It felt good.
Of course, my voice is thrashed.
Back in the day, at this time of year, I was singing several hours every day. In college, our a'cappella choir sang daily, and at several times as fundraisers for trips. Later, when I got involved in community theater, several months of rehearsals culminated in performing every day for a month, and sometimes, twice on Saturdays.
It's been years since I did a Christmas show, seven or eight, I think. I miss it in some ways, but boy...doing a show at Christmas is tough.
The last time I sang Handel's The Messiah was around thirty years ago. My wife and I sang with the Utah Symphony Chorus...incredible experience. For the past couple of weeks, I dusted off my music-reading skills and jumped into the project at our local church.
I miss performing, and because it's performing, I think I can somehow return to those days and start performing again, but that's impossible, just as it's impossible to return to my youth when I had few responsibilities...just going to school, performing, and hanging out with my friends.
With age comes wisdom, at least, I hope so. Tonight, I think I enjoyed the music more than I ever had. The musicians were not world-class like the last time I sang the notes (I do NOT include my self in the "world class" category...). It was imperfect, but beautiful.
I'm thankful for the many opportunities I've had in my life to perform, for the life-long friendships I made from those days. Singing changed my life...literally. I had fun tonight.
It felt good to be back in the musical saddle.
