I began this morning a bit more tired than usual, but I found myself at 8:30 service in the Northside. I was a bit disappointed when I noticed the choir was not in attendance today, but my attention was turned quite quickly to a single choir member who began leading the service with just a single voice.

His voice was so pure and so mesmorizing that most people in the audience found themselves just overwhelmed with feeling. Very few voices were singing along. I have never felt so focused. My mind almost felt like tunnel vision-focused on the rising and the falling of pitches, wondering where his voice was headed. I hope in a later blog I can remember the exact song in which life was hanging on every word sung. My mind was clouded but clear. I thought of nothing but that moment in time-which was giving me everything. Full, undivided blackness leading to light. Undoubtedly others were feeling the same. I gained such wisdom in those 20 minutes. More wisdom than lesson planning. More wisdom than studying. More wisdom than thinking about what to cook for dinner or the books at the library or converting documents into spanish or surfing the web or worrying about worries and more worries.

There happens to be only one other time whimsy has truly clouded yet cleared my vision through music. I believe it was the year 2007. As a young soon-to-be highschooler, I was on the side line of our high school field. The University of Pittsburgh Marching Band was on the field as a "guest visitor." Right in front of the trumpets, the warmup chorale began and they began to play The Sound of Music theme song. I was standing in front of a section of trumpets. There were at least 20 or more. However, In that moment, I remember being able to hear just one. Just the one trumpet with his vibrato standing right in front of me. To me, he was playing a solo. As a high schooler, I couldn't necessarily express what I was feeling. I just knew it was special. It was so overwhelming, and I do remember swallowing back tears -hoping I would get to experience "whimsical" like that some day again. Life is funny because I ended up attending the University of Pittsburgh Marching Band many years later. I joined His voice. 

Stillness is required to gain wisdom and recognize the whimsical. "It takes an army." "It takes many to move many." I don't believe it anymore. Not after today or that moment in 2007. It takes one. Mind you-not a selfish one. A voice of humility. It takes only one to multiply His love to souls of hundreds. I doubted one voice earlier this morning. I believe now, in the power of one. I've always wondered the meaning behind "instrument of peace." I was finally able to experience clarity once again.

Many of you are probably a bit depressed reading this. It took her twelve years between her first moment of whimsical clarity and her second? Truly, it probably hasn't been that long. But then again, our lives becomes so busy, so clouded and confused that...authentic whimsy is constantly muffled. Hear the whimsical. And don't always assume it will be found amongst a crowd of many. You may only hear...one voice.