First off, a very Merry Christmas to all of my readers. I hope you've been off enjoying the holiday with family and friends.
While I have no intention to rant about it, because I'm sure enough other people already have. I really wish that Christmas was more relaxing and felt more like, well... Christmas. While I certainly think that time with family is important, I really wish that the time leading up to Christmas, and the holiday itself, were more relaxing, contemplative, and about what they're supposed to be about. I could go on all day about that, but I won't.
Instead, I will mention the part of Christmas that made me the happiest. Last evening I went to Christmas Eve mass at the Episcopal church that I am now very much a part of. I have never been to a more amazing Christmas service in my life. The church is an impressive piece of architecture and parts of it date to the late 1820s. It was "greened" for Christmas and looked absolutely amazing. Aside from that, the service was very high church and the attention to detail really came through. As always, the music was amazing. It made me happy to have some part of the holiday feel like it was just right. In addition to that, I should mention that I was an acolyte for the Sunday service the day before. I'm finally getting pretty involved in the church and am looking forward to being a part of things the way I was in the various Catholic churches I had been active in.
What's amazing to me, is that it was last Christmas eve that I went to mass and decided afterwards that I was through with the Catholic Church. It has now been a year since that decision and I never could have anticipated how much things would change in that time. In fact, it was mere months ago that I was blogging here about my serious confusion about Christianity and even about the existence of God. I am very grateful to the church I now find myself in for having made a real effort to get to know me and support me at a time when I needed it most.
A thank-you to all of my readers who offered input, support, or just read. You all helped in some way.
A very Merry Christmas to everyone again.
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
My Very, Ridiculously, Crazy Life
Hi everyone!
Thank you to those of you who have been checking the blog over the last month or so.
So where have I been?
Well, I just moved into my own apartment. Until yesterday or today, this had been taking over my life. I'm now living on my own and have the apartment pretty much set up, at least enough to be living here. I have to admit, I'm pretty excited about it. Living at home had been becoming rather stressful and it felt like I'd gone back to high school. After living away from home for four years in college, I really needed to be out on my own, doing my own thing, when and I how I want to do it.
Work is also insanely busy. In order to add to that, I just got appointed to a commitee there that deals with safety issues. Gee, they put the guy whose an EMT and CPR Instructor on that?...didn't see that coming...
I'm also now playing in a local wind ensemble, which makes me happy, as I really didn't want to lose all of the work I'd put into my instrument going back to 6th grade.
Finally, I'm starting to get pretty busy at the Episcopal church that I've made my new religious home. I had a meeting with one of the priests there that went really well and that answered a lot of my questions. I'm now starting to help out as an acolyte (I had done similar stuff in the Roman Catholic churches that I'd always been a part of). I will also likely begin to start singing in one of the choirs there beginning sometime after Christmas.
On that note, I have a question for people, particularly anyone with a background in singing. While I've always enjoyed singing, I've never done it in any official capacity. I do have a musical background however and can play two instruments and understand music theory. I can look at sheet music and get a pretty good idea of how something should sound. I was offered a spot in a choir that meets every other week and is open to everyone that sings early church music and chant type songs. I do enjoy early church music and chant, so this is tempting. However, due to my musical background, the choir director also offered me a spot in the by audition Men's Choir. He did not make me audition for it. Any thoughts on which would be a better plan? I don't have time to do both. I could either sing with folks who are more likely to be on a similar level or I could sing with people who are decidedly better than me in hopes of it rubbing off (or at least being a good learning experience).
Hope all of you reading are doing well at this stressful time of year. A special thank you to someone who emailed me recently at the address I had provided. It was good to hear from you and you certainly helped motivate me to do this post, something I've been meaning to do for a little while.
Thank you to those of you who have been checking the blog over the last month or so.
So where have I been?
Well, I just moved into my own apartment. Until yesterday or today, this had been taking over my life. I'm now living on my own and have the apartment pretty much set up, at least enough to be living here. I have to admit, I'm pretty excited about it. Living at home had been becoming rather stressful and it felt like I'd gone back to high school. After living away from home for four years in college, I really needed to be out on my own, doing my own thing, when and I how I want to do it.
Work is also insanely busy. In order to add to that, I just got appointed to a commitee there that deals with safety issues. Gee, they put the guy whose an EMT and CPR Instructor on that?...didn't see that coming...
I'm also now playing in a local wind ensemble, which makes me happy, as I really didn't want to lose all of the work I'd put into my instrument going back to 6th grade.
Finally, I'm starting to get pretty busy at the Episcopal church that I've made my new religious home. I had a meeting with one of the priests there that went really well and that answered a lot of my questions. I'm now starting to help out as an acolyte (I had done similar stuff in the Roman Catholic churches that I'd always been a part of). I will also likely begin to start singing in one of the choirs there beginning sometime after Christmas.
On that note, I have a question for people, particularly anyone with a background in singing. While I've always enjoyed singing, I've never done it in any official capacity. I do have a musical background however and can play two instruments and understand music theory. I can look at sheet music and get a pretty good idea of how something should sound. I was offered a spot in a choir that meets every other week and is open to everyone that sings early church music and chant type songs. I do enjoy early church music and chant, so this is tempting. However, due to my musical background, the choir director also offered me a spot in the by audition Men's Choir. He did not make me audition for it. Any thoughts on which would be a better plan? I don't have time to do both. I could either sing with folks who are more likely to be on a similar level or I could sing with people who are decidedly better than me in hopes of it rubbing off (or at least being a good learning experience).
Hope all of you reading are doing well at this stressful time of year. A special thank you to someone who emailed me recently at the address I had provided. It was good to hear from you and you certainly helped motivate me to do this post, something I've been meaning to do for a little while.
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