Guest Post: Give Me Something To Sing About

Heidi has written for us before. I've already mentioned how awesome she is, but apparently she has a sister who is just as awesome! This news doesn't surprise me at all.

You know when you're driving, or cleaning, or cooking, or chatting away with friends and you have your favorite playlist going, the one where you know every word to every song? And you sing along the whole time and rock out a bit (or a lot) and you feel free and full of power? Yeah, I love that too. It makes me feel awesome!

My kid sister, Staci, and I work for the same employer. We were blessed for a long time to share an office together, where we'd shut the office door and sing our hearts out while working, because it makes us feel wonderful and strong.

Well... things had to change for one reason or another (and no, not because we sang too much) and we had to split offices. I got put in an office with a marketing guy and Staci went to a reception desk in the middle of everything.

My work life changed drastically after that. I stopped singing and I had a hard time for a while finding that joy of coming to work... I mean it's just awkward for a married girl to sing her heart out with a single marketing guy in the office, not to mention when you're having a rough day and need a sister like person to sympathize with you. Life at work for me became just... work.

This setup has been such for roughly three months. I've grown accustomed to not singing and I don't feel so out of place anymore (also, a pleasant side note--my husband works with us now, and the three of us have fun visiting each other and eating lunch together). But it still took me until yesterday to learn something very important: Sing anyway.

So yesterday I'm working away *type type type*, and I hear my sister's beautiful voice through the halls. And I realize... for three months my sister's been sitting at a makeshift desk in the middle of the hallway near the soda machine, where everyone walks back and forth and to and fro right past her for millions of reasons; she has no office, no privacy and no doors to shut so she can sing to her favorite songs. And all this time, she's been singing still.

My sister Staci is fearless. She sings boldly, because it makes her feel powerful. This is a quote from her as to why she sings where everyone can hear her: "I sing because I don’t care that anyone is around. If my employer wants to move me to the middle of the company then it's not gonna stop me from doing things I would normally do alone. And singing brings certain emotions to the surface where you just can’t help but release your inner self and sing your soul out! Kinda like therapy… eh?"

So if you love to *sing at work, or dance in the halls, or skip instead of walk, or strike up conversations with random people, or stop to help someone struggling a bit, or just smile a lot, or whistle, or eat fruit snacks during church, or make eye contact with people you pass at school, or talk to yourself, EVEN if it may be breaking the norm, do it anyway! And feel that light-as-air feeling in your gut, that smile that rushes to your face uncontrollably, that desire to be friends with everyone in the world. Yeah, that feeling. I love it, and I'm glad my sister reminded me that I can do what makes me feel that way anyway.


*Assuming none of this will get you in trouble with employers, church facilities, etc... :)