Closing the books

The first step in preparing to attend the Sewanee Church Music Conference is always the Rehoming of the Vestments. So on Sunday after church I got my choir dress together—cassock, surplice, hood, and tippet—so I could take it home for packing.

While I was at it, I started cleaning out my locker (as it were). My three beautiful Davis d’Ambly stoles—gold, red, and green—went home too. My purple choir cassock, worn for so many Evensongs at the Cathedral, went back into the general supply. The shelf above the vestments had attracted a variety of random folders, Biblical commentaries, photocopied music in sheet protectors, a Communion set inherited from a dear priest, and a mysterious copy of Lift Every Voice and Sing II. (I already have two copies at home, so . . . why?) I sorted those into take home, donate, and throw out, as appropriate; they’ll get cleared out after this coming Sunday.

My last Sunday at the Cathedral is August 18. Of course I’ll be back whenever I can, but that’s my last official Sunday. Sometime that week I’ll head up to DC; the fall semester at Georgetown starts on St Augustine’s Day, August 28.

I joined the staff at the Cathedral at beginning of 2015; I had been singing Evensong there even before that. I love the place dearly. Folks there have prayed me through some horrific times, supported me, loved me, shared hard stories with me, invited me into their lives. I am not ready to go.

But that’s the way things are.

In the spirit of closing the books, I was at the Cathedral today helping organize the library: culling redundant or outdated books, imposing some sort of order on the collection, resisting the urge to remove anything by Borg, Crossan, or Pagels, and so forth. Tess was there and behaved beautifully. She particularly took to our new canon; I actually might have felt slightly jealous had it not been so adorable. When I left, my bit of the work was not quite done, but I can finish it on Sunday morning.

It hit me last week that I was feeling completely spent, and I immediately resolved to take two weeks off—which is not the same thing, alas, as resolving to take weeks off immediately. I have at least one paper for an edited volume that really has to be done in the next few days. But after that—I totally promise myself—I will take those two weeks.

My out-of-office response is set to kick in this Sunday.