In Isolation: April 30, “Go Gently, Go Lightly”
Today marks the 40th and final day of the “In Isolation” blogs which I started on March 22.
Well, first of all, it’s not because of a shortage of hymns and songs. There are hundreds more which could be added. Secondly, it’s not because our time of social isolation has ended. I’m convinced there’s much more of that to come — even if we have a break. Thirdly, I’m kind of a numbers freak and there’s a weird sense of biblical appropriateness to ending with 40.
It’s because of time and how I wish to use it.
Some who have been following this since its beginning will know that I was motivated to begin writing because I wanted to have a way of maintaining communication with ‘my’ home church choir. Note: Technically, I should be saying ‘our’ choir since Lonnie Moddle and I provide co-leadership of the music program at Brechin United Church in Nanaimo. Lonnie maintains her contact with ‘our’ singers with regular email messages and links to items of interest.
One of the surprises during this time of isolation is that I’ve been bouncing off the walls — in a good way. I’ve been experiencing a renewed burst of creativity to which I want to devote more time. These daily blogs have been a challenge for me. Taking the time to choose what I hope is the right musical title to marry to these words, writing the words themselves (I’m not very quick about this), and then proof-reading and handing it over to Christina who formats it, finds just the right image to accompany it and then schedules it for uploading to the site at 12:01 AM ‘tomorrow’.
I know I will write more entries to this column. There just won’t be daily additions constructed on this theme. The pencil (yep, I still use one) isn’t fast enough to capture everything that’s flying out of my head at the moment and I’m convinced that my studio clock runs faster every day. So, I now want to really hunker down and focus on updates and additions to this website.
Walter Farquharson has inspired me (yet again) by his recent work. If you haven’t taken the opportunity to read his reflections which are gathered under the “Comments about Song” heading found on each song’s title page, please consider doing so. There is a wealth of insightful thoughts related to each of his titles which I can imagine having all manner of useful applications. He continues to make additions almost every day. We’ll try to do a better job of noting that in this blog column as they appear.
And on the 41st day…
Go gently, go lightly,
go safe in the Spirit,
live simply, don’t carry
much more than you need:
go trusting God’s kindness,
stay centred on Jesus
and where he will lead.
Go singing, go bringing
the gifts of the Spirit,
go hopefully searching
for things that are true:
in living, in loving,
whatever befall you,
God keep you, God bless you
in all that you do.z
Words by Shirley Erena Murray
Copyright © 2001 by Hope Publishing Company, Carol Stream, Illinois • USA