Monday, June 26, 2006

My Sister the Reverend


My sis, Jen (on the right), with her partner Jackie.


My sister, Jennifer, graduated from seminary yesterday. (The One Spirit Interfaith Seminary, to be exact.) I've been teasing her for weeks calling her "Reverend" Jennifer, which she's still not used to hearing. She doesn't actually plan to be a preacher, although she is good for a lecture when she gets ready. :-) She really wants to do life coaching, running a spiritual center, which I think is pretty cool.

I've never attended a seminary graduation before, so it was a nice experience. They had the ceremony at the famed Riverside Church here in NYC, which is huge, so I had to struggle to see without my glasses (which I hadn't yet replaced after falling apart in my hands a few weeks ago). Otherwise, the ceremony was beautiful. The church was practically full with family, friends, and well-wishers, which made the event that much more festive.

I love the whole Interfaith thing, in that it embraces many different cultures and traditions without the whole "religious" thing. It's all about embracing the Creator, and living a life of consciousness and love for all beings. As far as I'm concerned, it don't get much better than that!

I look forward to seeing what's next for Jen. She really went through a lot to do this, and I'm extremely happy for her milestone.

Monday, June 19, 2006

Take 6 @ The Bluenote


To celebrate my sister's graduation from seminary, I took her to the legendary Bluenote Jazz Club to see acapella vocal group, Take 6, last night for the Father's Day show. It's been many years since I've seen them in person, and was ecstatic to learn they would be in town.

When I first learned about the show in the Village Voice, I knew I wanted tickets, and it just made sense to take Jen with me, since her graduation was only a week later. What made it extra cool was that I was able to take her backstage to meet them after the show, since I knew some of them from college. She still hasn't stopped talking about that, or the fact that we were sitting close enough to touch the stage. It was great seeing the guys again. They sounded, and looked, as good as ever (even though the years are starting to tell on us all). :-)

I'm glad I was finally able to do something like that for her. She really deserved it. And so did I.