Saturday was sunny but blustery and a few times we were afraid that a tree would fall. I think it  was the Spirit being raised up in so many young people. The confirmation was the nicest I've ever been to, a perfect combination of ritual, song, and love. The Young One was very happy and we enjoyed a supper back at our house of antipasto and grilled steaks, and told stories of mischief and camping adventures when the kids were little. We were just the imemdiate family, the grandmothers, one of my mother's brothers, and his daughter, The Young One's sponsor. It was a welcome intimacy after last week's big party and I enjoyed being able to spend time with them around the table, breaking bread and just hanging out.

In a lovely bit of synchoronicity, the Bishop's homily concerned Evelyn Glennie, a percussionist from Scotland, who is profoundly deaf, and yet has made a Grammy-winning career as a musician. As he began to speak of seeing her documentary "Touch the Sound" , our eyes widened and we exchanged glances because she was the Commencement speaker at The Princess's graduation. On that day, we'd never heard of her, and as she spoke with a beautiful, rich Scottish accent, it took us a few minutes to understand that the deaf musician she was speaking of was herself.

Glennie was training to be a musician when she became deaf at age 12. At that point, she decided to become a percussionist and trained herself to feel the sound through her body, thus "touching the music". The Bishop used her experience as a metaphor to urge the young people to look past the artifice and problems of the church and to "touch the Spirit" and feel it touch them through the sacrament and  their daily lives.