Cold Hands, Warm Hearts

It is freezing outside today, and I am not just saying that because I grew up in Hawaii. Even though the sun is out the wind is rather cutting; it makes the 40 degrees outside seem just a little cooler than 40 degrees. Thank goodness there’s a whole lot of warmth, goodwill and charity floating around; they help with the temperature. Those and the cute purple chenille gloves my colleague John Mein gave me yesterday.

This afternoon I had the good fortune to hear four Calvary folk sing at D.C.’s Downtown Holiday Market. Frankly, a Calvary group invited to sing in public is in itself enough to warm my heart, as we have had a few ups and downs on the music front at Calvary of late. And, in my totally unbiased opinion, they sounded . . . GREAT!

Singing their hearts out in this picture are Cheryl Branham (soprano) who is also our talented new music director (want to be part of the music renaissance at Calvary? Email Cheryl!), Marj Bunday (alto) and Joe Price (tenor)–both friends of Calvary (Joe is singing Christmas Eve at 7:00 for worship at Calvary) and Mark Butler (bass), who, in addition to singing in Calvary’s choir also happens to have fabulous taste in women.

Since the Downtown Holiday Market is a new project for the Penn Quarter not too many folks have turned out to participate this year–even with the walking gingerbread woman, booths of crafts and (lest you forget) quality musical presentations.

However, our singers’ hearts were undoubtedly warmed by the appreciative listening of the audience, such as it was . . . . Hey, thanks for coming out Marilyn, Kim, Chuck and Dan (though Dan is not pictured here–something about having to get back to work??!?). The other two fans, believe it or not, were in no way coerced to attend. They came freely.

Maybe next year the fan base will be a little stronger. In the meantime, here’s to taking a moment to be grateful for good music, hope for the future, incredible potential, dedicated church members and our cool downtown neighborhood. All of these are warming my heart, even though my hands are still freezing!