Last night we blessed and dedicated the organ console, pew cushions, and rocking chairs. It was going beautifully until a lightning strike caused a single phase power outage and shut the organ down. But we did get through most of the evensong liturgy before this happened, so the Stanford Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis got sung/played (and they were fabulous).
This got me thinking again about how much music pervades our lives. As we sang the hymns, the magnificat, and the nunc dimittis, the rain storm outside was singing with us providing an alternate accompaniment.
Everyone who knows me has probably realized that I love music. Unless I am trying to concentrate on something like reading a book or writing a sermon, I have to have some kind of sound around me. At church, it's the wide variety of Pandora channels I have on my account, or NPR, or a radio station I love (because sometimes, listening to the DJ's from your hometown is healing when you're having a rough day). At home, Chris and I are constantly rotating whose Ipod is on the speakers in the house or in the car (it makes me very glad that we have similar taste in music). Even at night, I need white noise to help me sleep...which is its own form of music, if you think about it. But I realized, in my wellness quest, that I haven't been listening to music as much recently. I finally grabbed my ipod the other day, for the first time in a couple months, and plugged it into the ihome dock and it was awesome. This has been the area of my personal wellness that I have been missing. So I intend to be more aware of the presence of music in my every day existence.
This is all a part of improving spiritual wellness. Last week I was on retreat with the other first call pastors from the synod at Mount St. Scholastica in Atchison, KS. I had the opportunity to attend eucharist both mornings with the sisters, and this year I actually took them up on that opportunity. It was really great to get to start the day with eucharist (even though it was at 7:30am) and to end the day with evening prayer. Sometimes, I wish that we could participate in some aspects of monastic life, like eucharist every morning and evening prayer every evening.
No updated stats to provide...though I have noticed my wrists look a bit smaller in the last week or so, so that's something (hopefully I'm not seeing things!) and my dress for the civic choir concert was bigger on my than I thought it would be, so there's that as well...I know that with summer coming, things are going to be pretty busy so I need to take advantage of a lighter schedule now to get into better habits so that I can be more aware that end of the wellness quest.
Music mood: Pandora - Jason Mraz Radio (with Joni Mitchell, Jack Johnson, Cat Stevens, etc, added for variety)
New wellness habit: Have added B-vitamin complex to diet
If you'd like to join me in this quest...I'm using the ELCA wholeness wheel as a guide to overall wellness...here is the link
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