Advent 4 - Carols in the storm

Goodness, I'm tired! But tired in a good way, because today was a good day. It was also a hideously windy day, with waves in the Holy Loch (a novel phenomenon) and all the ferries off for the greater part of it and great gusts from the north that flapped open the lid of our green bin and made the church roof creak audibly. And it was cold, and the showers, when they came, were battering and fierce. Now, as midnight approaches, the sky is full of stars, and Venus and Jupiter, and the wind has dropped and the waiting world has stilled...

But as for the day - the culmination of our recent weeks' work in our choir, and of the planning for much longer. We were at church for the service of Communion as usual, in the morning - I was doing the intercessions and interspersed the petitions with verses from an Advent piece I wrote many years ago for Himself to set, and I was pleased with the way they worked. I feel that prayer should reach the places that poetry and music can touch - otherwise it's merely a shopping list.

We went home for a quick coffee and minimal lunch, had a rest for half an hour or so, then loaded the car with music stands and stand lights - and Himself left out the keyboard and batteries for easy collection should there be a power cut at the church, as there had already been today in Ardentinny and Blairmore. The Advent Carol service was at 4pm; a goodly crowd arrived in pulses as the minibus brought them up the hill from a nearby car park; the lights were put out leaving us with the red firelight and the lights in the window recesses, and Himself played one of my favourite pieces by Liszt. 

It was lovely. The congregational singing grew heartier as the afternoon passed, our own pieces all worked well and sounded, we were told, better than ever, I worried that my voice would give out before the Christ Child's Lullaby in which I had a solo verse ... and then it was over, and I sat and listened to the final, electrifying organ piece, based on a Palestinian Christian psalm chant. 

Afterwards there were mince pies and punch, and greetings, and hugs, and reunions and new encounters. And finally we staggered out to our car, laden with music stands and cases and lights and spare batteries ... and drove home with the interior lights of the car stuck on because I'd caught my voluminous black coat (only comes out for these occasions!) in the door and something was affected. (We got them off when we stopped.)

And that was it. I could barely stir myself to make dinner, so we were late, which means that it's past midnight again. These sensible routines of last night didn't stick, I'm afraid. But what a good day! All worth it...

*Apologies and thanks to the two friends whose photos I've shamelessly nicked for the collage today - it's pretty obvious which ones they are!