Sing!

Oh well. Nobody ranted, nobody commented. I am such a blog loser. Oh, well. At least it makes me feel happy to vent. Perhaps the lack of comments should indicate that I am wrong. Nevertheless, I shall move on.

What a wonderful afternoon I had! Music has always been important to our family, and our involvement has included me bringing my children with me to the adult chorus I sing in, countless family singalongs with Greg on the guitar (daily in the summertime), various music classes, and just the general joy of song. I have paid, on two occasions, an exorbitant amount of money (in relation to our income) to take a music class which was very well done, but not totally beyond the capacity of a person with my music background. Now, I can't claim to have the singing voices or guitar prowess of these said instructors, but I do know a bit about song, and I know hundreds of children's songs, so I got to thinking, why don't I just do this myself? So I sent out an e-mail for a free music class, and told people to invite their friends, and we got a quorum, and now it's set: Tuesday afternoons at 3:30. Today was the first class.
Oh, joy! What fun it is to sing with children! The kids were enthusiastic and seemed to have fun, the parents sang joyfully along, the whole lot learned quickly, and the lesson was a good variety of stand-up and sit-down songs and games. I had such a great time. It brought such joy to me, and reminded me that we can often make the things that we pay for. It takes some effort, but not much. This is such a perfect example. What is a music class, anyway, but a number of people sitting around singing together, enjoying the fun of music? Easily accomplished in one's own home. It made me so happy.

I am also working very hard on the fundraising Mother's Day Walk (to take place on the Saturday before mother's day, to increase participation). I am planning a little program before the little, brief walk which will have a little talk, some people from my chorus to sing, some poems, and reading the names of the babies we walk to remember that day. I learned today that Mother's Day was actually started not, as we often think, by Hallmark to make money, but actually by a group of people who wanted to honor mothers who had lost their sons in the Civil war. Imagine that! The actual purpose of the holiday was to honor mothers who didn't have their sons with them anymore. This made my heart swell. Because although I do appreciate the idea of being honored for the good work of mothering that I do here on earth, it makes my heart sing to imagine that this holiday was made for the mothers who need it most: those who ought to be recognized for the most difficult mothering task of all, mothering a dead child. So while the holiday has grown, and even changed over, to include all mothers, (which I applaud, of course) I am so happy to hear that we are only returning to its original purpose by honoring mothers with our walk. I am hoping to get a great attendance. If you live in Western MA you should plan to come, really, please. Saturday at 3. Yeah. If you live in Washington or Illinois or Maine, never mind. But think of us, still, eh?