the sound of music

I love music so much.

I can't listen to music while I'm doing something else that requires concentration. I will get distracted and sing along. Even if it's just instrumental. Ask my brother.

I am told that when I was being potty trained at age 2, I would spend lots of extra time on the porcelain throne in the little tile echo chamber, singing my little heart out. Call it an early appreciation for good acoustics.

When I'm in a parking lot and a car alarm goes off somewhere, my first impulse is to make up a song that includes the monotone beeping as a complimentary part of a more complex melody.

If I, or anyone in my presence, mentions a word, phrase, or even idea that reminds me of a song, I will sing it - sometimes without realizing I'm doing so.

In musicals, it is often said, the characters break out in song when what they have to say is too important to be left merely to the powers of speech. I think this is perfectly natural. Life therefore should be a musical. Mine is.

I've always had music around me. And I've always been given opportunities to make music of my own. Instruments, choirs, concerts. Singing prayers at meals and bedtime. Musicals. Lessons. Caroling. Worship teams. Composition.

Yes, there is also music in Thailand. But not nearly as accessible to me, and not nearly as much to my taste.

I have heard some extremely painful performances here, live and on recording. Thai is a nasal, tonal language containing sounds strikingly similar to the vocalizations of suffering felines. And they love loud speakers here. Really loud speakers.

Pianos are my favorite instrument, and they are hard to come by in Mae Sot. Most electric keyboards have (far) less than 88 keys, and I am a bit of a piano snob; I want the whole instrument to be present, if at all possible. Acoustic pianos have about as much luck staying in tune here as they would have if you dunked them in a hot tub for a few months out of the year.

There are no choirs I can join, no performances of "The Messiah" to see at Christmas, no instruments in my house - unless you count my voice, which I do employ at a frequency and volume that might explain the neighbors' knowing smiles when I pass them in the street.

All this to say - I miss music. I've been surviving on low rations, and I'm feeling it. I suppose since I've never really been forced to reduce my musical intake, I haven't noticed how important it really is to me.

And, as if in response to my relative deprivation, my heart has recently been very much blessed "with the sound of music."

At Christmas, I was given not one, not two, but twelve albums of music that I'm thoroughly enjoying. That's right. Twelve.

I got to see a musical performance of the Christmas story at Mae La camp - quite well done.

I heard a spontaneous, solo classical rendering of "Oh Holy Night" when I was in Chiang Mai.

One afternoon, I got to play Allan and Joan's real acoustic piano, which was, incidentally, in very good tune.

I was invited to spend three hours singing Christmas carols with a bunch of delightful folks in the festively lit garden of a friend.

When my parents were at Oma's house, I sang "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel" with the three of them over Skype. There was a bit of a delay, but I could definitely live with that.

I was over at some friends' house on Christmas Eve helping set up their elaborate Nativity scene, and a whole gang of Karen kiddies came to the house caroling.

There is a full length electric keyboard in the home of one of the families in Mae Sot that works at Partners with me. I got to play that keyboard during our time of worship at Home Church last Sunday. And I was joined at the last minute by two other musicians - one on guitar and one on box-drum. An impromptu band! Everyone in the room seemed to worship with great passion. I certainly was. That might be my favorite thing to do - right up there with swimming in waterfalls. I was so thrilled for the rest of the day that I couldn't help riding my bike home twice as fast as I normally do.

That same family has asked me to give one of their daughters piano lessons. I can hardly wait.

Aaaaand they have offered to let me use their keyboard for four months while they're back in the US on furlough this summer. I'm pretty sure I jumped and cheered.

"Therefore I will praise you, Lord, among the nations;
I will SING the praises of your name!"
Psalm 18:49