Summer holiday is ending soon.  It has been filled with things that I didn’t even think of doing.  It was truly better than I could’ve imagined.  Over this time, I have met new family and friends, and spent time with old ones.  So many things blew my mind this summer.  And it appears to only be getting better as time goes on.

One major highlight of the my summer is playing organ in church while visiting home.  [For those of you have been reading for a while, you know that my hometown is Charleston, SC.]  It was quite hilarious how it happened because I believe God set me up (that’s my story and I’m sticking to it).  Ha!

We had our first family reunion.  It was a blast, too.  I smiled so much that my cheeks and eyes were hurting.  I was surprised to find out that I have a cousin who lives in Maryland (where I currently live).

My cousin asked me on Saturday if I could play for church because no one would be playing (or so I thought).  The next day, we all met up for church at my Grannie’s church.  When I entered the church, I noticed that someone was playing the keyboard and drums, but no one was on the organ.  So, I walked up to the front, motioned to the keyboardists if I could play, and he gave me the affirmative head nod.  I sat down, turned it [organ] on, and took a deep breath.  And I was off!

Some things came back to me, instantly, but somethings took a few seconds to resurface.  It took me a while to get the right settings to satisfy my musical palette.  I was amazed at the whole experience, because normally I would’ve been scared outta my mind!  Let’s look at the stats: Although I play my music at home, often, I haven’t played church music in church for about 9 years.  No one has heard live music from these hands in quite a while.  Being honest, had I thought about the enormity of the event beforehand, I would’ve been horrified.  But, instead, I followed courage.

While all of the above stats are true, I didn’t even think about them.  I just had this excitement on the way to church, thinking, “God is about to get this glory.  Word.”  While I was sitting there playing, I was in another place.  My mind wasn’t really focused on the music.  I’m not sure where it was.  It was different.  It felt better than old times. It felt fresh and new.

[I’m recalling the feeling right now, and I’m smiling, shaking my head.]

To top things off, none of my immediate family knew I was going to play.  Pop said, in his geechie dialect, “Boy, I didn’t know you were gonna play today.  You still got that touch.”  I smiled from ear to ear.

Had I thought of those idiosyncratic deficiencies, I wouldn’t have played.  Instead, I said f*ck fear and followed courage.

Until next time,

Love & Peace.

-Herbie