Soundtrack of My Life - Voice of the Beehive

This musical moment in the soundtrack of my life has a bit of a preface. In high school, I discovered a band called Voice of the Beehive. I loved their album, Let it Bee, which was in regular rotation all through high school and well into my 20s. It’s catchy feminist pop songs like “Don’t Call Me Baby” fit the self-determination mode I was in.

There was one song that, despite the ridiculous title—“There’s a Barbarian, In the Back of My Car”—that I really liked. And one song, a bonus track, that I seriously disliked and I usually tried to eject the CD before it played … a cover of “Jesus” by the Velvet Underground. Now, why did I dislike the song? Remember that I was in my anti-religious phase. I guess I found it “hokey.” In my early 30s I discovered the CD again in my music collection. I was surprised by how much I still really liked the album … and I was really surprised that now my favorite song was, yes you guessed it, their cover of Jesus. Now instead of waiting to eject the CD before it started, I waited in anticipation.

Now, the musical soundtrack moment. It was August 2004. I was driving up to Seattle for my first nun-rendezvous … attending a vocation retreat at the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace. I was nervous, so for the last stretch of the drive, I put in the familiar Let it Bee for a calming effect. The CD was almost finished as I pulled off of I-405 onto Bellevue Way. As I pulled off Killarney Way and into the St. Mary-on-the-Lake Parking lot, my new favorite Voice of the Beehive song started to play:

Jesus, help me find my proper place
Jesus, help me find my proper place
Help in my weakness
Cause I’m falling out of grace.
Jesus, Jesus
Help me find my proper place.

Seriously. No April Fool’s.

Prayer comes in unexpected forms. And what is it they say about being careful what you pray for?