A Surprise Gift

The first song I composed for the CD, ‘Birds of Love‘ was the title song itself.   This is how the composition came to pass… One of my dearest friends was getting married in our home and had asked me to sing something at her wedding.  At the time I had no idea what would be appropriate.  I didn’t really have anything in my repertoire on marriage and many of the songs I knew or composed were in the minor key and not very joyful.
It was about a month before the wedding and I remember thinking what a great idea it would be to surprise her!  I decided to set a beautiful quotation on the theme of marriage to music and practiced diligently for the wedding day.   Two days before the wedding, I caught a cold and didn’t think I would be able to sing the song at my friend’s wedding.  I had spent so much time working on the song and developing it and didn’t want to let her down but what choice did I have?  The day before the wedding was the rehearsal and I was so torn about singing and had made up my mind that I wouldn’t be able to perform.  I had made a recording of the song with rough vocals and thought that we could just play that instead of singing live.  That felt like a feasible solution.  A friend who was in charge of the program just would not have it!  He told me outright that I had to sing!  No ifs or buts about it… even if my voice was not top quality – he told me it would touch my friend deeply even if I had half a voice.  It was not about the performance but the thought and the gift itself of standing in front of my dear friends and singing for them no matter how I sounded.  It definitely took a lot of courage and faith to follow through and go ahead with it.  I’m pleased to say that I was very happy with the performance and that my voice actually came through. 🙂
You can hear ‘Birds of Love’ by clicking here.  I look forward to sharing more about the piece itself in another blog.
Quote of the Day: “Wherefore, wed thou, in the heaven of Thy mercy these two birds of the nest of Thy love and make them the means of attracting perpetual grace, that from the union of these two seas of love, a wave of tenderness may surge and cast the pearls of pure and goodly issue on the shore of life.”
~‘Abdu’l-Bahá