The Way to End a Week

I’ve just returned from a magnificent concert. The musical group is called Transept. It is a professional group of musicians directed by Timothy Campbell from the University of South Dakota.  The singers are largely from South Dakota with a few coming in from other states for the performances.  

The concert was titled, Echoes of Plainchant, Ancient Melodies, Heavenly Harmonies.  As you can tell the basis of the program was plainchant melodies. Composers were included from the 11th through the 21st centuries. They sang in the Cathedral of St. Joseph which has tremendous acoustics. a perfect venue for this group. 

The concert closed with Biebl’s “Ave Maria.” The two groups I directed for the Singing Boys of Sioux Falls performed this number years ago.  Transept sang the more difficult two choir arrangement. Hearing it and the other melodies reminded me of the musical experiences we provided for the boys with whom we worked for so many years. As it sometimes happens, we find gratitude after the fact. We also experience a degree of satisfaction after the fact. We are too often tied up in the present moment, worrying about a million details and we fail to see the larger picture because we are focused on the minutiae. The concert, along with providing a marvelous listening experience, gave me a chance to reminisce a bit and grasp a vision of something larger than I realized “in the moment.”

It was a perfect way to end the week. There were a lot of mundane happenings this past week. Something spectacular like tonight concert provided a climax which would not have “made” the week otherwise.

I set myself a goal this week to increase my steps by 1,000 per day over last week.  Last week’s goal was 5,000 per day. This week’s goal was 6,000 steps each day. I made it! It’s a good thing I had credit from other days because today was a little short.  I also set a goal to return to all my exercise classes.  I achieved that as well. I was at the Fitness Center five days this week. I felt much better being active and participating in Just Stretch, Strength and Balance, Aqua Chi, and Tai Chi, as well as working with my trainer on the “rack,” the fearsome pilates reformer. 

I had not been to Tai Chi for a quite a while.  I was amazed at the number of things I remembered.  We work on “The Form,” a set series of steps and movements which are derived from martial arts but done in a much slower version. It looks rather a beautiful when well done.  I can’t say that our group looks beautiful but we are working toward beautiful. It’s always good to have a goal!

I also went to an OLLI class on Monday afternoon on centers of conflict in the world.  OLLI is a fantastic program for adult learners. They provide a variety of classes (there were close to 100 offered this semester in Sioux Falls), on a wide range of topics.  Most of the classes meet one or two times. They are taught by college professors and community members who have a particular passion for a topic. For a set fee for the semester you can take as many classes as you wish. It’s a bargain.  There are no tests, few assignments, and attendance is pretty much voluntary, although there are some class limits so it is a polite thing to do to cancel if you can’t make the class so someone else can go.

The rest of the week involved normally scheduled things. Our Benedictine Community meets on Tuesday evening. I work at the Pavilion of Arts and Science on Wednesday afternoon. I usually am at the Eucharist at the Cathedral on Wednesday and Good Shepherd on Thursday. Saturday morning is the Farmers’ Market. 

I forced myself into a project at home that needed to be done but could easily be ignored.  Several chairs and the piano bench have labored under the load of organ and piano music that needed to be sorted into categories. Why? So I could find that for which I was searching without going through all the piles every time. I’ve also found that my increasing age has necessitated enlarging items from the Hymnal so I could read them.  This resulted in a pile of paper which I sorted by hymn numbers and placed in a binder. No longer will I have to enlarge a copy of Hymn 645 if I’ve already done that. It was amazing to find that I had 4 and 5 copies of some hymns. I only have the service music left to sort. Maybe tomorrow or Monday. 

Our church foyer group met on Thursday evening for dinner. The foyer groups are small groups of parishioners who meet together for dinner once each month. The usual pattern is for the group to go to an host’s house for dinner. The host furnishes the main dish and the other members bring dishes to share. Our group is the “going out to dinner group.” Most of the groups change composition each year. We’ve stayed together through several years. Our group is very adventuresome. We enjoy trying out the new restaurants including the ethnic eateries. This week we went to a place that specialized in barbecue. I had some delicious brisket. The group seemed pretty evenly divided between the brisket and the ribs. 

The city continues to clean up after the tornadoes of last week, and the floods which followed. The river is still quite high but I think has receded from most of the parks.  Sioux Falls has been wise in establishing most of the river banks as park areas which means that houses will not be as affected by flood waters. Yet there are certain areas of the city that are flood prone.

Next week is round three of chemotherapy.  This week I’ve suffered no ill effects other than the wonky eyesight which I’ve been promised will improve. I was warned not to rush out and get new glasses, but I’m tired of blurry vision and have made an appointment with the optometrist. I would rather be able to see clearly for the next two months. I trust the medical profession, but sometimes you have to take things into your own hands.

Thanks for reading. Thanks for all the prayers. Thanks for the visits.  Thanks for the phone calls. All of these keep me going. You have no idea how important they are to me. I am so grateful.

How do you like the new hat?