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

A pilgrimage…of sorts

Lately, I have been very interested in a way of thinking that is often referred to as the "ancient-future" view of Christianity, one that seeks to recover what we know and can know of the ways of those first Christians, struggling in faith, struggling to live together before the creation of the institution that we know as "church", and to take that knowledge and use it to forge a way of Christian living in the 21st century.  It is this view of faith that has led to such movements as the New Monasticism, among others. I however, have been approaching this interest, not by moving into a big house with…
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Advent: Reminder of the Perpetual Coming

I must admit to having a fair amount of writer's block lately.  I have started any number of texts for various purposes and discarded them.  In one case, I even pulled back something that was about to be published.  I can't even find enough inspiration wordsmithing to finish the personnel handbook revision that is more than overdue. Perhaps it is just the hustle and bustle of seasonal preparations and concert preparations; I am not sure.   Maybe my eyes have been closed for other reasons (for it is with the eyes and and ears and the heart that we write, I believe); maybe my ears have been resting.   Maybe my thoughts have been just too internal…
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Going to church…

It is, once again, Sunday morning.  And I am once again up at some totally-too-early-hour, getting ready to go to church and join my community in worship and in fellowship. But that, my friends, is my favorite way to spend my Sunday morning.  No lazy lay-a-bed with the New York Times for me -- 5:30 wakeup, meditation, preparation, and out the door at 9 a.m. only to return, if I am lucky, by 2 p.m. But what is really on my mind this morning as I get ready for the day ahead, is, well, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the things we read together as a study group in his work Life…
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What is your wish-dream?

It never fails...whatever we are reading for our Wednesday Night Words class (this season, it is Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Life Together) first makes me angry or gives me a headache and only later, long after the studying stops, displays its gifts for me.  I will never forget -- I was angry all the time as we read and discussed Claiming Theology from the Pulpit, yet I return to that book over and over again when meeting new people or when reading the work of theologians and commentators -- it has formed an essential layer of understanding for me that guides me daily in my ability to discuss my faith, and my…
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Where the music comes from…

Last Friday, on the opening concert of the Friday Morning Music Club's first resident season at Calvary Baptist Church, my good friend and frequent performing partner, Natalie, sang  (beautifully, I might add) one of my most favorite songs...a song by Lee Hoiby, called "Where the Music Comes From...", for which the composer himself wrote the words.  The text is, for me, an eloquent statement of so much that I hold true: I want to be where the music comes from Where the clock stops, where it's now I want to be with the friends around me Who have found me, who show me how I want to sing to the…
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Thank God for mothers…

Despite my years as a devoted Germanophile, I have not yet taken the time to read any of the works of the theologian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer.  I knew of him from my studies of German history and culture, but he was for me just one of that far-too-short list of names of those known to work against the Nazi regime, a list that includes names like Sophie Scholl and the few members of the White Rose.  But in our Wednesday Night Words class, we have begun the study of his work, Life Together, and well, my historical-church-theological nerdiness is showing.  Last night we talked about the documentary we had seen the…
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Why I love Spanish classical music…

Recently I had the great good fortune to sing some of the great classics of Spanish vocal music in the capital city of Madrid; this coming Sunday evening, I will sing them again, and, silly me, I am contemplating making a two day journey across the continent to Los Angeles, simply to hear some of my favorite Spanish musicians perform a program there. Two years ago, I like so many other classical musicians in the United States, would have dismissed the idea that there was a body of amazing classical vocal music that went beyond the few songs by Granados and De Falla that we were taught in our days in the conservatory -- but…
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If speaking is silver, then listening is gold…

That quotation is actually an old Turkish proverb.  I offer it to you because over the past couple of weeks, the art of listening has been on my mind. Did you know that, for a musician, one of the MOST important skills is the ability to listen?  Correct.  And, in many, many instances, a performer's ability to listen will make or break a performance.  Listening is important for tuning, for ensemble singing and playing, for taking direction from a conductor or a stage director -- if you as a performer cannot listen well, you will never be part of a great performance.  That is right -- "part of".  No matter…
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A tug and a pull…

I'm starting this Wednesday morning with a confession:  over the past couple of years, as I have worked with the concept of "discernment", lived in a place of discernment, worked to always practice true discernment, listened, prayed, thought, probed --truthfully, I have come, well, to dislike the word discernment.  In fact, as of yesterday, I would do anything to avoid the word, the concept, the idea -- if, sitting across from someone, they had leaned forward and told me in hushed tones that they were in a period of discernment, I probably would have had to leave the room -- no matter the depth of their sincerity or need.  The…
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Yes, it is better together…

To state the obvious for anyone over the age of 20, yesterday was the the 10th anniversary of the events of 9-11-2001.  Much has been written and said about how we all feel about what happened in 2001, and what we think of the years since.  But I would like to share with you what I felt about, well, yesterday. First of all, I am as much an anniversary driven creature as any other human.  I was thinking yesterday as I drove out of our driveway, how much like my dog Gracie I really am.  When something unpleasant or frightening happens to her, she instinctively expects it to happen again,…
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