Hope

The psychologist Erik Erikson writes of how in the first stage of our development the primary concern is basic trust versus basic mistrust. For infants, the outer predictability of consistent patterns of care becomes an inner certainty. Trust births hope. This inner certainty runs deeper than memory. It lives in spirit, flesh and bone. And …

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God through us

Singing into a microphone or playing in front of a congregation can be intimidating. From personal experience and many conversations with music ministers about the mental and spiritual challenges of serving have come some insights that, I think, apply readily to any situation where we put ourselves out there to serve God and neighbor. To …

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rhythm

Why does Music have such an effect on us? Where does it come from? In the beginning, there was rhythm. In our mother’s womb we hear the beating of her heart and the rhythm of her breath. We feel the stillness and movement and the sleeping and waking of her days. We are born into …

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why heaven is up

Of course we’re not talking literally “up.” That would lead to all sorts of absurdities. We’re speaking metaphorically, which is to say that we’re speaking psychologically. So how do we get at the meaning of the metaphor? – by playing with it until we begin to see through it as through a lens and by …

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mind and nature

In abstracting we imagine ourselves as outside of nature looking in and Forgetting the “as” we are left alienated and homeless. In using a tool, the tool becomes an extension of our body. In use, the tool fades in favor of the task at hand. Yet we can readily stop and notice the tool itself. …

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being a musician

At the core of being a musician is the deep desire to experience and express what goes beyond words. When someone tells of a spiritual experience, they can’t help but relive it in the telling. The same is true for musical expression: the musician lives what is being expressed. This is part of what makes …

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defining moment

There are moments in a musician’s life – defining performances that touch so deeply that they effect a fundamental shift in their humanity – an awakening at the core of their vocations as musicians that forever alters their path. I witnessed last night just such a milestone that will forever remain as a archetypal marker …

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