Yesterday, I attended the Mass of All Souls at the St. James Cathedral Cathedral. My mom is a member of the choir and they sang Mozart’s Requiem, along with a small orchestra. Joanna, a commenter on this blog and good friend of my mom’s, is also in the choir. My friend, Lisa accompanied me. We had a nice dinner before hand and then went off to church. The mass was beautiful and the incense was tolerable. Usually it sends me into a spasm of coughing but this time, I just coughed a little. I also had to admit that the swirling smoke emitted from the incense holder as Father Ryan swung it back and forth was mesmerizing.

Lisa and I both come from musical families. We both played classical flute when we were younger but went on to other pursuits. Lisa stayed in the arts, though. She is an author of books for children and youth. I don’t know how she felt during the mass, but while I was listening to the beautiful and powerful music, I remembered how exciting it was to perform music in an orchestra. I kind of missed it but it was mostly just a very positive feeling of nostalgia.

I had a wonderful evening but it went pretty late, at least for me, even for a Friday night. So I’m a bit brain dead today but there’s still space in my brain for happy memories of a lovely evening.