Trail of Lights

Last night was the opening night for Austin's weekly Trail of Lights that is in Zilker Park.

Had snackage at my favorite tapas place and then hiked across the 1st Street bridge into the masses.  For once, the shuffle-shuffle, elbow-in-the-head-from-eager-photographer and the bloody shins from reckless strollers drivers didn't irritate me.  (Well, not as much; only muttered and glared a couple of times.)

It was a bit soothing to be utterly engulfed in happy gasps and lots of joyful shrieks as small people recognized beloved cartoon and fairy creatures.

Kept trying to capture the light changes in these trees.  It takes the park/corporation six weeks to set this entire exhibit in place.

I was a little tweaked that they weren't playing Brubeck at this scene to honor his passing last week, but I hummed it out loud to pay homage to the musical legacy of the jazz man.

My favorite tree--flavor of Seuss, I think!

The closing tunnel--I dubbed it the Hanukkah Hallway.  

  There is still light.  

And so today, even with the classroom doors locked tightly and security wandering the campus, I wear glitter eye-shadow and a sparkly headband and shall sit and read Seuss to my children and we will listen to carols, played very loudly.  

There is still light.

our reply

 (one of my miniature singers)

 "This will be our reply to violence.

 To make music more intensely, 

more beautifully, 

more devotedly than ever before." 

~Leonard Bernstein

I was already a bit verklempt and wrung out yesterday as I had the usual post-concert/adrenaline let down.  But after I started seeing my east coast friends' fb posts, I verged right into weepy. 

All day long I kept seeing the shiny faces of my Pre-K and K classes as they joyfully stood in the spotlights and belted out:

tu-re-lu-re-lu

pat-a-pat-a-pan

when you play your fife and drum

how can anyone be glum?

(I allowed the 6th grade free dress for the concert and I was impressed by how sophisticated they were--fedora, beautiful ties and skirts for the ladies!)

While I can grasp the ideology and xenophobia of terrorism and can catch a glimmer of empathy for high school students who react against their classmates, there is no understanding of a mind that simply guns down little people.  These weren't even collateral damage in a bombing, or such.  Just shot.

And always on the edge of my consciousness is the fact that this could easily happen at any campus where I work.  Many of my classrooms have been equipped with panic buttons and we have 'shelter in place' drills for this kind of horror. 

I truly hope that I never have to face a parent and tell them any variation to the story which is unfolding in Connecticut tonight. 

For tonight, I will remember audience faces on Thursday night, streaming tears as 300+ voices surrounded them with  Dona Nobis Pacem  and Stille Nacht.  

Bernstein's answer is the one for me.

re-do?

Woke up this morning with
a terrific urge to lie in bed all day
and read. Fought against it for a minute.

Then looked out the window at the rain.
And gave over. Put myself entirely
in the keep of this rainy morning.

Would I live my life over again?
Make the same unforgiveable mistakes?
Yes, given half a chance. Yes.

"Rain" by Raymond Carver, from The Collected Poems. © Knopf, 1996.

It's not raining & I'm not really regretting much, but I've much mulling to do in the next few weeks.  I have a friend who yammers on about staying present and to not live in the past (or future), but I think it's useful to look at one's trail and see the detours & remember the vistas as a way to set off on the next path.

Here's to the weekend--well-earned.  Here's to figuring out which bend in the road is more enticing.

Christmas's cranky cat

These new memes are bringing me much joy and thought I'd share.

And my boyfriend, Stephen, is doing his usual Christmas duets show this week.

heart holder

Here's the little elf with whom I get to spend Christmas.  Could there be more cuteness in one little person?

lightness

It's nice to have luxury of unending sunny days.  Have noticed a shift in my thinking; I no longer thing 'oh, it's sunny; drop everything and do outdoor activity X'.   While I kevetch a bit about the 81 degreed December days, in general, I revel in the string of sunniness.

It's odd to seek out darkness during the winter so to enjoy the sparkling lights of the season.  But while I'm in this Texas chapter, I will soak up all the solar power I can get.

illuminated

 Delish butternut squash gnocchi--delight of dinner downtown with Aunt Liz.

 Liz~n~Willie

 Just happened to see a snippet in the paper about Luminations at the Lady Bird Wildflower Center and as it was free admission with a donation of two cans of food, thought I'd pop down and see it.

 Magical and enchanting are the only, perhaps inane, adjectives I can use.  These photos don't even approach the atmosphere created by miles of luminaries.

I've just begun a holiday tradition for myself in Austin.  And hopefully, next year it won't be 81 bloody degrees while I enjoy it.

tablets of gingerbread

Advent

BY MARY JO SALTER

Wind whistling, as it does   

in winter, and I think   

nothing of it until

it snaps a shutter off

her bedroom window, spins   

it over the roof and down

to crash on the deck in back,   

like something out of Oz.

We look up, stunned—then glad

to be safe and have a story,   

characters in a fable   

we only half-believe.

Look, in my surprise

I somehow split a wall,   

the last one in the house

we’re making of gingerbread.   

We’ll have to improvise:   

prop the two halves forward

like an open double door   

and with a tube of icing   

cement them to the floor.

Five days until Christmas,

and the house cannot be closed.   

When she peers into the cold

interior we’ve exposed,   

she half-expects to find   

three magi in the manger,

a mother and her child.   

She half-expects to read   

on tablets of gingerbread

a line or two of Scripture,   

as she has every morning   

inside a dated shutter

on her Advent calendar.   

She takes it from the mantel   

and coaxes one fingertip

under the perforation,   

as if her future hinges

on not tearing off the flap

under which a thumbnail picture   

by Raphael or Giorgione,   

Hans Memling or David

of apses, niches, archways,   

cradles a smaller scene   

of a mother and her child,

of the lidded jewel-box   

of Mary’s downcast eyes.   

Flee into Egypt, cries

the angel of the Lord   

to Joseph in a dream,

for Herod will seek the young

child to destroy him. While   

she works to tile the roof   

with shingled peppermints,

I wash my sugared hands   

and step out to the deck   

to lug the shutter in,

a page torn from a book   

still blank for the two of us,   

a mother and her child.

Mary Jo Salter, “Advent” from Open Shutters (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2003).

& a parrrrtridge in a pearrrr tree

Ye gads.  About fell off my conducting podium today during a combined rehearsal.  While there are some gorgeous moments, it was crystalline that many of my 387 singers still don't believe me when I tell them that [r] is not the singer's friend.   Hope I can convert some of them before we drown the audience with "Jayzus Lorrrrd at thy berrrrrth".

And if I were clever (or motivated), I would write some lyrics to go with the 12 Days--something about 5 antibiotics, 3 inhalers, 2 syrups and 6 boxes of tissues.  This Green Plague still has it's talons in me.   Grateful for health insurance and double grateful that a vacation is quite near.  Planning on much rest/relaxation and adoration of the cuteness of the newest elf in my life.

chosen

Despite the nice bits to floating along life's current in a zen detachment of things unfolding as they should.  Despite the character built while enduring tough days.  Despite knowing that one will not always pass the audition, the exam, the scrutiny....it is bloody blissful to just get the YES.

Yes, you're hired.

Yes, you made the team.

Yes, you landed the solo.

 

As this is a public venue, I shall leave it rather vague at present, but will just say that today was a marvelous day in which I got a professional YES.

hi-jinks

During faculty meeting today, a couple of us with what I've named The Plague, were sitting in the back and trying to keep our coughing quiet.  A woman in front of us kept twitching and tossing dirty looks over her shoulder.  My colleague got up and got a handful of water from the fountain and stood behind the glarer and coughed while sprinkling her with water.

We about lost our lungs through laughter over her reaction.  Doubtful that she will glare at us again.

it's beginning to look

 but not feel, like Christmas.  81 degrees today.  Wore flip-flops and a t-shirt to walk to the market. 

The City tree; I shall go back when it's lit and take some photos while walking.

 Care package ready for the post.

 Bits of beads & greenery create a welcome entrance to my place.

More greenery.

Advent wreath, readied for lighting tomorrow morning.

And delish snackage ready for the first viewing of Christmas movies.

where'd November go?