"You can't cry and sing at the same time."

I am a lifelong singer, beginning at the age of four in the church choir. Music was important in my family. My parents made sure that all four of us children had piano lessons, though it was a stretch to pay for them. Three of us took advantage of public school music programs to learn to play other instruments. When I was struggling in graduate school (the first time), singing in the Chapel Choir of the university was a grounding experience for me.

 

The fact that music was a significant part of the worship at Trinity, and indeed of the parish life as a whole, was one of the reasons I felt called to Trinity. Singing the hymns together, undergirded by the choir and a powerful organ, brings us together in a way that makes the liturgy both personal and communal. We are literally breathing together. The physicality of that breathing is part of the force that stops you from crying when you sing.