singing

  • Hope

    Hope

    On December 31, 2019, I had a lot of hopes.  At our sweet friends’ New Year’s Eve party, I shakily wrote my resolution on a thin piece of cardboard: ‘attend my first writer’s conference’ and then I paused and added something like, ‘pursue publishing’.  In the weeks that followed, I applied for and received a…

  • Breath

    Breath

    I sang a recorded mass for Pentecost, the first mass at which I’d ministered in months.  In choosing the music, I considered all of my favorite Holy Spirit songs, but kept one on the shelf: O Breathe on Me, O Breath of God.  In a time of pandemic, we’re keeping our breaths to ourselves, or…

  • Re-fine

    Re-fine

    A teacher I work with stopped me on my way out of class this morning and offered me a hug. “You didn’t seem yourself when you sang at church on Sunday, and I just wanted to make sure you’re okay.” The truth is, I’m not. Friends, I’ll preface this by saying it’s not the most…

  • Name

    Name

    “Bye, Kristen!” I called to the beautiful, curly-haired Mom I had met a few weeks before at church. We had been in similar circles over the years, but had not officially been introduced until that Sunday. When I extended my hand and told her my name, Kristen laughed and replied, “Everyone knows who you are.”…

  • Alma Mater

    There was a college student observing in one of my preschool music classrooms today, and as I watched her, dark-haired and nervous, I saw myself so many years before. I was once a freshman education major, sent into classrooms to see if it was an environment in which I wanted to work for the rest-of-my-life,…

  • Abundant

    Abundant

    Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy. Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert. Isaiah 35:6 I read this passage from Isaiah in one of my devotionals last night. I’d heard it proclaimed before, of course, probably we all have, but last night the good…

  • Plans

    Plans

    I must have woken up on the wrong side of the life bed this morning, because at 8am today, I was in a bad way. Maybe it was the moon, or fatigue, or that late night chocolate ice cream the night before, but I woke up today feeling utterly worthless. News of the accomplishments, new…

  • Unsung

    Attending the funeral of someone who lived life well is like completing a masters-level course in an hour and a half. Lesson after lesson flies at you and you can’t quite catch each one, but you want to hold on to all of it if you can. I attended a funeral like this today for…

  • Bird

    People I know are seeking and finding new opportunities, and I am mostly so happy for them. They are leaving, moving forward, and growing, and I am not. I’m a bird in a nest when everyone else is flying and I am left picking at straw. Sometimes watching them makes me cranky and jealous, and…

  • Mystery

    A mysterious thing happened today. Absolutely wrecked by a hacking case of bronchitis, I sang through an entire funeral Mass for a gathered group of family and friends. I didn’t want my illness to draw attention from what the bereaved were there to do, and so before I began, I just asked God to sing…