“Long as You’re Living: A Sermon in Three Songs and Some Words”
Reverend Janna Nelson was ordained by the First Existentialist Congregation of Atlanta in 1999, where she was an active member for decades before moving to Albuquerque, New Mexico, to be closer to her large family. She is a retired elementary school teacher and preschool director who enjoys children and who learns as much from them as they do from her. She misses the daily opportunities to address various biases and provide more accurate historical perspectives for children, to build empathy and critical thinking as they try to understand their place in this complex world. She was singing with a sister in classrooms in a local school until the pandemic closed schools down in March.
Since moving to Albuquerque, she has finally had the time and opportunity to explore her voice more fully as a teacher, as well as mess around on the piano more. This time and work have given her the confidence to start teaching a little piano and voice, meeting people where they are.
She is honored to be speaking to the congregation and is grateful to be invited to share reflections through an existential/feminist perspective, going back to source material. She had personal experiences as a young person that stirred ideas about life that she later found expressed by these writers and thinkers. These ideas and concepts continue to be a touchstone for a way to live life more fully, with all its complexity and grief and uncertainty, to participate in freedom from oppression and alienation of all kinds, a way to keep moving forward, to help build something good, to participate in healing. A way to still live in the moment, to find lightness, to cultivate curiosity, to let in beauty, to grow and expand, to connect with others, even while living in these times.