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church as home/family
Oct. 29th, 2011 10:29 pmAfter worship service at FCS last Sunday, I was reminded of how Ari talks about church as her "family."
We had a few minutes to stretch etc. between the end of service and the beginning of the meeting. I talked to Jeff B., climbed over pews to talk to Mike R., saw Lisa S. (who hadn't been at church in about a month on account of law school) and ended up sitting with her for the meeting (leaning against her).
I felt so warm and cozy -- like this is a place I belong, these are people I feel comfortable with, etc.
***
At Singspiration last night, every time someone asked me how I was, I said something like "good" in a really happy tone and meant it. Which I found interesting. I mean, I definitely felt better by the end of the workday on Thursday when I finally got a CWM thing done, but it was interesting to me how I answered "good" on automatic pilot but genuinely felt really good interacting with this people -- that there was something about the energy of all that that was really positive. (I also find it interesting which people I ping with -- and which people I'd like to be in relationship with but it just doesn't quite work.)
The closing group was the Just Us 4 Bluegrass Quartet (2 Baptists, a Pentecostal, and an Anglican -- in dungarees and flannel shirts). They did a medley of "I Saw The Light" & "I'll Fly Away" & "Do Lord" -- and invited us to sing along. Because I was standing in the back with the other ushers, I also bopped along to all of it (though somewhat suboptimally, as I was also rubbing Mike F's back).
They decided to do an encore -- "Have you been washed in the blood?"
I refused to sing along with that. Too much squick. For some time now, my engagement with Singspiration has been that I sing all the hymns, changing all the masculine pronouns to feminine pronouns, and sometimes changing "Lord" (and "blood") to "Love" (we sang "For the Beauty of the Earth," which we often sing at morning prayer and had in fact sung that Thursday, so I sang "God" and "You" in that, because that's the way I'm used to singing it) but despite the catchy tune, I refused to sing that one.
I did comment to Mike F. that the melody reminded me of "Do Your Ears Hang Low?"
One of the Baptists commented to me afterward that he saw me dancing and knew I wasn't a Baptist :) I affirmed that yes, I am not a Baptist. (I did find it kind of ironic, given that I would sometimes go to SCBC for Sunday morning worship because I found it way more invigorating than CHPC -- though no, nobody danced in those services.)
Another guy also commented on my dancing, and chatted with me for a while. And I chatted with a couple of women later, because I kept thinking that one of them was Joy C. and by the time I was close enough to tell it wasn't, I was close enough to have to engage in conversation. Yay for effortless extroversion (though I declined to join my housemate in donating items at OccupyBoston this afternoon in part because the idea of interacting with strangers was singularly unappealling).
Oh, and one woman in the back row requested, "Here I Am, Lord." I leaned over her shoulder to tell her I loved that song so thank you. I think I might have freaked her out a bit -- though after my dancing bit, she beckoned me over to inform me that she's starting a square-dance thingie I think in Attleboro.
Twice, I told someone I lived in Medford and got the response of, "Oh, Meh-fuh..."
Yes, I do not have the classic Boston accent.
At the refreshments after Singspiration, usually people ask me if I go to this church [UCN]. Nobody asked me that last night, though. Yay for parsing as my own actualized adult :)
I also got lots of positive comments on my haircut. (I was reminded of the series of positive comments my mom conveyed to me from people seeing photos from my brother's wedding.)
Some Sundays back, Carole T. at FCS asked me where I got my hair done, as apparently it always looks so nice.
Edit: Dick R. was telling me about new folks at UCN, including a woman who came up from Texas -- pretty, single, ... I kept thinking, "This sounds like you're trying to set us up, but that's not how UCN rolls [which is why I'm not out to you in the first place]." Eventually I realized that his intention in his framing was, "This is a woman like you."
[Oh, and Edit2: On the drive to Singspiration, we passed by Phyllis's old house, and my mom commented that in the last year of her life, Phyllis was reading about homosexuality and Christianity. My mom's takeaway was that she loved that even in the last year of her life, Phyllis was still learning. My response, of course, was to think that I would have liked to know Phyllis as a grownup -- and to feel confident that she would have reached the "right" conclusion on that topic :) ]
I also learned that a salon/spa closed after the owner got arrested on charges of running a prostitution ring. Somehow, I didn't share everyone else's shock at "prostitution" and "Norwood" in the same sentence -- but my priors are skewed ;)
We had a few minutes to stretch etc. between the end of service and the beginning of the meeting. I talked to Jeff B., climbed over pews to talk to Mike R., saw Lisa S. (who hadn't been at church in about a month on account of law school) and ended up sitting with her for the meeting (leaning against her).
I felt so warm and cozy -- like this is a place I belong, these are people I feel comfortable with, etc.
***
At Singspiration last night, every time someone asked me how I was, I said something like "good" in a really happy tone and meant it. Which I found interesting. I mean, I definitely felt better by the end of the workday on Thursday when I finally got a CWM thing done, but it was interesting to me how I answered "good" on automatic pilot but genuinely felt really good interacting with this people -- that there was something about the energy of all that that was really positive. (I also find it interesting which people I ping with -- and which people I'd like to be in relationship with but it just doesn't quite work.)
The closing group was the Just Us 4 Bluegrass Quartet (2 Baptists, a Pentecostal, and an Anglican -- in dungarees and flannel shirts). They did a medley of "I Saw The Light" & "I'll Fly Away" & "Do Lord" -- and invited us to sing along. Because I was standing in the back with the other ushers, I also bopped along to all of it (though somewhat suboptimally, as I was also rubbing Mike F's back).
They decided to do an encore -- "Have you been washed in the blood?"
I refused to sing along with that. Too much squick. For some time now, my engagement with Singspiration has been that I sing all the hymns, changing all the masculine pronouns to feminine pronouns, and sometimes changing "Lord" (and "blood") to "Love" (we sang "For the Beauty of the Earth," which we often sing at morning prayer and had in fact sung that Thursday, so I sang "God" and "You" in that, because that's the way I'm used to singing it) but despite the catchy tune, I refused to sing that one.
I did comment to Mike F. that the melody reminded me of "Do Your Ears Hang Low?"
One of the Baptists commented to me afterward that he saw me dancing and knew I wasn't a Baptist :) I affirmed that yes, I am not a Baptist. (I did find it kind of ironic, given that I would sometimes go to SCBC for Sunday morning worship because I found it way more invigorating than CHPC -- though no, nobody danced in those services.)
Another guy also commented on my dancing, and chatted with me for a while. And I chatted with a couple of women later, because I kept thinking that one of them was Joy C. and by the time I was close enough to tell it wasn't, I was close enough to have to engage in conversation. Yay for effortless extroversion (though I declined to join my housemate in donating items at OccupyBoston this afternoon in part because the idea of interacting with strangers was singularly unappealling).
Oh, and one woman in the back row requested, "Here I Am, Lord." I leaned over her shoulder to tell her I loved that song so thank you. I think I might have freaked her out a bit -- though after my dancing bit, she beckoned me over to inform me that she's starting a square-dance thingie I think in Attleboro.
Twice, I told someone I lived in Medford and got the response of, "Oh, Meh-fuh..."
Yes, I do not have the classic Boston accent.
At the refreshments after Singspiration, usually people ask me if I go to this church [UCN]. Nobody asked me that last night, though. Yay for parsing as my own actualized adult :)
I also got lots of positive comments on my haircut. (I was reminded of the series of positive comments my mom conveyed to me from people seeing photos from my brother's wedding.)
Some Sundays back, Carole T. at FCS asked me where I got my hair done, as apparently it always looks so nice.
Edit: Dick R. was telling me about new folks at UCN, including a woman who came up from Texas -- pretty, single, ... I kept thinking, "This sounds like you're trying to set us up, but that's not how UCN rolls [which is why I'm not out to you in the first place]." Eventually I realized that his intention in his framing was, "This is a woman like you."
[Oh, and Edit2: On the drive to Singspiration, we passed by Phyllis's old house, and my mom commented that in the last year of her life, Phyllis was reading about homosexuality and Christianity. My mom's takeaway was that she loved that even in the last year of her life, Phyllis was still learning. My response, of course, was to think that I would have liked to know Phyllis as a grownup -- and to feel confident that she would have reached the "right" conclusion on that topic :) ]
I also learned that a salon/spa closed after the owner got arrested on charges of running a prostitution ring. Somehow, I didn't share everyone else's shock at "prostitution" and "Norwood" in the same sentence -- but my priors are skewed ;)
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