Stollen

30-Blog Challenge!

Day 6: Pet Peeves

In my choir classroom I tell my students that I have 2 big pet peeves. The first is when one of them says, "Someone stole my..." Yes, I know studies have shown that speaking English makes us more likely to assign blame to people (see about halfway down this page), but that's just ridiculous! If you are one of my students and have said that to me, I have found that 99% of the time, no one stole your stuff. You lost it. You forgot to put it back where it belongs and now you can't find it in the 2.5 seconds you spent searching for it (i.e. staring at where it should be then coming to tell me it's not there). If someone has taken it, it was an accident. Yes, your stuff is all close to each others'. Yes, sometimes people grab something right next to what they wanted and they don't notice. But this idea that you could not have possibly been to blame for your stuff missing and so someone must have maliciously taken it from you is ridiculous!*

Another pet peeve is when people talk/make noise when we are supposed to be singing/making music in choir (or a concert).

For those of you who do not read music, go here to find out what those red notes mean. For those of you that do read music, figure it out!

So my junior high students seem to think that, somehow, I do not see them talking when they are about 2 feet from me. Maybe they think I don't care. I don't mind if they talk during their theory work, once we're done with the me teaching them part. I like that they work together, a choir is, after all, a team. But when we are in the middle of the song and the altos have 2 measures of rest and 6 of them think, "This is enough time to have a conversation!" it drives me up a wall. I hate disrespectful behavior. And I know they don't see it as disrespectful. After all, they are singing when they are supposed to, and it seems like they think that's enough. *sigh*

Other than that, I don't like people waking me up on the few days I get to sleep in (and I think most people agree with me on that one), and I don't like Internet arguments because they (95% of the time) amount to nothing.

*I said "Yes," a lot in this paragraph. I just thought you ought to know.

Dry Bones

Back to that 30-Day Blog Challenge! I will now just call it the 30-Blog Challenge. Because that seems to be the most challenging part of it for me. Actually, you know...writing blogs.

Day 5: What song inspires you.

I stopped on this day for a reason. I hate narrowing down my musical tastes. I just get frustrated that I cannot sum up in a few words or sentences or paragraphs or pages just why I like all of the music that I do. And this is especially infuriating because it's not even what genre inspires you, or what artist inspires you. It's what single stinking song inspires you. I don't have a single song! So please, as you read this entry, understand that whatever song(s) I choose is not my favourite song, or even the most relevant song in my life right now. It will be one of my favourite songs; probably whichever one I thought I could write the most about right now.

The song I want to talk about today is called Dry Bones from the album Beautiful Things (or try Amazon) and it is by Gungor. This song is inspiring because of the music and the simplicity of the message. The lyrics are (without repeats):

My soul cries out

My soul cries out for You

These bones cry out

These dry bones cry for You

To live and move

'Cause only You can raise the dead

Can lift my head up

Jesus, You're the one who saves us

Constantly creates us into something new

Jesus, surely You will find us

Surely our Messiah will make all things new

Will make all things new

Life is breaking out, it's breaking out

Very simple, very clear, and very, very lovely. Now, you need to go listen to it:

It's about 5 minutes long, and it is 5 minutes of awesome. If you are in a place where you can't watch that video or listen to music, it's the musical equivalent of climbing a mountain. So go find a place to listen to it!

I think it speaks for itself.