Connections

Last Friday night I led a Singalong from my keyboard under the cabana at our golf shop. New next-door neighbors drove my truck down the mountain and unloaded the paraphernalia it takes to offer an outdoor singing party. Two elderly ladies soon came, sat down at a table, hauled out their Yahtzee and threw the dice. Game on!  One said, "You don't have to introduce yourself.  I find you wherever you're playing. Just don't ask me to sing."  In a few minutes an elderly gentleman joined them. I asked him his name. "Snelling"."Oh, my goodness, are you Lauraine's husband?"  "I am". Lauraine Snelling is a well-known Christian author who lives down the mountain about ten miles from here. She was off somewhere in America doing what book writers do. Wayne wanted me to play anything Hoagie Carmichael ever wrote. "Stardust" popped up in my memory.  About that time bass singer Dave came ambling in.  I handed him the microphone and "Ol' Man River",  "Fiddler on the Roof", "The Impossible Dream", "Sixteen Tons", "It's Impossible" and  "I Left my Heart in San Francisco" rolled out of him. Nostalgia set in. The diners/listeners leafed through my Singalong book and requested their own favorites. At dusk some folk drifted on home as others of us gathered to talk and get acquainted.  Over the mountain to the west the setting sun announced the end of a lovely evening. My neighbors brought me home, unloaded my electronic stuff,  then walked down the road and around a curve to their house.

On the following Sunday afternoon I entertained from the grandest of Grands at Triassic Winery. Two couples from the Czech Republic wandered in and sat down at a table to taste wines. They could not communicate in English, but sat for three hours listening to the music. I wonder how they will spin that experience back in their home country.  A young Christian couple with two little ones came. The five-year-old sparked to "Do Re Me" from "Sound of Music".  From farther up the mountain came a couple who asked for favorites. The Catholic Chaplain from a nearby prison wanted anything Sinatra ever sang, so  I played "Fly me to the Moon", "Unforgettable", "A Foggy Day" and "Come Fly With Me". Three Filipinos, ...two men and a woman came through the door as I was playing a Gospel song from the 70's: "He Touched Me". The woman came immediately to the piano and said, "This is a miracle! We were just singing that song!" She sat down beside me, we harmonized then morphed into "How Great Thou Art". Two women who had never met before hugged each other as though we had been friends for years. Later in the week this engaging woman, Naomi brought five other Filipinos to my home for a warm time of fellowship.

Connections. ... with music. How I love them. We'll do a lot of that in Heaven, don't you think?

                WHEN WE ALL GET TO HEAVEN
         Written from a bed of pain in 1898 by Eliza Hewitt

Sing the wondrous love of Jesus;
Sing His mercy and His grace. 
In the mansion bright and blessed,
He's prepared for us a place!  CHORUS

While we walk this pilgrim pathway
Clouds will overspread the sky.
But when travelling days are over
Not a shadow, or a sigh!  CHORUS

Let us then be true and faithful,
Trusting, serving every day.
Just one glimpse of Him in glory
Will the toils of life repay.  CHORUS

Onward to the prize before us;
Soon His beauty we'll behold.
Soon the pearly gates will open,
We shall tread the streets of gold!  

WHEN WE ALL GET TO HEAVEN,
WHAT A DAY OF REJOICING THAT WILL BE!
WHEN WE ALL SEE JESUS,
WE'LL SING AND SHOUT THE VICTORY!

Love,  Jo