Then Sings My Soul Saturday - "Gather at the River" For a Lesson in Singing Harmony

"Just LISTEN and sing it the way I do. I'll sing your part for a while then, once you've got it, I'll switch to mine."

That was the Big Plan that my, then, 12 year old step-daughter came up with. She must have started and stopped the Point of Grace cassette tape (yes...I said TAPE) a hundred times that day and patiently helped me through each note. I tried to explain to her that I just couldn't do it, but she refused to believe me. To her it was as natural as breathing or a heartbeat. I can see her big brown eyes just PLEADING with me to miraculously begin to hear the way the notes all fit together to make chords. I'm sorry to say she was disappointed.

That was over a decade ago. I still can't sing harmony. She told me the other day that until she came to visit this week and heard her Dad, brother and sister playing their instruments and singing (a daily happening in Vaughanville) that she'd "completely forgotten" she was musical. I can't tell you how sad that made me. She use to love singing and playing her flute and dancing and yet, all through her teens, the time she was away from us, she barely explored that part of her.

Well...I remember. And every time I hear this song, I think of that hot summer day and how patiently she worked with a musically hopeless step-mother.