New Thought Music

It's been a long time since I updated here. Most of my baby updates are on Facebook/Circle of Moms, which is not only easier, it's nice and private. My personal wellness blog is going strong again. I simply haven't had much to post here, or time to do it, especially when I know that all my good friends except, well, one, are on Facebook, and I've got quite a supportive community on there.

(I'm reasonably smart with security setting too, I mean heck, I practically have a degree in social networking.)

As of today, I have something new to write about on this blog: Music! I need a forum to share, discuss, save links, and organize my thoughts about New Thought Music. This is just the place for me to do that.

When I first started web writing under the pseudonym puppyshine in 1995, I wrote a lot about music. My amateur Geocities site featured essays on the topic. I also commonly wrote about the concept of self, and the quest for self knowledge.

So it's only fitting that I use this blog in part to talk about my new path as Choir Director at a New Thought church in Virginia. (I so want to tell you who we are... but I still desire a modicum of privacy.)

New Thought.... For years, I looked for such a church, wondered why it didn't seem to exist, and continued to meditate/journalize my thoughts on my own. The Landmark Forum and A Course in Miracles were both deeply meaningful for me... but where was a local weekly community devoted to these ideas in a formalized setting, without all the staid ritual and pretentiousness?

Not only that... where was all the positive, spiritual music that didn't imply a belief in hell or outmoded patriarchal concepts? That sang about Love without subtly referencing a belief in fear? Thank God(!) this community has shown me the door... not only that, it has welcomed me in. FINALLY I know of a musical community I feel comfortable to be myself within, one that is more about the personal experience of listening and performing than the technical or emotive aspects of the performance itself. I can sing for Me -- How I want to, What I want to -- and that's all that's asked of me.

Likewise... it will be all I ask of the eclectic, mostly-untrained musicians I am shortly to lead. I will show them the same respect as they have me, I will emphasize fun over technique and inclusiveness over quality. I do hope to teach a little bit, but I surely won't demand that folks learn to read music. This is no high school choir after all. There are no grades here, only the desire to sing for joy! No matter how it "sounds", any group that comes together to joyfully make noises in praise of the All is Beautiful. And that's All That Matters.

Suffice to summarize by saying I found what is, for me, just such a place. And I'm honored to be able to put my musical training to use there.

And now... I commence with the New Thought Music postings!