Singing

Sang the other day.

Had a little get-together, and someone had a guitar. Lots of times when this happens between new friends, there's not a lot of overlap between what the guitar player knows and a song you know how to sing; one that's in your range, and that you enjoy. It seems to be my luck that the once-every-nine-months or so I'm around when a guitar gets whipped out, the player knows more Christian songs then one could count.

I think I could name maybe 3 Christian songs. If someone had a gun pointed at me. Or a cross.

But this time around, there was country music in the air, and it turned out I knew a few. We had a pretty good little time. One of the songs I sung ( I played a few, but it was a struggle; I can play the guitar but I never pratice, and I never gave it much effort. Put that on the list for "Some Day" ) happened to be what I consider to be a Very Good Love Song. Not too long ago Miami Girl and I were laying around listening to her music, and talking about the nature of love, and love songs. This song came up in conversation.

It's a ballad, comfortably in my range. I sang it twice; once to stunned people who didn't know I could sing at all, and once again so people could learn it and hear it again. It's a well written song, the refrain being used in two different elegant ways. It tells a story, and speaks of love in the ways that I understand it... happening in a mad rush, not bending to the laws of common sense, and enduring long after that initial fire.

As it happens, yesterday happened to be a pretty rough day for me. I got a pretty heavy emotional kick in the balls, and I have definitely been in "better places". It had to do with love, as it turns out some of the things that come out in this song. I learned ( once again ) that love changes, grows, needs not be mutual, and endures long past the edges of comfort or convenience. Life goes on, and love often endures, at least for me. That doesn't mean relationships do, words do, feelings do, or anything else that we typically associate with love does. Love has a half-life far in excess of most other things, for me.

Anyway, I called Miami girl, not too long after my ball-kicking. She's traveling, and likely up to her ears in having fun with friends rarely seen. Sooooo I had to go at this one alone. There were many others I could have called; but I was in the mood to talk to her, as we hadn't talked in a while. I wasn't going to pour my heart out or go into it at all; I probably wouldn't have even mentioned it.

Sometimes, all that you need or want is to hear a hello, and maybe the sound of someone's voice. Or a little bit o a note or text message. Sometimes, that's enough to get you to the point where, like Vince Vaughn tells us in Wedding Crashers- "I'm going to go ice my balls and spit up blood."; )Oh well. What canya do, eh? By the way, for those of you keeping score I am -not- in love at the moment... but I am at the point where a fire has been lit, and I am feeling awkward and silly and unsure at least as much as I am smiling. Lovely, eh?Here's the song.



Love, Me - Collin Raye

I read a note my grandma wrote back in nineteen twenty-three.
Grandpa kept it in his coat, and he showed it once to me.
He said,"Boy, you might not understand, but a long, long time ago,
Grandma's daddy didn't like me none, but I loved your Grandma so.
"We had this crazy plan to meet and run away together.
Get married in the first town we came to, and live forever.
But nailed to the tree where we were supposed to meet, instead
Of her, I found this letter, and this is what it said:

If you get there before I do, don't give up on me.
I'll meet you when my chores are through;
I don't know how long I'll be.
But I'm not gonna let you down, darling wait and see.
And between now and then, till I see you again,
I'll be loving you.
Love, me.

I read those words just hours before my Grandma passed away,
In the doorway of a church where me and Grandpa stopped to pray.
I know I'd never seen him cry in all my fifteen years;
But as he said these words to her, his eyes filled up with tears.

If you get there before I do, don't give up on me.
I'll meet you when my chores are through;
I don't know how long I'll be.
But I'm not gonna let you down, darling wait and see.
And between now and then,
till I see you again,
I'll be loving you.

Love, me.

Between now and then, till I see you again,
I'll be loving you.

Love, me.