I have been singing harmonies ever since I was 7 years old. The choir director let me into the children’s choir a year early when I (with the help of my parents) asked him if I could do so. He let me in because I could sing the alto part easily. I was probably making up the part–I certainly wasn’t reading music.

I always sang alto in church choirs up until I was 16. When I left the church at that time, I didn’t have an outlet for singing, except for volunteering at convalescent homes occasionally to sing with a friend who played the flute.

Singing in the choir was for the outsiders in high school. Playing an instrument in the marching band was much more in style. Sadly, I wanted to be in style, and I sang very little for the next 9 years.

I was backpacking with my former husband, Cliff, and some friends. I had a revelation from God. “Start taking voice lessons. You need to sing.”

I was taking piano lessons at the time. Piano was very difficult for me. I always had a problem reading music. I played saxophone, oboe, and clarinet mostly by ear when I played in the band. I could read notes, but I couldn’t figure out how long to hold them! So piano was a stretch.

My piano teacher also taught voice. I asked if she would give me voice lessons. I sang some scales, and her immediate response was, “If I were you, I would stay with piano.”

Shockingly, I still took lessons from her, but soon switched to a magnificent teacher, Beverly Ogdon. She was the most encouraging person I have ever met, and I know it was her positivity that helped me gain confidence. I had learned from my piano teacher that I was actually a soprano, and this knowledge helped me to sing much more powerfully and beautifully.

I determined to earn my livelihood making music without having to play in bars. I had such a rich life of teaching music to developmentally disabled children, teaching voice and guitar to beginners, singing at children’s parties, family gatherings, churches, weddings, and concerts. The story of how music impacted my life is very long, and I won’t share it all here.

Over a year ago, in September 2019, I left my volunteer job at Direct Action Everywhere realizing that I had been caught up in a cult-like organization. You can read more about that here.

I was exhausted, discouraged, and confused as to what my next step should be. I poured myself in to working in the garden here at the temporary house (where the monastics will live initially) and cleaning up the land where the monastery is going to have its permanent location.

I found that singing was very healing for me. My former husband, Robert, who is my upstairs neighbor, often would tell me how much he enjoyed my singing. That was very healing for me.

Some days I sing a good part of the day. Singing has a ton of great benefits, including helping the vagus nerve be healthy. You can read about how singing and all the things I am doing to be healthy–body, mind, and soul–helps your vagus nerve here.

I’ve been starting to imagine what it would be like to have other people here. I love talking to people while we work. I look forward to beautiful interactions which are also great for the vagus nerve! But I have rarely worked with people and sang at the same time.

Plants love music, and so I want to sing while we garden. I want to do a meditational music session–possibly daily–where we sing Alleluia to the tune of Pachelbel’s Canon. You can listen to that here.

I am envisioning a monastic order that can be duplicated. Music in monasteries is usually very important. I have been collecting beautiful songs that can be sung in harmony or rounds that are meditational. I also enjoy old hymns, and contemporary worship songs. I started singing some today, like

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me

Just a Closer Walk With Thee

In the Garden

The Lord Is My Shepherd

May the Lord Bless And Keep You

Dona Nobis

Fairest Lord Jesus

And so many more!

I can imagine us creating a choir and going to sing at public places like the Farmer’s Market. I can see us singing Christmas carols at a local convalescent hospital and inviting our neighbors, friends, and families to join us. I imagine that we will be like the nuns in the movie, the Sound of Music. But we will dance and sing up beat songs like He’s Got The Whole World In HIs Hands or When The Saints Go Marching In.

If someone is not adept at singing, or can’t even carry a tune, we will find a way to teach you how to sing. There are so many ways of helping people learn how to sing on key, and I would love for that to be one of our right livelihoods. I used to teach voice lessons, and I was the choir director in a choir where very few people had much experience with singing. We became a fabulously wonderfully popular choir! That is another long story, also!

I imagine that our singing will help us to bond with each other, with God, with others who we sing to, with others who we invite to sing with us. Maybe we will start a community choir that has uplifting, but not necessarily Christian, songs. This can be a way of reaching out to others who do not follow Jesus. Maybe they need a kind introduction.

I have felt very happy writing this blog post. I haven’t written enough about how much joy we will all feel as we do all kinds of healthy spiritual, physical and emotional practices that help us to spiral upwards so that we feel the presence of God–who is joyful–all the time.

I saw our singing as being like birds. Birdsongs add so much beauty. So do frogs and crickets and bumble bees. Animal sounds are mostly all lovely. We need to add our sounds to the beautiful harmony of the earth. I think the angels will sing with us.

What do you think?