The Best Singer in the World

Today I went for a long walk with some of the people I live with. There was some singing as we wandered through the woods. I was also given the greatest compliment in a long time. One of the men in the community applies best to everything. Today it was applied to me.

I like my voice. I use it a lot, to talk and especially to sing. I love to sing. I have no idea why. I don't have the most powerful voice in the world, or the highest. I leave those two to be claimed by my best friend. She is an opera singer and everyone loves her voice. My voice will never win vocal competitions and has never had any training. Most of what I sing well is folk and jazz, because they allow my voice to scoop and move around the notes that I like. It also means I can avoid the ones I don't. I'm more likely to sit down and help lead worship than get up on a stage where everyone is looking at me. I wouldn't choose to be the center of attention, but I love to sing. I sing in the shower, with my sister, in the car, when I'm cooking and before I go to sleep.

Today I was singing in the woods. It felt right. Woods are always a place of power for me, which probably comes from being a cottage kid. It was also so nice to simply be able to enjoy the company of those I was with. We sang Disney songs for the most part, the ones I could remember at least, and a few that I didn't really know where I had learned them. There was no microphone, no back up guitar player. There were simply three people surrounded by the woods and I can't remember the last time it felt that good to sing. I don't have the best voice. I am not the most talented, but I was reminded that the woods would be very silent if only the birds that sang the best sang. For that moment, with two people who wanted to be with me, I was the best singer in the world. And it felt fantastic.