For Today's Forward Day by Day readings, click here.
Happy Saturday! The weekend is a great time to talk about one of the happiest little tools in our set: Joy. It has a short name. It doesn't take long to say. It even sounds perky when you say it. But this tool is nothing short — of amazing.
Today I am doing something I haven't enjoyed for a long time: I'm joining three friends to play a gig. We're playing prelude, processional and recessional music for a small wedding. I used to tote my cello around and play holiday parties and such during high school. I didn't do it as much in college because I realized it was much more fun to ATTEND the holiday parties and the ones through the school year. So it's been awhile. I'm actually excited about it, and I'm not sure whether I'm most happy to play the music or to see a couple get married — we have fallen off the wedding circuit during the past few decades as well.
Weddings embody joy. There's nothing sad about them. It's a celebration of commitment, new beginnings and love. Pure joy. Music is the same way, I think. But playing music is the act of expressing joy. Psalmists write of singing and making music and dancing throughout the book. In fact, there's one in today's reading: Psalm 27: 9: "Therefore, I will offer in his dwelling an oblation with sounds of great gladness...I will sing and make music to the Lord."
Bottom line: the tool of Joy reminds me of the rice people throw post-wedding ceremony. I'm sure there's a tradition or reason rice is thrown. And I'm pretty sure it's illegal now...I think it kills birds. Not sure on that though. But on a very surface level, throwing rice is so jubilant and carefree.
Who are you going to throw a little rice on today?
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