And that’s a wrap!! Just finished recording 25 songs (plus two bonus tracks to involve the kids in our parish) with my very talented husband over the past week, for our church’s six virtual masses (church services) during the month of lockdown in New Zealand. As you can see in the photo below, we have rearranged our guest room to accommodate our wee makeshift recording studio.
After this week, I have a greater appreciation for the simplicity of live music and a deep admiration of my husband’s possibilitarian attitude, as well as his musical and technical skills to have made this a reality. He continues to remove all the excuses in every area of his life. This week he demonstrated this by devoting endless time to recording, editing and over the coming weeks he will be pulling together all the contributions from numerous members of our church community to create a series of masses to uplift the souls of other kindred spirits.
Through this separation season, I have been challenging myself to find as many ways as possible ways to serve, connect, add value, bring joy and love on others from our bubble of isolation. Not all gestures of love and kindness need to be huge in order to have a profound impact on others either. Just before the lockdown took affect, I passed my first flute, which had been sitting in storage for many years, on to someone who will be able to get immeasurable joy from it. As a musician, I find music to be a particularly healing gift when working through the adversities of life, and my hope is that my old instrument will help someone do just that.
Since the lockdown, community spirit has been popping up on people’s window sills in the form of teddy bears to help support families to entertain their young children while getting some fresh air. Well, we had to get in on that action! Phil even put a couple in the car too! Earlier in the week, Alec, Nathan and I shared the love by making gingerbread and posting it in our neighbours’ letterboxes.
What have you been doing to serve, lift up and create a sense of connection in your communities?
When fear strikes our hearts, it can be so easy to lower ourselves to base behaviour which only serves ourselves and our immediate family. However, as a species, what has helped us weather the toughest storms that history has thrown us has been our altruistic tendencies; our compassion, our ability to co-operate and collaborate with one another and also our deep need for connection with others.
If anything is going to bring healing in this world, regardless of your spiritual beliefs, it is the power of love. As Mother Teresa put it, the prescription for the myriad of problems we face in this world is love… and if that doesn’t work, increase the dose.
#ActionsSpeakLouderThanWords
#LoveHealsAndConquersAll
#DoingLifeTogether
#TheFruitOfLoveIsService
#ALampForYourFeetToLightYourPath
#UnitedWeCanImpactChange
