The 31-Day Blog Challenge, Day Twenty-Nine: Before the Kick

Today’s writing prompt:

31 DAY BLOG CHALLENGE, DAY 29: “top things on my bucket list”.

 

I’m going to have to get back to you on this one. I’ll say that up front.

For fun, I Googled “weird bucket list items”. That was fun in and of itself. But now look. I’m all for adventure, but some of these ideas would cause the bucket moment to arrive well ahead of schedule. To wit:

Do the Polar Bear Plunge. Take your picture with a tiger. Go skydiving. Run with the bulls in Pamplona. Swim with sharks. Jump off a waterfall. Survive a tornado. Fly into a hurricane. Bungee jump.

I’m not a fraidy-cat – well, no, actually I am. Read my piece on my trouble with climbing four steps up a ladder and you’ll sense just what an utter lie that was. I guess I just have a different definition of adventure than some of my online colleagues do.

 

Most of the bucket-list lists that I’ve found online have been to do with seeing places and doing things.

Yes, there are places in the world I’ve never seen (heck, there are places in the US that I’ve never seen, and I can see those without a passport). And there are places in the world that I haven’t visited in a great long while, which are probably are different now, or which certainly I would perceive differently now that I’m not 12 anymore (hello London! Hello Paris!).

And yes, there are interesting things that I’ve never done. Plenty. That list will always be longer than the list of things that I have done. If I’m looking to be a comprehensive achiever, let’s be honest, I’m tilting at windmills. (Hey! Maybe that’s a bucket list item. Hello Netherlands!)

Happily, there are bucket-list items on some folks’ bucket lists (and items which nobody appears to have thought of at all) which, thanks to my associations with people and my adventures within my chosen profession, I crossed off my bucket list pretty early. (Accompany someone singing “Alice’s Restaurant”. Write a Christmas cantata. Throw a mace, roll, catch, wave at between 4,000 and 8,000 people. Boom. Done.)

 

So, again … even though I’ve had four weeks to think about this one since I started this little writing-prompt festival, I’m going to have to get back to you. For now, here’s one thing I know I want to do before the bucket gets tipped over:

See my niece and nephew take over the world.

Because they will.

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The 31-Day Blog Challenge, Day Twenty-Eight: Lacrimosa

Today’s writing prompt:

31 DAY BLOG CHALLENGE, DAY 28: “last time I cried”.

The actual last time I cried? I’m going to bypass this one. It occurred a few hours before I wrote this … and I’ve spent quite a lot of time on that little “difficult time in my life” (speaking of writing prompts).

Instead, I shall scoot backward in time to the second-most-recent time, which was, oddly, a tiny bit more public.

For background, go read the item that I read at my Dad’s memorial service. I’ll be here when you get back.

That wasn’t my moment of weep.

He died on a Tuesday, if I’m not mistaken; and the following Sunday, I was at my post in front of our church’s volunteer choir. Partly because it was one of my jobs; partly because of Dad’s “carry on” philosophy; partly because it was something to focus on, rather than sitting and moping.

Our family decided to put off the memorial service at least a week, mostly so we wouldn’t have to rush pell-mell through the planning process in just a couple of days.

One part of the plan was that I would deliver a little paragraph or two, in the spirit of eulogy; which I did. There were folks who marveled that I did so with not a hitch or a pause to wipe the eyes or nose. I kinda wrote the thing so that there were more laughs and smiles than anything else. Distraction, maybe, but also a focus on the great and funny memories.

Another part of the plan was that I would conduct the volunteer choir that assembled to sing an anthem or two at the service. There were folks who were completely blown away that I could do that, but as my college band director used to say, “I’m a professional. I can do this.” Again, notes and rhythms and such to focus on. Again, distraction, and an awareness of the responsibility of conducting a choir (and helping to keep their heads in the game).

What took me out, though, was the last hymn of the afternoon. “Great is Thy Faithfulness”, by Thomas Chisholm and William Runyan. Number 140 in your Methodist Hymnal. Before and since, it’s been one of my very favorite hymns. A couple of really cool chords in there, the kind that gives us music theory nerds a little tiny thrill and causes us to see how the chord was approached and how it was resolved thereafter. A fun intellectual exercise, at the same time as the harmonies stir the spirit.

Well, between that and the accumulated experience of the previous nearly two weeks … the stirring won out. All I can say is, I’m glad that everyone else’s noses were kinda “buried in the score”, as we say in the choir world, so they didn’t notice that I was a quiet wreck. At least I didn’t have any more musical or public-speaking leadership responsibilities that afternoon, so there was that.

But it was a good day, so I didn’t mind, and have not minded since. And now, every time the opportunity to sing that hymn rolls around, I lay into it with just a little extra verve, and just a little extra smile.

The 31-Day Blog Challenge, Day Fifteen: What Am I Doing?

Today’s writing prompt:

31 DAY BLOG CHALLENGE, DAY 15: “Timeline of my day”.

Fine. Let’s take today, shall we?

 

6:00 AM … alarm goes off. Amazingly, I get up.

7:00 AM … in the car and away, to the east.

7:40 AM … arrive at my church gig. I am alone in the parking lot, which is not a surprise, because it’s still Absurd O’Clock. Go in, determine that there’s no special musical furniture to set up for the morning’s service.

8:20 AM … rehearse a couple of quick musical items with my musical partner-in-crime (-slash- brother-in-law) and niece for an event later in the day.

8:23 AM … done with that. Efficiency!

8:30 AM … begin the choir “early bird” session. Earlier this program year, we began offering a 15-minute extra session for the benefit of the folks who travel for business during the week and can’t get to Thursday night rehearsal. Not only are people not abusing the opportunity (i.e., “oh, I don’t feel like going to choir Thursday; I’ll just catch up Sunday morning”) … lots of people who did get to rehearsal are showing up to the early bird session, just to get one more chance to live with the notes and rhythms. Such that, for the first month or two, people who showed up on time for the “official” 8:45 AM start time looked around, worried that they were late. … I’ll take it!

9:30 AM … Sunday service begins. And progresses. Choir delivers two anthems – gliding neatly through Harold Friedell’s “Draw Us In the Spirit’s Tether”, and fighting hard for every note in our a cappella rendition of Thomas Tallis’ “If Ye Love Me”. Gads I love these folks. And they sing pretty too.

11:00 AM … extra-lengthy service (full of Confirmation liturgy and such) concludes. While many people rush for coffee hour, a few of us gather in the choir room to rehearse a quick musical item for next week’s afternoon concert-series date. More on that item in a separate post!

11:40 AM … hit the road, bound for a congregation couple’s house, wherein the annual “staff appreciation lunch” will occur.

12:00 PM … our staff/parish relations committee appreciates the staff; the staff appreciates them. And the spread. Yummmm.

1:40 PM … hit the road again, bound for the sound check for the Composers Concert held by the Worcester chapter of the American Guild of Organists.

2:40 PM … probably thanks to a poor choice of route, arrive there 20 minutes later than I wanted to. Just about get things set up by the time …

3:00 PM … concert starts.

4:30 PM … concert ends. Briefly we stand, smile, chat, say “yay concert”, and realize we’re all (sister, brother-in-law, niece, nephew, mother) really hungry.

5:00 PM … arrive and immediately get seated at a very fine Worcester seafood eatery, and stuff our faces – I may not eat again until 9 o’clock. Tomorrow morning. Yummmm.

6:20 PM … return home, and begin writing the day’s 31-Day Blog Challenge item.

 

Many of my weekdays are not as busy as this particular Sunday.

 

This is the life.