sit and listen with one ear to the preaching and the singing

Since my last post I got the stomach bug. Then my mom got it because she and my dad generously agreed to watch Zeke for the day after we got home so we could all take it easy. Then I had a birthday, which was lovely. Then we had Easter, which had some good moments but was also exhausting, perhaps because Zeke has not slept normally in 10 days or perhaps because he is teething or perhaps because we’ve just had a rough week.

But we did make it to church this morning and here’s the poem I wrote during the sermon.

Many Daddies are standing
in doorways at the edges of the sanctuary, holding their
restless babies and toddlers.

Perhaps they are giving the Mommies a break or at least
enabling the Mommies tosit and listen with one ear to the preaching and the singing,
while listening with the other to the child who is coloring and asking
“Is this almost over?” or sleeping and stirring lightly.

During the quiet of the prayer,
the not so quiet undercurrent of
baby babble is heard. Little people wander
off and are quickly retrieved.

We were late, arriving after
one of my favorite processionals,
in the middle of the first hymn.

But others arrived later. I wonder what their stories are, but
I realize I already know.

This is the song that’s been in my head today. Because we are Unitarian, they didn’t sing it today at church, but instead sang different lyrics to the same tune. The Unitarian philosophy is what I believe, and I love the music at our church 51 Sundays a year, but sometimes I miss the hymns I grew up with. This is Easter.