Music is in everyone and everyone responds to its allure.  I have been incredibly blessed to have music in my life in its many forms for most of the entirety of my life.  As a little girl, I used to "perform" on the water meter in my front yard.  I would sing at the top of my lungs to all the cars that drove by.  When I finished, I would carefully bow to each side of my "audience," drinking in all the imagined adulation.  Even as a tiny girl, I found magic in music.  Strangely, there wasn't a lot of music in our home.  Honestly, all I really ever heard were hymns from the Southern Baptist, Ash Street Baptist Church or television's "Heehaw"...not much in the way of diversity but enough to provide a musical outlet for all my dreams and all of my mind's creations.  This might sound terribly limiting but when you've been raised with ALL the hymns, there really are songs that fit any mood or need.  "Victory is Mine", "When the Roll is Called Up Yonder", "I'll Fly Away"; these are all wonderful, uplifting, "I could conquer the world" kinds of hymns.  "Just as I Am", "Come Ye Disconsolate", "I Surrender All"; these are great songs of introspection.  When I was down or depressed, I loved songs like "Nothing But the Blood", "To God Be the Glory", or "Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus".  Of course, then there is Country and Western music, which my Daddy defined as the only two real types of music.  There is no end to the "cry in your beer", "Mom and apple pie" songs from "There's a Light at the End of the Tunnel; I Hope It's Not a Train" to "Your Cheatin Heart" to "Stand By Your Man".  They both cover a lot of ground and a pretty full range of emotions.  I started taking piano lessons at age six and by the time I was about ten, I could sight read a lot of sheet music, including hymns.  You might think this is sacrilege but I would play a hymn in what I imagined were many different styles.  I would speed them up or slow them down, and add different rhythms; I was essentially back on the water meter again but this time, soothing myself and inspiring myself with colorful renditions of songs I knew and loved.  Why am I talking about all this?  I think it's important to say that ALL music, no matter what style, can encourage, enthrall, and excite, and being open to music is a special outlet for venting, changing lives or being changed; it is a gift from God.  Singing happens to be my special way of expressing music.  I "play" the piano, which is to say I am an adequate accompanist but I "create" pictures and adventures, moods and memories through singing.  I think singing is like fishing.  You bait the "hook" and troll around with it until your "fish", your "audience" takes the bait.  As the fisherman, you must sink the hook (you have the audience's attention but you have to engage it directly and powerfully enough that they will then take the journey with you), and at that point, it's just a matter of reeling them in.  The difference between fishing and singing is that the fish doesn't come back to be caught again but with a great vocal craftsman, audiences will return again and again to be transported to any number of destinations.  THAT is why I love singing.  I have loved adventures all my life; singing affords me the greatest of them all.

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