I saw James Taylor perform an outdoor concert last weekend at the Soaring Eagle Casino here in Mount Pleasant. It was an evening full of beauty, nostalgia, and meaning. There was beauty in the setting, seated on the grass with a family-friendly crowd on a lovely night with the sun setting and the moon in the sky. And there was beauty in the musical performance of James Taylor and every member of his band.

There was profound nostalgia for me in the experience. Every song that James Taylor sang on Saturday had an emotional hook for me, because I have been listening to–and learning to play–his music since I was 18 years old. His music has been with me at every stage of my life since then, and music has a visceral power to bring the memory back to moments in life that happened years or decades ago. The concert itself also evoked nostalgia because the singer is 75 years old and doesn’t have the energy and power as a musician that he did decades ago. HIs music is good today, but there was a backward-looking theme present in the concert as well.

Finally, I found meaning in the performance. James Taylor’s songs are often personal, sometimes whimsical–and occasionally have deep meaning. One such song is “Shower the People,” which contains the lyric, ​

As the songwriter explained in introducing the song, “the thing to do is right there in front of you: show love to the people in your life, your family, the people around you.” Another song, much less well-known, was featured as the first encore of the concert. Entitled “Shed a Little Light,” the song is about the legacy of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King and starts with this lyric:

The concert ended with its most special moment. James Taylor’s son Henry is a singer in the band, and the last encore was a duet featuring just the two of them singing together. The song, “You Can Close Your Eyes,” is one of the first that I learned on guitar decades ago and have performed myself, including this summer with a dear friend at a UU summer camp. James Taylor has performed it as a duet with Joni Mitchell, Bonnie Raitt and others. To hear him sing it with his son was precious, beautiful, and brought new life to an old song.

PRAYER:
May every person be blessed by beautiful music. May we each find meaning and beauty in our way and according to our own taste.
May those who compose and perform music be blessed with vision, power and courage to share their gifts with the world. 
May it be so.

Rev. Andrew Frantz
August 30, 2023

On Saturday I had the pleasure of spending the day at Market for the Arts, a delightful community event sponsored by For Arts Sake in downtown Mount Pleasant. The downtown area was blocked off for pedestrians only. 

One of the highlights for me was meeting local artists selling their work. Like any local market, the interactions with the vendors is part of the joy–so much more personal and authentic than shopping with a commercial retailer. I bought a beautiful piece of pottery from two artists who work from home. At another booth I bought home-made greeting cards and a sticker that says “Ban Bigotry, Not Books.” This artist is a librarian in her day job. As I told her, I have long considered librarians to be the super-heroes on the front lines of community care, intellectual freedom, and democracy.

This art festival had an interesting wrinkle: the kids market. Wearing yellow T-shirts that say “I’m an entrepreneur,” children selling crafts and baked goods took up about half of the market. Soon my wife had bought bracelets and necklaces from different youngsters; I bought soap and a bath bomb; we bought home-made slime. “Slime is banned in our house,” I heard the mom say as her son was assertively selling containers of it at their booth, “but I encourage him to make it and sell it here.”

Finally, there was a stage erected right in the middle of the main downtown intersection, and during the hours I attended the art fair I saw this wide variety of performances: dancing by the Central Michigan Belly Dance group; lovely singing by a young solo performer named Emily Faber; and then a raucous hour of music by a loud and entertaining rock band. Watching the three rock musicians interact with the audience and each other was another highlight of my day.

When a community honors artists, honors children, and makes space for public music and dance performances, it brings joy and togetherness to the people. I’m glad that I got to enjoy the festival and I’m grateful to everyone who organized it and participated in it.

PRAYER:
May music bless the public spaces of the city: those who dare to sing in the streets bring beauty and joy.
May artists be blessed in their creativity, with the divine spark flowing through them.
May children and parents be blessed when they try new things and take risks.
May every community find ways to come together in peace and joy.
Amen.

Rev. Andrew Frantz
August 22, 2023

The weather this summer in Michigan, including today, has been gorgeous. Days with a high around 80 and a low in the 50’s are perfect in my mind. I went out into the yard this morning in my bare feet and the cool dew on the grass was delightful; a bit later I sat on a bench with my coffee and saw the dewdrops, individual droplets shining like gems, perched on the blades of grass.
 
I don’t often take time to notice drops on dew on the grass, and the moment filled me with a sense of peace and safety. I was in the sanctuary of my own yard. Then my mind began to remind me of the contrasts between that peace and safety and the dangers in the world: deadly wildfires in Maui; civil and political unrest in the United States generally. I also thought of the contrast between the yard that I call mine and the rest of the city, the country, the world: I feel safe in my yard because I have the wealth and privilege to own property, which is a luxury that not everyone has – and is a mythical construct at a deeper level. U.S. law and culture say that private ownership of parcels of land is a thing; other cultures and laws say that land belongs to everyone, not to any individual.
 
I don’t own the dewdrops on the grass in “my” yard. As for the sense of peace and safety that I felt this morning, I do own that. And, I share that sense of peace and safety with a sense of outreach to others: an awareness that true and deep and lasting safety depends on sharing the earth’s resources, protecting the earth from harm, and having justice among the people of the earth.
 
Summer in Michigan is wonderful. May the beauty and peace that we experience in our personal lives guide us toward harmony, peace, and justice in the wider world.
 
PRAYER:
Unknown power that creates the dewdrops, gives me the sight to see them sparkling and the skin to feel their coolness: I witness your work in gratitude.
 
May I be at peace and at one with the beauty of Nature; may beauty and peace inspire me and strengthen me to do the work of love and justice in the world.
 
May it be so.
 
Rev. Drew Frantz
August 16, 2023
​

I returned yesterday from summer vacation. In addition to family visits, gardening, and trips to
the beach, I made time for a weekend men’s retreat. This retreat is called Path to Spirit Warrior
and this year I was one of the guides. On the weekend, we encourage each of the participants
to reflect deeply on their own lives and to connect to their sense of the Spirit (however they
understand that) to guide them in their choices going forward. The experience is deliberately
intense, inviting men to examine the deepest parts of themselves. My role was to facilitate this
examination along with a team of other guides: as such, I was witness to breakthrough
moments of self-awareness; to transformational self-forgiveness and self-love; to powerful
emotions as men faced the truth of the best and worst parts of their lives. The difference in the
participants from the beginning of the weekend to the end is miraculous, and I was honored to
be a witness and facilitator to the self-growth work that I saw.

It was also profound to be a part of the team that facilitated the weekend retreat. As I have
experienced at other retreats that are part of the larger ManKind Project movement, there is a
connection and love and trust among all the men there that exists almost nowhere else. I feel
seen and appreciated and alive in this space, a strong sense of being with my people. I get a
similar feeling in some Unitarian Universalist spaces, and the similarity is that we are
connecting to one another and to something larger: to the Spirit, to the most important things
in life (purpose, meaning, love, mortality.)

As I return from summer vacation and begin a new year of ministering to this congregation, I
bring the wisdom and power of this men’s retreat with me: the assurance that I am held by
Love and that Love flows through me; the knowledge that we can transform ourselves and each
other in communities that hold us and allow us to be our full selves. May we find such
communities and may we be part of creating and sustaining these communities.

PRAYER:
May all be blessed and loved. May divine light show us the truth within ourselves; may we dare
to be with others as they discover their light and their truth.

Blessed be.

Rev. Drew Frantz
August 9, 2023