Stepping Out of the Box

I like my little box.

I can play by myself. I can do what I like to do. And I don't have to answer to anybody.

Well, almost anybody. I still have to answer to God. But God doesn't like me staying in my little box, so He decided to give me talents to get me moving.

He gave me the gift of Creativity. He gave me the gift of Song. He also gave me Humor, a Big Mouth, and a Thirst For Being a Ham. All of these in combination can be a pretty heady cocktail, despite the fact that I really, really love my nice little box.

So God made me go to a writer's conference last year and "Inspirated" me to write a song.

No, I didn't spell that wrong either. "Inspired" means breathed by God; to get ideas that are high falutin' lofty and inspirational. "Inspirated" however, means breathed by God- while He's laughing

Yes, it's a made-up word (at least in English)- but it's a really good word for what happened during that conference.

It started with a joke the speaker made. "That would make a good song, wouldn't it?" he joked, when I raised my hand and yelled "I'll write it!" Of course he had no idea who I was (or even where I was in the audience, since he had a spotlight in his eyes), but every time he made a point, he was sure to call out into the darkened audience, "Whoever is writing that song, write this next point down!" 

And I did.

By the time he was finished his talk, I had the tune in my head, and the chorus written.

After the talk, I went up to introduce myself, and he began laughing. He laughed even more when I sung him the chorus! I told him I'd have the entire song written a few days after the conference ended, and I'd send him the lyrics for approval.

And I did. He loved them. I was then asked if I was going to Colorado in the spring, because he wanted me to sing it at the writer's conference there. Sing it. At the conference. In front of hundreds of people.

That made the walls of my little box shake a little. More than a little.

Since I was on the opposite side of the country, going there was impossible unless I became a thousandaire overnight. So we agreed on the next best option- I would send him a video.

The problem was, I've never done a video before- or written music. Oh. I make up tunes all the time- I've just never put all those little music notes in order on bars before. So I looked for someone else to help me, but to be honest, I didn't look too hard. No one likes to work for free, either.

I went back to my little box and shut the lid for a while. At least until the deadline for sending him the video came looming up to haunt me.

I had to step out of my box and compose this sucker myself. I knew the tune, so I found some free software online and hammered out what I wanted, humming the tune as I painstakingly added each note to those endless lines. I got a little help from my husband (who knows how to read music) and within a few days, I had my song.

I wish I had stepped out of my box earlier instead of being too afraid to try something new!

Now I had to video me singing it. Egad. 

Luckily I have a friend that was willing to help me and has some experience in videography. After two sessions of taping we have a pretty good version (with me flubbing slightly one time). He's putting it together for me as I speak, and when it's done, I'm sending it off to the conference speaker. I can't wait!

I haven't mentioned his name because I want his approval first. I'll post the video on my website after he uses it for the conference- which is soon!

It wasn't easy, but I'm so glad I stepped out of my little box!