In the last ADRC newsletter, there was an interesting article by Jane Mahoney from the Greater Wisconsin Agency on Aging Resources entitled "Music Can Enhance Your Life." With what we are dealing with in our lives today, I am including some quotes from that article, hoping it will spur you on to using music to compensate for alterations in your daily living. 

"Music is a powerful tool in so many ways. Listening to music can promote memory, reduce stress, relieve loneliness and open a window to emotions such as joy, pride, sadness, laughter or tears. Music reaches into the soul like nothing else, bringing feelings to the surface that are often difficult to name but healing to release…. Music is a great way to connect with someone whose ability to communicate is affected by dementia, stroke or other disease… It is nice to enjoy music with other people but listening to or performing a song on your own can also be meaningful… Try enhancing your life by adding music to each day… So, dig up those old songbooks, find a good radio station or look up your favorite songs online and see where the music takes you."

With all of those thoughts in mind, we now will return to worship in the sanctuary without singing. I fully understand these guidelines come from incidents that have occurred spreading the virus through choral groups. I’m hoping to incorporate familiar music before (maybe during), and concluding worship that will ‘jog’ your memory and soothe the soul. 

As an example of music connecting a message, at the July 19 drive-in worship, as I played "For the Beauty of the Earth, for the splendor of the skies, for the love which from our birth over and around us lies. God of all, to you we raise this our hymn of grateful praise," the seagulls flew squawking overhead and the clouds floated casually through the blue sky. Then as a prelude to the scripture about Jacob and Pastor’s message of "A Place of Blessing," and our anticipation of returning to the sanctuary, I played "O God, our help in ages past, our hope for years to come. Our shelter from the stormy blast, and our eternal home." I know we are not going to have congregational singing for now, but would anyone be willing to sing solo hymns? It was so uplifting to have Linda Hau lead singing at the drive-in. Even without the congregation singing, we could feel the spirit! Please let Pastor or me know if you would be willing to lend a voice.
  
Elaine