog. Pat said she'd send the words - I would just have to do the writing about the words. Frankly, this would have been much easier had she just done the writing as well and then I could have just cut and pasted the whole thing into my blog. But something tells me she would not have complied.

So - here is my first word and what I have to say about it!

MUSIC

Music takes up a huge space in my heart. I wish I could say it takes up a huge space in my life but that's not the case any more. It all started when I was a kid. I took piano lessons for a few years - not nearly long enough. And I regret that I didn't stick with it and play longer because these days I do more 'plunking' than playing and I don't even do that enough. Our piano sits in the living room with more dust on the keys than fingers. I've threatened to find a teacher for Olivia --someday I will do just that.

I also play the guitar although not very well and I don't know many chords and find that it's far easier to slap a capo on the strings and change the key so that I can play the song in the chords I do know and still be able to sing in a range in which I'm comfortable rather than learn more chords. I think I know about five or six of them. Huge repetoire, huh? But it was enough to play every Girl Scout song known to man (and girl!) around the campfire. I spent a lot of hours playing and singing around many, many campfires. Good times!

Which leads me to the REAL big part of the love of music for me: singing. I love to sing! When I was a child, I often imagined myself as Julie Andrews twirling and singing on the mountaintops in The Sound of Music. If there was a choir, I was in it. My greatest accomplishment was trying out for the Eastern District Youth Chorale and actually making the cut! Yahoo! This choir was made up of kids from all over Pennsylvania and Delaware (The Eastern District of the Assemblies of God.) Sadly, I was unable to go on tour with them as our family just didn't have the money at the time to pay my expenses - but it was nice to know that I made it into this most auspicious choir! I had gained a new respect for myself as a singer and knew then that I was just as good as the people in our church who were often called upon to sing. And I did tour Pennsylvania with our church chorale during the bicentennial year - 1976 - that was a blast!! Visiting Philadelphia and seeing the Liberty Bell, going to Independence Hall, etc. was especially memorable during that year of our nation's celebration!

Since then, I have been privileged and honored to be part of the Praise Teams at two churches which I've attended in the past. I've been asked to sing more "specials" than I can count. And it's been such a blessing to be able to sing for the Lord!

These days, I'm no longer on a Praise Team as my church has no need for a new member. So my singing for the Lord is done mostly within the solitude of my van. I pop in a CD or turn on the radio and off I go down the road - singing at the top of my lungs - praising my God! An audience of One. That's the best!

Tune in tomorrow when I'll share my thoughts on Word #2.

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My heart is steadfast, O God;
I will sing and make music with all my soul.
-Psalm 108:1

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