INVITATION 1

Find a Forgotten Song

I miss the robin’s song.

Robins appear in Arizona—especially in the spring in the forest near our cabin in northern Arizona—but they have never visited my backyard feeders in the desert.

Robins learn to sing from their parents. After leaving the nest, the adult robins care for the fledglings for an additional 2-3 weeks, with the male doing most of the feeding as the female prepares for the next brood.

During this stage, experts believe the fledgling robins start to sing. Maybe it’s to remind Dad to bring the tastiest grubs and worms, but the young birds learn to warble a song.

Like the robin, I learned to sing in my childhood home.

Dad sang around the house, mimicking the tunes on the radio, or the hymns from the church we attended each Sunday where we lived in Minnesota. Not to be out-sung, Mom sang Christian choruses while she accompanied herself on the piano or autoharp. When we took the long drive twice a year to visit our grandparents in South Dakota or Wisconsin, Dad’s voice often broke up the monotony of the miles, with my siblings and I joining in when we knew the words.

We all sang in the church choir. At age five, I joined the cherub choir, proudly marching up front to belt out a melody while wearing a white robe with a ridiculously huge, red bow crisply pressed beneath my chin. Throughout the years, I sang in my school choir, toured in our high school’s select chorus, and learned to play piano, clarinet, and guitar along the way. As an adult, I served as our church’s worship leader for several decades.

I thought I would sing on stage with a microphone until the end of my days.

But after cancer, followed by Long Covid, I gave up singing solos. Radiation for cancer treatment, followed by a diagnosis of adult asthma during the pandemic, did my vocal cords no favors. Or maybe it was my lungs.

Or both.

Although I still sing around the house and on hiking trails, I don’t have the vocal stamina to project the correct notes over a microphone for extensive periods of time. Once a strong soprano, my voice now falters and peters out, leaving me stranded on a high note.

It’s a loss I never contemplated.

Mom and Dad went from singing in their church in their late seventies to singing in heaven without a lapse in breath control.

Recently I was asked to sing a solo for an event coming up in April.

“We hear you sing solos,” the lady on the phone said. Before I had a chance to tell her that this was in my past—who I used to be—I heard myself agreeing to do it.

What was I thinking??!!

I am a fledgling, just out of the nest, unsure about this strange world in which I find myself, as I try out my voice, doing breathing exercises, and warming up my vocal cords.

Will I recover my song?

INVITATION 2

Your Soul’s Backpack

A verse to carry in your soul’s backpack:

O sing unto the Lord a new song:

sing unto the Lord, all the earth.

Psalm 96:1 KJV

INVITATION 3

Consider the Beauty Where You Live

Three moments of beauty I witnessed in the transition of winter to spring.

INVITATION 4

A Giveaway!!

(Congrats to Penny N for winning last month!)

This month’s giveaway is two copies of the April/May edition of Guideposts Magazine where I have a story about when Kevin and I climbed at 19,000’ volcano in Peru. I’ve been holding this story for many years, sitting with the words I sensed on that mountain. Have you ever done that? Held words inside—words that you sensed were from God—wondering what they could possibly mean? If so, this story is for you.

Click on the link below and send me an email for a chance to win! I will draw the winners on April 7.

LOCAL EVENT

I am thrilled to be part of a collaborative work involving four creatives from Chandler, Arizona and four from Tullamore, Ireland. We traveled to Ireland with our art in July 2024 and now the show, Ceangal/Connections, will be in Chandler from March 15- July 20, 2025. My contribution to the exhibit is desert poetry.

Other artists include videographers Erin O-Toole and Devon Hancock, photographers Paul Moore and Bob Rice, fiber artist, Laurie Fagen and painter, Siobhan McCormack.

Location: Chandler Museum, 178 E Commonwealth Ave, Chandler, AZ 85225. The museum is always free!! (Closed on Mondays.)

June 3: Lunch and Learn from 12:00 - 12:30. Hear about our Sister City relationship with Tullamore and the details behind this exhibit. (Bring a lunch!) I will be one of the speakers.

*****

Sometimes books take an extra-long time to become a reality. I sold a story to Guideposts for a compilation to be published in 2022. First the book was delayed, then cancelled. I was sad because I loved the story about our then-toddler grandson getting into my mother’s perfume, a vial I had kept in her memory.

It is a beautiful story.

The book is now published!! Guideposts is offering a 15% discount on their website with the code AUTHOR15. Retail shops, including Amazon, will have the book available on May 6, but it can be preordered now.

*****

All Photos are by Lynne Hartke, unless otherwise noted.

Ducklings in paloverde blossoms at Veterans Oasis Park in Chandler, AZ. San Franciscan Bluebells at Mormon Lake, AZ. Robin, from All About Birds website. My Kinder Photo. Robin in the foreground of the Washington Monument in D.C. Paloverde blossoms on barrel cactus at Desert Botanical Gardens in Phoenix. Canada Geese family at Snedigar Park in Chandler. Great Egret at Arrowhead Park in Chandler. Screech Owl in a saguaro cactus at Desert Botanical Gardens in Phoenix. Crocuses in Washington D.C. Guideposts Magazine April/May 2025. Ceangal Flyer, Chandler Museum. Reading a poem at the Ceangal exhibit, taken by Kevin Hartke. Wilderbloom Flyer. In God’s Time book cover. Last Photo: Great heron at Veterans Oasis Park in Chandler.