Fill ins, a second look

Yesterday was an interesting day at church. Our piano player called Mama to say she was not well but I did not think too much of it because the organist usually moves to the piano to take over. That was not the case yesterday.

Erin, our pianist, called a young lady in the church and asked her to fill in for her. It was a surprise to me and Barbra, the organist. All in all, it went well but Monica, the fill in, had to be allowed to play songs she knew. So we had to sing songs out of the first ten pages of the hymnal. Only one of the selections was anywhere near peppy so it put a little bit of a drag on the service. Not terrible, but still noticeable.

I got a lot of comments after the service was over that we did not make it very far into the hymnal; that we needed a little bit more life in the selections, etc. There was little I could say. That late in the game, I had to go with what the help could do. Monica, to her credit, did well on the songs she was able to play even though she was a nervous wreck.

In the night service I was greeted with another surprise. Katy, a young lady in our church - she is somewhat challenged, but capable was at the piano when I got back from the men’s meeting. She knew all the selections for the evening but struggled somewhat. I do not know if the pastor will allow her to fill in again soon, but we got by.  She has been practicing hard and really did do her best but there were some awkward moment as she struggled to keep up or catch up.

It was only after the service that I found out that Katy had told Monica, who showed up at 4:30 to practice the selections for the evening service, that “she had it”. It was an interesting situation. Once again, we got by - but not without comment. I am sure I have not heard the last of it either.

Here on the farm, there are days when I feel no sense of accomplishment even though there has been considerable effort expended. Today was one of those days. It is at times like these that I have to take a step back and look at what is happening from a different direction. It takes a moment to realize that not everything I have to do produces tangible results in our life  but all the tasks are necessary; from driving to the dairy to get chicken feed, to moving a pregnant nanny goat to a different location so she can wean the twins she has been nursing, to finally putting away the plethora of tools I have gotten out to work on a project, to helping Mama with various chores that she could do alone but finds more pleasure in them when I take time out to help. (I try to allow the relationship to win out over the project but I can be pretty task oriented.)

In addition to all we have to do in our morning routine, I did get the script for the video I have been asked to make finalized. I did get the roof on the loft of the goat barn finished. I did get a scheduling calendar set up for my business. I did confirm things for this weekend with my siblings. 

Not terrible for a day’s effort, but I always feel like I could have done more.