3 strangers, a rainy St. Francisville porch Loblolly Lullaby | Entertainment/Life

On Saturday morning, as the rain was coming down hard and sideways, the introductions began.

I had driven to St. Francisville for a songwriters’ workshop despite having little business being there. As the participants and facilitators introduced themselves, I had to chuckle to myself, knowing that I might as well make the most of the day despite the growing suspicion that I was wildly out of my league.

The other nine participants, ranging in age from 17 to 71, turned out to be serious musicians who had spent years writing songs.

The four facilitators were accomplished songwriters. I, on the other hand, had long ago played piano well enough to accompany a small congregation for certain hymns. The only songwriting cred I had was that I collaborated on one song with facilitator Jodi James about a year and a half ago.

Even so, music has always occupied an outsized place in my life.

The gap between my experience and everyone else’s was clear. These were serious people. They had instruments. They had history. They had songs.

But I love being a fish out of water.

What I had was words.

Turns out, they had those too, along with everything else.

That said, I was there — and one word had been living in my head like a tune: loblolly.

Loblolly pines covered the little Mississippi town where I grew up. The town was called Forest, simply for all the trees. Loblolly is one of those words that I never thought much about because it was such a part of my life.

Then another word surfaced: lullaby.

Loblolly Lullaby.

The two words fit together the way certain things just do — like they’d been waiting for each other.

The workshop was organized by Arts for All, the St. Francisville organization Lynn Woods helped start in 2006 with a goal of promoting the arts in West Feliciana Parish and nurturing the idea that creativity is vital — to individuals, to communities, to people of every age.

The workshop facilitators included James, Eric Schmidt, Steve Judice and Mary Alice Vanderwater, all accomplished in ways that made me grateful no one was checking credentials at the door.

My plan, modest as it was, had been to write some lyrics and offer them to one of the real musicians.

That’s not what happened.

When we broke to work on our songs, two people — Vanderwater, of Pineville, and Josh Brashear, of Lafayette — found me along on the front porch and said they wanted to help write a “Loblolly Lullaby.”

For the next five or six hours, the three of us worked on exactly that. For that time, nothing else in the whole world mattered — in a way that reminded me of childhood. Big global issues, deadlines and obligations were not a part of my worldview for that time — just meter, rhythm and rhyme.

Vanderwater and Brashear turned out to be genuinely wonderful — funny, self-deprecating, smart and wise. The absorption was a gift.

Joy was right there the whole time.

Once the day was done, I believe our “Loblolly Lullaby” was 92% finished. Brashear plans to sing it at an open-mic night in Lafayette in a few weeks and has invited me to come sing the bridge. I told him that my younger daughter has made it clear that I shouldn’t sing in front of anyone outside of our family.

Brashear responded with, “Singing is 90% disregard for others’ opinions and 10% learning what not to sing.”

Moments like the magic that was Saturday require something from us first: a willingness to walk into unfamiliar rooms and try anyway.

Not because we’ll excel.

Not even because we’ll be good.

But because, occasionally, something joyful is waiting there.

Walking out Saturday evening, after a day spent writing a lullaby about pine trees with two strangers who no longer felt like strangers, the rain was still falling.

I sang our song all the way home.

It’s not quite there yet, but I was still singing it the next morning.

Arts for All has more events coming. Songbird Adult Songwriting Weekend runs June 25-26, with instrument and voice classes June 27-28. Young Songbirds, for ages 8 and up, is July 13-17.