Halloween adventures

Here I am as a "Wild Thing," trick or treating with my son, who was Max. I made both costumes and had great fun making them and wearing them!

My husband had to guide me as I walked. The eye holes were in the nose but I could only see a small part of the sidewalk before me! We got a lot of smiles and compliments along the way. So many people seem to have had such a happy experience of the book!

Here is the head in my studio, next to my altar. Wow. It was an adventure creating it! I made the head out of plaster cloth

cast over a 24 inch beach ball. I really needed more time than I had so that when I tried to take the ball out to let it dry, the whole thing collapsed. But then I had the idea of stuffing it with bolster materials, including stuffing and foam, which I needed anyway as a way of stabilizing the whole thing on my head.

I was grateful that I had the chance to both go trick or treating with it and also go to a costume party that I heard about from an artist friend at the last minute. There was some other amazing costumes there.

Here is one of them, made by the artist, on the right, Frank, for himself and his girlfriend. He told me he usually works in wood. He made it up as he went along. It even had LED lights.

This was one of the most fun Halloweens I have had!

Busy living, but not writing here.

I should be back soon, I hope. Lots of fun stuff is happening. I have gotten so caught up in all of it that I haven't written. But I hope to soon...

Borrowed Wings (Strings)

I went to a string instrument repair guy, Charles Magby, whom many of my string instrument friends had told me about, to see about getting a shoulder rest to fit my large and awkwardly sized viola. He easily fixed my shoulder rest problem but then I asked him what it would involve to have my viola looked at too. (This is me playing in the Civic Orchestra next to my buddy Margi)

I have to say a little about Charles Magby. With his Santa Claus beard and kind face, he reminded me so much of the best parts of my father and even looks like my father a little. I had to make an appointment to see Charles Magby. But when I was there, he gave me his attention and I felt that he had all the time in the world for me. His workshop is a fascinating space, filled with beautiful instruments in various stages of repair. There is a feeling of respect and discipline, respect for the instruments and the instrumentalists who come to see him, whether professional, or amateurs like me. I asked him about an ornamental bow and arrow that I saw hanging in one of the rooms and he told me that it had been made by a Native American woman at a pueblo near Albuquerque, New Mexico and that it was a ceremonial bow and arrow. I told him I had been to the Taos Pueblo and that it had made a huge impression on me. He showed me a drum from there. It felt wonderful to be a part of this quiet, timeless world.

Before I knew it he had my viola all set to be repaired-there were a lot of things that needed to be taken care of AND he lent me a viola, an Ansaldo Poggi, while mine was being repaired. I knew nothing about this other viola until I looked on line and discovered that my borrowed viola was made by a violin and viola maker from Bologna, Italy who lived in the mid 1800's. Wow, and it is quite an instrument, so different from my modest instrument that my parents bought for me when I started college.

I love my instrument. But this new instrument!!! At first I thought because the sound was so unfamiliar, that maybe it was almost a student grade instrument, so little do I know about these things. But then I played the low string, a C, just drew it out and wow!! It just echoed and echoed. As I played the familiar music that I had been working on with my viola, it was as if I was learning to play all over again. I realized I have to be more cautious. I can't play wrong or even slightly out of tune notes on this baby-it isn't used to them. This instrument is made for the concert hall.

I feel so grateful to have this opportunity. Some of my musician friends have instruments of this calibre and I am always in awe of them. But now I may have caught the bug myself.

To make the connection to my larger life, we become accustomed or habituated to our little comfortable ponds that we swim in. But then when life gives us the opportunity to swim in the ocean, it is almost as if we never knew how to swim. Trying out this viola makes me realize that there is so much more out there for me to learn. Could I ever grow into this? Possibly. Yes. I need to give it a try. This new instrument has offered me borrowed wings.

Why musical notes are like people-Being in One's Integrity

I had a wonderful lesson with my viola teacher yesterday, Marvin Warshaw, who is also principal violist with the New Haven Symphony Orchestra. It had been a while and I started the lesson by apologizing to him. I hadn't had the chance to practice very much since our last lesson, the first of this season. Unfazed, he just had me work on scales and arpeggios, really slowly.

Then I started playing chords and the topic of being in tune came up. He told me to play some notes lower or higher, depending on which other note was in the chord. There is a lot more relativity to being in tune on a string instrument than you might think. He told the story, a bane of the chamber music violists existence, of holding the low "C" note on the viola, or really any other long held note, while the other players notes are changing. Even if she holds her note as steadily as possible without changing it, she can sound like she is in tune or not, depending on the notes being played by the rest of the group. And not that the others are "out of tune." It is just that the notes sound different depending on their relationship to other notes. There is a whole technical explanation for this having to do with stuff like whether the instrument is "tempered" or not. I don' t really understand it.

Anyway, I was struck by the psychological aspect of this. How one can feel "in tune" and comfortable with oneself with some people and so out of tune with others and you know you haven't changed yourself at all. This is something I am working on right now. I am calling it being in my integrity or being authentic. I find it so difficult sometimes. But as someone who historically tends to try to tune into others first, it is so easy for me to lose my own sense of who I am. I am trying through meditation and yoga to trust what comes from inside without having to look outside so much. It is a slow and at times painful process but I am learning. This lesson shows me how helpful the arts are to me as well. I am so grateful to have all these outlets of music, writing and art to help myself on the path to wholeness.

Philippe Petit and the Trade Center

This is what helps me when I think of the Trade Centers. My kids have a wonderful book about his walk of the Trade Centers, "The Man Who Walked Between the Towers" by Mordicai Gerstein and I just saw that there is a movie, "Man on a Wire," which I would love to rent.

Connecting my memory of the towers with his beautiful and courageous act makes it somehow easier.

I still have not figured out how to connect a video to this. I have a great one of his walk. Can anyone help me with this?

Still on vacation in my mind!

Back home for three weeks from vacation. (But my mind is still on vacation. Here I am with one of my other best friends from Boston, Norah, on another of the wonderful sailing days we had that week in Jamestown.) My kids started school last week. Their schedules and mine are starting to come together but the effort it took to put that together felt like a three dimensional jigsaw puzzle with pieces missing.

In addition to the usual adjustments to a new semester, my husband and I have given ourselves the additional challenge of moving all of the third floor (a converted attic that was the kids rooms) into a guest room and office, while moving the kids to the second floor where the guest room and offices once were.

What a project, since we still had not sorted through some of the kids stuff when we moved here three years ago. It seems like we go to IKEA every day these days for furniture or organizational tools! I will post photos when we are done. We have to finish by Monday because my mom and step father and two of my aunts from Germany (my mother's sisters) will be visiting then.

But still my mind is on vacation. Here is Norah, with her two kids, Molly and Emma, who have grown so much!

I am thinking about old friends a lot lately as it seems I still have more to do in terms of "finding my tribe" here in my local town. More on that later...

Taking a short break

I think I am going to take a short break from writing here. I am going through a couple of tough situations and my inner voice is telling me to slow down but I don't know yet what that means, except that for now I cannot do everything I was doing before.

I decided to take a break from the two orchestras I play in, at least for the semester. I forsee starting to write here soon again. I think this feeds me, both the opportunity to share my thoughts and the connections I make with other bloggers.

It seems like my immediate future will be focused on inner work, including art making and writing. And a focus on my family. I am going to trust in the process.

Have a great Labor Day weekend everyone.