harmony makes me happy again

last night i went to singing group–a small group of people from my church who get together periodically to sing hymns. i always mean to go, but something else always seems to come up. this time, it was a potluck, so i started baking my contribution (which i’ll discuss later) early in the morning so i was committed to attending.

i went. i sang. i got “chilly bumps.” the first song or two had a guitar accompaniment and i was getting a little disheartened because what i really love is the acapella stuff, but then we dropped the guitar for a couple and just sang. it was lovely. this is the food of my soul. singing in a group of people, close harmony and no one seems to mind if i doodle around a bit. in fact, i wasn’t the only doodler and most of the time the harmonies all worked out anyway. we had fun playing around with the songs, too–singing them in a twangy voice, adding an extra beat to each measure to change it up a little, singing different melodies than the one written to see if the lyrics fit….i loved it! my voice was very tired after two hours, but my cup of happiness was full. i should really make the time to go more often!

two other happy things:
the item i took to the potluck is a dish called “scandanavian sandwich wheel” that my mom used to make in the summer. it’s a wonderful, unique concoction built on a crescent roll crust topped with a layer of dill cream cheese and then consecutive rings of tuna, tomato, black olives, green peppers and cucumber slices. it tastes so fresh and summery! the man isn’t fond of most of the ingredients, so i don’t make it very often, so i thought a potluck was a perfect time to make it and share it with friends. yum.

on the way home late last night, i noticed some flowers blooming in a neighbor’s yard. i stopped to smell them (like the old adage dictates) and they were so sweet! they reminded me of honeysuckle, which i love. as a kid, our backyard fence was covered in honeysuckle. the whole back yard smelled like hot honeysuckle every time you went outside in the summer. i loved the smell and i loved the taste of the nectar–what other flower can you drink the nectar from? i also liked to watch (from a safe distance) the fat, fuzzy bumblebees that hovered around it. i wonder if honeysuckle would survive a wisconsin winter…