Magical

I got to witness something magical tonight. Something rare that I feel will probably never happen to me again.

Debbie had her birthday party tonight, as is the annual tradition. I made the trek up to Cleveland/Parma to spend the day with her and Josh and the rest of their friends. I knew I would be in for a day of good food, good drinks, and good fun. (Tonight's entree was homemade Stromboli...and a taco bar. Among other things. There was a lot of food and I'm going to be full for a while from it.)

The night also included an impromptu sing-a-long and dance party to Disney music. Dramatic renditions of songs like "Hakuna Matata" "I'll Make a Man Out of You" and "Belle" were done, just to name a few. We had a hula dance party to the Lilo ans Stitch soundtrack at one point as well. I'm pretty sure we hit every major Disney song, including "It's a Small World"....which we determined would be the soundtrack playing in hell (we had run out of skips on Pandora and couldn't skip the song so we were forced to suffer through it).

Then the station gave us something completely random and out of nowhere. Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah." If you're not familiar with the song this is the point where you need to go google it and listen for yourself.

Initially we were going to skip it. It wasn't Disney and we had just finished a rather rousing rendition of "Part of Your World" and were looking to keep our momentum going. But someone shouted that we keep it on. So we did. And that's when the magic happened.

20 plus people at this party stopped what they were doing and began to sing. It started out with just those of us from the earlier singing...but the group grew. And as it did, people added in their own harmonies and riffs. And the song grew to be something absolutely amazing. I had the good sense to pull out my phone halfway through and begin recording.

Sitting in that room with people I barely knew besides Debbie and Josh and singing a song that I love was such a powerful experience. It proves once again that music is one of life's answers to everything. I was able to capture that feeling of being a part of something greater than myself. It put a lot of things in perspective. For those few moments the song was on...nothing could touch us. We were absolutely unstoppable.

It was beyond magical. And if I could capture that feeling and bottle it so I could feel it whenever I'm feeling down, I would. It was one of those rare moments in life that make you really take a step back and appreciate the little things.

Little things like singing a powerfully haunting song with strangers.

Moments like these are moments I want to remember. Always.