I Will Joyfully Sing in the Morning

This post is really just me squealing in internet form.

IT'S WORSHIP AND MUSIC TIME!

Worship and Music conferences were my conferences. I only came to Worship and Music at Montreat for two years, but I went to Music and Liturgical Arts at Lake Junaluska (the Methodist Montreat) for eight years, and also did various week long or weekend things similar to these. These conferences focus around choirs. You come the first day, get your music, and spend the rest of the week primarily in rehearsal for a concert at the end of the week. There's worship in the mornings, and seminars throughout the day, and events in the evening, but the big thing is choir.

For me, this is absolutely thrilling, because I've been singing in choirs my whole life. When both of your parents are church musicians, you don't have much choice in that, but I've loved it. Honestly, I'd say if there was one thing I do WELL, like, quanitfiably, measurably WELL, it would be singing in choirs. It's the world I was raised in and I absolutely thrive in it. I've worked with many, many different choir directors. A lot of my obsessions can be traced back to choirs. (It was actually only this semester that I realized that I've really been a speech dork my entire life - I was always super into pronunciation in choirs, particularly of choral latin.) Of course, it's a world of its own, really, and I haven't sung in a choir regularly since my first semester of college. You can't sing in a choir alone, and often, I miss it.

So, since I wasn't working, I went to Worship and Music's opening worship on Sunday evening, and it was absolutely joyous. Their language is a language I speak - their music is music I know, that has been in my soul my whole life. They sang "Halle, Halle, Halle!", and clearly I went up on the descant. They sang I hymn that I swore we sung on one of the Sundays I was at Bon Air this summer, only with different words. The beauty of singing hymns for a Worship and Music service is that these people are musicians, and most of them are singers. Though not singing in an official choir, we all become a choir as we sing to the Lord. What this does to my voice is phenomenal - it becomes so much more resonant. And joy absolutely erupts from me. One of my teachers wrote and performed in her own one-woman show, and the first line was, "Music was my first language." I felt my heart stir in echos to hers when I saw and heard that.

I'm working the evening shift all week - meaning the afternoon rehearsals/workshops and evening events. For us, there's a lot of downtime, because a lot of it is going to places, making sure things are working, then leaving. Or, setting up mics for a rehearsal and chilling, making sure nothing goes wrong. I'm writing this, actually, from the booth in the auditorium, where a seminar is being held. Earlier, it was a choir rehearsal. I get to sit and be a part of it, in a way. Not a full part, not a conferee, but a very important part.

Undoubtedly, I'll be making a lot of posts about singing and celebration and joy and music in the next two weeks. Right now, I'm just bursting with excitement. After checking a mic in Gaither Chapel, I walked back to Anderson with a huge smile on my face, partially as an experiment. It made everyone who passed me and look at me smile, too. That's not the case in New York, usually, but since everyone here's excited to be here for this conference, it's easy and fun to get them to smile.

Tomorrow's my day off, and it's 99.9% sure that I'll be going over to Lake Junaluska, where my church youth choir is for Music and Liturgical Arts week. My roommate is letting me borrow her car, and I think I'll go over for lunch. Not sure if I can actually eat in the Inn, but I'll go around lunchtime, at least, so I can say hi when they're not in rehearsal. Or I'll possibly go by for dinner. I'll see if I can get in touch with my mother and see what's best. It will be delightful to be around Lake Junaluska again, even if only for a couple hours. That place holds so many memories of mine, and I haven't been there since Music and Liturgical Arts Week 2007, a week which held extraordinary spiritual significance for me. (Perhaps I'll elaborate at some point, but it does seem an experience a bit too personal, still.) I know Lake Junaluska will continue to be a major place in my life, even as a director. God has made that very clear.

Yay Worship and Music. In the service on Sunday, they even used my favorite scripture; John 3:8, which this blog is named after. How could I not be in love with them?