Wow, I didn’t mean to let more than 7 months go by since my last post! When I last posted, I was ready for fall, and now we’re through fall and winter, and well into a new spring. I started two jobs at the end of last summer, and my life got so much busier than I was used to…I feel like I’m only now kind of getting in the groove. It’s been a whirlwind 7 months!
My dayjob at First United Methodist Church continues to be such a blessing. It keeps me very busy, and gives me the opportunity to work with cool, fun, interesting people every day. I am never bored. While being a church secretary is not what I want to do for the rest of my life, it’s great for right now.
And Seicento Baroque Ensemble (www.seicentobaroque.org) had an amazing first season! We did four full-length concerts, and ended our season in the black. I’ve learned so much about baroque music and life in general. And it’s been really gratifying to see my friend E’s (Seicento’s founder and Artistic Director) dream of having a baroque choir come true, and to be part of making that happen. What a year!
What else is up? Husband’s career is going wonderfully. He’s very busy but thriving. He had a paper accepted at a conference in Finland in August, so it looks like we’re Helsinki-bound this summer…very exciting! Neither of us has ever been to Finland before. If you have, please feel welcome to share ideas, tips, and must do’s...we're all ears!
Meanwhile, I continue to contemplate what I would like to do when I grow up (ha ha), and I think I'm getting closer to figuring it out. I still want to do music, of course, but I’ve realized that I’m much happier when music’s a serious hobby/side career rather than when I'm depending on it for bread and butter. Anyway, I've been feeling a real calling to hospice work in the last couple of years, either in a chaplain or counseling role, I think. I'm about to begin exploring this in earnest; I will be starting to volunteer for a local hospice organization later this month. I'm excited to see if I still feel that this work will be a fulfilling career for me after I spend time with actual patients in hospice. I'm halfway through the volunteer training, and so far am finding it very moving and inspiring. I hope I'm on the right track!
And finally, a plug: a good friend of mine, K, has started a really worth-while website that I hope you will check out, www.thebirthcontrolproject.org. At present, the site will only post submissions from female writers, but gents, please feel very welcome to go there and read the stories. I think people of both genders will find the stories that are shared insightful and moving.
On the site, K is collecting the stories of women of all ages and backgrounds, women who have children and women who don't have children. Here is the premise:
(K's words) "I started asking women--what impact has access (or lack of access) to contraception had on your life? What would your life so far have looked like in a world without birth control?"
As for why K started this site now, here is part of what she has to say:
"This site was inspired by the rash of recent attacks by legislators and others on women’s access to effective and affordable birth control. Not abortion—birth control. As one of the hundreds of millions of women worldwide who rely on contraception regularly, I felt angered, but also shocked by these attacks. I, who came of age in the 1990s, have always taken utterly for granted that I would be able to choose when and if I gave birth to a child. The thought that something so basic would even be controversial was shocking."
K is very serious about protecting the identity of any woman who shares her story on the site; she publishes only your first-name initial, age, and number of children you have. Also, K does not permit comments on the stories (she talks about why on the site), so you don't have to worry about anyone flaming you if you share a story; any potential flamers would not know who you are or how to find you anyway.
Womenfolk, I hope you will check out K’s site, and post a story if you are so moved. I have posted my story, and found it to be a very empowering thing to do. Here again is the site:
www.thebirthcontrolproject.org
Anyway, happy spring, friends, and I’ll try not to wait another 7 months before I post again!
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