"Why sing?" There are many possible answers. For me, the easiest answer has been that I sing because I cannot do otherwise. I was born singing, into a singing family. I have never been a non-singer. There is, for me, no greater joy, and no greater sense of connection to God. So, as the Quaker hymn asks, "How can I keep from singing?"

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I believe with all my heart that I am called, that it is my gift, my obligation, my responsibility to sing. To express that which cannot be expressed in words alone, in the company of others. The good songs speak of our shared human experiences, and if I am doing my very best, there is nothing that divides us into performer and performed-for. Rather, we are just "us", and I happen to be the one carrying the melody at that moment as we go along. There are many others doing the same, a family, a community of song. When I am gone, someone else will pick up the melody, as I also believe I am part of a lineage. We'll all keep going along, for humans are born to sing, and that will never end.