Pancakes or Parades?
Living near New Orleans, I’m very familiar with Mardi Gras parades. So when a friend asked me if I’d eaten pancakes on Fat Tuesday I was puzzled.
Podcast
The Bow in the Rain
Let’s see how inventive we can be in encouraging love and helping out, spurring each other on toward love and good deeds.
~ Hebrews 10:24-25, The Message (paraphrased)
Isn’t that a great verse? I love using The Message translation of the Bible because it’s easy to understand and more approachable than other translations I’ve used in the past.
And that’s who God is.
Approachable.
“They won’t go to school to learn about me, or buy a book called God in Five Easy Lessons. They’ll all get to know me firsthand, the little and the big, the small and the great. ”
~ Hebrews 8:6-13, The Message (paraphrased)
Church/religion/denominations often create rules and reasons to exclude people.
These verses are a great reminder that God is about inclusion, acceptance, and love.
My dear children, let’s not just talk about love; let’s practice real love. This is the only way we’ll know we’re living, truly living in God’s reality. For God is greater than our worried hearts and knows more about us than we do ourselves.
~ 1 John 3:18-20 The Message (paraphrased)
Yet another denomination has decided to enforce rules to exclude people, when God is about inclusion, acceptance, and love.
It’s confusing, disheartening, and hurtful to so many people on so many levels.
It left me wondering what to do and how to serve the God I love separate from the church that taught me how to love.
During painful times in my life, I always turn to music as my source of solace.
I believe God speaks and the Holy Spirit moves through lyrics and melodies.
When we feel powerless, we serve a God who is powerful.
I pray that by using my talents as a musician to help encourage myself and others will make a difference.
Heal my broken spirit Do not pass me by
In You I find my merit Hear my humble cry
Finding sweet relief I seek Your face
Help my unbelief You save me by grace
In depths of comfort flow This is not in vain
Love will not let me go Grasp the promise from the pain
With me even when I’m low Finding the gain
Rest for my weary soul Is the bow in the rain
Only Make Believe
Have you ever felt completely at home in a new place, even though you’ve actually just stepped in the door?
It’s a magical feeling isn’t it?
And I don’t know about you, but for me, it doesn’t happen often!
When I started my undergrad in vocal performance at LA Tech, I knew immediately when I stepped into the music building on campus that I had found my new home.
A large part of that comforting feeling was meeting my voice teacher, Mr. Wylie. He was a great vocal coach who knew instinctively when you needed a kick in the pants and when you needed a pat on the back.
He was also one of only two people in this world who could get away with calling me Fronzie.***
***Unless you want to be on the receiving end of my signature glare, 🔥do not try this!
Where would we be without our teachers? ✏️
They create the magical spaces where we not only learn, but form lifelong friendships.
So when I heard that Mr. Wylie passed away, it hit me hard.
It got me reminiscing, reconnecting with friends from the shows we performed in under his direction and vocalists I sang recitals and duets with during our time as his students.
I used some of the pictures from our time together to craft a tribute to this wonderful man and the musical memories he helped us create using a recording of one such duet, the song “Only Make Believe” from the musical Showboat.
I hope this inspires you to reach out to someone who impacted you and let them know. ❤️
♫ Only make believe I love you….for the tell the truth….I do ♬
This Mother is Tired
I meant to write something profound. It came out as silly lyrics to an Alicia Keys song.
Chuck Norris and Motherhood
Handle everything with a disposition open to chance or change…because children are improv artists and laughing is the only way to keep your sanity!
When the best way isn’t “normal”
Adopting embryos is the best of both worlds, and the complication of both worlds. Experiencing pregnancy is awesome, the endless paperwork…
Baby Bump Harp Playing
Music is powerful and the lullabies we heard as children stay with us for life!
Trust in Jesus
God speaks through amazon fulfillment errors and national anthem gigs.