The messiness of "should be"

We've been in the branch for a over a year, and you'd think I'd have things figured out by now, but life is messy, and not everything has an easy solution. So I guess it's ok that I'm still wrestling with how things "should be" in life.

One thing where I'm not sure how things "should be" is in Singing time. I mean, despite hearing difficulties, music is loved by Deaf people. I want our music to be inclusive and accessible to everyone. Some of the ways I try to do this are by having good, clear signing when we perform- even at the expense of good singing, by teaching through visual games instead of aural methods, and by signing instead of talking as much as possible between songs. But sometimes, a part of me recognizes that there's a lot more to music that we're not even touching. We could sing songs in parts, we could explore voice quality, we could sing rounds...oh, there is so much to music! But most of it is....well....aural....

Do these kids deserve a rich musical experience they're not getting? Well, their parents didn't get a rich musical experience growing up, and they turned out pretty amazing :) And I really believe one of the most important thing for our branch is to be a safe place for Deaf people to not be excluded from things. They deal with that all day, every day - when they come to an ASL church, they shouldn't feel left out of things, I would think.

But still...the power of music. I just want to get it into their souls. I want them to feel those feelings that make your heart overflow with love for God - and I get those feelings when I hear beautiful music!

So, I try to balance. Sometimes, we pull out the hand bells, even though the deaf teachers can't enjoy them very much. Or sometimes we try to sing in rounds, even though it confuses everyone. I don't know if that's the way it "should be" but I think that "should be" is sometimes a compromise of lots of different needs, and everyone being patient with the times when things aren't quite the best for us personally. And I think we're doing a good job at that, anyway.

So here's to all the messy attempts to get things right and fair to everyone. And to all the patient people along with me on the journey! :)