New Year's Eve Muse

I find myself alone this New Year’s Eve. This is the classic social holiday, and in fact it is not unusual for me to find myself alone as the old year rings out and the New Year rings in. Teen age and young adult children commonly want to be with their friends. Generally I either let them go, or I have also been known to offer our home for their New Year’s Eve gatherings. Tonight, I find myself with one child visiting a friend in Alaska, one child visiting a friend in California, and the other 2 at local parties their friends invited them to, with plans to stay overnight. My night therefore, to muse alone, and take in where my life has brought me to this point, and to fantasize about what 2007 might offer. It is a pleasant opportunity for being quiet and alone in the midst of the flurry of comings and goings that accompany this time of year. The household has been particularly busy expanding and contracting this year. A symptom of my nest that is emptying, but still full, some of the time anyhow.

As for my being alone tonight, it is much better to be home than to worry about how to get myself someplace and then safely back home again after the magic midnight hour. Kids do overnights; grown-ups, generally not! So, I remain this evening in the quiet comfort of my home, not needing to think about myself or my kids safety as the party goers tonight make their way home.

Here’s wishing you and yours a Safe, Happy, and Prosperous New Year!! Warm Wishes to All!

Donna

Sounds of the Holiday

My fondest memories of Christmas are of the music. Despite the overdoing of Christmas songs on some radio stations, and in the malls, and in almost every other public place you might find yourself, I still find that when I want to sink myself into the mood of the season, I look for the music. There is a deep resonance within as I quiet myself and allow the music to fill me. Something deeply familiar in the music recalls the innocence of childhood, and it's eager anticipation of what just might be offered. A time in life when the surprises of gifts and the mystery of Santa Claus filled childish fantasies, sometimes bringing wonderful gifts equal to the anticipation, sometimes offering disappointment. At that time in life however, disappointments in general were minor and easily recovered from.

So now as I find myself all grown up, and the Holiday approaching, the childish eagerness is replaced with, "Will I be able to do enough?", “Why do we have to do this every year?”, or “What can I do or offer to somehow bring meaning into this unavoidable event?” That childishness and eager fantasy seems, oh so far away. Yet, I know I can stir a sentimental place inside of me if I pull out of the most commercial and consumer driven venues and into either the quiet of my own home and my music, or find a holiday concert that will offer a public reassurance that the holiday can be more than spending money and driving the economy with unrealistic, unhealthy materialistic desires.

This weekend there were a couple of nice offerings….. the Gay and Lesbian Chorus held it’s holiday concert, as did the Syracuse Vocal Ensemble. Too late to attend those now. However… Next weekend:

The Syracuse Community Chorus, under the direction of Karen Mihalyi, will be offering their annual concert:

“A Call for Peace.”

Saturday the 16^th of December at 7:30 PM
Plymouth Congregational Church, 232 E. Onondaga St., downtown Syracuse.

Also, a very beautiful musical discovery I made a couple of weeks ago, is a CD available from the Syracuse Cultural Worker’s: Lullabies from the Axis of Evil. A deeply moving CD with 15 lullaby selections from the various countries that our President targeted as “The Axis of Evil” shortly after 9-11-01. This will be a hot item on my list of gifts to give this year. A good choice for those on your list who have trouble finding their tears.

Where ever you find it, I hope the season offers an occasion for the joy and remembrance that music stirs inside of you.

Peace of the Season to All.

Donna

Teaching Yoga in December

Wednesday December 6, 5:40PM at Rockefeller Church in Syracuse, corner of Tecumseh and Nottingham Rd.'s

Monday, December 11 and 18, 10:30 AM, call for directions; 315-885-3057

Monday December 11 and 18, 5:40 PM, Bellvue Heights Church on Geddes St. in Syracuse

From Dana Faulds', Go In and In:

The Soul of Yoga

What is the soul of yoga?
Follow your heart into the
center of the pose and find
in the midst of detail and
precision, in breath, alignment
balance, bliss, fear and sadness-
at the very core of all of this
is love. Touch upon your
truest nature even once and
the experience of what you
really are sears the psyche
like the surface of the sun.
The soul of yoga, the gift
within the pose is the
moment of communion,
resting in pure essence,
the awakening as if from
sleep to the face of
unmistakable divinity;
the ineffable wonder and
living reality of spirit- oh
yes - the soul of yoga is love.