My mother woke up in tears this morning.

"I think I'm going to DIE."

I read her some of her favorite hymns. Poetry, "Blueberries for Sal" - (one of our best ever books.) Nothing helped. So I pulled up Donnie McClurkin on You Tube. "That's What I Believe" from his Live in London Concert. I get the spirit every time I hear his voice.

Julie and I were singing along at the top of our lungs, "I came for deliverance, and deliverance I'll receive..."

Mom: slowly coming out of her funk: "I wish your father could see you now. You know every word! But your skin is a little too light to fit in with the choir."

Me: "I'm gonna sing it anyway mom. 'Cause 'You said you'd deliver me Lord, and that's what I believe.'"

Mom laughed and smiled and made her sweeping arm gesture, like she was preaching "let it be so."

Nothing like a little Gospel in the morning.