a good evening

tonight was pretty wonderful. i got to be at church tonight. that's a good start. we have church in the evening instead of the mornings, and because i'm part of the worship team, that means that most sundays i'm at church from around 4.30 to 8.30 or 9. getting to be with, to worship with, to enjoy my Family. pretty marvelous.

for the last sunday each month this year, one of the people in our church shares part of their story. however they desire to do so. the pastor doesn't preach, and someone talks about who God is in their lives. this month our theme has been worship, so in addition to one of the guys sharing, 3 of us made some art. and we talked about it - how we had created it, what we see it in, that sort of thing. and we sang 3 good songs tonight. (the last one is a new song, and the last section of said song feels very jazzy. not necessarily the rhythm or speed, but the style. in that there is a very simply theme that gets repeated, motifed, transformed, played with, improvised around. and .. it's different every time we play it. sweet!)

after church is over, people stick around and talk, eat cookies, drink pop. tonight we pulled out the ping pong table and played doubles so that more people could play (including people who don't have lots of practice .. just playing because it's fun!). and 4 of us improvised a 'basketball court' so that we could play. hadn't done that in a while .. it was 2 guys vs. 2 girls, with both of the guys being around 6' and neither of the girls. but the other girl plays well, so it was somewhat evenly matched.

and to add to enjoyment of the evening, i got to play with the pastor's two older kids. the oldest is a boy who is about 7, and the middle child is a girl about 4. i got to pick her up, to spin her around, to swing her, to make her laugh, to imitate her movements, and to have her grab my hand and pull me to see a few things.

life is a gift. thanks, Abba!