Refresh and renew

Colorado's state flower

Summer is my time to reflect and renew my commitments for the coming year.  I talked about this some last June, when I was struggling with whether our schola would achieve critical mass.  Looking back on the progress, we now have grown to a dozen loyal and talented members, now including women as well as men.

We really are quite blessed.  Despite challenges and frustrations, it’s wonderful to be bringing this traditional music back to our parish.

As I head to the 2010 Sacred Music Colloquium, it’s a great opportunity to build my own energy and bring new ideas back to the schola.  As in past years, I’ll meet with each member individually when I return.  The purpose of this is to help give voice to people’s celebrations and concerns in a confidential setting, which helps me to lead us in a direction that most people can get excited about.  It also helps each individual to test and rebuild their own personal commitment.

I’m thinking that I might repeat the workshop I gave last August, since that was so successful in bringing in new members.  It sure changed the energy of the group, and has been a real gift to me as well.

But first – first! – off to Pittsburg for a week of joyful learning and singing!