Michael and I went to the Newman Center for Mass last night. That wasn’t how the day was supposed to be. I was supposed to be at 10:00 Mass across town, with the choir and my husband. I was supposed to conduct an a cappella piece and sing harmony on the psalm. But Nicholas’ illness…
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Playing at St. Paul’s in London
I don’t talk much about music on the blog, which is actually rather odd, considering how saturated my life has always been with the practice and study of music. So today I hope you’ll bear with me as I share a musical story that came to mind while Christian and I were watching National Treasure…
Read MoreWord(y) Wednesday
This is too cute to bury in another post. For those who might be new visitors from the carnival, meet my daughter: wall-demolisher, universal charmer, mommy-mind-reader, a conduit for Heavenly beauty, and now–aspiring flute player…just like Mommy! She is never more excited about Mommy than when I pull out my flute. But I will never let her…
Read MoreLet Everything That Has Breath (or: Beating a Dead Horse)
Just before my alarm went off, 5:30 a.m. on a Sunday morning, I had the most amazing dream. We were attending Mass at the Newman Center, and singing the new Mass parts. They were chants, as a matter of fact, but the most gorgeous, melodic chants I’d ever heard, and expanded into gorgeously rich harmony…
Read More7 Quick Takes, vol. 119
___1___ First out of the box: I am writing a short magazine feature on marital communication and natural family planning. I’d love to have some quotes from some of you NFPers out there on how you think NFP has helped, hurt, or otherwise affected your spousal communication. Email me at kathleenbasi@gmail.com, or just leave a…
Read MoreBroken, Humbled, Part 2
There’s a prayer I say every time I go up to sing the psalm: Lord, speak through me today. Use my voice to reach your people. This is a humble prayer, and with good reason…because I’m not. I think pride is built into the makeup of artistic people (imagine the ego: I put my words or music…
Read More7 Quick Takes, vol. 104
___1___ It’s officially National Novel Writing Month. Naturally, this means that this week I had two kids have days off school (different days–naturally) and an early out on a third. ___2___ Nonetheless, I have written 4,268 words so far, and thankfully I got stopped by scheduling, not by dry creative wells. So although it’s going ve-ry sl-ow-ly,…
Read MoreSongbird
It’s been almost a year now since the moment I heard music peeking out from between the notes of a noodly warmup. It electrified my body, as a new melody always does, and with a hasty apology to my poor voice student, I hummed it out two or three times so I wouldn’t lose it…
Read More50 (the magic number)
Part One: Fifty seconds. Ears popping, rising ninety-five floors above overtired children, train schedules, bad bus directions and the guy on the street corner screaming about the end of the world. And at the end of it, the doors opened on this: It was our tenth anniversary dinner, six months late, the first of…
Read MoreThe Unexpected Moment
At 8:15 p.m., I was sitting in a hard metal folding chair in the parish hall. I didn’t feel good. Christian didn’t feel good. Nicholas didn’t feel good, and was past his bedtime. He was wiggling on my lap, desperate to nurse and go to sleep. The choir members were flipping through their hymnals. And…
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Kathleen M. Basi 