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We had a very enjoyable evening today that went better than I expected. Both my wife and I sang with the Coles County Barbershoppers for a Lenten concert in a nearby town. This was not only the first time I have sung with them for any kind of program or performance since I joined but even more interesting it is the first time ever for my wife to sing with a choir at all. The reason I was a bit nervous about how it might turn out was because I missed the last three weeks of practice because I was out of town doing some work on my sister's house in Virginia and realized that I was not very good at trying to learn a part by just staring at the papers and trying to learn a part all alone. So I gave up and just hoped for the best when I returned.

To add to the pressure I was also scheduled to sing one verse of a song with a quartet in the middle of the group song and I definitely needed to have that memorized. We had a little time before the program to practice and fortunately I was able to handle it pretty well. For the rest of the concert I just made sure I did not sing too loud or too confidently so that I wouldn't find myself singing when everyone else might be quiet suddenly. Basically I winged it through the whole concert and was surprised even myself and how much I remembered from previous practices. When I wasn't sure what to sing I would either sing quite softly and listen carefully to what the others around me were doing or would just move my mouth for awhile until I knew where I was again. Better than not participating at all.

They brought all the finery and get-up for me to wear and I would have felt rather conspicuous if it hadn't been that everyone else was wearing the same thing. For this concert they included a good number of women to sing with us for a few songs at the end of the concert. It all went very well and we had a very nice time together.

As we stood in the hallway with about 50-60 other participants greeting the people as they left I remembered that the last time I was at this church was last Christmas season when I first met this group. We attended their Christmas concert that a coworker of my wife told her about and were delighted with the music. Since I have been part of a quartet many years ago and have collected a good bit of music for that purpose this was a real treat. After that concert I inquired about joining the group and they eagerly told me to show up at a practice and they would be very glad to try me out. Now I found myself just a few months later singing with them in that same church and being the greeter instead of the greeted.

I have always enjoyed good quartet music and I hope to sing with this group for some time to come. In addition I hope that maybe I could be included in a quartet from this group at times and maybe introduce them to some of the music that I have. Whatever happens I am just glad to be refreshed by being able to be involved once again musically with others. There has been very little music in my life over the past few years and I have really missed it. I enjoy being involved in various ways with good worship music, quartet music, instrumental music and other opportunities to make music with others. This is one way to not only satisfy my hunger for music but to also make more friend in the community. We know very few people around here and I hope that this will open opportunities to get to widen our sphere of friends in this area.