When I was waiting in line to make my train reservation the other day, I couldn’t help but stair at the markings on the floor of the ticket lounge — on the floor, between each line and the counter, was a big white line with these words printed in red:  “LINEA DE ESPERA”.  With four years of Latin in college and recently 3 years devoted to the study of Italian, well, I couldn’t help but see the amusement in the fact that the Spanish verb for “waiting” had the same root as the noun for hope, “esperanza”.  And I couldn’t help but think about the amount of time we all spend in our lives, standing in the “Line of Hope”, while we wait for one thing or another to come true for us, and on our better days, for our world.

And so I rise again today, in a strange city, working with teachers and singers that I do not know, and I take my place on the Linea de Espera as I work to learn a new language and a new way of communicating through music.  May your day on the Line of Hope go well for you too…