Written on July 24th, 2022

I can’t seem to get my blog working on my old mac today, so I will just put my blog post about yesterday here tonight and fix it when I am home:

Today turned into another synchronicity day, where I feel like I am exactly where I am supposed to be at exactly the right time. Before coming to Maine to visit my family, I had asked my mom if I could do special music at her church. I felt inspired and some nostalgia from all my writings about Court St Baptist Church and my love of the Chicks to perform again. I am not able to do any type of music often because of my work in the medical field, I cannot make any long term commitments with choirs or bands. My mom told me she was scheduled to do special music the Sunday I would be in town so I could definitely take her spot. We used to do flute duets or sing together all the time at church when I was growing up, so I asked her if she would either accompany me in harmony or with the flute. 

    There was one song in particular that I wanted to sing called, “Stained Glass Windows’. It was written by Diane Muise, a gospel singer that was a member of Court St when I was growing up in the 80s and 90s. She would travel up and down the east coast performing her songs at churches. I wanted to be her when I grew up. She even directed some of our VBS music in the summer if she was in town. I actually got to sing on one of her live albums because she wanted a choir to accompany her, and I volunteered to be a part of the choir. 

The song talks about how God takes the broken parts of our lives and makes stained glass windows. It reminds me of the Japanese pottery in which they take broken pieces and glue them together with gold and they are seen as more valuable. Actually the song was inspired by my Sunday School teacher, Lorna Hansen, who is very active in Women’s Baptist Ministries, including supporting missionary work. She is a big deal. So the song meant a lot to me in several ways.

    Strangely enough, my mom is now married to Diane Muise’s husband. Unfortunately, Diane passed unexpectedly over ten years ago. I had grown up with her kids and my mom knew her and her husband, but everything had been platonic. Well, as typical church busy bodies do (I’m calling you out, Kathy and Don), my mom and Leo were set up on surprise double dates multiple times a few years after Diane’s death and the rest is history.

    Well, we performed the song and it went really well. Of course, after looking at the video, all I can hear are the imperfections, but I am trying to just appreciate the experience, singing at my old church, with my mom, honoring Diane and Lorna and feeling my HP’s presence.

    Next, after taking the older nieces and nephew to see Marcel in the Shell with Shoes on in a little Portland theater (it was lovely and quirky and I highly recommend it), I went to a presentation by two missionaries that Court St sponsors, Ann and Bill Clemmer. My mom has told me about them for many years and I actually friended Ann on Facebook when I went to South Sudan. Coincidentally, (or not, you decide), they happened to be in Maine, fundraising for their work, on the exact weekend I happened to be in Maine. They spend four years in the Congo and then a year in the US, doing these presentations and it happened to be their time. Y’all remember I was supposed to be in South Sudan right now, but cut my trip early. It turns out, they have been to the same village I worked in, Old Fangak, and know the same physician I worked with, Dr. Jill! It is a small world, especially in Humanitarian work! Now that we can put faces to the names we keep hearing about, I’m hoping we can stay in touch. Their children are now my age and grew up in the Congo with them. They all are currently in the US, doing very impressive work, one actually lives in Raleigh, down the highway from me in Durham, NC! 

    It is nice to feel like I am on the right road in life for a change. It all seems to be unfolding exactly as it should be and for that I am grateful.