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

Beginning the remembering…

I must confess that I am avoiding the news and the usual NPR sound track to my life because, well, I am striving to resist the growing tide of 9/11 remembrance stories.  It is not that I do not want to remember, in fact I can't help but remember....I just want to maintain some illusion of control over when I take time to remember and therefore when I give in to the emotions that come with those memories. But maybe because I have been thinking about the topics like art and sin, yesterday I was thinking about just what I was doing ten years ago -- not in the minute…
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And, one more thing on the topic of sin…

Well, for now anyway.  Back to the book I've been reading, Uncommon Gratitude, by Sr. Joan Chittister and Bishop Rowan Williams. I can't move on to the chapter on "Saints" before I finish digesting the one on "Sinners". I have spent the greater part of my energy over the last two years trying to find some resolution, some combination of what I experience as the call to communicate through musical performance and music education, and the call to discipleship....calls which have often seemed too divergent to manage or even to coexist in one life, at least in this world in which we live.  But I continue to be very unsuccessful…
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Yes, I’m a sinner, but I guess I’m a good one…

Okay, I know that the title bears some explanation.  If you've been following my writings at least a little bit, you know that last spring, after a year of agonized questing and trying, I stopped actively looking for a way to "answer" the strong call of Gospel living that I felt and feel on my life.  I decided to to stop enrolling, pursuing, managing, forcing, and in general applying my considerable human will to answering that call, and to try a different approach:  I did nothing.  And, I must tell you, I really did nothing.  I haven't read a book, I haven't made a plan, I haven't looked forward --…
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Lucky girl…

As if there is anyone out there who does not know this, I'm going to tell you that we had an earthquake here in the District of Columbia on Tuesday, August 23.  And, as I sit here writing this, we are awaiting the arrival of a hurrican named Irene (although if weather forecasting has any veracity at all, those of us here in the city will only see Irene as a tropical storm). Mostly, I'm writing about this for myself, since it is hardly news.  But I want to remember the events of this week far into the future. I suppose that there are many in this country who think…
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That old back-to-school feeling…

Last night I went out and bought some school supplies, with the excuse that I had a rebate coupon that was about to expire and that I had some project planning to do and needed those supplies.  Truth be told, I could feel summer drawing to a close and the world gearing up to go back to school and, well, I felt left out.  I have spent a lot of years of my life in one kind of school or another and the tug of the approaching start of class was just too strong on my psyche to resist.  I have joked that I might need a 12-step group to…
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I See God in the Sunrise…and…

A friend and I have this kind of running joke with our pastor...it stems from a class where we were reading the book Claiming Theology from the Pulpit and learning to put labels on our own very distinct theological viewpoints.  We were talking about pantheism, whether or not that was an accurate theology or a heresy, as it was labelled by the early church fathers, etc., etc., and so forth.  My friend, who is a great lover of animals and all things "nature", made an impassioned argument for "seeing God in the sunrise".  Our pastor, of course, argued strongly for the other side.  It was a fun theological evening (yes,…
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Being the foreigner…

At the same time that I feel a part of Madrid's comida lifestyle, I am often aware that I am "the foreigner".  And that awareness makes me think differently of so many of the people I know who are immigrants in my own country, both legal and not.  It makes me think more carefully about what daily life must be like for them.  As my mother always taught me, to learn how to love your brother, walk a mile in his shoes. This is, of course, not the first time that I have spent an extended time in another country and culture.  But somehow, the difference of my position here…
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Being a Madrileña — at least for a while….

[caption id="attachment_749" align="alignright" width="150"] Goya's majos and majas[/caption] As I sit here, getting ready to head out to La Rambla, the big Madrid market -- apparently THE place to be for any resident of Madrid on a Sunday afternoon, I can't help but think how different this trip to Madrid has been for me.  While I won't go so far as to say that I have become a maja (although I do play one on the stage...ha), I think that I have been an honorary Madrileña for these weeks.  That is just the Spanish word for a resident of Madrid. I think that everyone has a personal travelling style and, while…
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A Day in the Life….

Well, I have been in Madrid over a week now, and the pace of life is fast and furious most days as we approach the performance dates.   A week seems like forever, at the speed things are moving, but the following thoughts were written before the whirlwind began, on July 15, 2011.  It just took me a while to get them posted.  So here are my thoughts when I had just arrived, before I started to feel like I live here. On my first full day in Madrid, I’m having what I like to call a lifestyle day.  Madrid is perfectly suited to such a day…from everything I read, it…
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Long long ago…and tomorrow

Someone very dear to me (and you know who you are) once said to me:  "I see God in you....in  your constant commitment to learning and questioning and knowing what it is, exactly, that God is telling you.  Keep asking questions.  I think God is in the questions for you--you see Him there."  Well, I have a confession to make:  I really haven't been asking too many questions the last couple of months -- I believe, really, that I was tired.  And, that maybe it was time to just let a year of whirling-dervish question- asking settle. But, as will probably not surprise this friend and many others, as I…
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