A quote for the New Year

This could be a poetic form for my resolutions this year. 

Sing songs that none have sung,

Think thoughts that ne’er in brain have rung,

Walk in paths that none have trod,

Weep tears as none have shed for God,

Give peace to all to whom none other gave,

Claim him your own who’s everywhere disclaimed.

Love all with love that none have felt, and brave

The battle of life with strength unchained.

⎯ Paramahansa Yogananda

Thanks Rochelle! 

Invitation to join a hospice choir

You are invited to join a hospice choir I am directing this spring. Please consider sharing your voice and heart in the rewarding work of singing at the bedside of someone in fragile physical and emotional condition.

Communicating love and care to someone who is struggling with life and death takes a heart full of compassion, attentive eyes, a kind face and a voice strong enough to be vulnerable. Doing this work brings meaningful life lessons – I hope you are ready to receive them.

If you are interested, please continue reading about orientation, rehearsals and bedside visits. If you know of someone who may be interested in this, please forward this to them.

Cool quote

A quote from an unknown Ingrian (Finnish) Bard LI 858:

"If what use are we singers

what good we cuckoo-callers

if no fire spurts from our mouths

no burn from beneath our tongues

and no smoke after our words?"

No SING today; Next is 12/22

Oh, the weather outside was frightful

and the fire is sure delightful.

And since it's best not to go

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

(with apologies to Sammy Cahn)

Hello Sing Heavenly Harmony fans --

I haven't heard if the library is open today ... it was yesterday, amazingly enough ... but even so, I don't think anybody is able to maneuver very well in this snow. So stay home. Be warm. Sing about the beauty of Snow as you make snow angels and snow labyrinths (thank you Bing, Danny, Rosemary, and Vera-Ellen). Or yearn for Summertime (thank you, Ella). Or listen to the coming Spring (thank you random and unknown chamber orchestra and violin soloist) as crocuses, daffodils, and tulips start thinking about when they might start peeking their heads through the dark ground into the light.

The next Sing Heavenly Harmony is Wed, Dec 22, noon-1 p.m. Come for a little sing to calm your heart before the holiday.

An invitation to join a hospice choir starting in Jan.  I will be directing a hospice choir in partnership with AseraCare hospice. If you'd like to be part of this group, please email me at pointsoflightmusic@gmail.com and I'll fill you in on the details.

Blessings!

Favorite fresh snow activity: making a labyrinth

The Midwest is getting pounded with a storm dub'd the snowmageddon or snowpocalypse of 2010.  And while most folks are kvetching about not being able to attend concerts, parties and shop, I love this opportunity to slow down by stomping a classical labyrinth in the church yard beside my house. 

(If don't know what a labyrinth is or how to use one, check http://labyrinthsociety.org/ for a good place to start. And if you're looking for a labyrinth in your neck of the woods (or desert) search the http://labyrinthlocator.com/.)

There's lots of directions on the internet about how to draw the boundaries for a labyrinth (here's my favorite:   http://www.lessons4living.com/drawing.htm) and not so many on how to create the path.  Where snow is plentiful, a path is all you need.  A few tips before you start:

• There are two types of steps to make.  When WALKing to make a path or connecting rings, feel free to drag your feet.  Other times you will need to take care and raise your feet high to not disturb the snow as you move between rings.  I refer to this as STEPping. 
• A labyrinth is always off-center and is, in other words, not symmetrical.   It is very close to being a mirror, but is not.  If it was exactly the same on both sides you would have unconnected parallel circles.  And not a path leading to the center.  Feel free to ruminate on why that is and it's metaphor on life.  :)
• I tried to color code the steps in a rainbow fashion, but yellow does not show up very well and red and orange looked the same.  So the steps are not exactly in ROY G. BIV order, but enough they should be easy to remember.

1. First steps are in BLACK:  WALK towards the center of the space where you are working.  STOP before you reach the center and take a BIG STEP.  This is your center.  STOMP a space twice as big as you.  I like to say a quick invocation of this activity before moving on.
2. Next make 7 half rings.  These steps are in RED-ORANGE:  If your steps toward the center are pointing "north" on a compass, these half rings start and end on the east and west axis.  Take nice big steps between the rings!  If you get too close to your previous ring the path may become unclear.  It's better to err on being too wide though then you run the risk of making it bigger than the space you have.  Nice thing about snow (at least in the Midwest) is it melts or you get more snow you can practice!
3. This step is the trickiest because of the possibility of making closed loops. Here's how to avoid that.  Go back to the center and step into the first path to the "west" (really you can pick either side, but for the purposes of this demo, I'll stick with what's happening in the drawing).  Now WALK to the second ring.  STEP INTO the third ring and WALK around the turn you just created towards the center.  First half is easy -- here's where we have to be careful about keeping the loops open.  STEP back to the center and to the second ring on the "east" axis.  WALK from the second to the third ring.  STEP INTO the fourth ring and walk around the other path to connect with the first ring.  This is the YELLOW-ORANGE turns in the diagram.
4. GREEN paths next!  For the remaining unconnected rings (four on the "west" axis and three on the "east"), make quarter arcs starting from the ring closest to the center and moving out. 
5. The BLUE turns are similarly to the orange-yellow turns in Step 3.  Take note which side has four unconnected rings and which has three.  Go to the "west" side with four rings and stand in the sixth.  WALK and connect it to the fifth.  STEP INTO the forth ring and WALK to the seventh.  Celebrate!  Half of the labyrinth is complete!  Trot over to the "east" side of the seventh ring.  WALK and connect the seventh ring to the sixth. 
6. To finish off your snow labyrinth, STEP INTO the fifth ring that is not yet connected and WALK to the path you made when you started the labyrinth (PURPLE). 

Your Classical labyrinth is now complete!  Congrats!

I can complete a snow labyrinth in about 10-15 minutes depending on the snow depth and heft.  My first one took much longer because I "drew" the boundaries in blue and green water, which I soon realized was unnecessary.  If you used these directions to create a snow labyrinth, please let me know!

Blessings!