Monday Musing - It Finally Happened!

Now, don't get too excited. It's probably a more exciting thing just for me and not anyone else.

If you have talked to me at all about how I got involved in things at PUMC post-pandemic, you will know that Laity Sunday 2020 I was looking forward to sitting in the congregation and enjoying other people doing stuff for the service and having it not be me. I never got that moment in 2020. Or 2021. Or 2022.

However, after 12 years of participating in some way (9 of those years essentially running the service) in a Laity Sunday service, I finally got that opportunity to do what I normally do in a service, but not do anything extra.

Don't get me wrong - leading or participating in a Laity Sunday service was never a burden. It was never an imposition. I enjoyed being able to share in what the people of the church have done and can do. But sometimes, you want to be able to see someone else's vision of what being the laity in a church is. And learn from it. Which is what I got to do yesterday.

I got to hear a perspective that I was familiar with and some of which I have been working with - that of our Sunday School and youth/young people. But it is important, from time to time, to be reminded that those are the people we need to ensure that they realize they too are part of the laity. Laity isn't just for adults. Or people who have done classes. Or who are in Adult Sunday School. Or who are in committees or run committees or have particular roles within the church.  I haven't really experienced it at PUMC, but there have been some places where it is encouraged to have the children seen from time to time, but never heard or hardly heard. If they make too much noise, they aren't welcome. If they wiggle around during the sermon, they're not welcome. But the children, the young people, the youth, the teenagers, and anyone above all that - they are welcome. There are things that they can do - not because it is "assigned" to them because of their age but because it is a mission and they are certainly all part of the mission field.

Random sun photo from 11/12/2023

Monday Musing - Seeing Differently

Saturday I picked up my new glasses.

Me on Sunday (11/5) with my new glasses

They have transition lenses, so I don't have to have a separate pair of sunglasses. And they are progressives, to help me with reading. A couple years ago when I got my last pair of glasses, I was told I could get progressive lenses but it wasn't necessary. Because I wanted to wear contacts as well, I opted for no progressives. And soon found that when I wore my contacts, I needed a pair of glasses (aka "cheaters" or "readers") in order to see my phone. And eventually, if my phone wasn't far enough away, I'd have to take my glasses off to see some things better. I got tired of that so figured it was about time to not worry so much about the contacts (which I wound up hardly wearing) and get the right pair of glasses to make my life a bit easier.

I adjusted to the new glasses pretty easily. It was great being able to see what I needed to on my phone without having to take my glasses off. Or not have my eyes take time to adjust to seeing things from one distance to another - which happened a lot when I would go from my phone to reading a book. I got pretty good at determining where I should look at things through the top of my glasses for distance and where it was best to look out of the lower part for reading.

Until I got to singing with choir in the sanctuary.

I struggled a bit trying to find just the right place for my binder where I could see the music clearly and where I could see the director clearly. It was a lot of moving my hand around back and forth and up and down until I got it just right - while we were singing. I'm lucky I didn't get lost!

It was a very different way for me to see - a way I hadn't encountered before, at least for a long time.

And all this got me to thinking how we can all see things differently. Or how we experience things differently.

This happens a lot with scripture. The scripture reading during church yesterday was the same scripture we reflected on in our contemplative worship service earlier in the morning. I struggled with where to go with it and jotted some thoughts and notes to myself about how I was struggling and how parts didn't really make sense to me. But then our pastor preached on it, coming from a very different angle, and things started to fall into place. Even when we in the early morning service share our thoughts, where I wind up isn't the same place where others wind up. It is never wrong. It is just different.

We see things differently. And that is a great thing.

Friday Feelings - What Memories Come Back

A Campus View 10/2023

No, the photo has nothing to do with the post. But it's a nice one, isn't it?

I often share the story of how I got into Chamber Choir in high school. This was the audition-only singing group that met after school once a week, who also did a competition on a yearly basis, typically in Virginia Beach along with the Concert Band (general band) and Wind Ensemble (audition-only band). I was in my junior year and could finally fit Chorus, every other day, into my busy schedule. We were in between rehearsing songs and as we were starting to prep for the next song, I was making a joke to a friend next to me and the chorus director asked if I would come down and sit next to her on the piano bench while we started the song.

Well, in my head I'm thinking I was in trouble and now had to sit next to the teacher while we sang because I was joking with a friend! We sang the first few lines of the song (Save the Child from Paul McCartney's Liverpool Oratorio if you must know) and then the chorus director stopped and asked if I would be willing to join the Chamber Choir. And there it was.

Fast forward a bunch of years. And I'm now in church choir. And our director is none other than my chorus director from high school. So, first, how awesome is that?

Well, do you know what happened last night?

During one of the songs we were rehearsing, our choir director comes and stands next to me while I am singing.

And every feeling and memory from that time sitting next to her on the piano bench back in high school came flying and flooding back into my head! The fear. The nerves. The hope I was doing it right because she was right next to me and would be able to tell me that I was singing it very wrong!

We remember things a lot of the time. Like when someone says something that jogs our memory. Or we are talking about how things were for us when we were in high school, college, our first job, etc. Or when sharing a connection to someone with others. I am very proud of the fact that I have known our choir director since I was in high school - she was one of the teachers that made high school tolerable! And I do like to share with others that connection.

But sometimes those memories just come back like a ton of bricks. They slam you out of nowhere. Not that it was a bad memory to do that. It just surprises you.