Merry Christmas

Dear Reader, Sorry it's been so long since I have written, but life has been rather ordinary and for someone like me that is something for which to be grateful. Here it is December and the Christmas mood is all around. What is it about Christmas that creates this wonderful feeling of anticipation and excitement. Depending on whether you're a child, a teen, a young adult or an older adult as myself we experience Christmas through the lenses of our very particular place on the stage of life. For some the vicissitudes of life have stamped out the exuberance, for me the magic remains though more subdued than the wild expectation of childhood.
  Advent is a strange ritual. As Christians we say we look forward to the return of the Christ child. But His spirit has suffused us all year so how is it to return. Did He go away the other eleven months? What exactly is it that returns to warm our hearts and put a light in our eyes and a spring in our step.
Let me share what Christmas means to me. Being a musician I'm reminded of all the religious and secular joys this Season arouses. There is participation in Handel's "Messiah" almost yearly from the time of my early teens. Not only the great words of God's incarnation into history, but also the accumulated stories of friends and strangers whose lives were changed by attending this oratorio. The amateur singalongs sometimes seem more fervently performed than the professional. The melodies pervading the ether are just more lovely than at any other time of the year I have also been privileged to perform in an area orchestral celebration and at our church.
  Then there are the lights. From the decorating and lighting of the Christmas tree from medieval Europe to the elegant decoration of homes, the explosion of lights on lawns and front yards, to the most humble home that is illuminated by those on a small tree or a candlestick in the window, all proclaim that Light is more powerful than darkness, that Love is stronger than hate, that God is truly among us even when we resist His insistent wooing. During Christmas it takes a truly bitter person it seems to not be somehow touched even though the secular mode is so prevalent.
  This is the season where families celebrate family. My sister is a new grandmother and it is wonderful to see the joy reflected in my brother in law and her faces as they welcome this second grandchild into the circle. Lib and I have large families on each side and so this is a special time for us. Through Christmas cards it is a time to connect, if briefly to past friends who were part of our earlier histories through Christmas cards.
  My pictures begin with the simple creche at the front of our small church. It reminds of us of the events of Bethlehem. Next there is a small sparrow I managed to capture. Jesus reminded us that God is concerned even with non human life. It clings to the branch with tenacity and bright eyed inquisitiveness, while being watchful for the predators from the sky. A short life maybe filled with an instinctive fear that keeps it alive. but for  the instant I clicked him we were both caught up in the same dance of life. The last pictures are of the beautiful homes lit to celebrate the Season. One near us has been tastefully, yet dramatically been illuminated the past several years. Several others are photos of other dwellings not far from us where a whole street has joined in proclaiming that it is Christmas. The last is Lib's decorating of our mantle and living room wall.So here, dear reader, is my wish for a Merry Christmas to you!

neighborhood house

creche

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neighboring houses

our fireplace and mantle

A Return to Normalcy....

The day we anticipated has come and gone. Yesterday Lib and I went to Charlottesville, Virginia for a significant post operation consultation. She is on schedule and has been released to do pretty much whatever she feels like as long as it doesn’t hurt. She also received a 6 week prescription for some strengthening physical therapy. With the water aerobics she will recommence next week that ought to really augment her feeling better.

I have returned to some activities good for me, too. I’m playing once more in the Richmond Philharmonic...we’ll be performing Tchaikowsky’s great 5th symphony, Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto, and a fluffy Rossini Overture. With my quartet we’re working on Brahm’s Opus. 60 piano quartet.I’m also getting in some violin lessons with my grandson, Devin. He’s holding his own and plays at a higher level, I believe, than I did at the same age level. We have the same problems, my father could not consistently teach me for various reasons, but I believe Devin is getting a bigger dose and we don’t have the long times of being away from the instrument.

Last year I put out a rather significant cash outlay to have our lawn mowed. Now I can do it on my own and have several times already. Today will be another ....and though it will be tiring, I should be able to get most of it done as the weather is crisply cool. No...I don’t have a riding mower as we did in Roanoke, it’s an electric push mower, that makes me walk a lot which is just what the doctor ordered. Last month I bought a small electric chain saw and trimmed our crepe myrtles back to the nub.I would not have even considered doing something like that this time last year.

Lib and I attended a Curry Club gathering in Charlottesville almost a month ago. Reconnected with a Woodstock alumnus that was in the Madison University orchestra with me in the early 60's. We discovered that both of us had attended Woodstock and someone alerted the local newspaper and an article was written about us. She reminded me of that article and our time in the orchestra. What a coincidence!!

Later this month Lib and I will return to the Roanoke area to Camp Bethel for “Sounds of the Mountain”. If you search my blog you will find some information about that. It will be fun to see old friends and some of my kin at this happening.

Check out my links, “Anne Linde” , and “Where in the World”. These are  tickets to my abiding interest in Woodstock School and the Himalayas. As a retiree with more time than money, the Web and YouTube provide  cheap ways to revisit here. I go there several times a week and am usually amply rewarded.

Our grandson is out of school this week, so we will have even larger blocks of unencumbered time to do whatever interests us. Have recently acquired an iPhone....the kind that talks to you. Interesting, interesting, where technology is moving!!

Thanks to my readers for being so patient. Blessings! Bill