The Circle of our Lives

photo courtesy of kazuya-akimoto.com

It would be easy to re-enter blogging with a post about my daughter, Laura, who is a senior in high school this year. Even another with my daughter, Katy, and her new fiance, Jeff. Don't get me wrong, these will be coming, however today I'm remembering our family's first exposure to children's choral music in Florida. This experience in January, 2001 was through the eyes of my daughter, Emma.

She was just beginning 5th grade when her music teacher, Ms. Henderson, suggested she audition for the Florida Elementary All-State Choir. After much hard work, she experienced something that truly changed the course of her life, because it was while working with Dr. David Brunner she decided she wanted to become a music teacher. She is well on her path to accomplishing that goal, and little did she know at the age of 10 how much more hard work was ahead of her to realize her dream!


I am directing the new children's choir at my church, Harvest UMC. We are singing a song, "Alshlosha D'Varim", in October that Emma had also done at this first All-State concert. Last evening I pulled the cd, and as the entire playlist progressed, I was reminded of the song Dr. Brunner had written entitled "The Circle of our Lives", based on the poem by Wendell Berry, "Closing The Circle". While listening to these young voices, knowing my now-junior-in-college-then-10-year-old daughter was among them, I was brought to tears with the lyrics: "The circles turn, each giving into each, into all." .

Enjoy it in it's entirety-

Closing The Circle
by Wendell Berry

Within the circle of our lives
we dance the circle of the years,
the circles of the seasons
within the circles of the years,
the cycles of the moon
within the circles of the season,
the circles of our reasons
within the cycles of the moon.

Again, again we come and go,
changed, changing. Hands
join, unjoin in love and fear,
grief and joy. The circles turn,
each giving into each, into all.
Only music keeps us here,
each by all the others held.
In the hold of hands and eyes
we turn in pairs, that joining
joining each to all again.

And then we turn aside, alone,
out of the sunlight gone
into the darker circles of return.

Dr. David Brunner directing one of many youth choirs

"Within the circle of our lives we dance the circle of the years"

Here's to The Dance!

Update: Despite repeated attempts to enclose an audio to this sweet performance, it's not happening! If anyone can explain how to do it, I'd love to share an audio of the song!!

Toy Lessons

One of my favorite bloggers is Donald Miller. He has been discussing the different lessons within the new movie Toy Story 3. Our family went to watch it, and if you have the time, read the 3 posts Donald left with his slant of this great movie-

Every now and then I'll leave a reply, and this morning I wanted to share my thoughts about what I saw within the movie:

"I agree with you that there are many stories/lessons within this movie. The character that intrigued me the most while watching with my husband and college age daughters was Buzz. Buzz is the only toy with a demo capacity, and this is not the first of the Toy Story movies we've seen it in.

When everything is said and done, Buzz stays true to who he has become, his real self, not the manufacturer-i'm-like-all-the-other-buzzes mode. Andy and the other toys, the people in his life who love him, have given him a sense of who he is. They have influenced him, challenged, loved even through failure, and they like him! While it's funny to watch him reprogrammed, he doesn't stay that way. His confidence is most evident as he realizes how loved he is by his owner.

I may attempt to redefine who I am for various reasons, but then it seems the people who know and love me the best just want me to be myself. Trying to act like everyone else isn't going to ultimately make anyone happy. I'm glad our Manufacturer didn't program us, but He takes joy in our individuality.

i don't need no stinkin' nfns....

so, i am VERY inspired in this moment just experienced. discovery.

as you know, i love the summer sunday night the next food network star series. so tonight, week 4, i'm investigating who my pull-for person is, and it is most definitely aarti.

checked out her blog, and i thought, this is how to begin...do my own you tube food videos! for christmas this past year i created a handwritten cookbook for katy, filled with family recipes. now i want to do the online demos...especially for when emma needs to cook something.

so aarti paarti is now my inspiration. til i get mine up and going, take a look at her episode 4 on popcorn!

btw - name suggestions would be nice (hint, hint)!!

Creative Outlet

I had a wakeful night thinking...

...family relationships
...wisdom needed
...important testing time for all three girls
...hurdles, not "drama", such as impending childbirth, drug addiction and cancer battles, chronic pain (let's keep our eye on the ball with the really important issues, family!)

I tend to process here with you. But yet it wasn't happening in my brain. I needed a different creative outlet.

Thankfully, God had already given one to The Man About The House and me. He came home Thursday with these two items:


We've been talking about these projects for about 6 weeks, and finally found the right items at the perfectly bartered price from Sarasota Architectural Salvage.

Bookshelf (solid cherry, circa 1910-20) his project.



Window with rotating seasonal pictures for me to sink my teeth into. It will hang as artwork over the buffet in our dining room (thanks to incredible photographers in the Hart Family!).


Just what I need for a better night's sleep!

Update: After a few hours, couple coats of black paint on the already covered pine or cypress surrounding the poured glass....