Life… and the other melodies

My attempt to harmonize a song and what life taught me

I was singing in church on Sunday morning when I had an aha moment.

Let me explain!

I fancy myself a bit of a singer with underdeveloped potential. I was in my school’s choir as a teen and was even selected to travel and sing in a different country (one time 🤫). This is my only claim to singing fame as I haven’t done any formal singing since then.

But I digress, back to the story.

I was in the congregation singing the main melody of a song that I knew well when I decided to switch things up a little bit; you know, infuse some of my singing ‘prowess’ by harmonizing the main melody.

I switched to a lower key and continued in what I suppose was an alto variation. As I sang in this new key, my weaknesses were revealed.

I’m certain that the people beside me were unpleasantly surprised by how bad I sounded; I certainly was.

So as I struggled to harmonize in the new key, I suddenly realized that there were other voices there — singing the same ‘alto’ melody.

Praise be! My voice had found its tribe!

I joined my voice with theirs and made great harmony as we praised Jesus.

The aha moment?

Yes, I’m coming to that now.

The aha moment happened when I realized that life had just casually taught a class on Stepping out of Your Norm (I’ve written elsewhere that life is always teaching something if you are paying attention).

The Lessons

Life has options you know nothing about: When I was singing the main melody along with most of the church, I was in familiar and comfortable territory. And so while in this zone, I could only hear (or pay attention to) the main melody, nothing else.

In the comfort zone, the senses are dull and drowsy making your ability to be alert, compromised. However, once I switched to singing the ‘alto’ variation, my senses were on high alert. It was only then that I heard the other voices and melodies.

This is the same with life, there are so many things that we are not aware of: possibilities that are available but only when we decide to step outside our comfort zones.

You will never be alone: Fear prevents us from stepping out of familiar territory. What if it gets lonely? What if you have to do it all by yourself? What if, what if, what if?

As with my singing experience: What if you discover a whole new tribe of people you didn’t know you needed? What if they journey with you to compensate for your weaknesses, guide and help you?

In his book, The War of Art, Steven Pressfield wrote that:

“Sometimes we balk at embarking on an enterprise because we are afraid of being alone. We feel comfortable with the tribe around us; it makes us nervous going off into the woods on our own.

Here’s the trick: We’re never alone. As soon as we step outside the campfire glow, our Muse lights on our shoulder like a butterfly.”

It may be your Muse, it may be a tribe of people, or it may be something/someone completely unexpected. The point is, once you step out to be different, to be better, for curiosity-sake, you will find help.

Take a step, a jump, a leap, or even just turn away from the familiarity of the campfire. You’ll discover things you never noticed before and you’ll find others already there — singing the other melodies that add depth, texture and beauty to the song of life.

This week, which one thing will you do differently?

*This has been sitting in my drafts for weeks. I decided to just hit Publish today. The name of the winning game is consistency, not perfection.