Weekend Blessings
This morning was a glorious Sunday morning with the sun beaming down on my front porch. What a difference a couple of days can make – it was blessedly cool (I even donned a long sleeve shirt), so I drank my quotidian pot of green tea hot (I’ve been letting it cool significantly in past weeks – and green tea is steeped much cooler than other teas anyway). The bird song was pure liquid harmony and the sun was strong. I didn’t engage in my usual machinations of moving my chair from one side of the porch to the other to evade its direct rays as it climbs in the sky (well, it doesn’t climb, how archaic our language is!!). The strong rays today felt good, so I got a good dose of vitamin D along with my polyphenols, catechin and theanine. All of this before breakfast!
Yesterday was a great day as well. A dear couple from the church invited me to the rehearsal of the Philadelphia Orchestra, which holds court in a nearby town during the month of August. So I went to the glorious farmers market in that town, stuffed my goodies in my cooler, and headed off for the rehearsal. I love symphonic music and miss regular doses of it (my former partner who recently died was a professional musician, so we attended many symphony and chamber music performances in our time together). They began with their contemporary piece – Phoenix by contemporary composer Bright Sheng (who was there to oversee their rehearsal!). Like many classical music lovers, I find some 20th century compositions to be way too atonal for my tastes, but I think I could like this piece. The story behind its composition was fascinating. They stopped often while rehearsing to master the technicalities of certain sections, so I was not able to track how it all fit together. There were many church members in attendance at this rehearsal, but none liked that particular composition.
The highlight of the rehearsal was the Rachmaninoff concerto featuring Andre Watts. I had never seen him in person, and he was amazing. He rarely looked at the piano – he was looking at the orchestra the whole time, and the music that came out of that piano seemed like an extension of his essence. Hard to explain -- you had to be there. Playing Rachmaninoff seemingly effortlessly is genius at work. At any rate, it was such an incredible treat!
This is my next-to-last Sunday before I begin preaching again. I am going to worship by being in nature on this beautiful day. I’ll weigh in on ‘why I don’t go to church’ on many of my Sundays off in another post.
Yesterday was a great day as well. A dear couple from the church invited me to the rehearsal of the Philadelphia Orchestra, which holds court in a nearby town during the month of August. So I went to the glorious farmers market in that town, stuffed my goodies in my cooler, and headed off for the rehearsal. I love symphonic music and miss regular doses of it (my former partner who recently died was a professional musician, so we attended many symphony and chamber music performances in our time together). They began with their contemporary piece – Phoenix by contemporary composer Bright Sheng (who was there to oversee their rehearsal!). Like many classical music lovers, I find some 20th century compositions to be way too atonal for my tastes, but I think I could like this piece. The story behind its composition was fascinating. They stopped often while rehearsing to master the technicalities of certain sections, so I was not able to track how it all fit together. There were many church members in attendance at this rehearsal, but none liked that particular composition.
The highlight of the rehearsal was the Rachmaninoff concerto featuring Andre Watts. I had never seen him in person, and he was amazing. He rarely looked at the piano – he was looking at the orchestra the whole time, and the music that came out of that piano seemed like an extension of his essence. Hard to explain -- you had to be there. Playing Rachmaninoff seemingly effortlessly is genius at work. At any rate, it was such an incredible treat!
This is my next-to-last Sunday before I begin preaching again. I am going to worship by being in nature on this beautiful day. I’ll weigh in on ‘why I don’t go to church’ on many of my Sundays off in another post.
posted by seeking sophia at Sunday, August 06, 2006
1 Comments:
As a Pagan and trainee Interfaith Minister in Great Britain, may I just say that it is lovely to read about your enjoyment of nature (and, dare I say it, also lovely to read that you would choose being in nature over going to church on some of your Sundays off).
There is a general feeling among some Pagans in Britain that all Christians are disconnected with nature. I know that to be untrue but it is nice to be reminded on your blog. I think perhaps that the wonder, beauty and power of nature - of Creation, from a Christian perspective, or of Mother Gaia, from a Pagan Feminist view - is one of the few factors that we can all agree on. And thus reach some consensus of peace on this earth.
Even the Koran (dare I mention it in this political climate? - yes I dare!) teaches that the environment is holistic, and that humans as custodians of the earth are not superior to it, since God has ownership alone.
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