Singing Along the Journey
Thoughts about faith and wholeness set to the soundtrack of life

My Lenten book report…

One of my favorite things to do on vacation, particularly on a beach vacation, is to read.  Usually, I devote my uninterrupted book time to things I would not read at home (usually because I don't have time), but on this vacation, I didn't start the mystery novels until the last day...somehow I was inspired by the call during our Ash Wednesday service to embrace the act of study as a spiritual discipline and so I devoted my first precious reading hours of vacation to finishing up some long-in-process readables. Only after 4 days, when my brain and spirit were overstuffed like a big Thanksgiving turkey did I give in and pick up…
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Star light, star bright…

I'll admit it.  I just returned from a much-needed-but-all-too-short-vacation in Mexico.  My biggest decisions during those few blissful days were "what book to read next" and "what restaurant do we choose tonight".  The weather was beautiful, etc., etc. and so forth. Now, I would not describe myself as a science nerd or even someone who pays much attention to the science news.  And, since the end of my days as a new-age-spirituality-guru, I haven't continued to cast charts (yes, that is correct, I did for a while cast horoscope charts...I'm kind of a hands-on type when it comes to any spiritual exploration), so I really haven't kept up with the…
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We’ve come this far by faith…

It has been over a week now since we had our annual re-committment Sunday at the Calvary Baptist Church.  I love that Sunday because we always do some small action to make the act of re-committment tangible:  somehow, we are asked to come forward again and make ourselves known to the community of faith.  In case you don't know, the act of "coming forward" is very important in the Baptist tradition;  and it is a physical manifestation of committment that speaks to me.  In fact, on many Sundays it is all I can do to stay in my seat, the call to stand and be counted is so compelling. Our…
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Playing catch-up…

I would be the first to admit that I feel like I spend most of my days playing catch-up to those around me:  especially in terms of my reading and thinking about my faith and my calling.  I have, for most of life, done things in reverse order...I was an adult before I was a child, I had my old age before my youth (although I'm guessing I'll get a second run at the old age thing), I worked as a librarian before I studied library science, I sang professionally before I studied singing, etc. etc. and so forth and so on.  And now, I am coming to see that…
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Journeying with the Magi

Advent is now long behind us (well, it seems long to me), we areat the end of Christmas, and Epiphany lies ahead of us.  I am lucky; unlike most people who must return to a daily schedule as soon as the New Year is in place, I generally have an extra week to clean out the old and make space for the new, and recover from the extra services and extra music that have filled the season just past.  These are the moments when I file the old music and ready the new; finish the readings devoted to the liturgical season and select those for the coming weeks and the coming…
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A Hopeful New Year’s Eve Confession

Well here we are, once again standing at the end of our human-created calendar, looking forward to the beginning of our next year, as defined by that calendar.  Personally, I am looking forward to the opportunity to worship in community tomorrow morning, so my celebrations tonight will be quiet and I'll leave the party animal in me to be satisfied by an event on January 2 with friends old and new, a most fitting way to start 2012. A New Year's Day worship service can be a most important experience...it was many years ago in just such a service, my very first New Year in Washington DC as a newly divorced, newly…
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And a Very Merry Feast of the Nativity to You…

I have a new policy about this holiday season...very new; in fact, it only began yesterday.  I have decided to do my best to be my most mindful about the difference between celebrating the event that beget the holiday -- the coming of the Christ to our world of human flesh as the baby Jesus -- and the times I am celebrating the secular holiday that has over taken the remembrance of the sacred event. In honor of the first, may I wish you a blessed feast of the Nativity.  I hope that you are, as I am, preparing now to go and worship with your chosen community of faith, if…
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A Holiday Book Review

I am always struggling to make sure that each day includes some time devoted to something that most people would call a "spiritual practice".  In the course of my life, I have tried yoga, transcendental meditation, walking meditation, journalling, praying the hours-- if there is an activity recommended by my old compatriots in the New Age movement, I have tried it to a greater or lesser degree of success and discipline. The one thing that works for me, however, no matter what the current state of my theology, is reading a daily devotion of some type.  The older I get, the more I see how the practices of my childhood carry forward…
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Two years and still on the road…

Yesterday was an important anniversary for me -- two years ago, I was baptized at the Calvary Baptist Church.  This was an important and life-changing choice for me, and if you want to, you can read about it here and here and here... So for a moment, I want to pause and follow the ancient practice of remembering sacred days and feasts, because, for me, this anniversary is both. I can safely say that I cannot think of only one other decision that I have made in my life that was made so clearly and without consternation.   And I can think of no other decision about which I can say, two…
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On the hunt…

In case you don't know, I live with a beagle.  And if you have ever spent any time in the presence of a beagle, you have probably heard the famous Dave Barry quote about the breed, namely that a beagle is a nose with four legs attached.   My Gracie is indeed just such a creature...if you watch her, you see her use her discerning nose to search out the object of her desire (usually a food item, since she is an eating machine).  When she catches that first whiff of something interesting or something that needs attention, the nose goes up in the air and the sniffing begins. What most…
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