(no subject)

[bronze_ribbons]

I'd planned to whack my way through various thickets of writing this past weekend. Instead, I shelved children's books for seven hours (the local branch of the library has been short-staffed), baked a Queen of Sheba torte (Ghiradelli chocolate, almonds and Chambord), attended First UU's annual meeting, cursed my computer's suddenly extremely-fiddly-and-mystifying power supply issues, cleared the caches and reset the PMU and backed up my files on said computer, towelled dry the dog about twenty times, cursed the insomnia that hits when one's nearest and dearest is up in Ohio instead of sharing one's bed, realized that the insomnia is that much worse because there's no Bat on the bed, told myself at least forty times to cease the self-pity party and get some work done, snogged the BYM breathless when he returned, answered a couple of policy emails, and am within three rows of finishing the afghan I've been working on since November 2003.

Moodiness aside, good things abound:

Hearing Carl Kasell read "Would you like me to seduce you? Is that what you're trying to tell me?"

Fat fireflies. Perfect walking weather tonight.

Finished drafting the program for the service I'm leading later this month. One key item was figuring out an alternative to "Go Now In Peace" (a song frequently used to "sing the children to their classes," i.e., when they depart from the main service to attend Sunday school). I no longer feel comfortable using it in UU services, since the composer reportedly does not approve of substituting "spirit of love" for "love of God" (I don't blame her).

My home church now uses a song composed by its youth choir, but it's not an easy melody and requires a piano, so I concluded I'd have to write or adapt something for UUCC. I started out with the first two bars of Jacques Berthier's "Gloria" (SLT 385) in my head, but eventually settled on "Sing and Rejoice" (SLT 395; melody "Moore"), to be sung with these words:

Go now in peace, go now in peace
May you find joy everywhere
Go now in peace

Yes, it's just a little thing, but it makes me feel much better. (The other two hymns I'll be leading are "Come, come, whoever you are" and "Where is our holy church?")

*"GA" = General Assembly, this year in Fort Worth. I'll be in eastern Middle Tennessee instead, but the working title of my sermon is "Getting To (and From) the Heart of Texas". . .

Comments

[kirbyfest.livejournal.com]

Have you ever worked with any of the Taize music?

There would certainly have to be rearrangement, since there's a lot of "God" and "Jesus" in there, and I'm not sure if those rearrangements would even be approved/agreed with. But they're lovely chant melodies; easy to teach, and lovely to sing.

[mechaieh.livejournal.com]

That's a thought. I'd hesitate to borrow from the tradition without first learning more about it, but the cathedral at which I used to work holds Taize services on a regular basis... Thanks for the suggestion.