Take a sad song and make it better

 

Hello everyone! March was a big month for me because I have been allowed back playing at a nursing home in person for the first time in 2 years. These are residents I play one on one for. These are people who have no family or friends in the area and I may be their only visitor. Singing with them means the world to me and them too.  

Over this month, I have met new people there as well.  In one room I was playing for a resident there and I got to know her roommate. We have sung together now a few times and each time I visit I learn more about her.  I also have been able to play for Mr. Miller (not his real name) who loves jazz and blues. My favorite thing to do with him is to improvise. I just sit down and play my guitar and let it take me where it wants to go. Mr. Miller lies in his bed listening deeply. Sometimes he appears to be sleeping but after I finish playing, he sits up and says, "Wow! Moods!" 

I also have had some really good sessions at the hospital. The other day, I was sent to a room of a young  man (20s-30s?) who seemed very bored and he was a bit disruptive to the staff. When he saw my guitar, he got very excited. He asked if he could play it, which I politely declined. Unfortunately, I get asked this from time to time by patients and it is simply not possible to allow this due to infectious control. Anyway, I started to play, "Hey Jude, " for him and his nurse was in the room with him and started to sing along. I have always loved that song ! Do you remember when that song first came into your life? It was released as a 45 single in 1968 and I was 10 years old at the time. My parents just divorced and so the song had a special impact on me.  

"Hey Jude, don't make it bad, take a sad song and make it better... " How those words helped soothe me in that time of uncertainly and confusion. 

I also did some art this month, as you can see from the picture above. The situation in Ukraine has weighed heavily in my heart.  and though the situation there seems very grim, I do see some positive things coming out of it.  A friend of mine has founded "Knitters Unite: Hats for Ukraine" where a local group and those around the state of Virginia are making blue and yellow hats (colors of the Ukraine flag) to sell for a donation to benefit Ukraine emergency fund.  Let's hope and pray for peace! 

Spring seems to be slowly emerging with flowers and trees blooming although with colder temps. I hope you are enjoying signs of spring wherever you are! 

May Peace Prevail

 

Hello everyone! Today my thoughts are with the people of Ukraine and I pray for peace to be restored to their nation.  The other night I attended an online interfaith vigil for peace and I was struck that getting together and doing our best to stand up for others is one positive thing that can come from this time. 

In other news, I continue to enjoy playing music for nursing home residents and hospital patients.  As I mentioned in my last post, I have been working on new repertoire.  A couple of new pieces for me are, "Rocket Man," by Elton John, "Hey Jude, " by the Beatles and "Sound of Silence" by Simon and Garfunkel. I don't usually play this type of music for my patients but sometimes I play at the nursing station or in the hallways where staff and families can hear me and I play a wider range of music for these situations. 

I am also happy to see the days getting longer and warmer and flowers sprouting and spring on the way. I know we are all ready for spring. 

I just wanted to say hello out there and wish you all well! 

Pray for Peace! 

Nearer to spring, we are

 

Hello everyone! Happy February.  I hope this finds you all doing well.   Winter is still upon us but I have taken comfort in noticing that the days are getting longer. Not much warmer though! 

January was a good month for me. I started working on more repertoire for my patients at the hospital.  One way I like to do this is by making what I call a "cheat sheet." This is where I just write down all of the chords that are in the song and from there I play the melody "by heart." I like saying it that way, playing by heart. I do not like to read music while playing for patients because I want to be able to watch their response to the music. A few new ones I am doing are, "Gartan Mother's Lullaby, " which is a very pretty Irish melody. Also, "Nocturne," by Evert Taube, "Hallelujah" by Leonard Cohen and "Imagine," by John Lennon. All of them are slow and haunting and very comforting. 

I also did some art, as you can see by the photo above. This is the newest piece I did. As many of you know, I use discarded canvases/paintings done by local art students. This one took me a long time because I could not see anything in the original painting. Finally, I took some tissue paper and covered up some of the areas I did not like and then it came together. This one is my current favorite. I love the animals I got from a nature coloring book . A friend remarked how the images/drawings really capture the spirit of the animal. I think that is true too. I also love to color flowers. The purple/blue circle in the right corner was there already. It was originally just a blue circle and I put the purple and green inside. I do not know what it is but I like that it has an element of abstract to it.  It can be whatever you want to see in it. Everyone will have a different interpretation. 

Art and music are a good way to soothe the soul in these challenging times. I hope you are all finding good ways to soothe your soul. Thanks for stopping by! 

best to all! 

Last Photo of 2021

 

Happy New Year! I don't think many of us will be sad to say goodbye to 2021.  

A thought came to me as an interesting metaphor. What was the last photo you took in 2021? Mine is of the Buddha statue pictured above. It strikes me as a fitting metaphor in many ways. I think of Buddhism as a philosophy that teaches how to be in the present moment and see each moment, each day anew. Begin again and again as a beginner. To me I think that is fitting for the last couple of years because life as we knew it (pre-Pandemic) has ended.. at least temporarily. And just as we thought we were seeing the light at the end of the tunnel for this pandemic to be under control, Omicron came along and we're back in chaos again.  Living in the Unknown is the new normal. 

Yet there is still hope in this image above. The Buddha is surrounded by dead leaves, the shedding of 2021's trees. The Buddha's face is calm and serene and centered out in nature- seemingly oblivious of all of the drama and chaos in the outer world. Somehow we have to find that inner place for ourselves. 

That's where my music comes in. What I am playing, I go to a place like that within. The noise of the outer world is not there and the demands of daily life are put on hold. We all have something we do that takes us there. I bet listening to music takes you there. 

Then there is the idea that came to me as the last activity done in 2021. For me it was walking a Labyrinth 

and this one is particularly good to sum up 2021! See how old and worn these stones are? At some points, the stones are warn down so much that it's hard to see which way you are supposed to go. Walking in a maze, like facing the unknown.. where will I end up? Then others join this maze and some are going to the center, others on their way out. At times we intersect and  we have to stay focused on our own path or we could be swayed to follow someone else. I did that one time in a Labyrinth - I thought I was going the wrong way and followed someone else.. little did I know they were doing the same thing! Do you see the metaphor here? :) Yesterday though, I did not get lost.  There were children playing in the Labyrinth at one point . An old me would have been annoyed. (kids! ) but yesterday I was unfazed. Good to see. I have become more patient. Another perk about the pandemic. Things that used to annoy me don't anymore.  Small things are what make life interesting and meaningful. 

So how about you? What was your last photo and what metaphor comes up for you about this past year? 

What was your last activity of the year and what does that say about your growth? 

Reply below if you want! I'd love to hear from you. 

I wish you all the best year ever !! Thanks for stopping by! 

Happy Holidays to all!

 

Hello and Merry Christmas, Happy Solstice, Happy Hanukkah, Happy holidays to all!  

I find it a bit hard to believe the year is coming to a close. I got out my Christmas music and have been enjoying playing all my favorite traditional carols. For some reason I don't tire of playing them. What are your favorites? Some of mine are: "The First Noel" (which you can listen to by clicking on the link). I also love "Joy to the World," "Silent Night," "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" and the list goes on.  To me they are very comforting to listen to and play. 

On Thanksgiving, I chose to go and play music for ICU patients at the hospital where I work. I realized I have spent most of my Thanksgivings there since I started working there in 2004. I had my Thanksgiving meal there too. It was a nice way to spend my holiday. 

My birthday came a few days ago, so i am all set for another year around the sun! I do want to share something about that. Which is to say that I've always thought of myself as a winter child being born in December. But that is not true - I am an Autumn child because the winter solstice is not until December 20th. That realization has made a difference to me. I've always loved the fall as well as winter. The months tend to be more introspective and gives me more time to work on new music. 

I do wish you all a happy New Year and hope that the remaining days of this year are safe and happy and healthy for all of you. Thank you for stopping by! 

The above picture is a collage I made for a nursing home where I work playing music for residents. 

Halloween Music Adventures

 

Happy Halloween to everyone! I've always liked this holiday. I enjoyed leading a Halloween themed music activity with a group at Access Arts here in Charlottesville.   We sang some fun songs like the theme song to, "Addams Family," "Love Potion No 9," "Monster Mash."  We also played a game I used to play years ago as a child. We called it "Statue." This is a group of us would dance to a record (vinyl in those days!) and someone would take the needle off the record to stop the music. When the music stopped, we all had to freeze in to a statue pose. Then go back to dancing after the needle was placed back on the record. How funny to remember those days! We played this game with the song, "Thriller" by Michael Jackson. Who can not get a thrill out of that spooky laughter at the end by Vincent Price?

We also did a Halloween madlib song. Madlibs are where you take out the main nouns, verbs, adjectives and fill them in with new words. So for example, we used the song "You Are My Sunshine." I asked for a Halloween noun with two syllables. They picked, "mummy." An adjective to replace "happy" was "ghostly." A verb replacing "love" was "scream." so here is the first verse of You Are My Mummy"

"You are my mummy,  my only mummy

you make me ghostly when pumpkins are purple

you'll never howl dear how much I scream you

please don't take my mummy away. "

Things got pretty silly there but it was fun. As a child, I was scared of vampire and mummy movies. My older sister would tease me. One night I begged my parents to let me stay up later to watch, "Creature Features, " (who remembers this?) But as soon as the theme song came on, I decided it was too scary. I then said, "I am so tired.. I want to go to sleep now. " My sister said, "You are SCARED!!" I said I was not !!  In the end, I had to watch some of it lest my sister think I was a coward. 

Having said all of this, I am hoping Halloween this year will be a safe and fun one for the young and young at heart. I know last years' was not so fun with Covid raging. I know we have been seeing some improvement this year. 

The collage above was a piece I did for Halloween that I donated to a local nursing home. They had no art in their dining room. After Halloween is over, I plan to alter it for Thanksgiving and keep it up! 

Hope you are all well and happy! Thanks for stopping by! 

Autumn musings

 

Happy Autumn season to you! I really like the fall, how about you? For me the fall is a more contemplative time and a time of harvesting seeds planted in the spring. So, let's see about things I planted. 

For me my art has become a "thing." I have been doing some music themed art like the one pictured above. This collage will be donated to The Front Porch (local roots music school) new location. I have more I will be giving to them. I am excited to know that these artistic musings will be seen and enjoyed by the community. 

Other thing going on... I have been going through some old classical guitar repertoire I used to play and bringing back some of the pieces. One of them is "Classical Gas" by Mason Williams. That is one of my favorite guitar pieces of all time. It came into my life when I was 10 years old and there was a lot of change going on. My parents divorced, my mother remarried and we moved from the only home I knew all within the time frame of less than 2 years. "Classical Gas" was a song that got me through these changes. I know we all have important songs that are part of our life soundtrack. I learned to play Classical Gas about 20 years ago and somehow it faded from my repertoire. It is back now and it is like having an old friend return to my life. A great feeling!

I also went and stayed at Shenandoah National Park with my sister and did a lot of hiking and thinking and musing about life. I am excited for October to come because I have some ideas of things I want to bring back into my life. I will tell you all about that when that time comes!

In the meantime, I want to show you another collage I did this month pictured here. It is probably my favorite one of all. I think my next piece will also be with horses. Hope you enjoy and that you are all well and happy.