Stream of Consciousness Saturday – Page 27

SoCS: The Sound of Music

One of the first movies I can remember seeing in a theater was The Sound of Music. I was probably four or five at the time. The movie had an overture and an intermission. The intermission happened right after the wedding scene and my Dad thought the movie was over. Fortunately, there was music for the intermission and we did stay for the rest of the movie.

We had the cast album – on 33 1/3 rpm vinyl, of course – and could sing all the songs. When I was a senior in high school, our school play was The Sound of Music and I was Sister Sophia, one of the “Big 4” nuns who sings “How Do You Solve a Problem like Maria?” I only had a couple of spoken lines, but we got to wear habits borrowed from a convent, which apparently had kept some of the pre-Vatican II habits around. Because I was Catholic, I also got to coach some of the chorus of nuns on things like how to cross yourself and genuflect. It was also interesting because we used the original Broadway script and score, so some of the songs were new to me. For instance, “Something Good” was written for the movie; I actually prefer “An Ordinary Couple” which was the Broadway song for that scene.

The sound of music is also pertinent to my own life. I have been singing since I was young. I am in my 34th season singing with the Binghamton University Chorus, which I joined after singing my way through elementary, high school, and college. I can’t imagine giving it up.

I also played piano from the time I was seven, then studied organ so that I could play at my tiny Catholic parish. I subbed for three years and then took over as organist when our prior organist went to college. My last three years of high school were spent playing organ every weekend at church, along with holidays and often a couple of weeknight masses.

I played organ and sang throughout college and worked in the church music field before my children were born, continuing on a volunteer basis as they got older. Unfortunately, an orthopedic problem intervened so I no longer play on a regular basis, but I do still sing.

It is odd, though, that I don’t like to have music playing in the background. I find it too distracting. If there is the sound of music, I want to be either making it or listening attentively.
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Join us for Linda’s Stream of Consciousness Saturdays! The prompt this week was…ummm…complicated and involves using a movie title. You can read about it here: http://lindaghill.com/2016/01/08/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-jan-916/

This is also part of Linda’s Just Jot It January! http://lindaghill.com/2016/01/09/just-jot-it-january-9th-title-socs/

To find the rules for Just Jot It January, click here and join in today.

SoCS: hitting the pause button

It’s been a busy couple of months. Ummmm…maybe more than a couple. OK – 2015 was a busy year.

This weekend, I just want to hit the pause button and rest. Not worry about planning anything. Being anywhere.

Just be.

Soon enough, it will be Monday morning. My husband’s 6 AM conference call with his colleagues in India will be back on. A lot of other obligations will be back on the calendar. I know. I spent a good chunk of yesterday copying dates onto a 2016 calendar. I’m still old-fashioned enough to keep a paper calendar rather than an electronic one. Well, two paper calendars. One on the dining room side table near the phone. Yes, landline. Still have one of those, too. The other a pocket calendar in my purse.

All those obligations waiting for my attention, starting Monday, January 4th.

But this weekend, a pause to catch a few more moments of unstructured time with B and T. Maybe a nap. Or a fire in the fireplace. Some hot cocoa with the last of the Christmas cookies.

Who knows?

Just being.
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Linda’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday this week is: “pause/paws.” Join us! Find out how here: http://lindaghill.com/2016/01/01/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-jan-216/

http://lindaghill.com/2016/01/02/just-jot-it-january-2nd-pausepaws-socs/

SoCS: socks

Both of my daughters love socks!

They have lots of colors and designs – all manner of animals, flowers, stripes, weaves, sparkles. Every color possible. Over the knees, knee-high, ankle – even socks with toes knitted in, like gloves for the feet.

Our older daughter’s sock acquisition is on hold for now. Living in Honolulu means much less time wearing socks.

Our younger daughter, though, received a number of fun socks yesterday. Some were appropriately in her Christmas stocking and others wrapped under the tree. The most fun pair was a pair of knee-highs with a large nutcracker on each.

I wonder what socks she will choose to wear today for the second day of Christmas, as we prepare for the arrival of aunts, uncles, and cousins later today.

I’m sure they will be fun to match our continued festive-and-fun celebrations!
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Linda’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday this week is “socks.” Join us! Find out how here: http://lindaghill.com/2015/12/25/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-dec-2615/

SoCS: Reunion!

There is an exciting event in store! Well, next year.

We got news yesterday that we Boiler House Poets have a date for a reunion residency at Mass MoCA (the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art).

We met at the inaugural collaboration between the Museum’s new Studios at Mass MoCA program and Tupelo Press, both located in North Adams, MA. You can read my incessant posts about it, which start on Nov. 13.

Our group bonded so well that we wanted to get back together – and now we know we will!

There will be more writing, more art, more workshopping, more food, more conversations, and lots and lots more poems in store! And, I hope, another video. Our first video is here and explains our name.
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This short and sweet post is part of Linda’s Stream of Consciousness Saturdays. This week’s prompt is “store.” Join us! Find out how here: http://lindaghill.com/2015/12/18/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-dec-1915/

SoCS: clocks

I like clocks that have faces and numbers and hands, also known as analogue clocks. They are elegant in their simplicity and, for me, a much faster way to tell the time.

If I look at a digital clock, and it reads 12:38, my brain has to process, okay, so it’s halfway between twelve thirty and quarter of one. If I see the same time on a clock face, I can see the proportions of the circle and ascertain the information much more quickly.

In most cases, I don’t need to know the exact minute.

I know that people in medical training are having to adjust to not having watches with second hands. It used to be that someone taking your pulse would just glance at the second hand on their wristwatch to count the pulses in a given time and then multiply. Now, many people don’t wear watches and do time on their cell phones. Presumably they have an app that counts down seconds for them so that they can calculate a patient’s pulse.

But it’s more complicated than in the days of the handy-dandy analogue wristwatch.

I love my solar-cell powered watch and hope to wear it for a long time. So much more elegant than my old flip-phone…
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Linda’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday this week is “-clo-” Come join us! Find out how here: http://lindaghill.com/2015/12/11/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-dec-1215/.

SoCS: concerts

I’m going to miss my daughter’s concert tomorrow. She is singing with the Hendrick’s Chapel Choir at Syracuse University, although she attends SUNY-ESF. They are allowed to take classes and participate in activities on either campus. When she was home for Thanksgiving, she showed me what they would be singing. I’m sure it will be a lovely concert, but it’s too difficult to attend an evening event in Syracuse, drive home for an hour and a half, and then be up early the next morning. B has a 6 AM conference call most weekdays and it seems especially early when daylight hours are so short as they are in our latitude in December.

It seems to be a weekend for missing concerts. I sang this afternoon with the University Chorus and Orchestra at the Anderson Center at SUNY-Binghamton. We sang Orff’s Carmina Burana and it went really well! Unfortunately, no one in my family was able to come hear it.

I hope next semester there will be less missing of concerts…
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Linda’s prompt for this week’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday is”miss.” Come join us! Find out how here: http://lindaghill.com/2015/12/04/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-dec-515/

SoCS: too much stuff

I have too much stuff to do.

There is a lot to do between now and the end of the year with lots of family visiting and holiday preparations and decorating and baking and card writing.

There is my University Chorus concert next weekend, so we have extra rehearsals scheduled this week with the orchestra.

I have three poetry meetings in the next two weeks, two with Sappho’s Circle and one with Bunn Hill Poets.

There are also the usual chores and appointments and shopping and meal prep and what-not.

Meanwhile, what I really want to be concentrating on is solidifying the experiences from the poetry conference last week.

Theoretically, I could do everything at once, but too much of it involves an amount of brain power that I can only muster a few hours a day. I need to trust that my brain can keep working on poetry while I am accomplishing other things, that I can continue to glean lessons from the conference somewhere in the back of my mind that I will be able to bring to the top of my mind later when I have settled the holiday stuff and can return to some semblance of normal life.

Wish me luck…
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The prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday this week is “stuff”. Come join us ! Find out how here: http://lindaghill.com/2015/11/27/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-nov-2815/

SoCS: Paris

The only word that comes to mind as indescribable this morning is Paris.
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Linda’s prompt for Stream for Consciousness Saturday this week is “Indescribable.” Join us! Find out how here: http://lindaghill.com/2015/11/13/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-nov-1415/

SoCS: welcome the stranger

In my faith tradition, we are called to welcome the stranger and extend hospitality. Welcoming the stranger is also part of the civic tradition in the United States, exemplified in the Emma Lazarus poem on the base of the Statue of Liberty in the New York Harbor, although I must admit that we as a country often fail to live up to our highest ideals.

I was heartened to hear, however, that a meeting called to see if there were people interested in aiding the re-settlement of Syrian refugees in our area was so crowded with local folks wanting to help that they had to expand the meeting room to accommodate them all.

Our Greater Binghamton (New York) community has a long history of welcoming refugees and is an official re-settlement area. Over decades, there have been refugees here from diverse countries, such as Laos, Ukraine, and Iraq. It would be an honor for some of the Syrian refugees who have suffered so much to find a new home here with us as well.

I get a bit choked up thinking about new refugees arriving because one of the main organizations that will help them is the American Civic Association, which suffered a mass shooting as few years ago. Despite that, they continue to do great work, welcoming the stranger, helping them to learn English, teaching them about the United States, and helping them create a new home here.

I truly appreciate their work and their example of what “welcoming the stranger” really means.
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Linda’s prompt for this week’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: strange/stranger/strangest. Join us! Find out how here: http://lindaghill.com/2015/10/30/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-oct-3115/

SoCS: grass-fed beef

I try to find grass-fed beef for our home. Cows evolved to eat grass and their digestion works best when they do. When you hear about cattle being major emitters of methane, it is often because they are being fed things like corn that they don’t digest well. The methane when it is in the atmosphere is a potent greenhouse gas and exacerbates global warming, so it is good for the environment for cows to eat grass.

There used to be a slogan about a dairy selling milk “from contented cows.” The cows probably got to eat grass! Science also has shown that cows are especially happy if they get to eat flax.

Grass-fed beef is also healthier for people to eat. It is lower in fat and the fat that it does have is higher in omega 3 fats rather than omega 6 fats. Corn-fed beef is high in omega 6 fats with little omega 3s.

I wish that farmers in the US would change their practices to go back to the older practice of cows eating grass. It would be better for the climate, the cows, and the people.
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Linda’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday this week is “beef.” Join us! Find out how here: http://lindaghill.com/2015/10/23/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-oct-2315/

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