It’s 10:42 a.m. Sunday February 6, 2011……

The stage risers are only half up, setting up the sound system is taking longer than expected, choir members are starting to filter in for our last rehearsal and sound check, there’s still the lights to set up and choir stage positions still to assign. And people are edgy, they’re excited, anxious, all at the same time. A nervous energy fills the theatre.

Then the melody of Thank You Lord, quietly and repeatedly, escapes from Eric’s keyboard, and Kim gathers everyone together, sits them down, quietly goes over a prayer, tells them what to expect and what to be prepared for, reminds them why we are here and what we are capable of accomplishing.

And just like that the mood changes to quiet confidence. We are here to enjoy the experience, to share with our friends and loved ones what we have learned over the last few days. Right then I know “everything will be, EVERYTHING will be, alright”.

Since Thursday night, sixty-five of us have been in a Gospel Music workshop under the direction of Mr. Eric Dozier from Bakewell, Tennessee and Kim Pacheco from Rawlings, North Carolina. From where I stand now, about two hours from our benefit concert, to that night only three days ago, seems like an eternity. I remember looking at everyone’s face that first night, as Kim and Eric introduce themselves and spend the next fifteen minutes or so just singing. Singing jazz, singing gospel, singing soul, and singing a little funk. Peoples’ faces shine with wonder at the talent of our two directors, but also reflect a little puzzlement. When do we get to sing? Our time is coming, rushing towards us with a spirit and intensity that will touch all our hearts and souls.

I know because I have had the pleasure of singing with Eric and Kim on several occasions in British Columbia and in Washington. I know what to expect, I know what is coming. And still it hits me, it hits me like a ton of bricks. My spirit, my higher being is touched, and stroked with the melodies, the words, the intensity and suffering that these songs represent. What it means to have been nothing more than chattel, viewed as non-human, as property to be bought and sold and abused.

I’m the only one in the room crying! And just a quickly it passes.

That night, I toss and turn. I’m not restless, in fact, I’m incredibly tired. But the words, the words just keep swirling around and around in my head.

For me, another Gospel workshop has begun.

Friday evening we are back at it again. The group is less inhibited now. They are beginning to know each other, have made a few friends. They have discovered that you don’t necessarily have to have a great voice to be here, though several are very, very good singers, rather you just love to sing. It moves them, it speaks to them. I can see that they are more intense, hungrier to explore this musical genre. They hang on Eric’s words, his story telling, his musical direction. They are animated by Kim’s exhortations, by the range and depth of her voice. And we learn, we learn new songs, we struggle with finding our notes, we struggle with moving and clapping to the beat. We laugh. Many cry. We encourage each other. We learn our parts and go over them when other sections are learning their parts.

We are now a group. In six short hours, a room full of mostly strangers, have become one unified, powerful, lean, mean singing machine. Not always on the right note or word, but singing and singing boldly. We trust each other.

We end with a prayer. A simple prayer, Thank You Lord. That’s it, three words, four part harmony. I begin to cry after the first words. I cannot even stand, I can only sit and listen. And feel the tears running down my cheeks. I feel like an idiot. Sleep will be hard tonight.

Saturday is an all day affair. People are still high from the first two sessions. I see small groups of people helping each other to find the right note, the tempo, the rhythm. We have changed. We have changed from that first night, rigidly sitting in our chairs wondering what to expect. We are more relaxed, we laugh, we ask questions.

Something, something has been awakened in all of us.

And then I am hit again. Something Eric and Kim said in August when they were here for the first workshop, becomes crystal clear. They said that they never have doubts about how a workshop will turn out because they don’t work with our physical self, they work with the spirit. They have no doubts that people will remember the words or hit their notes because they have implanted, or are implanting them, in our spirit. We have only to believe. Just open your heart and the words will come out they have always said. And know I now it to be true. Because when I sleep at night, in my subconscious I sing these songs over and over in my head.

And they sound beautiful!

Saturday turns out to be a long, hard day. We are learning more difficult pieces. “The Old Ship of Zion”, “What do we Want”, old songs, new songs, full of meaning and indignation. Of wrongs done in the past and hope for the future.

People are getting tired, they are struggling to maintain sections, to maintain harmony. Bass’s are singing tenor parts and alto’s are a bit indecisive. Soprano’s are challenged, and Tenor’s, well they are the strongest part of the group and seem to maintain their composure and hold us all together. And yet members don’t get angry or frustrated or any other number of human frailties. We sing, we make mistakes, we keep on singing. Eric is pushing us now, he pulls whatever is being held back right out of us. He challenges, he does not settle for just okay, the music and words and feelings are too important for just okay. I am struggling, I can’t seem to get the words to one song, I mumble through them. Over and over, I just can’t seem to remember the words.

We go way past lunch time. And then we break. Our hosts have provided us with a wonderful lunch. And everyone is talking, laughing, excited again. The rigors of the morning a memory.

One more song to learn for the afternoon. It is going to be our closing song. It is a Baha’i prayer that Eric has put to music. Except for the Bahai’s in the choir, I wonder how many realize they are learning a Baha’i prayer. This is unity, peoples from all walks of life, from all differing forms of faith, singing now, rejoicing in this wonderful melody, asking God to create in them a pure heart.

The afternoon session is not long, just this one song and then a quick review. People are exhausted. It has been hard for Eric and Kim to generate the high levels of excitement, so easily reached in the first few sessions. But we all feel exhilarated, somehow more connected. Connected to our spiritual side. I bump into one of my friends in the coat room. He looks funny, I can’t put my finger on it until he says, when I ask him if he is alright, he reply’s “you can’t help but feel moved by that last song”.

And there is the whole workshop, wrapped up in a few words, You can’t help but feel moved by these songs!

True to form the concert starts on time and is wonderful. We sing, we interact with the audience, Eric bridges between us and the crowd, he educates. He is tired I can see it. But you cannot hear it in his voice. He asks Kim to do a number she did the previous evening at the restaurant. It’s called “Strange Fruit” and is a song about the lynchings that took place in the South. It is haunting, it is dark, very dark. I can’t imagine how hard it must be for her to sing that song. And twice in two days.

And then it’s over. The choir members are interacting with family and friends and it feels good, so good.

In about an hour, all the staging is packed up, the lights have been put away, there are no cords, no musical instruments left, the hall is empty. Only a small group who have been helping with the take down are left talking quietly. And I ask myself would I do it again.

In a heartbeat…….

We have decided to not fly for holidays anymore and to make do with less because after all, more isn’t the path to happiness anyway! I do believe the simplest life is the most environmentally friendly and least expensive too. Just as buying organically grown food that isn’t processed is better for our bodies, it is also more sustainable and better for the environment too! Okay, that is enough of a minor rant and expression of opinion to suffice awhile.

This next year we are hoping to grow most of our own food, and perhaps have some to share. Family time is going to take a priority. And we will see where that all takes us. Small steps we know, but still better than pretending nothing is wrong in this world.

After our move south, we are also quite happy to be in one piece and alive! We got caught in a snow storm on Pink Mountain and that two hour drive was extremely scary. Lawrie did an amazing job of driving and luck was with us to be sure! Then driving into Calgary we got caught in another snow storm and barely avoided a collision next to another accident scene, whew that was very close too. After two days in Calgary we left for Medicine Hat and what we thought was the safest route to Saskatoon. Unfortunately there proved to be blizzard conditions that way and not a lot of fun, though no near accidents this time. It did take us 12 hours to get to Saskatoon, about double the normal time! A trip to remember …

After a month at our new home in rural Saskatchewan, we are settled in and have our garden mostly planted. It was lots of work, but we are comfortable and don’t need for anything though Lawrie thinks he would like a television station or two in the winter. Right now we are able to watch DVDs and that is it. Somehow we didn’t manage to connect the VCR up correctly and so that doesn’t work just yet. There aren’t any radio stations getting picked up on the stereo system either, but we are sure that is a misconnection rather than an absence of stations.

The Os are very happy with their new home. They do have a great time chasing each other around the yard. Grass is very good for this activity. They still love to hear us suggest it is walk time though, so we aren’t off the hook for that activity.

I’m having a hard time blogging these days but I would like to work at photography and this is a good way to archive some of it. Maybe I won’t worry about having anything significant to say? If that was ever important it wasn’t stated, so no real change there I guess! If you are looking for photos and they are a mess, it is because we upgraded WordPress and now Coppermine (the photo plugin) coding is all wrong. My website guru (son Chris) is looking for time to fix all this, so patience is the order of the day.

This wonderful quote comes from having dinner on Sunday night at Foundations, a vegetarian restaurant in Vancouver. I guess I should back up and say why we were there, otherwise the point of writing this entry will be for naught!

We have been looking for some time now at the possibility of joining an ecovillage when we finish working at our current jobs. This comes from a whole-hearted agreement of the principles of the ecovillages we have researched. So long story short, we went to Vancouver and then on to Chilliwack where there is the Yarrow Ecovillage Society. We met with their spokesperson and had a tour. We think we may have found our future!

The rest of the weekend was spent with Ruth and Doug (sister and brother-in-law) who live in Mission. We had our very first Wherry rowing lessons and generally enjoyed every minute of our weekend away. Including a trip to MEC, Kidsbooks, and Foundations, which is where I started! Do put this restaurant on your to do list … I’m certainly looking forward to my next trip to Vancouver.

I just had to share this, it resonates with me!