Singing is soul manifesting itself. Birdsong lifts the spirit often without our being aware of it. So too with human singing. We sing our sorrows, (spirituals), our yearnings, (hymns and requiems), our joys (happy birthday!) In the midst of winter when skies are bleak, flowers gone, trees bare, the sound of a cardinal, the flash of red, brings a flush of warmth to the soul and the hope that the earth will warm, seeds sprout, buds swell, grass push up from beneath the ground again.