It was a pleasure to sit in the school board meeting this past week and listen to the members applauding the efforts of the high school music instructors, Kaitlyn Abens, the high school band instructor and Aaron McCullough who is in charge of the vocal music department.

This week, there was a post on social media with this message:

You don’t have to choose.

You can do sports. You can do extracurriculars. You can participate in community activities. You can have a job.

And you can do band while you do it.

If you’ve ever had the desire to learn an instrument, join band.

If your friends are in band and you just want to hang out with them, join band.

If you’re looking to be a part of something more, join band.

It’s never too late. We’d love to have you join next week as we go into second semester at the high school and third trimester at the middle school.

Abens was excited to report that the band has grown to 56 members, and that the middle school band is also growing, under the guidance of Kent Wesselink.

Their efforts to encourage more students to explore music are exciting to me. I grew up in the days when the high school choir and band had nearly 100 members. And it was one of the places where I felt I was on steady ground.

I was lucky. My parents paid for piano lessons at the age of 7. I don’t really know how they did it, as this was during a very bad stretch for farmers. It seems like my lessons only cost about 50 cents for a half hour lesson. But as long as I practiced, they came up with it.

Sounds like the old days, doesn’t it.

But my parents understood something. That music never leaves you, and it opens doors that might not be open without it. It opens the mind to creativity in so many ways.

Those precious lessons allowed me to read music pretty early. I could answer the questions, read the notes. Those classes built up the confidence I didn’t have in other classes.

I had a head start on music, so that is where I felt safe and comfortable.

As I got older it built up my confidence socially. I was a farm kid, who couldn’t participate in many social functions. We all had chores, we had gardens, we had pigs. We had work year round that had to fit in between school and any other obligations.

But we also had music.

We were a family who watched Lawrence Welk together. My dad would dance with me and my sister to some of the songs most familiar to him. And he would point out his favorite songs, his favorite voices.

I never would have admitted it then, but I wanted to have him say those things about me. I wanted to be Kathy Lennon. I wanted to be cute and perky and wholesome, with a gorgeous voice.

Well, some dreams just are not meant to be.

Because of that love of music, I was able to continue music throughout school. My sister was 8 years older and had played clarinet, so that was easy, I could play clarinet. My younger brothers also played instruments and we all sang in the choirs.

Those years of music were the most important gifts my parents ever gave me. I remember my mom saying that you can always sing. You can always enjoy music.

Music can be a comfort and lift your spirits every day of your life.

I volunteer to play the piano for nursing home church services. Those happen almost every Sunday of the year. We do a lot of singing, and I try to play every request they have, as long as I have music in front of me.

I see the joy in the residents faces, the grateful thanks for coming. I hear their voices above the piano notes, in praise, in glory, in joy.

One of my favorite memories of my mother was her singing at the nursing home. There was a day when the church service ended, my mom obviously wanted to continue to sing. She knew all the words to all the hymns we sang, and I could tell she was very happy.

After the service, as I pushed her down the halls back to her room, she continued singing “Til we meet again” at the top of her lungs. It was a bit off tune, but it was full of so much joy, I appreciated every note of it.

Music links all the creatures of the earth in some ways. There are the birds that sing from their nests, and voices of the coyote that blend together on the prairie. There are crickets and frogs who create their own music rejoicing in their own habitat.

My parents are gone now. Music was one of the few things in their last days that seemed to comfort them. During the last few hours of their lives, we sang to them, as a family, surrounded by caregivers, some listening in the hallways, some standing with us holding hands.

And we sang to each of them. As a family, we found the hymns that they loved best, and made sure they heard their children join their voices to sing them home.

Music is like that. It doesn’t have to be perfect for it to be enjoyed. It is something that can be shared throughout a lifetime.

If there is a child who struggles to fit in, who might not be doing well in school or has challenges in areas of their lives, consider the school music programs, encourage them to try their voice to sing or develop a skill with an instrument.

It’s a gift that keeps giving.

To the very end of time.

Kolleen Taylor is the Community Editor for the Daily Freeman-Journal.