It's been a year.
A year since I woke up with the call.
It's been a year of celebration.
A year of tears.
It's been a year of education.
A year of intuition.
It's been a year of courage.
A year of humility.
It's been a year of achievement.
A year of disappointment.
It's been a year of connection.
A year of isolation.
It's been a year of determination.
A year of perseverance.
A year of waking up every morning and answering the call.
Answering the call to serve as ORUUC's Temporary Music Director.
Answering the call to go back to school.
Answering the call to coordinate music for the Young Adults at General Assembly (YA@GA) worship services.
And, most recently, answering the call to coordinate music for Rev. Carol Bodeau's installation at Westside UU in Farragut this Fall. (Thank you for the opportunity, Rev. Carol!)
This past weekend, I had the opportunity to sing with the New World Unity Ensemble and One Human Family at the Baha'i Unity Center in Atlanta. (Another call that I answered - to come and sing and celebrate with my new friends from GA.) One song continues to resonate with me, written by William McDowell.
I give myself away
I give myself away
So you can use me
Here I am
Here I stand
Lord my life is in your hands
Lord I'm longing to see
Your desires revealed in me
I give myself away
I give myself away
So you can use me
Take my heart
Take my life
As a living sacrifice
All my dreams
All my plans
Lord I place them in your hands
I give myself away
I give myself away
So you can use me
My life is not my own
To you I belong
I give myself
I give myself to you
To me, it illustrates the mystery behind this calling. The power of waking up every morning called to serve. The faith in a power greater than myself (whether you call that God, Lord, Love, Universe, Earth, Nature, Light...). The deep knowing that on the other side of every obstacle is another opportunity. Answering the call with eager anticipation of what new experience may come.
And so, I continue to wake up every morning and answer the call.
Here's to the start of another year pursuing music ministry. Thank you all for joining me on the journey.
Wednesday, July 22, 2015
Tuesday, July 14, 2015
Living my faith (GA Recap, Part 3)
Be sure to check out Part 1 and Part 2 before you get here.
By Saturday, I felt free. I was done with my commitments as Music Coordinator for the Young Adult worship services and all that remained was the business of GA and lending my voice to a Climate Change worship service. I guess that's how I became open to something beyond music these last two days.
I really enjoyed being a vocalist for the Climate Change worship. Much of the music you'll be hearing back at ORUUC. Music that makes you feel grounded, connected. But also music that challenges you to act. By the time I left the climate change worship, I understood the power of music and worship to restore the weary and inspire the passive into action.
The worship was followed by the final rehearsal with the GA Choir. One of the pieces, "We Will Walk Together," was written by Clif Hardin and commissioned by Heidi Brenner Bjerke - a member of my congregation - in memory of her Dad, who came out as a gay man at 78 years old. I was proud as I shared the story with members of the GA Choir. Music is so much more powerful when the musicians understand the context behind it.
Then, honestly, it was time for a break. I hit the meditation room with Amanda and crashed. Lesson learned: adrenaline only burns so long. I awoke refreshed and ready for dinner with my fellow ORUUCians. After a nice dinner catching up on our GA experiences, it was back to the convention center to see Dr. Cornel West deliver the Ware Lecture. Dr. West structured his lecture after four questions W.E.B. DuBois said every generation must consider, namely:
http://www.uuworld.org/articles/cornel-west-ware-lecture
He called on the audience to live with integrity. What I heard, as I listened to him speak, was a call to live my faith. To act rather than just discuss. To show rather than just tell. And it totally changed my Sunday.
Sunday morning started off like any other General Assembly. Sunday morning worship is always amazing. Nothing restores your soul like singing with almost 200 people in front of an audience of nearly 5,000. It's uplifting. The GA Choir Director, Burt Gulhaugen, is so fun to work with. My favorite piece (other than "We Will Walk Together, of course) was a gospel number called "Overflowing" by Brian Tate. Our soloist, Cecelia Hayes, was simultaneously powerful and humble. What a great combination! I could tell when she was singing about gratitude, she meant every word. During the sermon, Rev. Alison Miller made me laugh with the story of a teenager who said of our UU religion, "You've never heard of it." And she inspired me with her ideas that we live into the stories we tell.
Then it was on to final pieces of the UU business meeting. We quickly passed Actions of Immediate Witness supporting creating a global climate agreement and ending immigrant child and family detention. Then we spent quite a long time debating a third AIW supporting the Black Lives Matter movement. I would go into the process by which we finally approved it, but honestly I was disappointed with the wordsmithing and nitpicking that went into the process. I was so proud, so moved, so riled up when it passed. I felt personally vested in the youth that drafted the AIW and the young adult community who supported their efforts. I felt like celebrating this step forward for our congregations. And so I did!
It just so happened that a Black Lives Matter rally was spontaneously organized after the business meeting, but before the closing ceremony. As a GA choir member, I was supposed to be on stage for the closing ceremony. So I was faced with a pretty mind boggling decision - sing with the GA choir (which I LOVE and look forward to every year) - or participate in the demonstration. I'll let you figure out where I ended up:
Themes: action, demonstration, reflection
Every year, I come away with something new from GA. This year, it was living into my desire to be a music director (I often introduced myself as an "aspiring music director"), proving to myself that I could select, organize, and lead music with musicians from around the country, and awakening into a deep sense of wanting to live my UU faith out loud.
See you next year in Columbus!
By Saturday, I felt free. I was done with my commitments as Music Coordinator for the Young Adult worship services and all that remained was the business of GA and lending my voice to a Climate Change worship service. I guess that's how I became open to something beyond music these last two days.
I really enjoyed being a vocalist for the Climate Change worship. Much of the music you'll be hearing back at ORUUC. Music that makes you feel grounded, connected. But also music that challenges you to act. By the time I left the climate change worship, I understood the power of music and worship to restore the weary and inspire the passive into action.
The worship was followed by the final rehearsal with the GA Choir. One of the pieces, "We Will Walk Together," was written by Clif Hardin and commissioned by Heidi Brenner Bjerke - a member of my congregation - in memory of her Dad, who came out as a gay man at 78 years old. I was proud as I shared the story with members of the GA Choir. Music is so much more powerful when the musicians understand the context behind it.
Then, honestly, it was time for a break. I hit the meditation room with Amanda and crashed. Lesson learned: adrenaline only burns so long. I awoke refreshed and ready for dinner with my fellow ORUUCians. After a nice dinner catching up on our GA experiences, it was back to the convention center to see Dr. Cornel West deliver the Ware Lecture. Dr. West structured his lecture after four questions W.E.B. DuBois said every generation must consider, namely:
- How shall integrity face oppression?
- What does honesty do in the face of deception?
- What does decency do in the face of insult?
- How does virtue meet brute force?
http://www.uuworld.org/articles/cornel-west-ware-lecture
 |
| My view of Dr. Cornel West |
He called on the audience to live with integrity. What I heard, as I listened to him speak, was a call to live my faith. To act rather than just discuss. To show rather than just tell. And it totally changed my Sunday.
Sunday morning started off like any other General Assembly. Sunday morning worship is always amazing. Nothing restores your soul like singing with almost 200 people in front of an audience of nearly 5,000. It's uplifting. The GA Choir Director, Burt Gulhaugen, is so fun to work with. My favorite piece (other than "We Will Walk Together, of course) was a gospel number called "Overflowing" by Brian Tate. Our soloist, Cecelia Hayes, was simultaneously powerful and humble. What a great combination! I could tell when she was singing about gratitude, she meant every word. During the sermon, Rev. Alison Miller made me laugh with the story of a teenager who said of our UU religion, "You've never heard of it." And she inspired me with her ideas that we live into the stories we tell.
Then it was on to final pieces of the UU business meeting. We quickly passed Actions of Immediate Witness supporting creating a global climate agreement and ending immigrant child and family detention. Then we spent quite a long time debating a third AIW supporting the Black Lives Matter movement. I would go into the process by which we finally approved it, but honestly I was disappointed with the wordsmithing and nitpicking that went into the process. I was so proud, so moved, so riled up when it passed. I felt personally vested in the youth that drafted the AIW and the young adult community who supported their efforts. I felt like celebrating this step forward for our congregations. And so I did!
It just so happened that a Black Lives Matter rally was spontaneously organized after the business meeting, but before the closing ceremony. As a GA choir member, I was supposed to be on stage for the closing ceremony. So I was faced with a pretty mind boggling decision - sing with the GA choir (which I LOVE and look forward to every year) - or participate in the demonstration. I'll let you figure out where I ended up:
 |
| Photo by Jo Walter |
Every year, I come away with something new from GA. This year, it was living into my desire to be a music director (I often introduced myself as an "aspiring music director"), proving to myself that I could select, organize, and lead music with musicians from around the country, and awakening into a deep sense of wanting to live my UU faith out loud.
See you next year in Columbus!
Celebrating my faith (GA Recap, Part 2)
This is a continuation of my GA Recap. Be sure to read Part 1.
Thursday, for all intents and purposes, was a "rest day" for me at General Assembly. At least, in the sense that I didn't have to run or participate in a rehearsal all day. Instead, I got to savor my day at GA. I attended workshops on getting UUs to "cross the road" (participate in social justice activities) and leveraging technology in music. I took in some of the business side of GA as a delegate for my congregation. I also had dinner with my friend Saffron, who moved to Portland from Tennessee about a year ago. It was so good to have an evening away from the convention center! I wrapped up my evening listening to the combined choirs of First UU Portland. It was an excellent program as they prepare to go on an international tour. Their church has four adult choirs, plus handbell and children's groups. What an amazing musical community!
Friday was the most inspiring and exhausting day at GA. We woke up to news of the Supreme Court upholding marriage equality - an event so many among us had fought most of their lives for. There was much celebration! I got to sing on the main stage during the Synergy (bridging) worship on Friday evening, so there was a rehearsal with the GA band earlier in the day. Then I lead the music rehearsal for our Young Adult worship - Yuri and Matt were back as our instrumentalists and our vocalists were joined by three members of One Human Family Choir. Wow, what powerful vocals we had!
This is where I need to have a little tangent. When Amanda and I selected music for our two Young Adult worship services, we chose mostly hymns for the first worship (easier to pull together in a quick time frame, since it was Day 1 of the conference) and mostly popular songs for the second worship (premise being that we would have more time to rehearse). As it turned out, the only rehearsal time we had for the second worship was squeezed into 90 minutes on Friday afternoon. I took a look at the music, the rehearsal time, and the musicians we had available ... and brainstormed some arrangements on the flight to Portland. But goodness, was I still nervous. As it turns out, working with talented musicians is pretty great. We made quick work of the pieces, divided up solo lines, made up our own harmonies, and coordinated accompaniment.
We also led a workshop on creating worship for young adults. Along with Amanda, Derrick, and Jim, we shared a few ideas and then let the participants create their own worship. It was a create session with some really good discussion!
Friday was also Amanda's big day on the GA stage. She and a colleague (Kenny Wiley) presented a GA Talk on Black Lives Matter. I sat awestruck that this woman I have known for 6 years, who was afraid of microphones when we first met, commanding the stage with passion and vibrance. It set me on a course for the rest of the week... that you'll have to wait until my next post to hear more about.
Then it was Friday night. First, I got to sing with GA Music Coordinator Susan Peck, Amanda, and an incredible vocalist named Lauren Steele on the main stage to open up the Synergy bridging service. What a treat to be able to honor youth transitioning to Young Adults in our faith.
Afterward, we hosted a worship service to officially welcome the new Young Adults into our community, complete with cake. Those songs that I worried so much about? There were a few mistakes, but it absolutely didn't matter -- nearly everyone in the room was singing along! Our song choices were spot on. My favorite moment of the day was singing the opening line to "Unwritten" (by Natasha Bedingfield) and the entire room lighting up and singing along. It was a touching moment, to feel that connected to the young adult community gathered. I felt called and inspired to music ministry all over again.
Adding to the themes from this experience: celebration, inspiration, perspiration
Next up: Saturday - Sunday. You'd never guess how this story ends!
Thursday, for all intents and purposes, was a "rest day" for me at General Assembly. At least, in the sense that I didn't have to run or participate in a rehearsal all day. Instead, I got to savor my day at GA. I attended workshops on getting UUs to "cross the road" (participate in social justice activities) and leveraging technology in music. I took in some of the business side of GA as a delegate for my congregation. I also had dinner with my friend Saffron, who moved to Portland from Tennessee about a year ago. It was so good to have an evening away from the convention center! I wrapped up my evening listening to the combined choirs of First UU Portland. It was an excellent program as they prepare to go on an international tour. Their church has four adult choirs, plus handbell and children's groups. What an amazing musical community!
Friday was the most inspiring and exhausting day at GA. We woke up to news of the Supreme Court upholding marriage equality - an event so many among us had fought most of their lives for. There was much celebration! I got to sing on the main stage during the Synergy (bridging) worship on Friday evening, so there was a rehearsal with the GA band earlier in the day. Then I lead the music rehearsal for our Young Adult worship - Yuri and Matt were back as our instrumentalists and our vocalists were joined by three members of One Human Family Choir. Wow, what powerful vocals we had!
This is where I need to have a little tangent. When Amanda and I selected music for our two Young Adult worship services, we chose mostly hymns for the first worship (easier to pull together in a quick time frame, since it was Day 1 of the conference) and mostly popular songs for the second worship (premise being that we would have more time to rehearse). As it turned out, the only rehearsal time we had for the second worship was squeezed into 90 minutes on Friday afternoon. I took a look at the music, the rehearsal time, and the musicians we had available ... and brainstormed some arrangements on the flight to Portland. But goodness, was I still nervous. As it turns out, working with talented musicians is pretty great. We made quick work of the pieces, divided up solo lines, made up our own harmonies, and coordinated accompaniment.
We also led a workshop on creating worship for young adults. Along with Amanda, Derrick, and Jim, we shared a few ideas and then let the participants create their own worship. It was a create session with some really good discussion!
Friday was also Amanda's big day on the GA stage. She and a colleague (Kenny Wiley) presented a GA Talk on Black Lives Matter. I sat awestruck that this woman I have known for 6 years, who was afraid of microphones when we first met, commanding the stage with passion and vibrance. It set me on a course for the rest of the week... that you'll have to wait until my next post to hear more about.
Then it was Friday night. First, I got to sing with GA Music Coordinator Susan Peck, Amanda, and an incredible vocalist named Lauren Steele on the main stage to open up the Synergy bridging service. What a treat to be able to honor youth transitioning to Young Adults in our faith.
Photo by Jake Morrill
Afterward, we hosted a worship service to officially welcome the new Young Adults into our community, complete with cake. Those songs that I worried so much about? There were a few mistakes, but it absolutely didn't matter -- nearly everyone in the room was singing along! Our song choices were spot on. My favorite moment of the day was singing the opening line to "Unwritten" (by Natasha Bedingfield) and the entire room lighting up and singing along. It was a touching moment, to feel that connected to the young adult community gathered. I felt called and inspired to music ministry all over again.
Adding to the themes from this experience: celebration, inspiration, perspiration
Next up: Saturday - Sunday. You'd never guess how this story ends!
Connecting with my faith (GA Recap, Part 1)
I've been asked to lead our church service on July 26 to reflect on my experience at this year's Unitarian Universalist General Assembly (June 24-28). This annual gathering of UUs from around the world is part business meeting, part educational workshops, part rejuvenating worship, part social witness, and part networking event. Thankfully, I knew I'd have to report back on my experience, so I took some notes on the flight home from Portland. And lucky for you, faithful blog readers, you get the day-by-day recap of GA! If you'd rather have the streamlined highlights, you'll have to come to ORUUC on July 26.
Let's start with the flight out to Portland on Tuesday, June 23. After months of planning with Amanda Weatherspoon (my friend and Young Adult Worship Coordinator for GA), we had pinned down the music, musicians, and rehearsal schedules for our worship services for Young Adults at GA. So, after getting up at 4AM and driving 2.5 hours to Nashville, I was sitting on my flight to Portland with my iPhone, headphones, and a notebook of sheet music. I bought a magazine at the airport, but never read it. Instead, I listened to the songs we had chosen... Songs of hope, songs of resilience, songs of strength. I thought about the musicians who had agreed to lend their talents to making this music come alive in our worship services. I took notes about possible arrangements that we could learn in a very short amount of time. When I landed in Portland, it was still early afternoon - so I was able to catch up with Amanda, check in to the hotel and GA, and register for the GA choir. The GA choir is my very favorite part of GA. Singing with close to 200 people from around the country on Sunday morning and afternoon is just wonderful. I also had the first of MANY milkshakes on Tuesday. Many. I kid you not.
Wednesday. What a great day! I love to be busy and I love to make music and that's really ALL we did on Wednesday. We invited Young Adults to join us to make music with us and a couple of them (Em D. and Amanda P.) actually turned up to sing! So, we did a vocal rehearsal earlier in the day, then pulled together vocals with the band (Matt Meyer, Yuri Yamamoto, and Jeff Chamberlain) later in the day. Wednesday night's young adult worship was hymn-heavy so that we could pull things together quickly, put we were able to make quite a few of them have a more contemporary feel with the rhythm (thanks, Matt!) or the accompaniment (thanks, Yuri & Jeff!). Amanda had also recruited two friends from Starr King seminary (Derrick and Jim), who really helped to fill out the harmonies on vocals. It was a great group - I really enjoyed working with them. Everyone pitched in with suggestions on arrangements, feel, and even a this-song-sucks-lets-pick-another-one. It was a great, collaborative process and I think the music worked really well. THEN, the endless opening ceremony happened. Our worship was scheduled to begin right after the opening ceremony. Unfortunately, that event ran over by close to an hour. Normally, I think we would have just started somewhere in there and let folks come in as the ceremony wrapped up -- but we were collaborating with musicians who were also helping to provide music for the ceremony and couldn't get off stage! Now there's a fun lesson for ya - musicians are busy folks. When we finally did get our worship service started, even with the stress of it being late, we had a full room of very engaged young adults who were there ready to hear our message, share our ritual, and join their voices in our songs. It was beautiful. I had also been in charge of planning the altar for the worship, which ended up looking amazing. We had planned for stones in the middle (to represent "you" in this space) and colored sand in the black napkins (to co-create our space), but what happened was something so much more creative and representative of the imaginations of our young adults.
We ended up continuing to add to this altar throughout the week. It was incredible to watch it evolve.
I'm sensing themes here: collaboration, connection, evolution.
Next up: Thursday - Sunday. There's so much more to tell!
Let's start with the flight out to Portland on Tuesday, June 23. After months of planning with Amanda Weatherspoon (my friend and Young Adult Worship Coordinator for GA), we had pinned down the music, musicians, and rehearsal schedules for our worship services for Young Adults at GA. So, after getting up at 4AM and driving 2.5 hours to Nashville, I was sitting on my flight to Portland with my iPhone, headphones, and a notebook of sheet music. I bought a magazine at the airport, but never read it. Instead, I listened to the songs we had chosen... Songs of hope, songs of resilience, songs of strength. I thought about the musicians who had agreed to lend their talents to making this music come alive in our worship services. I took notes about possible arrangements that we could learn in a very short amount of time. When I landed in Portland, it was still early afternoon - so I was able to catch up with Amanda, check in to the hotel and GA, and register for the GA choir. The GA choir is my very favorite part of GA. Singing with close to 200 people from around the country on Sunday morning and afternoon is just wonderful. I also had the first of MANY milkshakes on Tuesday. Many. I kid you not.
Wednesday. What a great day! I love to be busy and I love to make music and that's really ALL we did on Wednesday. We invited Young Adults to join us to make music with us and a couple of them (Em D. and Amanda P.) actually turned up to sing! So, we did a vocal rehearsal earlier in the day, then pulled together vocals with the band (Matt Meyer, Yuri Yamamoto, and Jeff Chamberlain) later in the day. Wednesday night's young adult worship was hymn-heavy so that we could pull things together quickly, put we were able to make quite a few of them have a more contemporary feel with the rhythm (thanks, Matt!) or the accompaniment (thanks, Yuri & Jeff!). Amanda had also recruited two friends from Starr King seminary (Derrick and Jim), who really helped to fill out the harmonies on vocals. It was a great group - I really enjoyed working with them. Everyone pitched in with suggestions on arrangements, feel, and even a this-song-sucks-lets-pick-another-one. It was a great, collaborative process and I think the music worked really well. THEN, the endless opening ceremony happened. Our worship was scheduled to begin right after the opening ceremony. Unfortunately, that event ran over by close to an hour. Normally, I think we would have just started somewhere in there and let folks come in as the ceremony wrapped up -- but we were collaborating with musicians who were also helping to provide music for the ceremony and couldn't get off stage! Now there's a fun lesson for ya - musicians are busy folks. When we finally did get our worship service started, even with the stress of it being late, we had a full room of very engaged young adults who were there ready to hear our message, share our ritual, and join their voices in our songs. It was beautiful. I had also been in charge of planning the altar for the worship, which ended up looking amazing. We had planned for stones in the middle (to represent "you" in this space) and colored sand in the black napkins (to co-create our space), but what happened was something so much more creative and representative of the imaginations of our young adults.
I'm sensing themes here: collaboration, connection, evolution.
Next up: Thursday - Sunday. There's so much more to tell!
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