What began Sunday as an exercise to help a pastoral resident nail down names and faces turned into a revealing look at what makes us unique and what draws us together.
First year pastoral resident Jordann McMahan came to Epiphany to share her faith journey and then she planned to dive into the scriptures, but first she wanted to get to know us better. She asked us each to tell our name, how long we’ve been at Wilshire, and our favorite ice cream flavor.
Continue reading “Names, Flavors, Years”’Tis the season . . . for wasps to come in the house from the fireplace. It’s a bad time for them and for us. More specifically, it’s a bad time for me.
I have a fear of stinging insects dating back to when, as a toddler on my grandparents’ driveway, I stepped on a bee with my bare foot and it stung me between my toes. I was holding my grandmother’s hand, and when I screamed, she swatted at the dazed bee buzzing around her leg and took me inside. There, she pulled the tiny stinger out with tweezers and dabbed the puncture with some concoction that included vinegar. (I believe that also was the day I developed a lifelong gag reflex to the smell of vinegar.)
Continue reading “Fighting Fear”A couple of weeks ago, Mark McKenzie and I continued an annual tradition of taking our saxophones to Wilshire’s Wednesday evening Pre-K choir class for a show-and-tell about music and instruments. It’s always fun but unpredictable because we don’t have a prepared script and we never know what the kids will say or do. We keep it loose and it always goes fine.
This year, after the show-and-tell that included four sizes of saxes, demonstrating the highest and lowest notes, letting the kids touch the keys, and explaining that the saxophone gets its funny name from Belgian musician and inventor Adolphe Sax, we played a few short duets. That included “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star,” “Itsy Bitsy Spider,” “Old MacDonald” and “When the Saints Go Marching In.” We’ve played these tunes before and they’re pretty simple, so I didn’t spend any time rehearsing. That was a big mistake because it had been a year and I missed some notes and rhythms. Afterward, I was disappointed with myself for my lack of preparation.
Continue reading “Still Lots to Learn”