Learning new skills

For my whole life, I've had tight muscles, especially leg muscles. I had a weird hip issue where I had to have surgery a few times. I believe two different times in my life, my surgery had to be postponed while I had physical therapy to stretch out hip flexors and adductors.

This year has been a year of learning new skills, stretching in ways we didn't think was possible. Many of you are proficient at video chats, even if you hadn't used them before. Some of you have either new jobs, or new roles in your company that weren't conceived of 6 months ago. And I'm sure there are some that have retired in the last 6 months, either voluntarily, involuntarily, or something in between. That's a lot of stretching.

When I was a kid, my church choir director was a St. Olaf alumnus. Therefore, we did a lot of St. Olaf things, like using the "Sing Legato" warmups written by the former Ole Choir Director, Kenneth Jennings. The St. Luke's Choir is familiar with this one.

"Flexibility, flexibility, sing with light and short notes. Flexibility, flexibility, sing with easy floating breath." Ah, that floating breath. My physical therapist would always remind me to breathe while I was being torqued on. "Breathe, Sean! Exhale! Exhale! Just focus on your breath"

As we move on towards the program year, when youth group, confirmation, Bible studies, choirs, and all the rest typically start; I thank you all for your flexibility. With any luck, we'll be breathing easier soon and, if we just focus on our breathing in the mean time, we will finish soon enough.

Sean Johnson, Choir Director