Thankful: Day #13

Man, am I tired today!  Good thing it's just about time for bed.

Well, today I am thankful for the gift of singing with others.  I love love love to sing.  In high school, a huge part of my identity was being in choir.  Total choir geek :-)  Not only was it fun and full of time with my bestest friends, but there was something deeper.  Singing with others feels so humanly connective.  If that even makes sense.  There is something sacred, raw, and beautiful about it.  Voices intertwining and moving together-just magic.  Anita Diamant (one of my favorite authors) described it perfectly, "they sang the words in unison, yet somehow created a web of sounds with their voices. It was like hearing a piece of fabric woven with all the colors of a rainbow. I did not know that such beauty could be formed by the human mouth."  Great description-I've never heard it articulated so well.  Spot on, Anita!

Anyway, for some reason when I moved to New Mexico for college I lost the choir girl part of me.  I always, sort of loftily, hoped that maybe someday I'd join a choir again...but recently I got really serious about that ambition.  Especially after Harper's birth, I realize now just how important it is to keep those little pieces of yourself.  SO-today I joined a choir!!  This evening was my first rehearsal with OnQ Chorus-a young women's acapella group.  YAY!  I found out about it through a friend of a friend, and thought, why not!?  I was a little intimidated, but went for it anyway all by myself.  It felt really good!  And, DANG, these girls can sing!  Crazy harmonies-difficult to sightread after being out of practice for, oh, ten years.  There are lots of holiday performances coming up, too, so I hope some of you Albuquerque folks will come out to hear our Christmas-y tunes at some point!  So exciting!  I am very thankful for the opportunity to tap into my musical gifts once again.