Singing Along the Journey

Music

Posts that relate to making or listening to or thinking about music

The real closet cleaning…

There is closet cleaning, and there is closet cleaning.  Yes, time spent getting rid of books and clothes and unused kitchen items, this is standard for me at this time of year.  But boy was I surprised when God called upon me most unexpectedly to do some real closet cleaning--getting the cobwebs out of my intentions. Let me explain. You see, I was having a nice day out.  I've been concerned that lately, well, I haven't really been much fun.  Any time [caption id="attachment_570" align="alignright" width="207" caption="Julia Margaret Cameron's "The Sunflowers""][/caption] someone suggests something to do for, well, just for fun, I say no.  No to going to a movie. …
Read More

The end of Advent…

I realize, as I come to this day which is the end of the Advent season, that I really haven't pondered the nature of Advent as deeply as usual this year.  I am still busy pondering the duality of my human condition. And that awareness of duality continues today as I celebrate both the secular holiday known as Christmas and as I prepare once again to mark the end of the spiritual season of Advent and the beginning of that great festival of Christmas. Yes, I have spent today baking cookies, making dinner, and wrapping presents along with the rest of my fellow Americans and a goodly portion of my…
Read More

It’s all in the introduction, Part the Second

So, back to the elevator speech, this time, my personal one, not Paul's (remember Romans 1:1-7?)  Or, we could call it "the party introduction".    I may have to avoid parties with strangers for a while, because, well, while I know what my introduction is NOT, I do not yet know what it IS.   This is a fairly uncomfortable place to sit in a world which often values us most by what we do, rather than who we are.  And some answers are more acceptable than others, for sure.  So, my friends who respond to the infamous question:  'So, what do you do?" with "Oh, I'm a lawyer" -- well, those…
Read More

Coming together…

Yesterday, I had one of those musical days that a church musician can experience during the festival seasons of Advent and Easter, if that musician is very lucky:  I spent the whole day singing something wonderful.  In the morning, the Vivaldi Magnificat at Calvary Baptist Church, and in the evening, Handel's Messiah at Millian Methodist.  And this morning, despite the twitchy muscles in my calves and the desperate need to spend some time in the hot tub at the gym (thanks to a very long time standing in heels), my thoughts are all about the dualities of life and the building of community. Okay, let me pause a minute.  If…
Read More

The season’s gift…

Sometimes, if we pay attention, we can learn more about ourselves by watching our likes and our dislikes than we can through all the torturous hours spent in personal inventory and contemplation. I'm talking about Christmas gifts.  Yes, Christmas gifts. I have rules about Christmas gifts.  I finish my shopping no later than the first week of December, always.  That doesn't mean that I don't shop after that date, but I want to know that the important, core gifts for people who really matter are acquired and wrapped by that date.  Anything else I see after that or purchase is, well, serendipity.  And, oh yes, I don't like malls.   I…
Read More

Over my head, I hear music in the air…

The past few months, something has changed. I have been doing something that, really, I haven't done in years. I have been listening to music. You might be saying to yourself right now --WHAT?  Of course she listens to music, she's a musician!  But there is a big difference between listening to music because you need to study or learn something, and, well, just listening to music. Because it pleases you. Because it helps you relax. Because it helps you feel at one with all creation. That kind of music listening, well, that hasn't happened in a very, very long time. My father was a musician, well, a retired musician by…
Read More

The birth of a radical Christian…

I admit to feeling pensive and internal lately, and, well, more than a little bit weepy.  And, at the same time manic.  I clearly am preparing for something unknown, cleaning, re-arranging furniture, painting, and organizing and planning with all of the obsession of, well, an obsessive.  It is a pattern that I have seen in myself before.  So, when I sat down this last week to do my assignment for Wednesday Night Words (to pick a song that has had meaning for my life and to bring it to share with the group), I found myself making what many would consider an odd choice.  No, no aria from an opera, no…
Read More

Pausing for a moment

I have a lot of things on my mind that I would like to write about, but, for a whole lot of reasons, I have neither the mental focus nor the energy to tackle them today.  But, feeling that I have been silent for too long on this page, I wanted to share something with the world.  While I am not a big fan of poetry (funny thing, for someone who SINGS it all the time), but as I opened a new piece of music this morning that I ordered in honor of a friend who does really like poetry (yes, Amy, that's you) I was struck by the poem that…
Read More

I’ve been fed…

(Written while on retreate at Montreat Conference Center, posted later) I'm sitting here in my little wooden chair, in my room at the Assembly Inn at the Montreat Conference Center, having just had a cold shower (hot water is an issue here, but the shower wasn't that bad), with the windows wide open to the cold morning air of the mountains, watching the light creep up over the edge of the baby mountain in front of me.  I'm sitting here in the dark, waiting for day that mostly involves driving and flying, and I'm thinking...I don't care.  I don't care, because I've been fed. And I don't mean the exceptional…
Read More

Burning off the fog…

In a couple of days I'm heading for away for a fall mini-vacation to the mountains.  Fall is my favorite time to vacation and I rarely get to experience its beauties away from the city, because of other demands.  My friend, Leah, is hosting a wonderful series about the glories of the fall season on her blog.   I'm hoping that I'm not too early to get to experience the season's glory on my little mountain trip. It's mountains and leaves and fog that is on my mind, as I think about the past few days of my life. I'll admit it, I had a particularly tough weekend.  Things are clearer…
Read More

The real closet cleaning…

There is closet cleaning, and there is closet cleaning.  Yes, time spent getting rid of books and clothes and unused kitchen items, this is standard for me at this time of year.  But boy was I surprised when God called upon me most unexpectedly to do some real closet cleaning--getting the cobwebs out of my intentions. Let me explain. You see, I was having a nice day out.  I've been concerned that lately, well, I haven't really been much fun.  Any time [caption id="attachment_570" align="alignright" width="207" caption="Julia Margaret Cameron's "The Sunflowers""][/caption] someone suggests something to do for, well, just for fun, I say no.  No to going to a movie. …
Read More

The end of Advent…

I realize, as I come to this day which is the end of the Advent season, that I really haven't pondered the nature of Advent as deeply as usual this year.  I am still busy pondering the duality of my human condition. And that awareness of duality continues today as I celebrate both the secular holiday known as Christmas and as I prepare once again to mark the end of the spiritual season of Advent and the beginning of that great festival of Christmas. Yes, I have spent today baking cookies, making dinner, and wrapping presents along with the rest of my fellow Americans and a goodly portion of my…
Read More

It’s all in the introduction, Part the Second

So, back to the elevator speech, this time, my personal one, not Paul's (remember Romans 1:1-7?)  Or, we could call it "the party introduction".    I may have to avoid parties with strangers for a while, because, well, while I know what my introduction is NOT, I do not yet know what it IS.   This is a fairly uncomfortable place to sit in a world which often values us most by what we do, rather than who we are.  And some answers are more acceptable than others, for sure.  So, my friends who respond to the infamous question:  'So, what do you do?" with "Oh, I'm a lawyer" -- well, those…
Read More

Coming together…

Yesterday, I had one of those musical days that a church musician can experience during the festival seasons of Advent and Easter, if that musician is very lucky:  I spent the whole day singing something wonderful.  In the morning, the Vivaldi Magnificat at Calvary Baptist Church, and in the evening, Handel's Messiah at Millian Methodist.  And this morning, despite the twitchy muscles in my calves and the desperate need to spend some time in the hot tub at the gym (thanks to a very long time standing in heels), my thoughts are all about the dualities of life and the building of community. Okay, let me pause a minute.  If…
Read More

The season’s gift…

Sometimes, if we pay attention, we can learn more about ourselves by watching our likes and our dislikes than we can through all the torturous hours spent in personal inventory and contemplation. I'm talking about Christmas gifts.  Yes, Christmas gifts. I have rules about Christmas gifts.  I finish my shopping no later than the first week of December, always.  That doesn't mean that I don't shop after that date, but I want to know that the important, core gifts for people who really matter are acquired and wrapped by that date.  Anything else I see after that or purchase is, well, serendipity.  And, oh yes, I don't like malls.   I…
Read More

Over my head, I hear music in the air…

The past few months, something has changed. I have been doing something that, really, I haven't done in years. I have been listening to music. You might be saying to yourself right now --WHAT?  Of course she listens to music, she's a musician!  But there is a big difference between listening to music because you need to study or learn something, and, well, just listening to music. Because it pleases you. Because it helps you relax. Because it helps you feel at one with all creation. That kind of music listening, well, that hasn't happened in a very, very long time. My father was a musician, well, a retired musician by…
Read More

The birth of a radical Christian…

I admit to feeling pensive and internal lately, and, well, more than a little bit weepy.  And, at the same time manic.  I clearly am preparing for something unknown, cleaning, re-arranging furniture, painting, and organizing and planning with all of the obsession of, well, an obsessive.  It is a pattern that I have seen in myself before.  So, when I sat down this last week to do my assignment for Wednesday Night Words (to pick a song that has had meaning for my life and to bring it to share with the group), I found myself making what many would consider an odd choice.  No, no aria from an opera, no…
Read More

Pausing for a moment

I have a lot of things on my mind that I would like to write about, but, for a whole lot of reasons, I have neither the mental focus nor the energy to tackle them today.  But, feeling that I have been silent for too long on this page, I wanted to share something with the world.  While I am not a big fan of poetry (funny thing, for someone who SINGS it all the time), but as I opened a new piece of music this morning that I ordered in honor of a friend who does really like poetry (yes, Amy, that's you) I was struck by the poem that…
Read More

I’ve been fed…

(Written while on retreate at Montreat Conference Center, posted later) I'm sitting here in my little wooden chair, in my room at the Assembly Inn at the Montreat Conference Center, having just had a cold shower (hot water is an issue here, but the shower wasn't that bad), with the windows wide open to the cold morning air of the mountains, watching the light creep up over the edge of the baby mountain in front of me.  I'm sitting here in the dark, waiting for day that mostly involves driving and flying, and I'm thinking...I don't care.  I don't care, because I've been fed. And I don't mean the exceptional…
Read More

Burning off the fog…

In a couple of days I'm heading for away for a fall mini-vacation to the mountains.  Fall is my favorite time to vacation and I rarely get to experience its beauties away from the city, because of other demands.  My friend, Leah, is hosting a wonderful series about the glories of the fall season on her blog.   I'm hoping that I'm not too early to get to experience the season's glory on my little mountain trip. It's mountains and leaves and fog that is on my mind, as I think about the past few days of my life. I'll admit it, I had a particularly tough weekend.  Things are clearer…
Read More

The real closet cleaning…

There is closet cleaning, and there is closet cleaning.  Yes, time spent getting rid of books and clothes and unused kitchen items, this is standard for me at this time of year.  But boy was I surprised when God called upon me most unexpectedly to do some real closet cleaning--getting the cobwebs out of my intentions. Let me explain. You see, I was having a nice day out.  I've been concerned that lately, well, I haven't really been much fun.  Any time [caption id="attachment_570" align="alignright" width="207" caption="Julia Margaret Cameron's "The Sunflowers""][/caption] someone suggests something to do for, well, just for fun, I say no.  No to going to a movie. …
Read More

The end of Advent…

I realize, as I come to this day which is the end of the Advent season, that I really haven't pondered the nature of Advent as deeply as usual this year.  I am still busy pondering the duality of my human condition. And that awareness of duality continues today as I celebrate both the secular holiday known as Christmas and as I prepare once again to mark the end of the spiritual season of Advent and the beginning of that great festival of Christmas. Yes, I have spent today baking cookies, making dinner, and wrapping presents along with the rest of my fellow Americans and a goodly portion of my…
Read More

It’s all in the introduction, Part the Second

So, back to the elevator speech, this time, my personal one, not Paul's (remember Romans 1:1-7?)  Or, we could call it "the party introduction".    I may have to avoid parties with strangers for a while, because, well, while I know what my introduction is NOT, I do not yet know what it IS.   This is a fairly uncomfortable place to sit in a world which often values us most by what we do, rather than who we are.  And some answers are more acceptable than others, for sure.  So, my friends who respond to the infamous question:  'So, what do you do?" with "Oh, I'm a lawyer" -- well, those…
Read More

Coming together…

Yesterday, I had one of those musical days that a church musician can experience during the festival seasons of Advent and Easter, if that musician is very lucky:  I spent the whole day singing something wonderful.  In the morning, the Vivaldi Magnificat at Calvary Baptist Church, and in the evening, Handel's Messiah at Millian Methodist.  And this morning, despite the twitchy muscles in my calves and the desperate need to spend some time in the hot tub at the gym (thanks to a very long time standing in heels), my thoughts are all about the dualities of life and the building of community. Okay, let me pause a minute.  If…
Read More

The season’s gift…

Sometimes, if we pay attention, we can learn more about ourselves by watching our likes and our dislikes than we can through all the torturous hours spent in personal inventory and contemplation. I'm talking about Christmas gifts.  Yes, Christmas gifts. I have rules about Christmas gifts.  I finish my shopping no later than the first week of December, always.  That doesn't mean that I don't shop after that date, but I want to know that the important, core gifts for people who really matter are acquired and wrapped by that date.  Anything else I see after that or purchase is, well, serendipity.  And, oh yes, I don't like malls.   I…
Read More

Over my head, I hear music in the air…

The past few months, something has changed. I have been doing something that, really, I haven't done in years. I have been listening to music. You might be saying to yourself right now --WHAT?  Of course she listens to music, she's a musician!  But there is a big difference between listening to music because you need to study or learn something, and, well, just listening to music. Because it pleases you. Because it helps you relax. Because it helps you feel at one with all creation. That kind of music listening, well, that hasn't happened in a very, very long time. My father was a musician, well, a retired musician by…
Read More

The birth of a radical Christian…

I admit to feeling pensive and internal lately, and, well, more than a little bit weepy.  And, at the same time manic.  I clearly am preparing for something unknown, cleaning, re-arranging furniture, painting, and organizing and planning with all of the obsession of, well, an obsessive.  It is a pattern that I have seen in myself before.  So, when I sat down this last week to do my assignment for Wednesday Night Words (to pick a song that has had meaning for my life and to bring it to share with the group), I found myself making what many would consider an odd choice.  No, no aria from an opera, no…
Read More

Pausing for a moment

I have a lot of things on my mind that I would like to write about, but, for a whole lot of reasons, I have neither the mental focus nor the energy to tackle them today.  But, feeling that I have been silent for too long on this page, I wanted to share something with the world.  While I am not a big fan of poetry (funny thing, for someone who SINGS it all the time), but as I opened a new piece of music this morning that I ordered in honor of a friend who does really like poetry (yes, Amy, that's you) I was struck by the poem that…
Read More

I’ve been fed…

(Written while on retreate at Montreat Conference Center, posted later) I'm sitting here in my little wooden chair, in my room at the Assembly Inn at the Montreat Conference Center, having just had a cold shower (hot water is an issue here, but the shower wasn't that bad), with the windows wide open to the cold morning air of the mountains, watching the light creep up over the edge of the baby mountain in front of me.  I'm sitting here in the dark, waiting for day that mostly involves driving and flying, and I'm thinking...I don't care.  I don't care, because I've been fed. And I don't mean the exceptional…
Read More

Burning off the fog…

In a couple of days I'm heading for away for a fall mini-vacation to the mountains.  Fall is my favorite time to vacation and I rarely get to experience its beauties away from the city, because of other demands.  My friend, Leah, is hosting a wonderful series about the glories of the fall season on her blog.   I'm hoping that I'm not too early to get to experience the season's glory on my little mountain trip. It's mountains and leaves and fog that is on my mind, as I think about the past few days of my life. I'll admit it, I had a particularly tough weekend.  Things are clearer…
Read More

The real closet cleaning…

There is closet cleaning, and there is closet cleaning.  Yes, time spent getting rid of books and clothes and unused kitchen items, this is standard for me at this time of year.  But boy was I surprised when God called upon me most unexpectedly to do some real closet cleaning--getting the cobwebs out of my intentions. Let me explain. You see, I was having a nice day out.  I've been concerned that lately, well, I haven't really been much fun.  Any time [caption id="attachment_570" align="alignright" width="207" caption="Julia Margaret Cameron's "The Sunflowers""][/caption] someone suggests something to do for, well, just for fun, I say no.  No to going to a movie. …
Read More

The end of Advent…

I realize, as I come to this day which is the end of the Advent season, that I really haven't pondered the nature of Advent as deeply as usual this year.  I am still busy pondering the duality of my human condition. And that awareness of duality continues today as I celebrate both the secular holiday known as Christmas and as I prepare once again to mark the end of the spiritual season of Advent and the beginning of that great festival of Christmas. Yes, I have spent today baking cookies, making dinner, and wrapping presents along with the rest of my fellow Americans and a goodly portion of my…
Read More

It’s all in the introduction, Part the Second

So, back to the elevator speech, this time, my personal one, not Paul's (remember Romans 1:1-7?)  Or, we could call it "the party introduction".    I may have to avoid parties with strangers for a while, because, well, while I know what my introduction is NOT, I do not yet know what it IS.   This is a fairly uncomfortable place to sit in a world which often values us most by what we do, rather than who we are.  And some answers are more acceptable than others, for sure.  So, my friends who respond to the infamous question:  'So, what do you do?" with "Oh, I'm a lawyer" -- well, those…
Read More

Coming together…

Yesterday, I had one of those musical days that a church musician can experience during the festival seasons of Advent and Easter, if that musician is very lucky:  I spent the whole day singing something wonderful.  In the morning, the Vivaldi Magnificat at Calvary Baptist Church, and in the evening, Handel's Messiah at Millian Methodist.  And this morning, despite the twitchy muscles in my calves and the desperate need to spend some time in the hot tub at the gym (thanks to a very long time standing in heels), my thoughts are all about the dualities of life and the building of community. Okay, let me pause a minute.  If…
Read More

The season’s gift…

Sometimes, if we pay attention, we can learn more about ourselves by watching our likes and our dislikes than we can through all the torturous hours spent in personal inventory and contemplation. I'm talking about Christmas gifts.  Yes, Christmas gifts. I have rules about Christmas gifts.  I finish my shopping no later than the first week of December, always.  That doesn't mean that I don't shop after that date, but I want to know that the important, core gifts for people who really matter are acquired and wrapped by that date.  Anything else I see after that or purchase is, well, serendipity.  And, oh yes, I don't like malls.   I…
Read More

Over my head, I hear music in the air…

The past few months, something has changed. I have been doing something that, really, I haven't done in years. I have been listening to music. You might be saying to yourself right now --WHAT?  Of course she listens to music, she's a musician!  But there is a big difference between listening to music because you need to study or learn something, and, well, just listening to music. Because it pleases you. Because it helps you relax. Because it helps you feel at one with all creation. That kind of music listening, well, that hasn't happened in a very, very long time. My father was a musician, well, a retired musician by…
Read More

The birth of a radical Christian…

I admit to feeling pensive and internal lately, and, well, more than a little bit weepy.  And, at the same time manic.  I clearly am preparing for something unknown, cleaning, re-arranging furniture, painting, and organizing and planning with all of the obsession of, well, an obsessive.  It is a pattern that I have seen in myself before.  So, when I sat down this last week to do my assignment for Wednesday Night Words (to pick a song that has had meaning for my life and to bring it to share with the group), I found myself making what many would consider an odd choice.  No, no aria from an opera, no…
Read More

Pausing for a moment

I have a lot of things on my mind that I would like to write about, but, for a whole lot of reasons, I have neither the mental focus nor the energy to tackle them today.  But, feeling that I have been silent for too long on this page, I wanted to share something with the world.  While I am not a big fan of poetry (funny thing, for someone who SINGS it all the time), but as I opened a new piece of music this morning that I ordered in honor of a friend who does really like poetry (yes, Amy, that's you) I was struck by the poem that…
Read More

I’ve been fed…

(Written while on retreate at Montreat Conference Center, posted later) I'm sitting here in my little wooden chair, in my room at the Assembly Inn at the Montreat Conference Center, having just had a cold shower (hot water is an issue here, but the shower wasn't that bad), with the windows wide open to the cold morning air of the mountains, watching the light creep up over the edge of the baby mountain in front of me.  I'm sitting here in the dark, waiting for day that mostly involves driving and flying, and I'm thinking...I don't care.  I don't care, because I've been fed. And I don't mean the exceptional…
Read More

Burning off the fog…

In a couple of days I'm heading for away for a fall mini-vacation to the mountains.  Fall is my favorite time to vacation and I rarely get to experience its beauties away from the city, because of other demands.  My friend, Leah, is hosting a wonderful series about the glories of the fall season on her blog.   I'm hoping that I'm not too early to get to experience the season's glory on my little mountain trip. It's mountains and leaves and fog that is on my mind, as I think about the past few days of my life. I'll admit it, I had a particularly tough weekend.  Things are clearer…
Read More

The real closet cleaning…

There is closet cleaning, and there is closet cleaning.  Yes, time spent getting rid of books and clothes and unused kitchen items, this is standard for me at this time of year.  But boy was I surprised when God called upon me most unexpectedly to do some real closet cleaning--getting the cobwebs out of my intentions. Let me explain. You see, I was having a nice day out.  I've been concerned that lately, well, I haven't really been much fun.  Any time [caption id="attachment_570" align="alignright" width="207" caption="Julia Margaret Cameron's "The Sunflowers""][/caption] someone suggests something to do for, well, just for fun, I say no.  No to going to a movie. …
Read More

The end of Advent…

I realize, as I come to this day which is the end of the Advent season, that I really haven't pondered the nature of Advent as deeply as usual this year.  I am still busy pondering the duality of my human condition. And that awareness of duality continues today as I celebrate both the secular holiday known as Christmas and as I prepare once again to mark the end of the spiritual season of Advent and the beginning of that great festival of Christmas. Yes, I have spent today baking cookies, making dinner, and wrapping presents along with the rest of my fellow Americans and a goodly portion of my…
Read More

It’s all in the introduction, Part the Second

So, back to the elevator speech, this time, my personal one, not Paul's (remember Romans 1:1-7?)  Or, we could call it "the party introduction".    I may have to avoid parties with strangers for a while, because, well, while I know what my introduction is NOT, I do not yet know what it IS.   This is a fairly uncomfortable place to sit in a world which often values us most by what we do, rather than who we are.  And some answers are more acceptable than others, for sure.  So, my friends who respond to the infamous question:  'So, what do you do?" with "Oh, I'm a lawyer" -- well, those…
Read More

Coming together…

Yesterday, I had one of those musical days that a church musician can experience during the festival seasons of Advent and Easter, if that musician is very lucky:  I spent the whole day singing something wonderful.  In the morning, the Vivaldi Magnificat at Calvary Baptist Church, and in the evening, Handel's Messiah at Millian Methodist.  And this morning, despite the twitchy muscles in my calves and the desperate need to spend some time in the hot tub at the gym (thanks to a very long time standing in heels), my thoughts are all about the dualities of life and the building of community. Okay, let me pause a minute.  If…
Read More

The season’s gift…

Sometimes, if we pay attention, we can learn more about ourselves by watching our likes and our dislikes than we can through all the torturous hours spent in personal inventory and contemplation. I'm talking about Christmas gifts.  Yes, Christmas gifts. I have rules about Christmas gifts.  I finish my shopping no later than the first week of December, always.  That doesn't mean that I don't shop after that date, but I want to know that the important, core gifts for people who really matter are acquired and wrapped by that date.  Anything else I see after that or purchase is, well, serendipity.  And, oh yes, I don't like malls.   I…
Read More

Over my head, I hear music in the air…

The past few months, something has changed. I have been doing something that, really, I haven't done in years. I have been listening to music. You might be saying to yourself right now --WHAT?  Of course she listens to music, she's a musician!  But there is a big difference between listening to music because you need to study or learn something, and, well, just listening to music. Because it pleases you. Because it helps you relax. Because it helps you feel at one with all creation. That kind of music listening, well, that hasn't happened in a very, very long time. My father was a musician, well, a retired musician by…
Read More

The birth of a radical Christian…

I admit to feeling pensive and internal lately, and, well, more than a little bit weepy.  And, at the same time manic.  I clearly am preparing for something unknown, cleaning, re-arranging furniture, painting, and organizing and planning with all of the obsession of, well, an obsessive.  It is a pattern that I have seen in myself before.  So, when I sat down this last week to do my assignment for Wednesday Night Words (to pick a song that has had meaning for my life and to bring it to share with the group), I found myself making what many would consider an odd choice.  No, no aria from an opera, no…
Read More

Pausing for a moment

I have a lot of things on my mind that I would like to write about, but, for a whole lot of reasons, I have neither the mental focus nor the energy to tackle them today.  But, feeling that I have been silent for too long on this page, I wanted to share something with the world.  While I am not a big fan of poetry (funny thing, for someone who SINGS it all the time), but as I opened a new piece of music this morning that I ordered in honor of a friend who does really like poetry (yes, Amy, that's you) I was struck by the poem that…
Read More

I’ve been fed…

(Written while on retreate at Montreat Conference Center, posted later) I'm sitting here in my little wooden chair, in my room at the Assembly Inn at the Montreat Conference Center, having just had a cold shower (hot water is an issue here, but the shower wasn't that bad), with the windows wide open to the cold morning air of the mountains, watching the light creep up over the edge of the baby mountain in front of me.  I'm sitting here in the dark, waiting for day that mostly involves driving and flying, and I'm thinking...I don't care.  I don't care, because I've been fed. And I don't mean the exceptional…
Read More

Burning off the fog…

In a couple of days I'm heading for away for a fall mini-vacation to the mountains.  Fall is my favorite time to vacation and I rarely get to experience its beauties away from the city, because of other demands.  My friend, Leah, is hosting a wonderful series about the glories of the fall season on her blog.   I'm hoping that I'm not too early to get to experience the season's glory on my little mountain trip. It's mountains and leaves and fog that is on my mind, as I think about the past few days of my life. I'll admit it, I had a particularly tough weekend.  Things are clearer…
Read More

The real closet cleaning…

There is closet cleaning, and there is closet cleaning.  Yes, time spent getting rid of books and clothes and unused kitchen items, this is standard for me at this time of year.  But boy was I surprised when God called upon me most unexpectedly to do some real closet cleaning--getting the cobwebs out of my intentions. Let me explain. You see, I was having a nice day out.  I've been concerned that lately, well, I haven't really been much fun.  Any time [caption id="attachment_570" align="alignright" width="207" caption="Julia Margaret Cameron's "The Sunflowers""][/caption] someone suggests something to do for, well, just for fun, I say no.  No to going to a movie. …
Read More

The end of Advent…

I realize, as I come to this day which is the end of the Advent season, that I really haven't pondered the nature of Advent as deeply as usual this year.  I am still busy pondering the duality of my human condition. And that awareness of duality continues today as I celebrate both the secular holiday known as Christmas and as I prepare once again to mark the end of the spiritual season of Advent and the beginning of that great festival of Christmas. Yes, I have spent today baking cookies, making dinner, and wrapping presents along with the rest of my fellow Americans and a goodly portion of my…
Read More

It’s all in the introduction, Part the Second

So, back to the elevator speech, this time, my personal one, not Paul's (remember Romans 1:1-7?)  Or, we could call it "the party introduction".    I may have to avoid parties with strangers for a while, because, well, while I know what my introduction is NOT, I do not yet know what it IS.   This is a fairly uncomfortable place to sit in a world which often values us most by what we do, rather than who we are.  And some answers are more acceptable than others, for sure.  So, my friends who respond to the infamous question:  'So, what do you do?" with "Oh, I'm a lawyer" -- well, those…
Read More

Coming together…

Yesterday, I had one of those musical days that a church musician can experience during the festival seasons of Advent and Easter, if that musician is very lucky:  I spent the whole day singing something wonderful.  In the morning, the Vivaldi Magnificat at Calvary Baptist Church, and in the evening, Handel's Messiah at Millian Methodist.  And this morning, despite the twitchy muscles in my calves and the desperate need to spend some time in the hot tub at the gym (thanks to a very long time standing in heels), my thoughts are all about the dualities of life and the building of community. Okay, let me pause a minute.  If…
Read More

The season’s gift…

Sometimes, if we pay attention, we can learn more about ourselves by watching our likes and our dislikes than we can through all the torturous hours spent in personal inventory and contemplation. I'm talking about Christmas gifts.  Yes, Christmas gifts. I have rules about Christmas gifts.  I finish my shopping no later than the first week of December, always.  That doesn't mean that I don't shop after that date, but I want to know that the important, core gifts for people who really matter are acquired and wrapped by that date.  Anything else I see after that or purchase is, well, serendipity.  And, oh yes, I don't like malls.   I…
Read More

Over my head, I hear music in the air…

The past few months, something has changed. I have been doing something that, really, I haven't done in years. I have been listening to music. You might be saying to yourself right now --WHAT?  Of course she listens to music, she's a musician!  But there is a big difference between listening to music because you need to study or learn something, and, well, just listening to music. Because it pleases you. Because it helps you relax. Because it helps you feel at one with all creation. That kind of music listening, well, that hasn't happened in a very, very long time. My father was a musician, well, a retired musician by…
Read More

The birth of a radical Christian…

I admit to feeling pensive and internal lately, and, well, more than a little bit weepy.  And, at the same time manic.  I clearly am preparing for something unknown, cleaning, re-arranging furniture, painting, and organizing and planning with all of the obsession of, well, an obsessive.  It is a pattern that I have seen in myself before.  So, when I sat down this last week to do my assignment for Wednesday Night Words (to pick a song that has had meaning for my life and to bring it to share with the group), I found myself making what many would consider an odd choice.  No, no aria from an opera, no…
Read More

Pausing for a moment

I have a lot of things on my mind that I would like to write about, but, for a whole lot of reasons, I have neither the mental focus nor the energy to tackle them today.  But, feeling that I have been silent for too long on this page, I wanted to share something with the world.  While I am not a big fan of poetry (funny thing, for someone who SINGS it all the time), but as I opened a new piece of music this morning that I ordered in honor of a friend who does really like poetry (yes, Amy, that's you) I was struck by the poem that…
Read More

I’ve been fed…

(Written while on retreate at Montreat Conference Center, posted later) I'm sitting here in my little wooden chair, in my room at the Assembly Inn at the Montreat Conference Center, having just had a cold shower (hot water is an issue here, but the shower wasn't that bad), with the windows wide open to the cold morning air of the mountains, watching the light creep up over the edge of the baby mountain in front of me.  I'm sitting here in the dark, waiting for day that mostly involves driving and flying, and I'm thinking...I don't care.  I don't care, because I've been fed. And I don't mean the exceptional…
Read More

Burning off the fog…

In a couple of days I'm heading for away for a fall mini-vacation to the mountains.  Fall is my favorite time to vacation and I rarely get to experience its beauties away from the city, because of other demands.  My friend, Leah, is hosting a wonderful series about the glories of the fall season on her blog.   I'm hoping that I'm not too early to get to experience the season's glory on my little mountain trip. It's mountains and leaves and fog that is on my mind, as I think about the past few days of my life. I'll admit it, I had a particularly tough weekend.  Things are clearer…
Read More

The real closet cleaning…

There is closet cleaning, and there is closet cleaning.  Yes, time spent getting rid of books and clothes and unused kitchen items, this is standard for me at this time of year.  But boy was I surprised when God called upon me most unexpectedly to do some real closet cleaning--getting the cobwebs out of my intentions. Let me explain. You see, I was having a nice day out.  I've been concerned that lately, well, I haven't really been much fun.  Any time [caption id="attachment_570" align="alignright" width="207" caption="Julia Margaret Cameron's "The Sunflowers""][/caption] someone suggests something to do for, well, just for fun, I say no.  No to going to a movie. …
Read More

The end of Advent…

I realize, as I come to this day which is the end of the Advent season, that I really haven't pondered the nature of Advent as deeply as usual this year.  I am still busy pondering the duality of my human condition. And that awareness of duality continues today as I celebrate both the secular holiday known as Christmas and as I prepare once again to mark the end of the spiritual season of Advent and the beginning of that great festival of Christmas. Yes, I have spent today baking cookies, making dinner, and wrapping presents along with the rest of my fellow Americans and a goodly portion of my…
Read More

It’s all in the introduction, Part the Second

So, back to the elevator speech, this time, my personal one, not Paul's (remember Romans 1:1-7?)  Or, we could call it "the party introduction".    I may have to avoid parties with strangers for a while, because, well, while I know what my introduction is NOT, I do not yet know what it IS.   This is a fairly uncomfortable place to sit in a world which often values us most by what we do, rather than who we are.  And some answers are more acceptable than others, for sure.  So, my friends who respond to the infamous question:  'So, what do you do?" with "Oh, I'm a lawyer" -- well, those…
Read More

Coming together…

Yesterday, I had one of those musical days that a church musician can experience during the festival seasons of Advent and Easter, if that musician is very lucky:  I spent the whole day singing something wonderful.  In the morning, the Vivaldi Magnificat at Calvary Baptist Church, and in the evening, Handel's Messiah at Millian Methodist.  And this morning, despite the twitchy muscles in my calves and the desperate need to spend some time in the hot tub at the gym (thanks to a very long time standing in heels), my thoughts are all about the dualities of life and the building of community. Okay, let me pause a minute.  If…
Read More

The season’s gift…

Sometimes, if we pay attention, we can learn more about ourselves by watching our likes and our dislikes than we can through all the torturous hours spent in personal inventory and contemplation. I'm talking about Christmas gifts.  Yes, Christmas gifts. I have rules about Christmas gifts.  I finish my shopping no later than the first week of December, always.  That doesn't mean that I don't shop after that date, but I want to know that the important, core gifts for people who really matter are acquired and wrapped by that date.  Anything else I see after that or purchase is, well, serendipity.  And, oh yes, I don't like malls.   I…
Read More

Over my head, I hear music in the air…

The past few months, something has changed. I have been doing something that, really, I haven't done in years. I have been listening to music. You might be saying to yourself right now --WHAT?  Of course she listens to music, she's a musician!  But there is a big difference between listening to music because you need to study or learn something, and, well, just listening to music. Because it pleases you. Because it helps you relax. Because it helps you feel at one with all creation. That kind of music listening, well, that hasn't happened in a very, very long time. My father was a musician, well, a retired musician by…
Read More

The birth of a radical Christian…

I admit to feeling pensive and internal lately, and, well, more than a little bit weepy.  And, at the same time manic.  I clearly am preparing for something unknown, cleaning, re-arranging furniture, painting, and organizing and planning with all of the obsession of, well, an obsessive.  It is a pattern that I have seen in myself before.  So, when I sat down this last week to do my assignment for Wednesday Night Words (to pick a song that has had meaning for my life and to bring it to share with the group), I found myself making what many would consider an odd choice.  No, no aria from an opera, no…
Read More

Pausing for a moment

I have a lot of things on my mind that I would like to write about, but, for a whole lot of reasons, I have neither the mental focus nor the energy to tackle them today.  But, feeling that I have been silent for too long on this page, I wanted to share something with the world.  While I am not a big fan of poetry (funny thing, for someone who SINGS it all the time), but as I opened a new piece of music this morning that I ordered in honor of a friend who does really like poetry (yes, Amy, that's you) I was struck by the poem that…
Read More

I’ve been fed…

(Written while on retreate at Montreat Conference Center, posted later) I'm sitting here in my little wooden chair, in my room at the Assembly Inn at the Montreat Conference Center, having just had a cold shower (hot water is an issue here, but the shower wasn't that bad), with the windows wide open to the cold morning air of the mountains, watching the light creep up over the edge of the baby mountain in front of me.  I'm sitting here in the dark, waiting for day that mostly involves driving and flying, and I'm thinking...I don't care.  I don't care, because I've been fed. And I don't mean the exceptional…
Read More

Burning off the fog…

In a couple of days I'm heading for away for a fall mini-vacation to the mountains.  Fall is my favorite time to vacation and I rarely get to experience its beauties away from the city, because of other demands.  My friend, Leah, is hosting a wonderful series about the glories of the fall season on her blog.   I'm hoping that I'm not too early to get to experience the season's glory on my little mountain trip. It's mountains and leaves and fog that is on my mind, as I think about the past few days of my life. I'll admit it, I had a particularly tough weekend.  Things are clearer…
Read More

The real closet cleaning…

There is closet cleaning, and there is closet cleaning.  Yes, time spent getting rid of books and clothes and unused kitchen items, this is standard for me at this time of year.  But boy was I surprised when God called upon me most unexpectedly to do some real closet cleaning--getting the cobwebs out of my intentions. Let me explain. You see, I was having a nice day out.  I've been concerned that lately, well, I haven't really been much fun.  Any time [caption id="attachment_570" align="alignright" width="207" caption="Julia Margaret Cameron's "The Sunflowers""][/caption] someone suggests something to do for, well, just for fun, I say no.  No to going to a movie. …
Read More

The end of Advent…

I realize, as I come to this day which is the end of the Advent season, that I really haven't pondered the nature of Advent as deeply as usual this year.  I am still busy pondering the duality of my human condition. And that awareness of duality continues today as I celebrate both the secular holiday known as Christmas and as I prepare once again to mark the end of the spiritual season of Advent and the beginning of that great festival of Christmas. Yes, I have spent today baking cookies, making dinner, and wrapping presents along with the rest of my fellow Americans and a goodly portion of my…
Read More

It’s all in the introduction, Part the Second

So, back to the elevator speech, this time, my personal one, not Paul's (remember Romans 1:1-7?)  Or, we could call it "the party introduction".    I may have to avoid parties with strangers for a while, because, well, while I know what my introduction is NOT, I do not yet know what it IS.   This is a fairly uncomfortable place to sit in a world which often values us most by what we do, rather than who we are.  And some answers are more acceptable than others, for sure.  So, my friends who respond to the infamous question:  'So, what do you do?" with "Oh, I'm a lawyer" -- well, those…
Read More

Coming together…

Yesterday, I had one of those musical days that a church musician can experience during the festival seasons of Advent and Easter, if that musician is very lucky:  I spent the whole day singing something wonderful.  In the morning, the Vivaldi Magnificat at Calvary Baptist Church, and in the evening, Handel's Messiah at Millian Methodist.  And this morning, despite the twitchy muscles in my calves and the desperate need to spend some time in the hot tub at the gym (thanks to a very long time standing in heels), my thoughts are all about the dualities of life and the building of community. Okay, let me pause a minute.  If…
Read More

The season’s gift…

Sometimes, if we pay attention, we can learn more about ourselves by watching our likes and our dislikes than we can through all the torturous hours spent in personal inventory and contemplation. I'm talking about Christmas gifts.  Yes, Christmas gifts. I have rules about Christmas gifts.  I finish my shopping no later than the first week of December, always.  That doesn't mean that I don't shop after that date, but I want to know that the important, core gifts for people who really matter are acquired and wrapped by that date.  Anything else I see after that or purchase is, well, serendipity.  And, oh yes, I don't like malls.   I…
Read More

Over my head, I hear music in the air…

The past few months, something has changed. I have been doing something that, really, I haven't done in years. I have been listening to music. You might be saying to yourself right now --WHAT?  Of course she listens to music, she's a musician!  But there is a big difference between listening to music because you need to study or learn something, and, well, just listening to music. Because it pleases you. Because it helps you relax. Because it helps you feel at one with all creation. That kind of music listening, well, that hasn't happened in a very, very long time. My father was a musician, well, a retired musician by…
Read More

The birth of a radical Christian…

I admit to feeling pensive and internal lately, and, well, more than a little bit weepy.  And, at the same time manic.  I clearly am preparing for something unknown, cleaning, re-arranging furniture, painting, and organizing and planning with all of the obsession of, well, an obsessive.  It is a pattern that I have seen in myself before.  So, when I sat down this last week to do my assignment for Wednesday Night Words (to pick a song that has had meaning for my life and to bring it to share with the group), I found myself making what many would consider an odd choice.  No, no aria from an opera, no…
Read More

Pausing for a moment

I have a lot of things on my mind that I would like to write about, but, for a whole lot of reasons, I have neither the mental focus nor the energy to tackle them today.  But, feeling that I have been silent for too long on this page, I wanted to share something with the world.  While I am not a big fan of poetry (funny thing, for someone who SINGS it all the time), but as I opened a new piece of music this morning that I ordered in honor of a friend who does really like poetry (yes, Amy, that's you) I was struck by the poem that…
Read More

I’ve been fed…

(Written while on retreate at Montreat Conference Center, posted later) I'm sitting here in my little wooden chair, in my room at the Assembly Inn at the Montreat Conference Center, having just had a cold shower (hot water is an issue here, but the shower wasn't that bad), with the windows wide open to the cold morning air of the mountains, watching the light creep up over the edge of the baby mountain in front of me.  I'm sitting here in the dark, waiting for day that mostly involves driving and flying, and I'm thinking...I don't care.  I don't care, because I've been fed. And I don't mean the exceptional…
Read More

Burning off the fog…

In a couple of days I'm heading for away for a fall mini-vacation to the mountains.  Fall is my favorite time to vacation and I rarely get to experience its beauties away from the city, because of other demands.  My friend, Leah, is hosting a wonderful series about the glories of the fall season on her blog.   I'm hoping that I'm not too early to get to experience the season's glory on my little mountain trip. It's mountains and leaves and fog that is on my mind, as I think about the past few days of my life. I'll admit it, I had a particularly tough weekend.  Things are clearer…
Read More

The real closet cleaning…

There is closet cleaning, and there is closet cleaning.  Yes, time spent getting rid of books and clothes and unused kitchen items, this is standard for me at this time of year.  But boy was I surprised when God called upon me most unexpectedly to do some real closet cleaning--getting the cobwebs out of my intentions. Let me explain. You see, I was having a nice day out.  I've been concerned that lately, well, I haven't really been much fun.  Any time [caption id="attachment_570" align="alignright" width="207" caption="Julia Margaret Cameron's "The Sunflowers""][/caption] someone suggests something to do for, well, just for fun, I say no.  No to going to a movie. …
Read More

The end of Advent…

I realize, as I come to this day which is the end of the Advent season, that I really haven't pondered the nature of Advent as deeply as usual this year.  I am still busy pondering the duality of my human condition. And that awareness of duality continues today as I celebrate both the secular holiday known as Christmas and as I prepare once again to mark the end of the spiritual season of Advent and the beginning of that great festival of Christmas. Yes, I have spent today baking cookies, making dinner, and wrapping presents along with the rest of my fellow Americans and a goodly portion of my…
Read More

It’s all in the introduction, Part the Second

So, back to the elevator speech, this time, my personal one, not Paul's (remember Romans 1:1-7?)  Or, we could call it "the party introduction".    I may have to avoid parties with strangers for a while, because, well, while I know what my introduction is NOT, I do not yet know what it IS.   This is a fairly uncomfortable place to sit in a world which often values us most by what we do, rather than who we are.  And some answers are more acceptable than others, for sure.  So, my friends who respond to the infamous question:  'So, what do you do?" with "Oh, I'm a lawyer" -- well, those…
Read More

Coming together…

Yesterday, I had one of those musical days that a church musician can experience during the festival seasons of Advent and Easter, if that musician is very lucky:  I spent the whole day singing something wonderful.  In the morning, the Vivaldi Magnificat at Calvary Baptist Church, and in the evening, Handel's Messiah at Millian Methodist.  And this morning, despite the twitchy muscles in my calves and the desperate need to spend some time in the hot tub at the gym (thanks to a very long time standing in heels), my thoughts are all about the dualities of life and the building of community. Okay, let me pause a minute.  If…
Read More

The season’s gift…

Sometimes, if we pay attention, we can learn more about ourselves by watching our likes and our dislikes than we can through all the torturous hours spent in personal inventory and contemplation. I'm talking about Christmas gifts.  Yes, Christmas gifts. I have rules about Christmas gifts.  I finish my shopping no later than the first week of December, always.  That doesn't mean that I don't shop after that date, but I want to know that the important, core gifts for people who really matter are acquired and wrapped by that date.  Anything else I see after that or purchase is, well, serendipity.  And, oh yes, I don't like malls.   I…
Read More

Over my head, I hear music in the air…

The past few months, something has changed. I have been doing something that, really, I haven't done in years. I have been listening to music. You might be saying to yourself right now --WHAT?  Of course she listens to music, she's a musician!  But there is a big difference between listening to music because you need to study or learn something, and, well, just listening to music. Because it pleases you. Because it helps you relax. Because it helps you feel at one with all creation. That kind of music listening, well, that hasn't happened in a very, very long time. My father was a musician, well, a retired musician by…
Read More

The birth of a radical Christian…

I admit to feeling pensive and internal lately, and, well, more than a little bit weepy.  And, at the same time manic.  I clearly am preparing for something unknown, cleaning, re-arranging furniture, painting, and organizing and planning with all of the obsession of, well, an obsessive.  It is a pattern that I have seen in myself before.  So, when I sat down this last week to do my assignment for Wednesday Night Words (to pick a song that has had meaning for my life and to bring it to share with the group), I found myself making what many would consider an odd choice.  No, no aria from an opera, no…
Read More

Pausing for a moment

I have a lot of things on my mind that I would like to write about, but, for a whole lot of reasons, I have neither the mental focus nor the energy to tackle them today.  But, feeling that I have been silent for too long on this page, I wanted to share something with the world.  While I am not a big fan of poetry (funny thing, for someone who SINGS it all the time), but as I opened a new piece of music this morning that I ordered in honor of a friend who does really like poetry (yes, Amy, that's you) I was struck by the poem that…
Read More

I’ve been fed…

(Written while on retreate at Montreat Conference Center, posted later) I'm sitting here in my little wooden chair, in my room at the Assembly Inn at the Montreat Conference Center, having just had a cold shower (hot water is an issue here, but the shower wasn't that bad), with the windows wide open to the cold morning air of the mountains, watching the light creep up over the edge of the baby mountain in front of me.  I'm sitting here in the dark, waiting for day that mostly involves driving and flying, and I'm thinking...I don't care.  I don't care, because I've been fed. And I don't mean the exceptional…
Read More

Burning off the fog…

In a couple of days I'm heading for away for a fall mini-vacation to the mountains.  Fall is my favorite time to vacation and I rarely get to experience its beauties away from the city, because of other demands.  My friend, Leah, is hosting a wonderful series about the glories of the fall season on her blog.   I'm hoping that I'm not too early to get to experience the season's glory on my little mountain trip. It's mountains and leaves and fog that is on my mind, as I think about the past few days of my life. I'll admit it, I had a particularly tough weekend.  Things are clearer…
Read More

The real closet cleaning…

There is closet cleaning, and there is closet cleaning.  Yes, time spent getting rid of books and clothes and unused kitchen items, this is standard for me at this time of year.  But boy was I surprised when God called upon me most unexpectedly to do some real closet cleaning--getting the cobwebs out of my intentions. Let me explain. You see, I was having a nice day out.  I've been concerned that lately, well, I haven't really been much fun.  Any time [caption id="attachment_570" align="alignright" width="207" caption="Julia Margaret Cameron's "The Sunflowers""][/caption] someone suggests something to do for, well, just for fun, I say no.  No to going to a movie. …
Read More

The end of Advent…

I realize, as I come to this day which is the end of the Advent season, that I really haven't pondered the nature of Advent as deeply as usual this year.  I am still busy pondering the duality of my human condition. And that awareness of duality continues today as I celebrate both the secular holiday known as Christmas and as I prepare once again to mark the end of the spiritual season of Advent and the beginning of that great festival of Christmas. Yes, I have spent today baking cookies, making dinner, and wrapping presents along with the rest of my fellow Americans and a goodly portion of my…
Read More

It’s all in the introduction, Part the Second

So, back to the elevator speech, this time, my personal one, not Paul's (remember Romans 1:1-7?)  Or, we could call it "the party introduction".    I may have to avoid parties with strangers for a while, because, well, while I know what my introduction is NOT, I do not yet know what it IS.   This is a fairly uncomfortable place to sit in a world which often values us most by what we do, rather than who we are.  And some answers are more acceptable than others, for sure.  So, my friends who respond to the infamous question:  'So, what do you do?" with "Oh, I'm a lawyer" -- well, those…
Read More

Coming together…

Yesterday, I had one of those musical days that a church musician can experience during the festival seasons of Advent and Easter, if that musician is very lucky:  I spent the whole day singing something wonderful.  In the morning, the Vivaldi Magnificat at Calvary Baptist Church, and in the evening, Handel's Messiah at Millian Methodist.  And this morning, despite the twitchy muscles in my calves and the desperate need to spend some time in the hot tub at the gym (thanks to a very long time standing in heels), my thoughts are all about the dualities of life and the building of community. Okay, let me pause a minute.  If…
Read More

The season’s gift…

Sometimes, if we pay attention, we can learn more about ourselves by watching our likes and our dislikes than we can through all the torturous hours spent in personal inventory and contemplation. I'm talking about Christmas gifts.  Yes, Christmas gifts. I have rules about Christmas gifts.  I finish my shopping no later than the first week of December, always.  That doesn't mean that I don't shop after that date, but I want to know that the important, core gifts for people who really matter are acquired and wrapped by that date.  Anything else I see after that or purchase is, well, serendipity.  And, oh yes, I don't like malls.   I…
Read More

Over my head, I hear music in the air…

The past few months, something has changed. I have been doing something that, really, I haven't done in years. I have been listening to music. You might be saying to yourself right now --WHAT?  Of course she listens to music, she's a musician!  But there is a big difference between listening to music because you need to study or learn something, and, well, just listening to music. Because it pleases you. Because it helps you relax. Because it helps you feel at one with all creation. That kind of music listening, well, that hasn't happened in a very, very long time. My father was a musician, well, a retired musician by…
Read More

The birth of a radical Christian…

I admit to feeling pensive and internal lately, and, well, more than a little bit weepy.  And, at the same time manic.  I clearly am preparing for something unknown, cleaning, re-arranging furniture, painting, and organizing and planning with all of the obsession of, well, an obsessive.  It is a pattern that I have seen in myself before.  So, when I sat down this last week to do my assignment for Wednesday Night Words (to pick a song that has had meaning for my life and to bring it to share with the group), I found myself making what many would consider an odd choice.  No, no aria from an opera, no…
Read More

Pausing for a moment

I have a lot of things on my mind that I would like to write about, but, for a whole lot of reasons, I have neither the mental focus nor the energy to tackle them today.  But, feeling that I have been silent for too long on this page, I wanted to share something with the world.  While I am not a big fan of poetry (funny thing, for someone who SINGS it all the time), but as I opened a new piece of music this morning that I ordered in honor of a friend who does really like poetry (yes, Amy, that's you) I was struck by the poem that…
Read More

I’ve been fed…

(Written while on retreate at Montreat Conference Center, posted later) I'm sitting here in my little wooden chair, in my room at the Assembly Inn at the Montreat Conference Center, having just had a cold shower (hot water is an issue here, but the shower wasn't that bad), with the windows wide open to the cold morning air of the mountains, watching the light creep up over the edge of the baby mountain in front of me.  I'm sitting here in the dark, waiting for day that mostly involves driving and flying, and I'm thinking...I don't care.  I don't care, because I've been fed. And I don't mean the exceptional…
Read More

Burning off the fog…

In a couple of days I'm heading for away for a fall mini-vacation to the mountains.  Fall is my favorite time to vacation and I rarely get to experience its beauties away from the city, because of other demands.  My friend, Leah, is hosting a wonderful series about the glories of the fall season on her blog.   I'm hoping that I'm not too early to get to experience the season's glory on my little mountain trip. It's mountains and leaves and fog that is on my mind, as I think about the past few days of my life. I'll admit it, I had a particularly tough weekend.  Things are clearer…
Read More