Bach and Sweelinck are on my mind. Plus a strong feeling of gratitude. I was thinking this morning how much I like my wife and how lucky I am she is in my life. In addition, I notice that Bach is a strong presence in my life. I don’t always notice how I move from one keyboard work to another of his to practice and ponder. Added to that now is the little lute Bourree I have been working on in the guitar transcription.

Bach is a strong source of joy and different pleasures for me. Again, I’m lucky.

I continue reading sporadically in Peter William’s J. S. Bach: A Life in Music. A footnote sticks with me.

In describing Bach’s huge Leipzig home rebuilt by the church authorities as part of his contract agreement Williams adds the following footnote.

“The pulling down of this building in 1903 is matched by the barbarous demolitions dating from the years of East German socialism: the remains of the Leipzig Johanniskirche (for a traffic island), the Dresden Sophienkirche of Wilhelm Friedeman Bach (for a cafeteria, 1962) and the still standing Leipzig University Church in 1968.” Williams p. 172

Then I was reading the poem, “The Rabbit,” by Nick Lantz in the current American Poetry Review. These lines made me think of the above footnote:

“Ninety-three-point-six-percent of adulthood
is believing if I could just have those shoes
with the red stripe again, I’d be happy.
Sometimes we bulldoze
the ruins of an ancient city
to build a shopping  mall.
And sometimes we buldoze
a shopping mall to make way
for another shopping mall.”

Okay, it’s not that great a poem, but it made me think of the Bach footnote.

We are moving the church offices out of the building this week. The church purchased a building kitty cornered to the main church recently. It will be the new offices. By choice, I do not have an office. I asked them to move the desk out of the choir room so we would have more room. All I need is a wifi connection to do most of my clerical work and we have that.

I’m not sure how they will handle having the church proper open with the offices on the other side of the parking lot.  It’s possible they have thought of how to approach this. It’s also possible that they haven’t.

I have been struggling a bit with my BP ever since my Mom died (related?). This morning it dipped below my warning measurement of the top number being 140 or over. I have mentioned her before, I believe, that I have an agreement with my doctor that if it is high for seven days in row I will contact her. At 135 this morning it’s still not what you would call low. But at least it’s a step in the right direction. My weight is slowly, slowly dropping. I’m hoping this will help me delay going on a stronger BP med.