Last night my younger daughter and I left chorus rehearsal and spontaneously broke out into song as we walked the busy streets to get to the car. We didn't care how we appeared to others, we just belted it out. We sang pieces of several songs we love and then "As I Walked Down to the River to Pray".
As I walked down to the river to pray
studying about those good ole days
and who shall wear the starry crown
good lord show me the way
Oh, sisters let's go down
Let's go down
come on down
oh, sisters lets go down
down in the river to pray
We gathered force and volume and sang our hearts out. It was a weeknight, we'd each had busy days, and yet the world was glorious and we praised it with song. What is more fun, more grounding, and more spiritual? I've sung in church choirs and school choirs as a kid, in acapellas and music camps, around campfires, on car trips, to soothe my babies, to be goofy with my children, and to click into a throbbing universal heart.
When I was visiting my friend with my granddaughter, and we were coming back in the car after dark from her son's house, we soothed the little overexcited toddler with singing, and it's the first time my friend had sung with me. After over thirty years, we had never sung together. My granddaughter chimed in, and we were looking at the big full moon in the black sky through the car window and singing with every ounce of joy and faith and love we possessed. We were singing the praises of granddaughters and our beloved children now grown and interesting and good people in every sense, and we were singing our own praises for having done a good job of raising them despite divorces and illnesses and setbacks and the deaths of our parents.
"Who shall wear the starry crown" indeed. All shall wear it, all do wear it, and all share in our common humanity and connectedness. "Show me the way".
sing on sister !
ReplyDelete