47: Week 3

Music often saves me, has saved me throughout my life, keeps me breathing into my heart even when my head threatens to derail peace. And this week, I frequently found myself needing to find that right touch, a balm for these times, and as often is the case, classical music is there. Musical moments connect me to my history, to memories of my Grandpa Baum and the opera, my dad listening to WQXR radio in the background as he read the newspaper, Leonard Bernstein teaching me during the Young People's Concerts. Classical music anchors me in the present as I travel with each move of a piano key or the aching sounds of a violin. And so this week, despite all its political horrors, I found two resonant musical escapes. 

While reading about the Grammy Awards (truth be told I am sure I was on some news site discovering just one more scary moment of the week), I discovered the intensity and brilliance of Vikingor Ólafsson and his gorgeous recording of Bach's Goldberg Variations. After an evening of falling into the doom hop on various web sites, it lulled me to sleep. The other piece surfaced driving home one early evening, soothing me after an extremely tiring two full days of standardized patient work. If you desire an exquisite listen, check out Jung Jaeil's "I Remember My Name." 

Today, I skimmed over three weeks of daily reality, realizing the enormity of how much has happened, not happened, happened again, maybe to be ruled illegal, maybe to be ruled illegal but disregarded. It's exhausting. Yet, I do read some of the news because I need to stay current with what's happening, know the different machinations, figure out what types of actions I want to take for the week. On Friday morning, I did manage to speak to Diana DeGette's clerk live, and had a brief chat about what the senator was doing well and what she might do better, such as being more visible and leading more of a charge. I left a few voicemails for my two senators, and imagine that this week, I will do that again and perhaps again.

Last weekend, I finally got around to putting together my wee little hydroponic garden. I planted some microgreens and mesclun, hoping to have an early taste of spring indoors, a daily bit of joy and gratitude. 

One week later

And if you need a comfort viewing to end this week, Nan and I soothed ourselves with Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl.

I hope that whatever you read, experienced, thought throughout the week also had some moments of joy.