Category: church

Some people get their adrenaline rushes by jumping of a cliff, by balancing on a high narrow ridge, by rushing faster and faster down a hill on a mountain bike.

me?

I plan events that I’m no where near qualified to lead.

Last week’s music night was a bit too familiar for the choir members, and a bit too terrifying for the rest.  So we’ve spent the week trying to figure out how to do it differently.

We said to each other:

We can  use drums and shakers and things

we’ll encourage people to put down the thing they know they can do well, and try something unfamiliar:  violinists play the flute… sopranos get the maracas… the silent types can sing the lead…

so I’ve been begging and borrowing instruments (and we don’t have enough)

I’ve been googling rhythm games and drumming workshops

and with 40 minutes till kick-off, I’ve suddenly thought:

What on earth am I doing??  I’m not a musician.  I don’t play any of these instruments.  How can this possibly work?

And to make it worse:  Molly is sitting firmly on the cheat sheets and she’s not budging.

It might be a scary night.

all in the name of building confidence.

pray for us, dear reader.

today is, in theory, my day off.  But my god-children are coming this weekend, and I haven’t done the magazine yet, and I’m still working on inspires, and I need to do a serious amount of work on the long neglected web page, and there’s the pew sheet for Sunday, and…

all of that depends on the computer.

So, when I came home at lunch time to find there was no electricity I was (ahem…) devastated, of course.

Fortunately there was plenty else to do, for my god-children are coming at the weekend, and I need to get the house ready.  I couldn’t do washing, of course, nor hoovering.  Dusting was not very likely (it’s family).  But I could rearrange the downstairs now that the piano is in place.

When I moved here, I tucked the piano up in the smallest room, seeking privacy in the hopes that I would play.  The truth is, I’ve hardly touched it.  I’m not really able to play, you see, and I get very frustrated with what I cannot do. So, the piano room became the junk room.  (one of the junk rooms…)

But everything is changing for my piano.  No more will it languish out of sight.

Yesterday, the incredibly kind undertaker-cum-furniture auctioneer came with four strong young men to shift the thing down the stairs and into the living room.

So today, we’ve been playing.  Finally after 13 months, I’ve unpacked some of the pictures.  Molly kindly posed in her favourite position so that I could place them around her.

We put up mirrors, and dusted frames.  We remembered all the people who’d given us the pictures, the places we’d bought them, the memories they evoke.

And all because of Music Night.

Recently, we’ve had to rethink how we do music at St Mary’s.  Continue reading “music night” →

The whole of East Sands to myself, with the tide newly out and fine pools of water to splash in.  Before that, much laughter at a splendid house group.  For the full story you’ll have to wait for the August Inspires.  For a hint, there is a photo beneath the fold.

Continue reading “a night out” →

The very first time I saw the pulpit, I knew what I wanted to do.

I nearly let fear and anxiety stop me, but in the end figured that if Jesus could rise from the dead, I might chance a few chocolate eggs.

Twinkly and lovely.  Just as I imagined each time I let myself dream.