Singing!

The second night after arriving here, my host had a group of ladies over to sing together. And believe it or not . . . I joined them!!

I was very shy at first, since the last time I sang anything outside of the shower or car was in sixth grade choir. And believe me, I was not a prodigy of any sort back then. But when you are singing with about 50 other kids all at the same time, a lot of not-so-great singing can be covered up!

The ladies chatted for a little bit, kindly inviting me into the conversation multiple times. Soon after everyone arrived, they broke out the song books and jumped right in. Most of them knew the songs by heart, but they repeated the songs enough that I could get the hang of the tune by the third time around. Pretty soon, I found my self singing right along, maybe a little quieter than any of the other ladies, but surprising myself with my ability to sound not-so-bad!

I found myself struggling to hit the higher notes, but as we got to a song that sounded a lot like Native American songs I have heard, the lady I am staying with dropped into a lower tone of voice as a harmony. I had been following her tone to avoid getting lost, so I decided to match her deep tones. Suddenly, something clicked in me and I felt I was a part of something beautiful! Our harmonizing, and particularly the deep tone that came so naturally to me, was perfect and amazing as it wove through the melody of the other ladies' singing.

It's official, I love singing! I don't know if I'll ever have the guts to do it by myself in front of people, but I will very willingly sing with a group of women like this again :)


Photo by Horia Varlan