You never know how great the sunshine is....

I should just call myself a sun-ometer or something. A barometer measures the air pressure. And a sun-ometer measures the effects of the sun. This week was a confirmation- I cannot possibly live in Seattle in the winter. Just one day of sunshine- and even spending a good deal of it indoors and my  life feels transformed.  Does that make Jesus sad?  Should His presence be enough to keep the blues at bay? Or does He walk through the blues with me and rejoices also when the sun returns?  I always think I've come to grips with my tendency toward depression but it still surprises me when it creeps up on me.  But it's more like a shadow now and less like the bogey man hiding under the bed; which is even better than the axe murderer in the closet. This is progress.

I write this and I wonder if anyone will ever read it. So far I have a loyal following of one. Of course, I'm not telling anyone I'm doing this.  After seeing the delightful movie "Julie and Julia" ( which ever order is correct..),  I'm wary of blogs. In the movie, Julie decides to cook all the recipes in Julia Child's famous cookbook. But a large part of the movie plot is her funny but completely self absorbed blogging. "Am I self centered?," she plaintively whines.  And we all want to shout- YES!  So here I am. hmmm

I think people with somewhat melancholy personalities can certainly drift toward self-centeredness very easily. Actually without the active presence of the Holy Spirit we all rush toward self. But we melancholics drift that way- it takes a strong hand on the rudder of my mind to keep me from ending up stranded on the sandbank of "woe is me".  I'm getting better. I take captive those vain and sometimes stupid thoughts. I worship. I drink warm milk so I can sleep.  Sometimes I make myself do something.

Which leads me, finally, to the point of today's uplifting blog. :)  I did something fun!  I ended up cramming a week's worth of fun into one crazy Sunday afternoon but that seems to be the case. The feast or famine of my social life.

I co-hosted a lovely afternoon with my writer's group and a very helpful literary agent. Tamela Murray came to our group and enlightened us on the whole process of agents and publishing houses. Two more events suddenly crowded my social calendar, so while I was scheduled to speak to her at 4,  she graciously offered to meet me at Panera's sometime. Turns out she lives her in Manassas and was just as nice as you can imagine.  I also met another writer with a book on women and finances- when I figure out how to link, I'll add his website.www.yourfinancialguidinglight.com  Disclaimer- you're on your own with this one!

Back to my Sunday....after my meeting, I hustled downtown. For us suburbanite victims of metro Washington- downtown means DC, the District;  the Mall means the space between the Capital and the Lincoln Memorial.  You don't shop there, you wander and ponder.  It's much lovelier than a shopping mall, in my opinion.  I live a scant 45 miles from downtown- I tell people it takes 45 minutes in the middle of the night or up to five hours on a holiday weekend.  I have been so discouraged in the whole traffic nightmare that I rarely go in.  But my son is living there now and I called to invite him to a concert and he invited me to church.  So armed with my trusty GPS, I'm off on my adventure.

Sunday afternoon is clearly a prime time to drive into the District. I wonder how long it will take for my brain to forget WTOP "Traffic and weather on the 8's". I watch the clock and switch from WETA classic music to the traffic reports each 10 minutes. How do they program everything so we who so hang on their every word are never disappointed at 3:08 and 3:18?  am or pm.  Faithful as faithful can be.  Like it ever makes that big of a difference except to remind you of delays. There are only so many ways to enter and exit a city that is on water, especially from the Virginia side. But I can see the map in my head as they list off the usual suspects- Father Hurley Boulevard in Maryland, Nutley Street in Vienna, some part of the inner or outer loop and of course, always I95. It's either a parking lot north or south, sometimes both, "Slowing off and on from...." basically from wherever you are to wherever you want to be. I've learned some great alternatives- again, I have to cross another river so even all back roads go to a bridge.

But I found Drew's church- a lovely stone edifice on a leafy corner within a short walk of Eastern Market. Now that I know that- I'm coming back and spending all Sunday afternoon here. Very cool urban street market.  Late afternoon church. Church is great- good worship, old wood lined sanctuary with stained glass and four people over 30.  Including the Bishop of Rwanda, here for the ordination of their newest deacon.  DC is a young person's city.  Let me hobble back over to the museum where I belong. :)

But the highlight of my day, my week is a interview/ concert with Ashley Cleveland and Kenny Greenburg at the Newseum. She was the worship leader at a women's retreat a year ago in the Texas Hill Country. I look back and see that as a watershed event in my life (and another blog) and it was great fun to hear her perform, especially with her husband, Kenny. I invited the most musically sophisticated friends I have to join me and it was very gratifying to have them turn to me mid-concert and say, "Wow'.  Ashley has three Grammy's for  Rock Gospel albums so clearly the music world knows her but I'm a complete amateur when it comes to much outside classic music, and I'm pretty much a novice there.  But she had touched my heart in Texas and her music is just amazing and fun.  If she ever reads this, apologies up front but my first impression of Ashley was Janis Joplin meets Jesus.  Wild woman but so infused with Jesus that you want to be wild with her.  And it was great fun to have her recognize me and ask about my kids, hug my neck, pose for a picture all while being directed to go sign CDs.

Live music just feeds something you didn't know was hungry. Seeing it being made in front of you. Watching the fun of the interactions- two amazing guitar players back and forth.  Being a part of an evening that will never be repeated.  Sharing it all with good friends. Living in the moment.
 And it was a good one.