I’m feeling the need for a little respite from All The Things. When better than now to savor joy wherever it can be found? So here we go:

This is generally a pretty sunny place, but it has rained–and snowed–just enough to make everything gloriously green. My spring bulbs, planted last fall, actually bloomed, as well as the usual flowering trees. Woo-hoo! Besides blooming and greening (and a little bit of raining), this spring has included a lot of music. I had the chance to attend an afternoon presentation by Joel Bacon at CSU about the Casavant organ. Although I’ve spent plenty of time in the performance hall with the organ in its previous location, especially while I was earning my degree in music there, somehow, I had never seen a demonstration of all it could do. Very cool.

Also, I’m finally doing some songwriting after a years-long hiatus, this time mostly with others, which is a whole new and fascinating experience. I thought that was all in my past, but it turns out there’s not really an expiration date on creativity, so I’m not planning to stop anytime soon. Easter offered plenty of music, as always. Brittany and Andy came up from Denver for the day.

Chelsea, Brian and the boys came over from Windsor.

Everyone joined me at church. Here’s one of my favorite moments (a little backstory first): This year we had a choir, open to anyone. It was all Easter joy and family love, nothing formal about it. We were singing with the worship team, so our leader was actually behind us during the service. The piece was a wonderful new song by Aaron Williams called “Resurrection Hope,” and we had been encouraged to have it memorized and to make eye contact with the congregation to project the appropriate energy. As instructed, partway through the song, I glanced at the boys and there was Brooks giving us a big thumbs up and kind of nodding with a serious critic’s face. Adorable.  I burst out laughing. Now however casual the choir, minimum expectation is to actually sing, so I had to look elsewhere. I did finally manage to pull it together for the big celebratory finish.

In the moment of silence at the end, a very familiar young voice yelled, “Good job, Gigi!” 😉

I hope your Easter was gloriously joyful, with or without a personal cheerleader.

He is risen! And he’s where the joy is.