Hallelujah with a View

Hallelujah with a View

John Paul Derryberry

With 5 energetic sessions on emotions, perception, the thin line between success and failure, culture and value in the books, and countless side conversations about how life interacts with those topics over the last 6 days behind me, I took a moment to collect myself. My talks have always been equal parts energizing and exhausting. Holding other's energy is such a privilege that it brings me great joy to be trusted enough to do it, but it can also have me looking for a space to recharge.

The group with whom I laughed, cried, felt, and grew over the past week retreated upstairs for their last singing session. I found a spot outside the pavilion where I could see the tops of the Black Hills as the sun set behind me. It was a peaceful quiet I had not experienced too often this week. No movements, interruptions, or stories to tell. Just a storyteller making sense of other events and soaking in that the stories from my life can help others connect dots in their lives. It's always a humbling experience for me, strangers to friends in a short time, to use the correct amount of laughter, vulnerability, and willingness to use my stories to connect with others.

I was fully settled into sitting here while the light faded from the sky, and the hills joined the night sky. And then the sound of the music floated out of the lodge's upstairs window, through the open space where I sat, and onto the hills I was taking in. Next, the words breezed into the scene, topping off the scene like the cherry tops off the perfect ice cream Sunday.

Now I've heard there was a secret chord

That David played, and it pleased the Lord

But you don't really care for music, do you?

It goes like this, the fourth, the fifth

The minor falls, the major lifts

The baffled king composing Hallelujah

I would now linger in this spot for as long as possible. We get so few peaceful moments where it all feels in place. I balanced it all correctly between my wife, daughters, family, friends, profession, and storytelling. We often feel like we have to move to the next, but knowing when you are experiencing a moment that will stick with you, you should slow down and soak it in. So I sat there knowing I may never be in a position to watch the hills of the black hills fade into the nighttime sky, be serenaded by the beautiful words of Leonard Cohen, and feel so great about life again.

You say I took the name in vain

I don't even know the name

But if I did, well, really, what's it to you?

There's a blaze of light in every word

It doesn't matter which you heard

The holy or the broken Hallelujah

Before anyone reads too much into this, I'm not a man of faith, at least not in the traditional sense. See, my faith is placed in people, even with our flaws and sometimes selfish ways. I just know if treated correctly and put in a position to be good most humans will choose the path of taking care of others and themselves. We don't because life sometimes takes us sideways. Hearing this group of people sing that song in this spot after the week of work, they did on themselves proved my faith in people correct. I've seen it with my employees, family, clients, and those who listen to my stories.

I did my best, it wasn't much

I couldn't feel, so I tried to touch

I've told the truth, I didn't come to fool you

And even though it all went wrong

I'll stand before the Lord of Song

With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah

A smile came across my face as the last Hallelujah echoed through my surroundings. I hopped off the bench and headed for the event's closing ceremony. I didn't need it; that private concert had wrapped everything for me. Faith in people was restored as the gig I took was perfectly pixelated as the nighttime stars engulfed the hills. I may never be here again, but it will always be with me.

And for that, I whispered Hallelujah.