Silent night

 Merry Christmas!!!!! I hope you all have a beautiful day. There was an online koto music sharing event, and I said I would get some music recorded for it. I wasn't sure if was really going to happen. As we only had a small window of time to do it in, and I am still very much a beginning koto player. We did several songs in one evening this week. It was a rare thing for us, as the house was quiet. And we haven't attempted to record any music in a long time. The phone didn't ring, or anything. So it really was a silent night. We recorded several songs, imperfections and all. I'm just learning koto, so Bess had to be patient with me. Some videos I swear you can see my thinking. This is Silent night on the Japanese koto, with Bessie Skeem playing her violin, and both of us singing.

 

 

 

 

This one is We wish you a Merry Christmas. Short and sweet.

 

                                                This one is I Saw Three Ships. Totally improvised, and very clunky, and I don't know why I'm sharing this one, as I had zero idea how to play the tune, as you will soon see. Bess is so good at the violin she's always the one to make me experiment. Oh my...

                                                       Here's another one, Jingle bells. Bess is doing her magic on the violin, and I'm playing koto, just imagine Christmas on the a farm. And it seems about right.

 

                                                       

                                    This just a random bonus song. As we were recording, I decided to enlist my mom who plays the bodhrán, (she didn't want to be on camera) and since we were feeling the Christmas spirit, we decided to do keep the camera rolling while we improvised. Bessie is on the violin, doing her magic, and I'm on the jingle bells, and the mountain dulcimer. You can see my other koto in the video, a half size koto that I bought from Japan, that I painted a Japanese Crane on. It's still a work in progress.

Hanukkah

 

 

I realized this morning that yesterday was the start of Hanukkah, the lighting of the candles. 

            I  thought that it that it's been very dark time for so many people. I thought, perhaps, in my way, I'll share a poem that keeps telling me that it wants to be shared. Oh, and a Jewish song that I enjoy listening to repeatedly. And a Ukrainian Folk song that I can't stop listening to.

 And in my own way, light my own menorah.

                

 

Yourself?

Robbed.

Blind.

And you didn’t know.

Who took it from you?

Which way did they go?

All your love. All your light.

They stole it from you in broad daylight.

Who was the thief that robbed the train? Who took away the engine and stole your heart, and rewired your brain?

Who was the one who rewrote your will? Who took away your inheritance, and your freewill?

Who was the one who signed the paper, that took from you your own grace, your savior?

Who stole your sight? And made you blind, to the truth surrounding you all the time?

Who was the culprit that made you chase, after other Gods, with a different face?

Who moved into your house, and stole your land? Who pillaged your temple, and robbed you, again and again?

Who stole your name, and made you bow down, who forced you to wear an iron crown?

Who was the one who made you forget, who you were, your place, where you and your beloved met?

Who took your voice, and all your power, who stole your one true lover?

Who took from you your light? Who made you wander the earth, from dawn, till night?

Who made you look for the love that you are, who made you forget, that you are the beloved, the fixed, shining star?

What kind of lie did you ingest?

That turned you into your own uninvited guest?

Who was the one who made you drink the poison, who took from you, your one enjoyment?

Who was the one who stole your youth, that took from you the wisdom you could have taken with you, your truth?

Who will confess at the Passover feast, who was the Judas, who wanted the silver, who was the double-minded thief?

Who was it that nailed love to the cross?

Who was it that turned on life itself?

Who was it that didn’t believe that God could raise himself?

Who was it who wasn’t his brother's keeper?

Who was it who told the lie, that blamed another?

Who was it who saw and watched it all?

Who was it?

And why don’t we see?

That who we are looking for, and the person we blame, is our head and our heart playing a strange sort of game.

We split ourselves in a thousand pieces, and toss away the bliss, the prince—of all the pieces.

And the person we blame, is one of the twelve, a double minded soul, that hangs himself.

And so all our silver we spend on a potter's field, on our own grave.

Lost ourselves, because we think it’s only our bodies we save.

Sold our treasure.

For pottage. And we bought a lie.

When will we stop? When will we wonder why?

When will we see his kingdom come?

When will the moon be turned to blood? When will the sun stop giving its love?

When will the stars fall from the sky?

When will the earth give up her dead?

When will we ever see the end?

When will we heal, when will we mend?

When will we gather the whole, and love all the missing parts?

When will love be the one we crown?

When will truth be told, and when will it abound?

When will the captives be set free?

When will then lost tribes finally see?

When will we gather all the pieces of real gold?

When will we toss out the lies, and live the higher law from above?

When will we rise from our own dark tombs?

When will we shake off the pain, the gloom?

When will the stone be rolled away?

Who will be standing there, what angels will light the way?

What second coming would we recognize, a raised Christ we walked with in disguise?

What sort of coming, in glory, and splendor, would bring an end to the war, and the hunger?

When will love stand supreme?  Truth light, love, spirit, unified, a glorified being.

When will we be one with life?

When will we stop chasing silver instead, of the light?

When will we free the one who loves us best? When will we put love where it belongs? When will we raise up, the hallelujah, and fan the palms?

When will we crown the rightful king?

When will we let him ride through our streets?

When will he be an invited guest?

When will we let love, be the one we love best?

When will we stop washing our hands, looking the other way, and giving in to other people's demands?

When we stop accusing love?

When will we stop nailing it up?

When will we bring his kingdom down, to a place in yourself, to your own hallowed ground?

When will you let it crack the law? When will you let Christ tip over your tables, where you tally, and claw?

Who is the one who holds the whip? Who strikes love, who makes it slip?

Who is the one who barters for love's clothes?

Who stands guard to watch its dead bones?

Who is the one who will raise from the dead, the light, the love, the heart, the body, the head?

Handel's messiah and solar christmas lights

  Hey!

I thought I’d stop in, and say hi.

I keep rearranging words…yet I can’t seem to get into the flow of writing. My mind is full of jumbled thoughts and letters, some I can grab and pull down, and turn into something, but all the things I write for my blog feel like random words on a scrabble board. Or odd journal entries that I don’t finish.

So scrabble night it is.

                Not a blog post.

                My mom and sister love scrabble.

I. Do. Not… like scrabble.  You have to be good at spelling. 

A few times we did a scrabble game where we got to make up words, and when we set the word down, we had to describe what our made-up word meant. That was the best version of scrabble I’ve played. No shame for creating wonderful words, with meanings you assign them.

                I feel wired, and tired. My throat is a bit sore from singing.

                I’m not quite sure how it got to be this time of month.

                Christmas?

                Oh my gosh.

               Where did the month go?

               I should maybe think about doing normal Christmas things….hmmm…

              Normal? 

              Normal is not on my scrabble board, anywhere. 

            It went missing long ago.

            If I find it, I'll frame it like a photo of a friend I once knew. Maybe stare at it from time to time. 

Mostly, this month was hijacked by music, and singing in choirs. That’s a pretty good way to bring in Christmas. 

                My sister and I just got home from performing in our last performance of Handel’s Messiah. The general vibe of tonight was friendly, yet a bit fearful. Maybe heavy is more accurate feeling of tonight. 

My favorite part about singing in the Messiah is singing the Hallelujah chorus, when everyone stands up, and the drums sound. I also like the trumpet bit, but we had zero trumpets this year. My sister was in charge of helping with the Messiah on our side of the county, so last week was a totally different vibe as I was also helping my sister pin on flowers onto soloists shirts, and passing out programs. That performance started out feeling constipated of soul, then something switched, and it felt like the "Christmas spirit appeared!"

Tonight it was, and then it wasn't as much. 

                I came home and ate some clove oil, just to ward off any stray germ from being around so many people. It’s been my favorite spice of choice since October when I made some Soul cookies, and decided cloves are lovely.

                I also have enjoyed making a spicy milk tea. I mix together cloves, and turmeric, lion’s mane mushroom powder, organic cocoa powder, and cinnamon, with goat milk, and stevia. I warm it up on the stove, and drink it.  It’s very calming, and though many might think gross, I enjoy it, and find it comforting.

             I’ve been griding cloves, and putting them in my shakes, and things. And the oil, I use it often. 

                Anyhow….what the heck was I talking about?

                I told you this was a scrabble post.

Now that nearly all our Christmas music programs are all done, maybe I’ll put up the Christmas tree. 

Last year I bought a fake Christmas tree because it had snowed so much on the mountains, it wasn’t an option to get a real tree. It went against my only real tree policy, and also I think a real tree makes the air in the house feel fresh---it was the first time in the history of my house that a fake tree had been brought in.

And I guess, it will probably be what I’m putting up this year.  So, it's one more tree not chopped. It’s weird but I really enjoy not trying to figure out how to make our real tree stay upright. One year we had it tip over multiple times…oh my gosh. I’d wake up in the morning and wonder if we’d have to redecorate it yet again.

One thing I did do ahead of time for Christmas was buy some solar Christmas lights. I strung them around my yard and lit them up on Thanksgiving. Becoming one of “those” people who welcome in Christmas just as Thanksgiving ends.

                Can I just say, solar Christmas lights are wonderful! One meager benefit from our lovely the forest of trees being cut down is that my front yard has tons more light.  So my solar lights now have plenty of sun to charge.

My mom liked the solar lights so much she bought another box for me to find homes for.

                                                         I.           Solar lights are so much easier to string up.

                                                       II.           You don’t have to use extension cords.

                                                     III.            You don’t have to overload the electrical system with too many light strands all feeding into each other.

                                                    IV.            You don’t have to be strategic and make the lights codependent. They are their own little solar system.

                                                      V.            Solar lights can be placed anywhere, as long as the sun can find them.

                                                    VI.            The creative possibilities are mind-blowing!

                And it’s so fun.

                I spent the day before thanksgiving actually really enjoying putting up the rest of the strands I hadn’t already strung up. It was sunny, and so satisfying to get them all up. When it gets dark, they can turn themselves on. And those itty bitty lights shine brilliantly. I don’t know how many years I have fretted over lights, and this year was not one of them.

                At least the first time I put them up….

                It was a breeze!

                Until….

                                Yeah….

                                                You were waiting for me to say that.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Until…my goats discovered how delicious Christmas lights are.

                Yes.

                They like Christmas lights.           

                Solar Christmas lights.

                Munching them, along with tree leaves. Apparently copper wire and Christmas lights make a great electrifying side dish.

                                If you asked the goats how the lights tasted, they would say they taste sparkly, like stars, and sunlight, like gingerbread and Christmas.

                                The first strand to become a Christmas feast was the strand I strung on their fence. Yes, that was a ‘brilliant’ idea. But I wanted to light the way to the barn as I’m always walking out there in the dark, and it looked so magical.

                                Sigh…

                                Past tense. Looked.

                                I didn’t know how much they enjoyed my lights until I noticed my path was dark. I did a close inspection and found the wire detached from the solar panel, chewed on.  And then I noticed that they had munched it in four or five places, split the wire into frayed bits.

You’d think they were deficient in copper, because they seemed to use it like floss.

I brought in the strand of lights, and tried fixing them, as they are mostly copper wire, and little solar lights.  So far, I haven’t gotten them to work.

In meantime, I had fenced the goats off from getting into my ice-skating area, so I could work on that.

So what did the goats do?  They flooded into my yard, and began uprooting my other Christmas lights, and munching them, snipping them in half, and eating them.

It was a far cry from my lovely lit up yard of Thanksgiving. It felt like, one by one, the light in my yard was diminishing.

                I pretty much restrung every working strand of lights, moved them to higher ground, and have them now---out of danger, we hope----!

                My yard is lit up once again!

As penance for eating Christmas lights, I hope the light munchers become enlightened, and perhaps glow in the dark. Who knows, maybe St. Nicholas might think them useful and use them for his magical sled. But I’d have to tell him to keep his bag of goodies away from their mouths, because they might eat everything in it.