Discovering Love: March 2020

Another piano video, Love Medley, is here:
<https://www.facebook.com/christy.k.robinson/videos/10221806668096498/>
Hope you are blessed by the music.

COVID-19 home quarantine isn't for the faint of heart, especially if you live alone. Even more so when you love and miss the fellowship of like-minded people at your house of worship. I play keyboards for several churches, and while those churches are closed to "flatten the curve" of new infections, I miss my colleagues and choir friends, my usual huggers, the people I respect, and the people who are wallflowers and need a kind word and handshake.

I've lost my business in the quarantine: teaching piano students, accompanying the choir or ladies' ensemble, playing the prelude before the service, playing the hymns or offertory. All gone. No income. The services I played for so joyfully for 51 years have become livestream or YouTube videos by the minister, a scripture reader, and the worship leader playing a guitar. The Holy Week cantata we were practicing is canceled, and Easter services will be watched on a computer screen.

As I watch the Facebook posts of my friends, many are lonely and sad that they're isolated in their apartment or house. I noticed that celebrities and pop or country stars have made videos for the fans when concerts were canceled because of crowds and quarantine. I figured I could do the same on my shoestring-budget. I strapped my phone into the tiny desktop tripod, dressed in nice clothes instead of my Apocalypse Nightie (I thought I invented the term, but apparently many people don't bother to get out of their jammies!), and started playing on Facebook Live. I told friends to play the video for themselves, or share with their loved ones.

Then a funny thing happened. People started commenting, while I was still playing, that they were comforted or soothed, that they'd started or ended their day (depending on their time zone around the world) with a blessing, or they'd replayed the piece again and again. Several have requested specific pieces. People who don't participate in organized religion wrote that the music is the only thing they missed about church. One friend sent me a donation through PayPal. Another, whose family members are sick and cannot be visited because of the infection risk, said I made her cry.

His Eye is on the Sparrow

Why should I feel discouraged, why should the shadows come,
Why should my heart be lonely, and long for heaven and home,
When Jesus is my portion? My constant friend is He:
His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me;
His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.

I sing because I’m happy,
I sing because I’m free,
For His eye is on the sparrow,
And I know He watches me.

“Let not your heart be troubled,” His tender word I hear,
And resting on His goodness, I lose my doubts and fears;
Though by the path He leadeth, but one step I may see;
His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me;
His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.

I sing because I’m happy,
I sing because I’m free,
For His eye is on the sparrow,
And I know He watches me.

Whenever I am tempted, whenever clouds arise,
When songs give place to sighing, when hope within me dies,
I draw the closer to Him, from care He sets me free;
His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me;
His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.

I sing because I’m happy,
I sing because I’m free,
For His eye is on the sparrow,
And I know He watches me.
***** ***** *****

I'm reminded of the President Teddy Roosevelt quotation in this graphic. I have little money, but I can do what I can do. Playing the piano, I can do.