Christmas Music

Quote of the Day:  There is a spirit in all music, the spirit has the ability to conjure up thoughts even pictures of something that happened or you wished would happen or you anticipate happening. Music has the ability to create ideas in you and me. It has the ability to encourage us to be creative. - Maya Angelou

That quote from Maya Angelou, one of my favorite authors/performers, sings to my heart. When I am anywhere near good music, my creative spirit soars. Last year, I read about a local high school girl who was planning on pursuing a career in music. She said, "I love being part of the song." I understood exactly what she meant. I love playing the piano, singing, and listening to music. Somehow, even as an audience member, I feel like I'm part of the song. I am so excited to hear that our local high school choir will be joining the amazing From Age to Age professional choir for an evening of Christmas music.

 Confession: I have never heard Handel's Messiah performed live. I'll get the chance to hear parts of that masterpiece performed as well as many holiday favorites on Dec. 18, at 7:30 pm. at First Lutheran Church in Brainerd. My heart is already singing.



To learn more about From Age to Age, click here. I have written about this group several times. I am inspired by their director, Andrew Miller, for his creativity, his mission, and his ability to connect. He is serious about his art and giving professionals a place to sing. He is adventurous in his outreach and bringing an amazing musical experience to people all over the state, and he gives part of their free-will offering to a couple of global humanitarian causes. Whenever I attend one of his concerts, I am filled with creative spirit, sigh that it's over, and leave with new energy to...

Go. Create. Inspire!

Journaling Prompt:  Write about someone or something that fills you with creative energy and encourages you to make it happen!

Wintersong

Quote of the Day:  Wisdom comes with winters. - Oscar Wilde

I woke up to this wintery, crystalized scene at my parents' farm last weekend.  It reminds me that beauty comes with every season.

Top 10 things I like about Winter:
1. frost decorating everything outdoors
2. Sun dogs on the coldest days
3. ice-skating
4. using the cold as an excuse to stay inside to read
5. same excuse to watch movies & eat popcorn with my boys
6. the holidays
7. how the fresh, white snow covers everything, like wiping the slate clean for a fresh start.
8. Winter fashions, including cute sweaters and long pants and not needing to shave your legs
9. Watching the neighbors help each other out after a snowstorm
10. Music

Last night my oldest son and I went to the Madrigal Dinner put on by the high school choirs.  They served and sang, performed and played.  They had kings and queens, beggars and peasants.  Some of them stayed in character throughout the three hour evening.  The skit was fun and funny, the food delightful and delicious.  And, the singing was wonderful wintersong.  They sang my favorite choral winter piece, "Hark of the Bells."  I love how it starts out soft, just sopranos, then adds each part, building, then coming back down, and oh, how that low-note dong at the end always gives me shivers.

 What is broken and full of cobwebs can be beautiful with the coverings of ice crystals, a reflection of light, and a song that sends the kind of shivers that warm.

I'm looking forward to hearing the high school choir again in two weeks as they join their voices with my favorite choir, From Age to Age, in a holiday concert.  Stay tuned for details.

Journaling Prompt:  Make your list of top things to like about winter and/or the holidays.

Eyebrows

Quote of the Day:  Develop interest in life as you see it; in people, things, literature, music - the world is so rich, simply throbbing with rich treasures, beautiful souls and interesting people.  Forget yourself. - Henry Miller  (This one is also in the book The Artist's Way.  I'm working on Chapter 2 this week.)

For my Artist's Date this week, I took myself out to hear a concert by a Minnesota choir called From Age to Age.  Live performances of any kind are inspiring and exciting and fill me up.  This group, under the direction of the amazing Andrew Miller, gives me reason to say, Life is good.  I am transformed beyond myself.  Somehow I can be in the moment and also remembering the past and dreaming about the future, all the while my spirit is set free.  They performed in a church where the ceiling rises to a peak, and as the walls slope down they become rounded.  It looks like the bottom of a boat that's tipped over, and we're safe underneath.

I watch and I listen and I feel.  Somehow, eyebrows became the focal point for me.  Andrew sings as well as conducts his choir.  He makes eye contact with the pitch man, who offers up a note. Andy gives the choir a 1-2-3-(4), and the voices come alive, all on the right note, together, without accompaniment, and they move with the rhythm of the song, and somehow the song becomes part of me. 

They sang in English, Latin, German, Italian, and Russian.  I never knew Russian could sound so beautiful.  They also performed new work by three Minnesota composers, two of whom were in the audience.  What a marvelous meeting of the creators and the interpreters.

We stood and applauded and sighed that it had to end, then Andy raised his eyebrows, flashed us his confident grin and said, "We have one more ditty for you."  They performed the William Tell Overture with their voices sounding like a full orchestra, going bada bump, bada bump, bada bump, bump bump.  And, when they got to Bah!, they all turned to the audience with great facial expressions.  A member named Josh kept his eyebrows moving up and down to the rhythm of the song, right, left, back and forth.  Josh has very talented eyebrows!

So, the boys and I practiced eyebrow poses for this post. 

Journaling Prompt:  Describe a time when art, music, literature, a person, or nature inspired you.

Talent

Quote of the Day: Everyone has a talent.  What is rare is the courage to follow the talent to the dark place where it leads. - Erica Jong (b. 1942) American Writer


 (This is the first page and check from my first ever published article.  Fall 2005 in Her Voice.)




I found my voice through Her Voice, a local publication, "by women...for women...about women."

Meg Douglas is the editor.  She is the kind of editor that all you writers dream of having.  She's nurturing, encouraging, honest, and friendly.  She was the first person to call me an "author."  I save my published articles in a binder.  I also have a copy of the first check I recieved as a real-live published author.  It was a moment where I stepped into my true self and answered my calling as a writer.  I discovered that I had something to "say" and that people were interested in my words.  Thank you, Meg, for publishing my words in your amazing magazine!

Her Voice is out again this week, published just four times a year, and my story is on a mother-son relationship that is building voices in an amazing choir and spreading hope and love throughout the world.  Their group is called From Age to Age.  Read about their relationship as executive director (the mom) and artist director (the son), their beautiful music, and their mission to improve the world.  It was an honor to write their story.

Journaling Prompt:  What is your talent, hidden or revealed, and how deep do you dare to go with it?  What is holding you back?