Sunday, September 03, 2017

This and that, and then there's the past

Sunday, September the third, 2017

While I have my lunch this very smokey September Sunday I am listening to David Garret as he plays Beethoven's Concerto for Violin and. Orchestra in D with the National Philharmonic of Russia.


Right soloist, right piece of music, but not what is on the DVD I watched.
and I must warn you it is 27 minutes long
but pure pleasure...

 It is a long time since  I have gone through the cupboard Charles made to house all the music we collected over the years; the records, the cassettes, then the DVD audios and movies, as time passed and the media came to us in different forms.  What I really wanted to listen to was the Adagio in D...it seemed somehow fitting when I came in exhausted but satisfied with my morning bringing order (more or less) to the garden...

Sunday...,and I'm not terribly focused.  All week my energies have been concentrated on the loom, with satisfying results now the shuttle is whizzing back and forth through a nice taut warp.

This morning I had a lovely four minute egg with toasted soldiers  (not something my beloved husband would have approved of....dipping your toast in the dripping yolk! ). A second cup of coffee and I browsed a bit in Anna Quindlen's "Lots of Candles - Plenty of Cake".  I ordered three of her books from the library, to re-read because they give me nothing but pleasure and comforting memories.

The quote with which she starts the first chapter.."Life must be lived forward but understood backward" ( Kierkegaard) resounds with me more and more, the longer I live.  Quindlen says "It's. nothing short of astonishing, all that we learn between the time we are born and the time we die......in the laboratory of our lives". But our understanding comes late in life.....

"There comes a time when we finally know what matters, and more importantly, what doesn't".

And then in the next chapter she goes on to talk about the bane of my life.."STUFF". I remember those first sweet innocent days of our marriage when Charles had his uniform, I had my trousseau (sp) and there was a barrel full of wedding gifts to pick up at the train station.

Now I view with despair this great collection of "things" we have accumulated over sixty-seven years of marriage and family and events and treasuring.  I have pretty well limited myself to books, and a little bit of new cotton thread to weave with, since my love departed.

I ponder on ways to get rid of all this STUFF, much of which has so kindly been given to us by our six children, and their offspring, and their offsprings' offsprings.... Do you suppose I could label it all, to be returned on my departure...but how would I remember what came from who, and imagine the uproar if the legacy went to the wrong person.

Well, I will be like Scarlett and worry about that tomorrow  if and when.....

The Beethoven is over now...I think I will make a cup of tea and take it into the loom room and contemplate the beginning of my fourth towel. I have an hour before Radio City comes on Knowledge Network .... Enough time for three or four bobbins to advance the work.....


Maybe by bedtime the smoke from these ferocious wildfires that are all around us will have wafted away with a change of breeze and fresh air will blow through the open window.

And maybe I should be very grateful that it is smoke, and not flames!!!!

6 comments:

Penny said...

Smoke around is always unsettling. We are heading in to summer, the farm s almost sold and we head into a new unknown life. Don't know where yet, probably a rental. We have never lived in the town, let alone a Rental. Stuff, so much of it. Wish I could be like Scarlet.

Penny said...

Oh forgot to say I love your scarf.

Hill Top Post said...

I have listened to your piece of "pure pleasure," and must say I enjoyed it greatly. I know so little about music except for "oldies, but goodies" country that I hesitate to comment much. I do wonder about your musical background.

Several pictures of the devastating fires in Montana have been popping up on Facebook. I think of you.

I've never read any of Anna Quindlen's work, but she has gone onto my list of books to read. She's a ways down the line, I'm afraid. Next up is James Herriot's "All Creatures Great and Small." And, I am planning to reread "Wuthering Heights" before winter's end.

Your latest towel on the loom is so very lovely. What beautiful work you do!

Sallie (FullTime-Life) said...

We've downsized a couple of times already, but saved some stuff in storage that our 'kids' gave us in their barn/storage building that Bill helped our son in law build. I wish now that we'd given away more of that stuff in the original move .... I couldn't back then because much of it is, as with you, things the children gave us; small stuff that belonged to our grandmothers; ... that kind of thing... none of which is really valuable except for the memories (which are precious, but I have those with or without the stuff.) We have no place to display most of it and now said children are getting to the age when they may soon want to downsize themselves. I've been trying to spend some time out there sorting and thinking what to do with everything, but I keep getting distracted by the good company. it is so hard.

Morning's Minion said...

I'm remembering the smell of burned sagebrush--always a heavy component of the smoke drift when we lived in Wyoming.
'Stuff'--I culled so much when we left Wyoming for Kentucky in 2010--have given away more as we've moved house here--and still there is too much. It is difficult to part with books--and music--and photos--so many things that may be meaningless to another generation.

sanpiseth40 said...

Stuff, so much of it. Wish I could be like Scarlet.


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