Music - Blessing #10

When I was in the second grade, my mother and daddy bought me an old pump organ, and that’s when my love of music began. Without it - music - on a daily basis,  I cannot imagine what my life would have been or would be like.  I listen to PBS classical music all day at school, and I’ve even gotten the children to where they request it if I’ve failed to turn on the radio. I play it in the car, and I go to sleep listening to the same list of compositions every night. I’ve done this for years and years and years. A creature of habit is the only way to describe me.  From the time I was a little girl up to only recently, I’ve studied piano and organ, fiddle and violin, and a little mandolin. Only in the past 6 or 7 years have I stopped taking lessons. My mother took piano until she was in her late 80’s, and our home was one that respected and appreciated music. I find that some tunes pick me up while others calm my soul, but there are ALWAYS tunes a’playing in my head and in my life.  Many years ago I even “tried” singing in the choir at our Episcopal church, but that left a lot to be desired.  I made sure no one could hear me because I was always off key and not singing the right part at the right time.  Open my mouth wide but only whisper out the words was my motto! I think the words for that are....”Fake It!" Of all the instruments I’ve played, the violin, or as I sometimes call it, the fiddle, has to be my favorite. There is something about the bow hitting those strings and the sound that’s produced that puts me on a track directly to Heaven. No matter whether the music is old-timey, mountain or classical, I am a happy camper with a violin in my hand. One summer I even traveled to Ireland to study Irish fiddle and had the time of my life.  It was the Willy Clancey Festival Music School, and I lived in an old covent for a week.  What an experience...wonderful fellowship, great food, dancing, and the music to die for all day and most of the night every day and night. It was a shame Buddy couldn’t go with me, because I really wanted him there and he would have loved it. On one of our trips over there he bought me a real Irish fiddle while in Dublin, and it is one of my treasures. Like I said in my tribute to him on our anniversary - Blessing #9 - he has always supported me in the things I’ve wanted to do, and that week in Ireland was one of them.  I absolutely adore that country.  I’ve gone there alone, with Weezie, my best friend from Blessing #5, and with my Buddy several times.  Each and every trip was filled FULL of music.  I marvel at the Beethoven’s, the Handel’s, the Haydn’s, and the Mozart’s in wonderment at their compositions and unbelievable talent.  How did they do it? How could they come up with the music for all of the parts in an orchestra?  How could you do it being deaf? The only answer is their talent was a gift from God; that’s in my mind the only explanation.  Yes, I love and need my music; without it I would be very sad.  It is my Blessing #10.


“Music is harmony, harmony is perfection, perfection is our dream, and our dream is heaven.” ~ Henri Frederic Amiel