Concerts and Worship Opportunities

Yesterday, I knew that the rains would come eventually, rains and perhaps wind from the remnants of Hurricane Ian.  So I headed out to a more suburban Trader Joe's, 30 minutes away, a place that had a parking lot.  There are some things, like nuts, ravioli, eggs, and seeds, that are cheaper at Trader Joe's than any other area grocery store.  Plus, I had seen the Fall Flyer, and it seemed full of good things.

Of course, when I went to shop, I couldn't remember what some of those good things were.  I got the pumpkin ravioli, which I ate yesterday.  It didn't seem very different from the butternut squash ravioli--tasty.  I'm glad I went, but I probably won't make it a regular habit.

I took a longer walk because I expected it to rain later, and I went a bit further than I anticipated, which left me a bit worn out.  I had planned to go to an evening concert last night.  It was put together by Korean seminary students, and it would include Korean treats.  It was supposed to be an outdoor garden concert, but the rain meant it would move inside.  I thought about not going.

In fact, there was a moment around 4:30 or 5:00 where I thought about going to bed REALLY early.  My spouse and I texted--why do people love texting so much?  It was aggravating to me, so we switched to a Facebook video call.  He encouraged me to go to the concert.  

Since the concert was literally right in my back yard (or side yard), I decided he was right.  I changed into my favorite pair of jeans, the black pair, brushed my teeth, put on an additional layer, and headed over to the refectory.  I was impressed with the technology that was set up.  Somewhere, at some point, there will probably be a recording.

There was interesting food:  sushi rolls that were vegetarian but with tuna and fake crab--so really vegetarian?  No matter.  I'd have been fine with fish, raw or cooked, but the woman explaining choices to me assured me that nothing was raw.  It was tasty.  There were individually wrapped treats, and a pot of something that looked like pasta with red sauce that I avoided when I was told that it was very spicy.  

As advertised, the concert was a half hour long, about five songs, all worship oriented.  On two of them, we sang along, some of us in Korean, some of us in English:  "How Great Is Our God" and a more traditional hymn, the title of which I'll go back and insert when I remember what it was.  There was some sort of track, a karaoke like track, but we also had people playing instruments with us:  keyboard, guitar, and a drum on one track.  At the end, one of the singers offered up a prayer for all of us; I found myself moved.

We had a bit of chatting afterwards, lightened up with some toddlers doing their toddler thing.  The crowd was equally mixed between Korean seminary students, family of those students, a few of their friends in the area, and non-Korean seminary students.  I did feel like one of the oldest people there, but I'm determined not to let that stop me from doing seminary activities.  Plus, I realize that I might be wrong.  And even if I'm correct, so what?  Someone has to be the wise elder student.  Or if not the wise one, the one that students remember decades later and say, "Hey, I can remake my life too, just like that older woman at Wesley did, that year that she showed up to live on campus, even though she just bought her dream house at that church camp somewhere."

As I walked back to my seminary apartment, the wind was picking up, as was the rain.  I slept with my curtains open so that I could see and hear the rain pattering against the window.

I thought about the end of my Washington week, a week when I decided not to go to the Ada Limon reading, but I did go to the on campus concert by fellow students.  It was also a week when I finally got around to going to area libraries.  I will go to 4:00 Evensong tomorrow at the National Cathedral unless it's pouring rain.  

In so many ways, this seminary campus life is what I wanted.