Okay, the positive post...

I was going to do some cheering but discouragement over the sand trap of education dragged me down. But now...let's talk about last Sunday.

Prior to the events leading to the divorce, I had started a singing group at the church. It was part of a long tradition, and we had some surprising success. Well, when my life more or less fell apart, I did not believe a person experiencing what I was experiencing should be in any position of leadership in a church setting. I stepped away.

Nobody else stepped in and the group fell apart. Ironically, although I cannot organize my OWN life..to wit, finishing my degree, for example...I am an excellent organizer of activities for people. I tend to be the driving force in putting together gaming groups, etc. 

Well, for several years I have been planning the revival of a music group. But I had bigger plans for it this time. A better idea of how to organize things. I have been working in the background to put them together. 

And Sunday my plans came to fruition. The group has been reborn. 

Not just reborn, but in many ways better than the one I put together previously. See, this time I am better at using the support options. People are working together.

How good has it gone? Sunday was our first practice. We got three songs practiced well enough that the guy who wrote two of the three songs commented that they were polished as if we had been doing them for a couple months.

And even cooler...the thing I am perhaps most excited about...I actually sang in a group where my Dad was once again playing the guitar.

I have wanted to do that all my life. Unfortunately, due to his loss of use of most of his hand, health issues, and personal issues of someone old enough but not wise enough to know better, he will not be able to be a regular part of the group. 

But seeing him play the songs he wrote for the first time in over 6 years, I almost cried. And getting to sing while he played? I cannot fully express how happy that made me. 

Who knows what the future holds for our group? The long-term success of it will largely depend on whether I am able to develop the ability to finish writing lyrics and learn how to write music for them or not, among other factors. Working on those things is taking up a huge amount of time. I have stacks of books waiting for me to get back to them, my fingers are raw from plucking away at the guitar strings for hours on end, and my notebooks are packed with pages upon pages of lyrics that have been written, re-written, scratched out, written anew, etc.

But whatever happens, even if the group never sings anywhere other than with each other, I will always treasure Sunday, February 22, 2009 as the day I sang White Sport Coat, Better Had a Man Never Lived, and The Dearest Friend I Ever Had while he played the guitar.