An arroyo is never the trail…

Last night, I enjoyed the Arena Stage production of Rogers and Hammerstein's Carousel, you know the one that ends with that big song about faith and hope, You Never Walk Alone.  And before that, I spent most of the day in the recording studio editing the final cut of my version of Walk with Me, an arrangement of the two traditional songs, I Want Jesus to Walk With Me and We Must Walk This Lonesome Valley.  Methinks that I am thinking a lot about the road ahead, the path I walk, the path I am called to walk? A couple of weeks ago, I was in the red rocks of Sedona, Arizona, hiking.  That is not…
Read More

Remembering joy…

Monday evening, I participated in the Service of Remembrance at St. Mark's Episcopal Church in my neighborhood.  The Service of Remembrance, or, as some call it, a "blue" service, is the seasonal service for "the rest of us" -- those of us who find the required mirth of the secular season difficult.  I am always surprised that so few people attend these services, because I know that there are so many who find this season challenging.  For me, it was an important time to stop and feel, to sit and pray, and to be with others in a like-hearted space. In one brief hour, whoever planned the service managed to…
Read More

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…
Read More

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…
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

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

I never want to be…

...a music grinder.  Yes, you read correctly -- not an organ grinder, but a music grinder.  This is a descriptive term that has fascinated me ever since I read it in Paul Westermeyer's book, Church Musician, a kind of how-to-be book for musicians who think they might want to be just that, a church musician.  For him, a music grinder is a church musician who just puts out the music, without attachment to the context in the which the music is performed, and without any sense of purpose or participation in the worship of the community in which they make music. It is, sadly, possible, to be a music grinder…
Read More

An arroyo is never the trail…

Last night, I enjoyed the Arena Stage production of Rogers and Hammerstein's Carousel, you know the one that ends with that big song about faith and hope, You Never Walk Alone.  And before that, I spent most of the day in the recording studio editing the final cut of my version of Walk with Me, an arrangement of the two traditional songs, I Want Jesus to Walk With Me and We Must Walk This Lonesome Valley.  Methinks that I am thinking a lot about the road ahead, the path I walk, the path I am called to walk? A couple of weeks ago, I was in the red rocks of Sedona, Arizona, hiking.  That is not…
Read More

Remembering joy…

Monday evening, I participated in the Service of Remembrance at St. Mark's Episcopal Church in my neighborhood.  The Service of Remembrance, or, as some call it, a "blue" service, is the seasonal service for "the rest of us" -- those of us who find the required mirth of the secular season difficult.  I am always surprised that so few people attend these services, because I know that there are so many who find this season challenging.  For me, it was an important time to stop and feel, to sit and pray, and to be with others in a like-hearted space. In one brief hour, whoever planned the service managed to…
Read More

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…
Read More

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…
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

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

I never want to be…

...a music grinder.  Yes, you read correctly -- not an organ grinder, but a music grinder.  This is a descriptive term that has fascinated me ever since I read it in Paul Westermeyer's book, Church Musician, a kind of how-to-be book for musicians who think they might want to be just that, a church musician.  For him, a music grinder is a church musician who just puts out the music, without attachment to the context in the which the music is performed, and without any sense of purpose or participation in the worship of the community in which they make music. It is, sadly, possible, to be a music grinder…
Read More

An arroyo is never the trail…

Last night, I enjoyed the Arena Stage production of Rogers and Hammerstein's Carousel, you know the one that ends with that big song about faith and hope, You Never Walk Alone.  And before that, I spent most of the day in the recording studio editing the final cut of my version of Walk with Me, an arrangement of the two traditional songs, I Want Jesus to Walk With Me and We Must Walk This Lonesome Valley.  Methinks that I am thinking a lot about the road ahead, the path I walk, the path I am called to walk? A couple of weeks ago, I was in the red rocks of Sedona, Arizona, hiking.  That is not…
Read More

Remembering joy…

Monday evening, I participated in the Service of Remembrance at St. Mark's Episcopal Church in my neighborhood.  The Service of Remembrance, or, as some call it, a "blue" service, is the seasonal service for "the rest of us" -- those of us who find the required mirth of the secular season difficult.  I am always surprised that so few people attend these services, because I know that there are so many who find this season challenging.  For me, it was an important time to stop and feel, to sit and pray, and to be with others in a like-hearted space. In one brief hour, whoever planned the service managed to…
Read More

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…
Read More

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…
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

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

I never want to be…

...a music grinder.  Yes, you read correctly -- not an organ grinder, but a music grinder.  This is a descriptive term that has fascinated me ever since I read it in Paul Westermeyer's book, Church Musician, a kind of how-to-be book for musicians who think they might want to be just that, a church musician.  For him, a music grinder is a church musician who just puts out the music, without attachment to the context in the which the music is performed, and without any sense of purpose or participation in the worship of the community in which they make music. It is, sadly, possible, to be a music grinder…
Read More

An arroyo is never the trail…

Last night, I enjoyed the Arena Stage production of Rogers and Hammerstein's Carousel, you know the one that ends with that big song about faith and hope, You Never Walk Alone.  And before that, I spent most of the day in the recording studio editing the final cut of my version of Walk with Me, an arrangement of the two traditional songs, I Want Jesus to Walk With Me and We Must Walk This Lonesome Valley.  Methinks that I am thinking a lot about the road ahead, the path I walk, the path I am called to walk? A couple of weeks ago, I was in the red rocks of Sedona, Arizona, hiking.  That is not…
Read More

Remembering joy…

Monday evening, I participated in the Service of Remembrance at St. Mark's Episcopal Church in my neighborhood.  The Service of Remembrance, or, as some call it, a "blue" service, is the seasonal service for "the rest of us" -- those of us who find the required mirth of the secular season difficult.  I am always surprised that so few people attend these services, because I know that there are so many who find this season challenging.  For me, it was an important time to stop and feel, to sit and pray, and to be with others in a like-hearted space. In one brief hour, whoever planned the service managed to…
Read More

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…
Read More

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…
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

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

I never want to be…

...a music grinder.  Yes, you read correctly -- not an organ grinder, but a music grinder.  This is a descriptive term that has fascinated me ever since I read it in Paul Westermeyer's book, Church Musician, a kind of how-to-be book for musicians who think they might want to be just that, a church musician.  For him, a music grinder is a church musician who just puts out the music, without attachment to the context in the which the music is performed, and without any sense of purpose or participation in the worship of the community in which they make music. It is, sadly, possible, to be a music grinder…
Read More

An arroyo is never the trail…

Last night, I enjoyed the Arena Stage production of Rogers and Hammerstein's Carousel, you know the one that ends with that big song about faith and hope, You Never Walk Alone.  And before that, I spent most of the day in the recording studio editing the final cut of my version of Walk with Me, an arrangement of the two traditional songs, I Want Jesus to Walk With Me and We Must Walk This Lonesome Valley.  Methinks that I am thinking a lot about the road ahead, the path I walk, the path I am called to walk? A couple of weeks ago, I was in the red rocks of Sedona, Arizona, hiking.  That is not…
Read More

Remembering joy…

Monday evening, I participated in the Service of Remembrance at St. Mark's Episcopal Church in my neighborhood.  The Service of Remembrance, or, as some call it, a "blue" service, is the seasonal service for "the rest of us" -- those of us who find the required mirth of the secular season difficult.  I am always surprised that so few people attend these services, because I know that there are so many who find this season challenging.  For me, it was an important time to stop and feel, to sit and pray, and to be with others in a like-hearted space. In one brief hour, whoever planned the service managed to…
Read More

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…
Read More

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…
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

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

I never want to be…

...a music grinder.  Yes, you read correctly -- not an organ grinder, but a music grinder.  This is a descriptive term that has fascinated me ever since I read it in Paul Westermeyer's book, Church Musician, a kind of how-to-be book for musicians who think they might want to be just that, a church musician.  For him, a music grinder is a church musician who just puts out the music, without attachment to the context in the which the music is performed, and without any sense of purpose or participation in the worship of the community in which they make music. It is, sadly, possible, to be a music grinder…
Read More

An arroyo is never the trail…

Last night, I enjoyed the Arena Stage production of Rogers and Hammerstein's Carousel, you know the one that ends with that big song about faith and hope, You Never Walk Alone.  And before that, I spent most of the day in the recording studio editing the final cut of my version of Walk with Me, an arrangement of the two traditional songs, I Want Jesus to Walk With Me and We Must Walk This Lonesome Valley.  Methinks that I am thinking a lot about the road ahead, the path I walk, the path I am called to walk? A couple of weeks ago, I was in the red rocks of Sedona, Arizona, hiking.  That is not…
Read More

Remembering joy…

Monday evening, I participated in the Service of Remembrance at St. Mark's Episcopal Church in my neighborhood.  The Service of Remembrance, or, as some call it, a "blue" service, is the seasonal service for "the rest of us" -- those of us who find the required mirth of the secular season difficult.  I am always surprised that so few people attend these services, because I know that there are so many who find this season challenging.  For me, it was an important time to stop and feel, to sit and pray, and to be with others in a like-hearted space. In one brief hour, whoever planned the service managed to…
Read More

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…
Read More

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…
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

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

I never want to be…

...a music grinder.  Yes, you read correctly -- not an organ grinder, but a music grinder.  This is a descriptive term that has fascinated me ever since I read it in Paul Westermeyer's book, Church Musician, a kind of how-to-be book for musicians who think they might want to be just that, a church musician.  For him, a music grinder is a church musician who just puts out the music, without attachment to the context in the which the music is performed, and without any sense of purpose or participation in the worship of the community in which they make music. It is, sadly, possible, to be a music grinder…
Read More

An arroyo is never the trail…

Last night, I enjoyed the Arena Stage production of Rogers and Hammerstein's Carousel, you know the one that ends with that big song about faith and hope, You Never Walk Alone.  And before that, I spent most of the day in the recording studio editing the final cut of my version of Walk with Me, an arrangement of the two traditional songs, I Want Jesus to Walk With Me and We Must Walk This Lonesome Valley.  Methinks that I am thinking a lot about the road ahead, the path I walk, the path I am called to walk? A couple of weeks ago, I was in the red rocks of Sedona, Arizona, hiking.  That is not…
Read More

Remembering joy…

Monday evening, I participated in the Service of Remembrance at St. Mark's Episcopal Church in my neighborhood.  The Service of Remembrance, or, as some call it, a "blue" service, is the seasonal service for "the rest of us" -- those of us who find the required mirth of the secular season difficult.  I am always surprised that so few people attend these services, because I know that there are so many who find this season challenging.  For me, it was an important time to stop and feel, to sit and pray, and to be with others in a like-hearted space. In one brief hour, whoever planned the service managed to…
Read More

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…
Read More

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…
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

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

I never want to be…

...a music grinder.  Yes, you read correctly -- not an organ grinder, but a music grinder.  This is a descriptive term that has fascinated me ever since I read it in Paul Westermeyer's book, Church Musician, a kind of how-to-be book for musicians who think they might want to be just that, a church musician.  For him, a music grinder is a church musician who just puts out the music, without attachment to the context in the which the music is performed, and without any sense of purpose or participation in the worship of the community in which they make music. It is, sadly, possible, to be a music grinder…
Read More