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

A-not-much-to-say kind of a day….Day 3

So I took this blogging challenge, and I knew when I took it, there would be days that I just would not have much to say and I would have to write anyway.  I know this from years of following Julia Cameron's discipline of writing morning pages; there are many days when you will face the page and have nothing.  Those days, Ms. Cameron says, if all you can write is "I have nothing to say", you must still fill your pages at your scheduled time.  It is part of the discipline and it will make you a more creative person in the long run, even if you don't know…
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Music and theology, continued…Day 2

As I sit here waiting for the time of my fourth dentist appointment in two weeks, I'm having a pretty good time reviewing the syllabus for my class at Wesley Seminary, called "Music and Social Justice", that starts this Saturday.  I still have a lot of reading to do before Saturday, when the class begins, and I've only completed the bare outlines of my presentation, "Social Justice Themes in Opera", and I will admit I am not looking forward to a class that keeps me in a closed room all day this Saturday and therefore away from the Camp Fraser picnic, but I have been trying to take this class…
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I never could resist a challenge…Day 1

...and so I won't walk away from this one.  You can read all about it by visiting my friend's blog.  And so, I pick up the gauntlet she has thrown. All I can say is, that it's a good thing I've got several half-finished essays sitting in my queue. [caption id="attachment_199" align="alignright" width="111" caption="Real gauntlets"][/caption] You see, I know that it will be good for me.  I have been a writer longer than I have been a musician, and writing, just like music, must be practiced.  And I'm just not that good at practicing.  So maybe a nudge from my community of faith and friendship will get me going.  So,…
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Me gusta cantar…

I have a project...well, I have several projects but two are at the top of my list right now -- learning to speak Spanish and learning to sing classical Spanish music. It all really started with the idea that I might like to take a trip to Spain this summer for my personal "summer camp" experience.  I've gone to adult "summer camp" often to further my singing skills.  As part of my process of listening to the call, however, I didn't go last year -- I was trying to break a very important cycle.  And that worked. But this year, after watching a series of documentaries on some cable channel,…
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Licensed to the Gospel Ministry…

Yes, those are the words Pastor Amy said on May 23, 2010, during the Pentecost service at Calvary Baptist Church.  I had heard her say them before:  she said them out loud at our last quarterly business meeting, when the congregation affirmed unanimously the recommendation of the licensing committee; and she said them to me one day (it seems so long ago) when I went to talk to her about the strong and continual need I felt to step forward, to proclaim my faith, and to live my journey of faith for all to see. But those words never meant more to me than they did that Sunday morning, standing in the…
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A Thursday Thought…

[caption id="attachment_179" align="aligncenter" width="189" caption="Some of my roses..."][/caption] I've just come in from a morning working in the garden.  Tired, but content, I reached down and picked up a book too long set aside. My eyes fell upon a passage I just really needed to share, and one that is so eloquent and to the point of my journey that I simultaneously feel joy in its discovery, peace in its meaning, and envy that I didn't write it myself. Because of  all that, I share it here with you all: The body remembers shared music and  sound long after the mind may be dimmed. ...sound, pitch, and rhythm...All of these things…
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My new word for today is…

While I'm listing things for which I need to thank my mother, I should add to that list my vocabulary.  Both of my parents, neither of whom had any education past completing high school, were obsessed with vocabulary.  From the earliest time I can remember, if I asked them the meaning of a word I encountered in a book or elsewhere, I was sent to the dictionary to look it up.  We then sat around the breakfast or dinner table and I was drilled to use the word successfully in 10 sentences.  Needless to say, to this very day, I like new words and when I encounter them I strive to…
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Quote for a Rainy Monday…

Behind me is a long weekend of church-lady duties, and before me lies another, so in an attempt to rest and refuel on this rainy Monday in Washington, DC, I have before me a wonderful article by Jason Byassee from the last edition of  Christian Century (April 20, 2010), titled "Politics in a Small Church:  Family Feud".  We've been talking about the Apostle's Creed in our Wednesday Night Words class at Calvary Baptist Church, which has got me thinking about the Trinity.  Mr. Byassee (sorry, it's not clear from the notes if he is Rev. Byassee) really brings the theological language to the present for me: ..."One of the Trinity…
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Mabel and Me

I've been thinking a lot lately about my mother.  Maybe it's been because a friend of mine is experiencing a lot of issues with her mother, maybe it's because of Easter and the proximity of Mother's Day, maybe it's because I'm around the same age now as my mother was when I was born, or maybe it's because of that spiritual biography I had to write this week for my licensing committee.  But I've been thinking a lot about my mother. My mother didn't have an easy life.  I never knew her mother, my grandmother, but I hear that she was a very strong woman.  She raised three children on her…
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No, I just can’t keep from singing…

Despite the fact that every minute of this Holy Week really should be devoted to some sort of spiritual and musical preparation, I couldn't help pausing over my morning cup of tea and reading this article in my newly-arrived issue of the Christian Century:  "Now can we sing?" by William H. Willimon.  I thought that it would be relevant to pause for a moment and share a couple of passages that will keep me going on this walk through this week of service and prayer: "As darkness fell upon Port-au-Prince afte rthe earth heaved that January night, pele danced in the streets and sang hymns. ...The insufferably earnest releases from…
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