Serendipity

I have to write something down. My head is so full I feel like I’m about to burst! Let’s start with serendipity. It’s a great word isn’t it? It’s become something of a favourite amongst my friends and me, a challenge to fit it in whenever we can. I’ve heard it described as that unexpected burst of beauty or surprising joy...like when you’re on a walk in the English countryside and round a corner to suddenly find yourself facing a breathtaking landscape: cascading waterfall, birds flying, sun shining...that sort of thing (not that that happens very often). Why on earth is that relevant? You might well ask. Well, I’ve just experienced it.

My serendipity was a surprise afternoon skulking amidst the never-ending pattern of dreary, school days. I’ll tell you why: It had sunshine, tea, friends and a guitar, four key ingredients to a spectacular penultimate day of term!

Firstly, the sunshine made just about everything that nth degree better. (Yes, I think I’m afflicted by S.A.D. ) It was warm on my face, lightened the sky to a hazy blue...I could even take my jacket off! Already, things were looking good. We seized the opportunity and, only pausing to grab the essentials (tea, guitar, capo and pick); we practically flew to the top of the garden and sprawled over the rickety bench overlooking the entire valley. I mean it, we could see fields, trees, people strolling, cars sauntering...we felt like queens.

'Be still and know that I am God' - Psalm 46 v 10

And as soon as we played the first chord the moment turned from idyllic to perfect. God’s grace was pouring all over us like the rippling sun that dappled us through the trees. Creating songs have never come that easy to me, but that afternoon it felt like second nature. Perhaps it was because we were all there together spilling our creative juices into one jumble of noise that the songs poured from my fingertips like rain parching a dry earth. Words, feelings, chords, hammer-on’s and tunes all flew from our beings and, as we sang, my heart jumped inside of me. It was electric.

No doubt they will be making an appearance on here soon, but, for now, I’m going to ask for your patience. Consider them the first few elements of a meal, the raw meat, it’ll have to be stewed and roasted to perfection until it can be served...But I can tell you their names. We decided on ‘The Birds’ Song’ for one, purely because we were entranced by the charming twittering that seemed to serenade us and because the lyrics contained frequent references to them. The second hasn’t been totally decided yet, but we were thinking something along the lines of ‘The Father Heart’ because it was shaping up to be all about discovering God.

There are others of course and we’ve done plenty of covers. Probably our most favourite as a band is ‘Faint Not’ by Jenny and Tyler. If you’ve never heard of them they’re brilliant! If you take away one thing from this blog post take away ‘Psalm 46’ or ‘This is just so beautiful’... We’ve been practicing for a while now, gearing up to play in a school competition. We’re not particularly bothered about winning; the playing itself will be super scary!

Anyway, I’ve barely put the guitar down all day and my fingers are raw! So it’s about time that I switched from strumming to typing, singing to reading...I just wanted to share with you something of my day, and it’s turned out to be rambling stream of consciousness, a memory to look back on in the future: that calm, warm, serendipitous afternoon in the sun.

Gina x