This morning, we sang our last two songs in our 2025 series of Morning Zings*. One was about Walking (one of our great passions) and the restorative power of the outdoors and trees, wind, water and fire. The other was about facing down the challenges that those same things could bring - something we actually know a lot about, as two song leaders who regularly cross east/west to run our in-person Soup & Sing workshops! Two occasions come to mind in particular, one Cumbrian session held in the middle of a severe storm, and a Northumbrian one cut short by a terrific blizzard.
Our loyal participants show up to add their smiles, energy and fortitude and we truly receive so much energy and friendship back through the screen in our Zoom Room. We began these short teaching/singing sessions 5 years ago in the Lockdown days and have continued every January and February since. It helps us to combat winter blues, and as we offer them free of charge and invite people to donate to MIND or another mental health charity, we know singing is benefiting others besides ourselves.
Returning to the songs - 'Walkin' Across the Land' by Jessie Binns of Quickbeam speaks of "Walking myself whole, walking myself home" and 'More Waters Rising' by Saro Lynch is a declaration of intent to show up and push through whatever is ahead, with the knowledge we can do it - "this I know". It would be hard to find two songs that more reflected our feelings and resolution at the present time, and so I thought I would flag them up and invite you to look for them.
Alison and I will have been running Soup & Sing for 20 years next year!! We pride ourselves on the breadth of our learning, which has led us to offer all kinds of delicious songs for people to learn, including many we have written ourselves. Learning, yes, because we never stop. And we will keep sharing, sharing, sharing and hope it helps.
*Morning Zing is held on Zoom, 10-10.30am most Mondays and Wednesdays throughout January and February. We look back on the songs we have taught at the in-person workshops and invite people to join us in singing them. They are always free of charge, and if you are interested, contact us in January 2026, we will add you to the invitation list and you will get the Zoom link.
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