Yes, it has been a while

The leaves have peaked. It usually all happens in a single weekend, and it did. We drove up to the cottage Saturday with a friend, and as we promised the oaks and maples looked like they were on fire. A heavy wind Sunday took many leaves off the limbs, undoing much of my work to remove them from the lawn.

My parents have gone down to Florida. They are undoubtedly there by now, and likely exhausted from the trip. I haven't blogged a lot lately. I have not really had a lot to say. And sometimes it is good to say little. A little listening, for a change, can go a long way. :-)

The music group I have belonged to since 1988 has, from what I can tell, finally folded. It ended on my door-step on Thursday, when the drummer returned my Fender Twin amplifier. He handed me an envelope, saying, “I think you should have this.” Inside were sheets of music, songs I had written long ago. “The horn charts,” He said, before turning around to help me get the amp out of the trunk.

So it is over. And an important part of my life is empty, right now. It is partly filled by my work with the folk group at church. But singing hymns that other people have written, as beautiful as they are, does not complete the picture for me. I have to be involved in creating. I have to figure out some way of breaking out of my shell, holed up in the basement recording studio. I have to learn how to make that connection again, and shed my hermit ways.

I was pleased with one thing, though. I wrote a song this weekend. And while I began it as a secular songwriting exercise, it quickly turned into another spiritual work. And I am grateful for that. I don't want my faith to dry up and wither, and I do worry sometimes that it might.