Bel Canto – Just a Moment?

Bel Canto by Ann Patchett was Book Club’s choice this month. It’s the story of people gathered to celebrate the birthday of a foreign business man who the President of this unnamed country thinks he can buy by bringing in the man’s favorite opera star to sing “Happy Birthday” and arias of the man’s choosing. The president himself doesn’t come to the party, but terrorists do, and we end up spending four months with the hostages and their captors.
It’s the third time I’ve read Bel Canto as its popular with discussion groups, but the first when opera was playing in the background, and the music caused the conversation within me to take an unexpected turn. No longer did Bel Canto, the beautiful song of the title refer just to the main character whose voice and presence commands the attention of all. I thought for a while that Bel Canto meant the long moment of captivity wherein days drifts into months, boundaries become fluid and the house becomes a haven for the people it contains. Then, one woman said “Not one of them will be the same,” and I was brought back to the grief of my brother’s sudden death twenty years ago. In that months’ long moment, every sound I heard was felt in my core, colors were so vivid they breathed and all that I did was backdrop to my loss - until one day it reversed and my grief became the background song for my life. Bel Canto, the beautiful song reminds us that given nothing but time, we will hear the song deep within that is the core of our humanness, our souls, and we need not wait until we are hostage to a moment to listen. Do read it...with accompaniment.

Sunday, Satisfying Sunday

Four thirty AM, alarm, shower, walk the dog, drive to work. 7 AM sitting with 20 plus colleagues I like a lot, but see far too little of, being briefed on how we will cheer on the 6 thousand plus runners in Disney’s Princess Half-Marathon. The marathon, a fund raiser for the Make –A-Wish Foundation is a trinity of goodness; kids win, runners are happy and Disney is even more than the place Uncle Walt imagined it to be.
The participants in this race are mostly women and, as they past me in groups of 2, three and four, I am reminded of the women who have paced me throughout my 60 years, and cheered “Hand in hand, that’s the way” to mothers and daughters of several generations as they entered Epcot for the last mile. The first competitor to pass me was a 40+ woman in a wheel chair, pushing, pushing up the hill and my eyes filled with tears of envy for her commitment and passion. Three hours later, as the last woman, red faced with chin held high, walked slowly through the gate, I gave up the last of my voice, my hands became numb from clapping, and the envy was gone, replaced with a quiet sense of self that I didn’t realize I had until I returned home and finished my sleep.
When I shouted “Keep it up, you’re motivating me” over and over to several thousand people, I must have internalized what I was seeing, for I began and finished a project this afternoon that I didn’t know was possible even to do, and surprised myself with a new sense of focus, enthusiasm and stick-with-it-to-the-end for the sheer joy of accomplishment.
Thank you, Princesses for your dedication to yourselves. Please know that while I don’t expect you’ll ever actually see me running beside you, the energy I put into my life’s course is now a part of you, as yours is a part of me.
Shalom.

What's Up for Lent?

Dear friends,

I'm doing something new for Lent this year. Instead of giving up Some Thing for six weeks, I'm doing something intentional, a week at a time (give or take a few days and in moderation which is acceptable to the rules makers when one is over 60.) The first week I fasted from the internet and learned that I gorge on information. The second week I found that living without TV (except Remington Steele re-runs after work twice) gives me energy and a better night's sleep. Starting at sundown tonight I'm going to post on a blog - either here or in a writers group -each day and see where the Spirit leads me.

What are all you all doing?

Peace and good____________,

Beth