soundtracks of our lives 5

soundtracks of our lives 5 on the RevGals site

Mary Beth brings us today's timely talkin' 'bout topic:

"The sad news of Michael Jackson's untimely death has me thinking about music and its effects on us - individually, as cultures, as generations. Let's think about the soundtracks of our lives..."

1) as a child I mostly heard standard-issue classical and top 40 playing in the background, nothing especially esoteric.

2) no particular song says "high school" when I hear it, but sort of on my own I'd started listening to music that had an edge of social consciousness as well as that era's top 40 and alternative music. by then studio recording was making huge and imaginative advances! it's too early to think of any title at the moment, but you get the idea. in high school I also started serious piano lessons...

3) my favorite music lift me up from a down day tends to be either something profound like a Beethoven Symphony (esp 1, 2, 4 or 7) or an energetic oldie like Dire Straits' "Walk of Life" or Huey Lewis and the News' "Power of Love." The von Karajan Beethoven performances seem to have stayed on YouTube despite the newer policy of shorter videos and due to the way favorites keep disappearing I'm not linking to my current Walk of Life or Power of Love fave, but you get the idea.

4) just one, only a single favorite performer of all time? a few: Tracy Chapman, Jewel Kilcher, Boston Symphony Orchestra...

5) my favorite style of music for worship remains just about everything with the exceptions of most 19th century hymnody and the usually popular tunes of Taizé. For my bonus I'm linking to this vid that has been rocking my world every since I first heard it. The Northwest Missouri State University Tower Choir...

Let Everything that hath Breath, Praise the Lord!

"you and I must make a pact; we must bring salvation back - just call my name and I'll be there..."

5 about moving and changing

moving and changing on the revgals...

This is from Sally, and I'm taking it as being about moving house and I'm writing in pentecostal red for the fire that purifies along with the wind that blows out the old, brings in the new. I love to move! On one Friday 5 one of the questions was how many times we'd moved and I've done it lots.

1. one thing (only one?) I cannot possibly part with is...my stack of academic transcripts and letters of call. But there also are quite a few dishes and decorations I'd absolutely have to take with me, too.

2. for a gladly leave behind I'll choose the bathroom towels that have been washed lots of times and faded too much to look fresh. Also, replacing them is not very expensive, making giving them away to the local vet an excellent choice (they go through lots and lots and bleach them every time they wash them, so they always welcome more).

3. to prepare for a move, my

a.practical tactics include list, list, and more lists. Deciding and acquiring more boxes and packing material than I think I'll need. Label everything carefully, too. When I moved from City of History to the Intermountain West I used a professional mover, but my scheme still was almost the same.
b. and the spiritual emotional lists, lists, and even more lists.

4. in a new place I first try to find locally owned, less-expensive restaurants; the nearest mall, and the library. Go outside and walk randomly; go for a drive and check out the lay of the land, get accustomed to this new to me territory.

5. typically I settle in easily and take a whole lot of time to get acclimated. For an example of this both/and...I love the excitement of acquiring the few things you always seem to need in a new place, rediscovering a few things I'd almost forgotten I had, waking up in a new place and tweaking my morning routine and rearranging new to me spaces. However, I also tend to be almost consumed or at least concerned by memories of the place I recently lived and just left.

poetry party 35: light and shadow

poetry party 36


comment: this actually is Christine's poetry party 36; my numbering was incorrect because I'd forgotten I hadn't played last time.

Abbey of the Arts Invitation to Poetry: poetry party 36

Christine asks us to consider, "In the brilliant light of days growing longer, what do we encounter in the shadows that may have been hidden to us before? What do you discover in the interplay between shadow and light?"

lights, brights, shadows, opaques...

as an artist
every day I consider degrees of
opacity transparency
shimmers of revelation
to include in each design project
80% opacity or
20% transparency
and which colors to use

as a person
every day I consider
degrees of transparency and opacity
to present to the world
80% opacity or 20% translucence
a colorless hint of an outline of a self-revealing

but sometimes grace intervenes
spirits away the shadows
and I show far more
than intended
and the end result is just fine