Man, so much going on. It’s been one of those weeks where I’ve just overloaded myself and forgot to rest. This happens. My biggest problem is that if I have a moment to spare, I’ll fill it with something, anything. This “something” may be studying Italian, learning a new programming language, reading, working out… whatever. But what I too often forget to do is REST. Just sit and do nothing. For some reason there’s something inside of me that tells me that sitting and doing nothing is wasted time. I need to learn to change this perception. We need downtime. Downtime is good.
Anyway, even though I didn’t get any rest, this was what I would call a good weekend. Saturday Michelle and I rode the Freedom Rider Blossom Trail Poker Run which benefitted the Poverello House. It was a nice ride, and more importantly a nice time together. A few hundred people showed up to ride so that made for a nice chunk of change for the homeless, so that made it all the better.
Today I got up early and headed to Sierra Heights Baptist church to jam for the folks there. I have to say it was an incredibly moving experience for me. I have the awesome blessing of playing with some of the best musicians I’ve ever jammed with and today we played two services; one contemporary, and one a little laid back. Sierra is an older church. It’s been here for years and years and so the congregation is mostly older folks. But they seem to be trying to reach out to a younger generation and so they have one service that’s more rocking, and another that more traditional.
Now I am a rocker through and through. I’m listening to Metallica as I write this post. But honestly, today as I played the “traditional” service, I was blown away. We were playing at a lower volume and I was really holding back on the drums, but as we were playing, I could hear all these voices rising up, singing along with us… and there’s something about seeing folks in their 60’s & 70’s in thier sunday best singing out to God completely uninhibited.
You know, we’re so uptight about how we look to other people and we’re so concerned with how our voices sound and so we hold back…. but here’s these older folks who could give a rat’s behind, just belting out songs in praise of our Lord. And I was just really moved by the beauty of thier voices and thier unabashed singing. Honestly It was all I could do to keep from crying like a baby behind the drum kit.
Later as I was reflecting on the day, it reminded me of church as a kid. I remember going to church and sitting there with all these really old people dressed in suits and dresses and just not understanding it at all. But I still remember my mom singing the hymns and how beautiful her voice sounded to me. I have no idea what that all means just yet, but it was just a great day of worship.
So tomorrow is monday and that means back to the grind. There’s a few things I wanted to share in this post before I crash though. First, I picked up an album at Starbucks a few weeks ago. Yeah, I actually bought an album at Starbucks. I think that officially means I’m OLD!!! The album is a Frank Sinatra album though, so I think that’s OK. it’s called “The Heart of the Matter” and basically, it’s freaking killer. Here’s the link: http://www.hearmusic.com , buy it now!
Secondly, there’s a fundraiser going on for Big Brothers Big Sisters. I’ve gotten to know these folks through some web work I did for them and they are awesome people. They are having a big fund raiser where you get to raise money to help kids and bowl at the same time. How can you beat that? The date is March 27th and you can sign up by going [to this link]. Michelle and I, along with Bob from South of Shaw and his fiance’ Erica are forming a team and so I formally invite you to join us. It’s going to be a blast.
Have a great week!
