may your heart be light

I hope you’re having a happy Christmas. And, if Christmas isn’t your thing, I hope you’re finding a reason to celebrate as we move from one calendar year into the next.

Speaking for myself, which is pretty much what one does on a blog, I’ve had lovely holiday thus far. I’ve gotten another few months reprieve on moving (hallelujah!) and work is going reasonably well at the moment. And while I haven’t had much in the way of vacation this year, I am receiving some comp time as we wind down post-Christmas Day.

For those of you who may not know, the year started with work on the Presidential Inaugural Prayer Service. Mid-year, I was working on the 76th General Convention of The Episcopal Church. Since August I’ve been in a constant whirlwind of weddings, funerals, Sundays and special services, concluding with a major revamp of print materials for Christmas services in addition to writing what amounts to promotional copy for ministries and services.

So, yeah, big year.

Oh! I almost forgot; one of my poems made a public debut as, well, sacred text. I wrote it as a hymn text and shared it with a friend who chose to include it in a Benedictine worship event. There’s been a little noise about setting the complete text to music. I don’t put a lot of stock in that. We’ll see what happens.

I think that’s most of the major stuff that I did this year.

Oh! And I saw Hair in New York with Plug and we ended up dancing on stage at the end. After all these years, we finally got our big break and performed on Broadway. We were fabulous and received a standing ovation as the sun shone in.

Okay, I think that really is all of the milestones for this year.

There are also a couple of things that I’m not doing. I’m not singing in a choir this season. I’m still taking voice lessons, but—for the moment—I’m not doing any choral work. There are a lot of reasons for this, but basically it boils down to my deep-seated belief that singing in a congregational choir should be ministry in relationship with God. If it’s not ministry, one that serves a broader community while nurturing the community of the choir, then what differentiates it from a civic choir or the opera chorus? It was pretty clear to me that the desire was to have a volunteer choir that functioned as a professional choir, in the sense that a professional chorister is a person doing a job, without feeling, without motive beyond a paycheck, and certainly without God. Obviously, I can go on and on about this, but I won’t.

I will say that singing with this group did a lot to improve my singing. I’m probably singing better now than I ever have. My voice coach, Kayo, warned me at our last session that my voice is about to get a lot bigger. That scares the crap out of me; my voice is already much larger now than it was a couple of years ago. Kayo did, however, commend me for my decision not to sing chorally this year. She says now that I’m not trying to match my idea of what a director is looking for, nor trying to “blend” with other unhealthy sopranos, my real voice is beginning to emerge. Kayo is also suggesting, firmly, that I step down from the excruciating heights of high sopranoland—not that I don’t have the notes, but that’s not where my voice is at its best. Kayo’s promising to come up with some interesting challenges for me for the Spring. I can’t wait to see where I end up.

The other thing I’m not doing at the moment is regularly attending worship. Heresy, I know. I jumped into singing with the last choir because I needed, NEEDED, a place to sing, but I always knew it wasn’t the right place for me to pray. Now, I’m taking my time. I’ve been strongly encouraged to dive into the deep end of Latino mission in the diocese. This is where my heart has been for a long time, but I’m trying to be cautious about choosing my next commitment; I know all too well how quickly I will find myself up to my ears in new congregational commitments, this time in two languages. Part of that is the nature of the beast that is the Church; the other part is all me—I’m too competent by half!

I actually sat down today to do a quick recap of this year’s Christmas gifts. As you can see other things got in the way, but now for a quick rundown (because I’m braggy and you really want to know).

First, there is the wonderful and highly anticipated page-a-day calendar that my office mate gave me. This is the third year in a row on this gift. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. This is the calendar, which this year has provided us with the fabulous word BUNGFUNGER, meaning to utterly confound. I have found this word to be extremely useful around the office. I highly suggest you add it to your functional vocabulary.

That meeting left me completely bungfungered.
She’s managed to bungfunger everyone involved with that project.
The boss is in the conference room bungfungering the new interns.

See what I mean? It’s so useful. I can’t wait to see what this year brings.

I received two Christmas ornaments from co-workers: one inviting peace, and one reminding me that there’s no place like home. I desperately need peace, and I really miss home sometimes. We left work on time one evening to see the 75th anniversary movie theatre release of Wizard of Oz. Terribly digitized, but we saw soooo many things we’d never seen before.



My boss gave me paper dolls and chocolate. Yippee! Two of my faves. Another co-worker gave me some lovely stationery. I also netted a pint of fresh salsa from one of the vergers and a slice of rum cake which has worked it’s way into my Christmas Eve ritual. I work both services, get home about 1 a.m., call Lit and talk with her while I open my presents and then unwind with a slice of the famous rum cake.

Yum!

I also got a big kiss.


After carefully thinking it through, I determined that this was not cause for a sexual harassment complaint.

From Santa this year I received a slew of effort. You know, times are tough for everyone. There’ve been layoffs at the North Pole. The workforce is smaller, but the demands are higher than ever. That’s why you have to really appreciate the tremendous time and energy that went into presentation.



Paint bucket lip gloss wrapped in a weird paisley bag,



a book which mocks my paragon of a mother was wrapped in glitter tissue,


a vaguely anti-Semitic, candy striped apron (Oy veh!) wrapped in what I believe was originally a wine bottle gift bag,



and the piece de resistance—a ballpoint pen wrapped in a toilet paper roll.

(Santa’s helper would like to interject at this point that it was not a toilet paper roll, it was custom cut from a wrapping paper roll.)

True. I have made sport of Santa’s efforts, even though I know that this kind of gift giving doesn’t just happen. Real work goes into it, and more importantly, love. Thank you, Santa!



This came from Dagromm, Taz, and company. Thank you all so much! It’s EXACTLY what I asked for. The cold dry air up here is murder on my hands and I went through quite a bit of hand cream on Christmas Eve alone. This shea butter stuff is fabulous. And the OPI Meet for Drinks nail color is gonna be a lot of fun, too. I have plans for a manicure over the weekend. Oooeee! I’m living it up big time now.

From Lit, who is the unrivaled queen of weird gifts gleaned from estate sales, I received everyone’s favorite board game


That’s right, it’s Scripturama! To see, to play, to learn, to enjoy—or so the game box tells me. I haven’t read through all the rules yet, still I have no doubt that my friends and I will have hours of fun with this. As you can see it comes with a full complement of exciting game cards for loads of scriptural fun.

And, as if Scripturama wasn’t enough to keep a party going for hours, she also sent along a perennial favorite gambling rodent dice game


Skunk! I have no idea how to play, but I’m sure we’ll figure it out next time you come for dinner. It comes with scorecards, chips, and rodent dice—it MUST be fun! The fun never stops at the Goo Factory.

Lit also sent along a food processor. We are currently in a hot debate about whether or not all of the parts were included when she sent it. She says yes, I say not so much. I believe there is an adaptor shaft missing. This belief should not suggest that I am ungrateful, but I wouldn’t bring the subject up with Lit unless you plan to take sides.

My final gift from Lit was a nativity set. Mary and baby Jesus (check out that full head of hair!) are pretty clear, and the guys down front are most likely shepherds—one is clutching a sheep (or just really shy) and the other is blowing a pipe (insert off-color shepherd joke here). Anyone care to explain the two homeboys hanging out at the back?



I love this set! They have such character, such panache. This may have to become my new office crèche. Lit has been hanging onto this set for years. I don’t remember her buying it, but I remember the Beard estate sale from which she purchased it. I don’t know if she was waiting for just the right year, or put is away and forgot about it until now, but I think it’s terrific.

Of course, the gifts I can’t show you are some of the best gifts of all: the cards, emails, and phone calls I’ve received over the last couple of weeks. Some of the gifts have come in the form of much-needed hugs, or meals, or just time hanging out with friends. This year my dad and stepmother are gifting me with a four-hour performance workshop with the Neo-Futurists. Thank you, both, very much! I’m doing that this Saturday and looking forward to stretching some muscles I haven’t used in a while.

That’s my recitation of Christmas fun. I know there’s more yet to come and hope your Christmas has been wonderful, too.