Dreams - Bells and a song that opened the heart

“Mine is the sunlight - Mine is the morning -Born of the One Light Eden saw play
Praise with elation, praise every morning - God's recreation of the new day” - Hymn Morning Has Broken

I have always enjoyed music.  Something most people don’t know about me is I played piano from age 7-18.  When I went off to college, I seemed to leave that part of me at my parents house. I would play around on the piano when I came back home during breaks, but as time went on… my ability to read music really started slipping.  When I turned 30, my parents bought me a piano, however, 12 years of not playing made it very clear that it was no longer relaxing to sit down and play… I was rusty!  So I played easy Christmas songs back when the kids were young, but the 3 boys living with me love fixing cars and houses, not sitting down for a sing along with mom.

Today I had a to do list a mile long. Our work internet crashed in the middle of a training session.  I had paperwork that just did not want to come together… and it just seemed to be “One of those days.” But over lunch, I was scheduled to attend a dream analysis workshop.  This was set up through The Art School Mastermind and we were told to come to the class with a dream we have had, or someone we know has had, or that we have heard of.  I don’t remember a lot of my dreams, but the one that I seem to have a lot is where I am driving, or walking, or running and then I just fall into a black hole, and then I startle myself awake before I land.  (Phew).  I have heard that this dream can mean anxiety, or too much to do, but I have never really picked the dream apart.  Normally when I have this dream I have so much to do, I chalk it up to anxiety.  But today, the wonderful instructor Betsy Pearson walked us through a new way of breaking down our dreams.  During the exercise I learned the empty space (black hole) was not bad, or scary…. and to me it never felt anxious.  It felt like I was going the wrong way and got pushed down a slide with no ending. 

After this class, I was scheduled to record a podcast for CASA with my friend Hope Dunbar.  Hope is helping my dream of having a podcast for Southeast Nebraska CASA come true, and she is the host of CASA talk.  Today, she and I had a very imperfect conversation about why I love my job and what motivates me to work to build our staff and volunteers at CASA… my part of the conversation had stutters, and a lot of ums, ahs, and nervous laughter… but we did it!  That big long to do list does not have to be a big black hole I fall into in my dreams.  The work I do does not have to be perfect… I just have to do my best, learn, and do better the next time.  But if I don’t start doing the stuff, I’m never going to learn how to do the stuff.

So, tonight, my friend Lana said she was going to go to chime choir at church…. and I remembered my friend Hope announced they were just getting this started at church, so I joined tonight.  I was excited to do something new, and while I had played in the bell choir in my 20s, again, it has been a long time since I read music.

One of the songs that was chosen for us to learn was Praise and Thanksgiving.  (Which is also to the tune of Morning Has Broken)…. This brought up a memory that I had completely forgotten about. When I was in 4th grade, our church had a camp where they taught 4th-6th graders how to play the organ.  I played Morning Has Broken on the organ in church after going to this camp.  It was a very imperfect attempt to play the organ during the pre-service music… but again, I did it…. I took the class, I practiced, I tried and I remember I hit a lot of wrong notes…. but hearing the song Morning Has Broken brought back great memories of playing the organ in church. I love the words in the song that say:

Praise with elation, praise every morning

God's recreation of the new day

We all need to remember to enjoy God’s recreation of EVERY new day!  Try something new, play in the chime choir, record the podcast, laugh at the imperfections and love one another.  The dark holes we seem to fall into don’t have to mean anxiety - they can just be the secret passageway that leads us to the playground we were created to enjoy.