Meaning and Authenticity

I wish I could sing. When I was growing up I wanted to sing like Dionne Warwick or Barbara Streisand or Joan Baez. Oh! I would just sing and sing and sing along with their records and pretend I was onstage and belting out this great song, full of emotion and daring. My sister and I would often sit at the piano and sing from all this huge collection of sheet music we had. Such FUN! Great memories. Tonight was Evening Prayer, just like every Wednesday night at my church. I do a little Taize service -- beautiful really with lots of candles. And I use a CD of instrumental music for the songs. People kind of wait for me to begin the singing/chanting. Ugh, it's ugly. I'm OK on the lower notes, but I can barely make the C above middle C anymore. My voice just creaks and screaks and breaks. Pitiful. I wish I could sing.

As I was working out this morning, I listened to Carrie Newcomer . Her song, Geodes , is a prayer. Pure and simple. A prayer. Here are the words: You can't always tell one from another. And it's best not to judge a book by its tattered cover. I have found when I tried or looked deeper inside what appears unadorned might be wondrously formed. You can't always tell but sometimes you just know. 'Round here we throw geodes in our gardens. They're as common as the rain or corn silk in July. Unpretentious browns and grays, the stain of Indiana clay, they're what's left of shallow seas, glacial rock, and mystery, and inside there shines a crystal bright as promise. All these things that we call familiar are just miracles clothed in the commonplace. You’ll see it if you try in the next stranger's eyes-- God walks around in muddy boots, sometimes rags, and that's the truth. You can't always tell, but sometimes you just know. Some say geodes are made from ...