Monday, September 15, 2008

Finding My Zone

Last week one day while I was driving home from work, I was suddenly hit by an overwhelming longing to to do some practicing when I got home (I play the organ). The more I thought about doing it, the more intense the longing became. I haven't sat down and played in many, many months - I find it hard to practice for any length of time any more because of my carpal tunnel syndrome. This day, however, I wasn't about to let that hold me back. When I got home, I went in and shovelled (literally) all of the stuff away from in front of my organ so that I could pull the bench out. Because my mom was sleeping at the time (and because i wanted to hear how horrible I sounded before my mom and dad heard me) I initially had my headphones on. Yikes! It sounded like I had never played a note in my life. But as I got my hands warmed up, it gradually started to sound better. I eventually felt confident enough in what I was doing to take the headphones off so that Mom and Dad could hear me. But as I continued to play, the thought crossed my mind that it would take me a long time to get back into my "zone".

That started me wondering. What exactly is my "zone", and how do I know when I'm in it? As I continued to ponder this, it came to me that I am "in the zone" when I stop having to consciously think about what I'm doing and where I'm moving my hands to, when my hands and foot are playing together in perfect harmony and when, even though my eyes are on the sheet music, I'm "feeling" the music inside of me rather than "reading" it from the page. And once I get into the zone, I sometimes experience a feeling like something else has taken over and is playing through me. I can actually feel where I am no longer the one in control of moving my hands. It doesn't happen every time I play, and it only lasts for a few seconds. Sounds crazy, I know. But I've felt it many times, and it always leaves me feeling somewhat awe-struck when it happens.

I also got to thinking about this incredible gift that I've been given by God, and the fact that I have been sadly neglecting it. This especially hit me when, after I finished playing and went into the living room, both Mom and Dad told me how much they had enjoyed listening to me play and how they wished I would do it more often. I decided then and there that I need to look for more opportunities to share with others this gift that I have been given.

TTFN!

Friday, September 12, 2008

Two more days until Sunday School starts!!

Tonight is the first meeting of the year for the Sunday School staff at our church, of which yours truly is a part. It's been nice to have the summer off to rest and get refreshed, but I'm actually really excited about the start of a new year. I'm planning on building on some of the things that I taught my class last year (the 10 commandments, books of the Bible, scripture memorization), as well as incorporating some new things into the curriculum (the Beatitudes, how God made each of us special and unique). Although we have prescribed curriculum that we use, I enjoy getting creative from time to time and doing my own thing with the class, particularly if there's something I want to teach that we don't have in the current curriculum.

One of the nice things about belonging to a small congregation is that we generally have the same students from year to year. Last year I taught grades 3-6 (which was only 5 students); this year I'm not sure what grades I'm going to end up with. It's going to depend on how they decide to split the classes up between me and the other elementary teacher.

TTFN!

Monday, September 8, 2008

How I Spent My Summer Vacation, Part 1

Prologue
My cousin Angela got married on July 20th in Steinbach, Manitoba (about 45 minutes outside of Winnipeg). When my mom and dad and I started making plans to attend, initially we were only going to take a couple of days, go to the wedding and come home again. Somewhere along the way, we decided to extend our trip and take a little vacation. With my Dad needing to have two separate surgeries (one for his cancer and one on his that keeps dislocating), it's uncertain when we'll have another chance to take a vacation. We decided that we would leave on Thursday the 17th once I got home from work, drop the dogs off at their kennel (it was on our way) and drive to Saskatoon where we'd spend the night. Friday morning we'd get up, have breakfast at one of our favourite restaurants, and then drivwe to Winnipeg. I was staying with my Aunty Ingrid and Uncle Rick; Mom and Dad were going to be staying with my Uncle Wayne (Uncle Rick and Uncle Wayne are my mom's brothers). We'd have Saturday to rest from our travels, and we had been invited to my cousin Kristi's home for dinner. The wedding was going to be on Sunday, and we were going to leave the reception a little bit early to cross the border into North Dakota. Our destination was Grand Forks. We were going to spend two nights there (so Dad could go to Menards hardware store) and then continue driving across North Dakota and Montana to Missoula over the course of the week. We planned to spend a night in Great Falls so that Mom and I could go to the Goodwill store there (people always think we're nuts when we tell them that that's our favourite store there) before going to Missoula. We'd spend three nights in Missoula to do some shopping and then come home.

Ever heard the saying "Man plans, God laughs"? Yeah. Here's how our vacation really went...

Remind me again why I left work early?
I had made arrangements to get out of work an hour early, thinking (perhaps rather foolishly) that we could get on the road earlier, and thus get to Saskatoon earlier. Boy, was I wrong! I made one quick stop on the way home - to buy panythose for the wedding that I didn't end up wearing anyway - and then headed home. Mom had gone into the city to get a few things, and apparently got home not very long before I did. I was pretty much packed; my mom, not so much. So when I got home, she was running around in a tizzy madly trying to finish her packing. Too much of a tizzy, apparently; she forgot to pack a couple of rather essential items (I won't go into the specifics; suffice it to say we had to make an emergency stop at Wal-Mart in Saskatoon before we left the next morning). We finally got out of the house at 6:30, and I think the only reason we left then was because we had to drop the dogs off before 7:00. As it was, we just barely made it to the kennel.

To be continued...

God Painted The Sky

One of the things I love most about my daily commute is getting to watch the sun come up in my rearview mirror in the morning. This is a short-lived experience, only occurring for about 1-2 weeks in the spring and fall. Right now in the mornings, the sun is already over the horizon when I leave; in another week or two we'll be to the time when I get to watch the sky turn gradually go from the pre-dawn grey to ever-increasing tinges of pink and purple, and then finally to glorious shades of orange and gold as the sun breaks over the horizon and colour floods the sky. I love witnessing this phenomon; somehow whatever worries or stresses are bothering suddenly seem so insignificant.

Last week (Thursday, to be precise) I was driving to work, occasionally glancing in my rearview mirror to see the sunrise, as I always do. I had one of my favourite Rebecca St. James discs in the CD player, and I was listening to this amazing praise and worship song that's on it (for about the fifth time in a row). There's one point in the song where the music builds to a crescendo; at the very instant that the crescendo hit, I reached a placed on the highway where the trees give way to fields and the sunrise blazed across the sky, colouring everything gold and orange. All at once, the pain in my joints from the cool, damp morning, the stress over the piles of paperwork sitting on my desk, even the other cars on the highway, everything just dropped away. At that moment, it was just me and my Creator, and I was overwhelmed by such a deep, powerful feeling of peace and contentment that it actually gave me goosebumps. I was suddenly compelled to lift my hand in worship and praise to my God. The moment passed, but the feeling stayed with me for the rest of the morning.

"Every blessing you pour out I'll turn back to praise.
When the darkness closes in, Lord, still I will sing...
Blessed be your name."
("Blessed Be Your Name" - R. St. James, The Ultimate Collection, Disc 2)

TTFN!