Doubt Not, Fear Not

Yesterday was my official goodbye to Women's Chorus. Although I sincerely hope I can sing in another choir after graduation, I am already feeling the loss of this part of my life. I've been going strong with choir for six years now, ever sing I gave up orchestra after ninth grade, and I love it more than I usually realize when I'm just going to class every day.
We had our closing social last night and talked about our theme for the year, "Doubt not, fear not." It was definitely the theme of my year, and I thought about how choir always seems to give me a soundtrack that reveals truth to me. In honor of leaving, I'm going to post a list of things I learned from WC, serious and silly.

• Hope is a thing with feathers. (That one is for you, Katherine.)
• Eyeliner is not nearly as scary as it looks.
• I now have several hairstyles in my repetoire, and I am inventing them all the time. I've come a long way from the days when bobby pins completely baffled me.
• Little ways to flirt and flounce *ooh!* (Cringes while remembering singing "Popular." I still think it's wrong to sing that in a choir. Oh well.)
• How to be a train
• Sparkle is a good thing
  
• How to put on stage makeup without looking like a hooker. It took awhile.
• Listen louder than you sing.
• Trust your sisters
• No ugly mugly vowels
• Love your belly. Love it because it's round. Women are supposed to be round.
• It's prettier in tune.
  
• Peace comes dropping slow (Yeats)
• My future is unlimited
  
• How to eradicate breast cancer
• When the sun god gives you sight, don't hesitate. Just fly away.
• Wine when it runs in abundance enhances the reckless delight of the wildest of dances.
• One little maid is a bride - yum yum.
  
• I'm through accepting limits 'cause someone says they're so - some things I cannot change, but 'til I try I'll never know.
• This grace hath brought me safe thus far and surely grace will lead me home.
• I am a child of glory - I am born from above, my soul is filled with love.
  

The pure, the bright, the beautiful
that stirred our hearts in youth,
The impulses to wordless prayer,
The streams of love and truth,
The longing after something lost,
The spirit's longing cry,
The striving after better hopes--
These things can never die.

The timid hand stretched forth to aid
A brother in his need;
A kindly word in grief's dark hour
That proves a friend indeed;
The plea for mercy softly breathed,
When justice threatens high,
The sorrow of a contrite heart--
These things shall never die.

Let nothing pass, for every hand
Must find some work to do,
Lose not a chance to waken love--
Be firm and just and true.
So shall a light that cannot fade
Beam on thee from on high,
And angel voices say to thee--
"These things shall never die."
- Dickens

This is the short list. Truly, I have been changed for good.