Hallelujah of the Ordinary

This morning we released the second single from Hymns From My Atheist Sister & Her Friends To Sing Along To, (which, if you are a Patron, you will be able to listen to in its entirety weeks before it's released). It's a song that's very dear to us and a song that describes what happens every morning when we wake up, the little mundane things that go into making up our life.

A few years back our friend Dani said that her husband, Bob, brings her coffee in bed every morning and has been doing that for something like 30 years . It's truly something to aspire to and Mallory immediately declared, "I want that." And so every morning I (Scott) get up, let the dogs outside, make us coffee, and let the dogs back in. And every morning, somehow, before I get back into the warmth of the bed with our two cups of coffee, MudPuddle has taken my spot in bed. And in case you haven't tried to move an 85 lb mastiff from your side of the bed after they've gotten comfy, let me just say it's really difficult. It happened this morning and it'll happen tomorrow morning too. But between morning coffee, a cuddle with our dog and my person, the word that comes to mind is just a simple Hallelujah.

Growing up, the word hallelujah was always tied to faith and worship. The word literally means "praise the Lord." But as I look back, it's a word that we use when we are astounded, when we are shocked into awe, when we are overcome with gratefulness that we are here to experience our life, regardless of whether or not you believe in a higher power. It's a sigh of relief no matter who you are.

In March of this year we were getting ready to leave for our four month tour out to California and were complaining to a few friends that we were traveling during gardening season and so those dreams of having a garden at our house would have to wait until another year. And so we drove out to California and slowly made our way back. When we got to Michigan in June we received a text from our friends Rowe and Laurie and it showed the vegetable garden they had planted in our raised beds and the raspberries in the backyard. Then we got a text from Don saying the zinnias he'd planted were starting to come up and they looked glorious. And then John called to say that the daylilies he'd transplanted from his place were coming up and he was going to go check on them. And when we got home, Rich stopped in and brought us asiatic lilies for the front of the shed he'd helped build last year. While we were gone, our neighbors planted us a garden! We were overwhelmed. We were floored. We were taken care of without having to ask or even really do anything. Hallelujah.

It threw us into a whole heap of gratitude-- for our friends, for our home, for each other, for living here and now, in this timeline on this planet. Suddenly a cup of coffee in bed felt like pure magic. The towering pile of laundry felt like a gift. The incessant barking of Magpie Mae... still drove us crazy. But, still the same, gratitude.

For a long time there was this notion that you had to believe in a higher power to experience a sense of appreciation, as if in order to be grateful you had to be grateful to someone. I don't think that's true anymore. In fact, sometimes, it might be nice to step into the shoes of an Atheist and think-- if this is all we get, is it enough? Am I thankful for this short, brilliant time that I have? The answer, undoubtedly, is yes. And if it's not, maybe we're not looking hard enough.

The song, "Hallelujah of the Ordinary," is out now. You can stream it on Spotify or wherever you get your music. The whole record comes out Sunday morning, November 24, 2025 and you can pre-order the album on CD or you can download it on Bandcamp. OR you can join our Patreon page for as little as $3 a month, where you'll get a download code for the whole record as early as next week. It's really become a fun community and there are a ton of perks, including bi-monthly hand-stamped postcards, discounts on merch, exclusive livestreams and a whole lot more. So If you're thinking to yourself, "I need more of The Rough & Tumble in my life," look no further than Patreon.