As of yesterday — June 17 — it’s been twenty-seven years since my mother, Bernice Louise Stroud (Brooks), left her body. Hard to believe.
I love you, Mom. 🌹
My mom
Tangents
As so often happens, one random encounter leads to another…and next thing you know I’ve gone off on a tangent. Or series of tangents, like now.
A few days ago my blog post was about Beaker (of the Muppets) and his (very) interesting rendition of Beethoven’s Ode to Joy.
Now, I’m not quite sure how it happened, but I was completely unacquainted with the Muppets until seeing Muppet Treasure Island on DVD in 2004.
I was living in Switzerland at the time and have no idea how I came to own the movie. Perhaps I read a good review or something, because we barely had internet then and movies were still something we either rented or bought. All I know is that I loved it and couldn’t believe I had never seen anything of the Muppets up to that point.
I mention this to explain why I got so caught up in watching video after video of musical scenes from the original Muppet Shows. My goodness, but they were brilliant, hilarious, and musically spot on!
So finally I ended up watching a video of Kermit the Frog singing The Rainbow Connection. I recognized the melody from my days performing it as a flute and harp instrumental with my friend, Vicki. But now I found it deeply moving, especially finally hearing the words.
Which made me want to know more about the songwriters. Didn’t find all that much interesting about Kenny Ascher, but Paul Williams was another story altogether.
I’m still going to write a blog post about The Rainbow Connection and Paul Williams, but for now I’ll just mention that he had a blog, and also co-authored a book, titled Gratitude and Trust. That tells you something right there.
Meanwhile, all these tangents caused me to miss my publishing deadline for tonight. Argghhh!
Peaks and valleys; ebb and flow
I already shared two of my reasons for keeping yesterday’s post “short and sweet”. The third reason was more complex, so I saved it for today.
The first part of reason #3 was remembering the original point of this blog: to simply write something — anything — every day. When I started out (slightly more than a year ago) it quickly became obvious that this was going to be a not-always-comfortable process of being honest and authentic.
Sometimes I wrote a sentence, just to explain that I didn’t have anything to say. Sometimes I admitted that I had frittered away the evening in distractions and it was too late to write anything. Sometimes I just posted a photo and a quote.
But sometimes I would get in a groove of sharing something meaningful, which was nice. And then recent events took things to a whole other level, prompting an unprecedented (for me) depth of inner processing and heart sharing. People were touched; we engaged in dialogue; and then — of course — the expectations came creeping in.
So now I’m embracing the idea of peaks and valleys; ebb and flow. Sometimes it’s deep and meaningful; other times it’s goofy and strange. Sometimes it’s lighthearted musical theater; other times it’s tragic opera.
Peaks or valleys; ebb or flow. It’s all good.
Short and sweet
There are three reasons for keeping tonight’s post short and sweet.
#1. The simple song I was originally inspired to share morphed into something quite a bit more and I don’t want to stay up late in order to do it justice.
#2. Part of the reason for this decision is that I was in bed with my light out by 12:30 last night (whoo hoo!) and I’m aiming for lights out by midnight tonight.
Ha! I just realized that #3 is deserving of its own separate post, so I’ll just leave it at that for now. Good night!
We gathered ’round!
What a joy to share today’s Sunday service together as a community. I couldn’t stop simply looking all around me; I was just so thrilled to see so many friends for the first time in three months.
What made it possible was the fact that we were outdoors in the amphitheater, with lots of distance between chairs and everyone wearing masks.
It was even more of a thrill to sing a 4-part song as a live group — also for the first time in three months! And it was the perfect song: Come Gather ‘Round!
I have much deeper appreciation now for the joy of gathering together and I would never have guessed how profoundly I would be affected by the words “come gather…”
Come gather round:
Let joy sing out today!
Dawn now is breaking,
And the mountains say:
“It’s only light
Can make the darkness run.
Lift up your head,
Greet the rising sun!”
Mm-m-m greet the rising sun!
Some people think
To harvest happiness
By weeding troubles,
Easing every stress.
The trouble is
That troubles never end:
Get rid of one,
And you face it’s friend!
Mm-m-m and you face it’s friend.
It’s in your heart
The songs of joy resound:
You’ll hear but echoes
In the world around.
Wind on a hill
Sounds lonely if you’re sad,
Free if you’re free,
Cheerful if you’re glad.
Mm-m-m cheerful if you’re glad.
Friends, come with me —
We’ll chant of battles won:
Shots not of anger;
Joy will be our gun!
Before the light
The veils of sorrow rend;
In inner freedom
All delusions end.
Mm-m-m all delusions end.
Giggle worthy
So this is the “musical, but lighthearted and somewhat silly” post I was planning to share a couple of days ago (before it was hijacked by serious stuff).
There’s not a whole lot to say about it, except that I love the Muppets!
Oh, and here’s the article that drew my attention to how ahead of their time the Muppets were!
Hope it makes you giggle as much as I did. 😂
Lift Every Voice and Sing (part 2)
I loved that wonderful instrumental version of “Lift Every Heart…” [from yesterday’s post], but I still had a hankering to hear it sung. And that’s how I stumbled on this video from 1985.
Al Green and Deniece Williams sang solos; Patti Austin, Roberta Flack, Melba Moore, and Deborah McDuffie were the back up singers; and my uncle-by-marriage, jazz trumpeter Jon Faddis, is one of the studio musicians!
There are a few things that really touched me about this video. One is the warmth, joy, and sheer vitality radiating out from these top-notch singers and musicians. These are people doing what they loved and living life to the full.
I was also struck by how the two different versions of this song spanned the whole of my musical life. From my days as a jazz musician and numerous recording sessions, to my years as a classical musician playing as much chamber music as orchestra jobs.
I feel fortunate to have benefited from such a wide range of musical experiences and from playing with so many wonderful musicians over the years.
Lift Every Voice and Sing (part 1)
I started a completely different blog post earlier today; musical, but lighthearted and somewhat silly. I hope to share it another time, but today’s post was hijacked by a couple of absolutely unexpected videos which brought me right back to issues of race and identity.
For many years I’ve loved “Lift Every Voice and Sing”, so I was immediately interested when the title popped up as I was browsing various virtual orchestra videos. My first thought was that it would be a virtual choir rendition. Well. I’m just going to let you listen before I say any more…
Okay, so this blew me away on a number of levels. First of all, the musicality alone is absolutely stunning. It is by far the most accomplished remotely-recorded performance I’ve heard yet.
Secondly, it brought home to me just how far removed I am from the classical music scene. I was almost entirely unaware of the changes that have taken place in the last twenty years. I mean, the principal clarinetist of the New York Philharmonic is black and I had no idea! That is HUGE! Also principal clarinet in Phoenix, principal flute in Seattle, principal bassoon in Atlanta, and principal oboe in Nashville — all black! Wow.
Finally, the musical artistry, historical imagery, and photos of highly accomplished black people come together to create an amazingly empowering statement.
I’ll share the other “unexpected” video tomorrow; this is quite long enough for tonight!
Reclaiming spring
The other day I was reflecting on how this was the year of the “lost spring.” I couldn’t really tune in and enjoy the season the way I usually do (too many distractions!). Now we’re almost at the Solstice, but it feels important to reclaim Spring first.
So I decided to share this fun and lively song by Swami Kriyananda. It’s one of his Shakespeare songs, and I love it because it makes me feel happy and it makes me think of Spring!
It Was a Lover and His Lass
by Swami Kriyananda
It was a lover and his lass,
With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino,
That o’er the green corn field did pass,
In spring time, the only pretty ring time,
When birds do sing, hey ding a ding ding:
Sweet lovers love the spring.
Between the acres of the rye,
With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino,
These pretty country folks would lie,
In spring time, the only pretty ring time,
When birds do sing, hey ding a ding ding:
Sweet lovers love the spring.
And therefore take the present time,
With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino,
For love is crowned with the prime
In spring time, the only pretty ring time,
When birds do sing, hey ding a ding ding:
Sweet lovers love the spring.
William Shakespeare (As You Like It)
It’s humbling
I still haven’t gotten completely caught up with all the comments and reciprocal sharing from last week. And I haven’t yet figured out when to schedule the Zoom chat that I’ve promised some friends in order to follow-up on the ideas and feelings that surfaced for us all.
Basically, I continue to be blown away by the impact my sharing has had on people. It’s extremely humbling.