Music Blog

The collective voices of the First Parish’s choir will be heard at the October 5th worship service. We are singing some beautiful music this month and for the whole 2025—26 season. Choosing music for the choir is a labor of love for me. I look through our large library of music; I pore through sheet music catalogs; I recall music that I heard at the Association of UU Music Ministries (AUUMM) conference this past July. I try to choose lyrics that fit us and fit our worship themes. I listen, I...

Welcome, Welcome! It is the end of summer and I am excited to soon be back doing music with you all. In July, Guy and I were fortunate to be able to be part of the Association of Unitarian Universalist Music Ministries’ (AUUMM) annual national conference in Atlanta. We were surrounded by music professionals, amazing musicians that have high levels of creativity. We received daily worship services that were new, exciting, transformative, and awe-inspiring. We feel restored and ready to bring...

The Practice of Freedom …so sing with me, and we’ll make our way down that blessed road together, collectively better than we ever thought possible. —from I Go to Sing by Lindy Thompson To Transform Work, We Must Rest —from The Nap Ministry Our inner lives are filled with music: pop music, classical music, jazz, folk, traditional, blues, to name a few. We draw on that rich world that belongs to each of us as we work and rest. It is, to me, the ultimate freedom. To keep my life meaningful, I...

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution.” —Albert Einstein With imagination as our theme for May, I am excited! As a musician, imagination of sounds and music in general is what I love. Think of a Beethoven symphony and probably something comes to your mind. Or a favorite hymn or a pop song. It speaks to an inner life that is full and dynamic, with ongoing changes...

“The Practice of Joy” Happy Spring, everyone! Most of us rejoice even to think of the weather as warming, the angle of the sun shifting, and the promise of our garden blooming again. As we experience these sensations, they can remind us of feeling joy. Probably, joy is an individual matter, to be answered by each of us moment to moment that changes upon a dime. Is it a collaboration of factors? Warmer weather helps, but I ascertain that it is the power of music lingering in my imagination that...

We do a deep-dive into “The Practice of Trust” this month. What is trust? Trust is multi-faceted. It is belief in character, ability, truth, other people, sometimes based on knowledge and sometimes based on a feeling. It is supporting an ideal worthy of building confidence around. It fosters hope, and positivity. Trust is a cornerstone of Shared Ministry. Shared ministry, to me, is people working together to support the ministries of the congregation. For this to thrive, we depend on trusting...

“Diversity is having a seat at the table, inclusion is having a voice, and belonging is having that voice be heard.”—Liz Fosslien This month, we explore the Practice of Inclusion. Music exudes the notion of Inclusion, defined as “the action or state of including or of being included within a group or structure.” We include ourselves by singing a hymn at a church service. We include ourselves by listening to words and to music. Including oneself means that we know we have a place at the table...

A very Happy New Year to you all! May our collective Story be that we are and remain a strong community through 2025 and beyond! It is no surprise that my ongoing Story, the theme for January 2025, is a song or songs that are rather a constant in my brain. We discovered a gem on YouTube over the holidays and I hope you look it up and give the whole album a listen! This is the great Jon Batiste, the New Orleans jazz musician, pianist, dancer, singer, composer, improv. artist. It is called,...

So much comes together in December. Holidays we celebrate mandate bringing light to our house and to our spirit because it is such a dark time. Advent gives us a sense that something wonderful is coming. What our monthly theme of “Presence” means to me is that we include ourselves, which means that we bring light to those we are with. Being present is connecting with others by showing up, by sharing our beliefs—be they in agreement or not, and by looking each other in the eye. When we are...

We all need constant repair. Thinking about the house we live in is an easy reminder of that: appliances that need repair, replacing a window here and there. Those are easy repairs. How do we take are of ourselves to maintain who we are and how we can continue to grow? And when we can identify an injury or a source of trauma from our past, how do we proactively repair ourselves? We might call in a helper, maybe a carpenter or a therapist. Improvement is always possible. Being focused on the...