I'm strumming in 4/4 time at 100 bpm trying to follow a chord sheet that's taped to my friend James’ back while walking down the sidewalk in National City. We exited the church and started down the sidewalk just as a city bus stopped. Several people got off then, unknowingly, processed with us until we turned the corner to go around the block.
There are a few processing behind me, bongos walking beside me, and we start to walk past St. Mary’s Catholic church. There were 3 women on the sidewalk offering beautiful woven palm crosses for those who might want to purchase them and we kept singing “We cry Hosanna, Lord!” Another left turn around the corner and cars are trying to leave a parking lot. We wave them thru, still singing “Yes, Hosanna, Lord!” By this time, we’ve sung through the song three times, our feet are still moving but our voices are getting a little strained. We turn the corner again and this time pass Iglesia La Luz Del Mundo. I see the back way up to the church but as we start “Behold, our Savoir comes” for the 5th time we turn the last corner to come back up the main street to the front of the church. For a community with a church on every corner, many cars and people didn’t quite know what to do this procession of 50 plus people waving palms and singing “He gives us liberty.”