Feest Isolation Days – 4 May
Hello everyone! It’s me again. I think Terry, the husband, editor, techy did a great job yesterday. Writing once every twenty five days seems to be enough for him though. Bit like me and gardening, once a year I manage to do some pots. When I say “do” I mean I plop the plants in the already prepared (by the editor) soil in the pots. Good partnerships work well when each person plays to their strengths and then we teach each other all sorts of useful things. Before I met Terry I could just about tell a dandelion from a daffodil. I’m so pleased one of his favourite pleasures is the garden. I don’t know what I’d do without it – especially now. (or him for that matter…!) You’ll have to ask him what I have taught him over our nearly thirty-five years together.
What a hectic and busy weekend we have had! Hard to imagine I know but it was. Friday starts with Zoom Yoga then Saturday was filled with two hours of singing along with over one hundred others. If anyone is interested in singing from wherever you are in the world, you too can join. Let me know and I will share the link with you. We sang Jerusalem, I Was Glad When they Said Unto Me, and the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel’s Messiah. It’s surprising how you can imagine being in the same place as all these other people singing away even though what you hear is not their singing, but a pre recorded rendition. The rousing choice of music meant the soprano part of each of these songs soared through my study window and into the garden! (sorry neighbours)
Saturday evening we watched a Hampstead Theatre production of “Ai Wei Wei’s Arrest”. Another couple we share our love of theatre with watched at the same time and then we had a Zoom dinner party afterward and discussed the play. Inevitably there was also a long discussion about the coronavirus. We can’t really get away from it can we? It wasn’t quite the same as having them sitting at the table with us, but better than nothing. The wine flowed, the conversation filled the dining room and the food was excellent, too, and three hours passed.
After all the activity of Saturday, Sunday seemed especially quiet. In a nice-time-to reflect-and-consider-the-week sort of way. In fact, the world IS quieter than it has been for many a year. There are few trains, not many roaring jet engines, and traffic has markedly declined. Scientists are already beginning to analyze our unprecedented global quieting. Seismologists are looking at the collected data of our hushed planet. The heightened stillness during lockdown is even enabling them to detect faint or distant earthquakes that they believe they previously could have missed. The quiet might also be helpful in order to study the natural murmurs of our planet, the sounds of gushing rivers, the thrum of the planets other activities.
In all this quiet, can we blossom and thrive? Yes, and especially if we take the opportunity to reflect, recharge, and notice what comes to the surface. Our busy busy noisy lives have been dialled down and embracing the stillness can be special.
Silence sits between the notes of the greatest music ever written. We don’t always notice because multiple tracks of vocals, percussion, string and horns block it out. But the silence is there. Without it, our music would just be noise. Change where the silent moments occur and the music changes.
Silence is also a feature of most of the greatest speeches in the world. The dramatic pause……..has been mastered by the best orators of our time. Our earth is currently experiencing one of the greatest dramatic pauses of our lifetime. Enjoy the music AND the silence, what lovely gifts! Coronavirus has changed so much, and some of the changes aren’t so bad. Peace. And quiet.
Charlie Chaplain in the Lions Cage…
STOP PRESS!!!
AMAZING Theatre! We watched Frankenstein last night with Benedict Cumberbatch. The performance is spectacular. You have this week until Wednesday to watch it for free on You Tube. It’s a National Theatre production. Join over a million and a half people and watch an actor transform in front of your eyes. We will watch once more on Thursday when Cumberbatch takes on the role of the creator and Jonny Lee Miller plays Frankenstein. This is theatre at its most impressive. To be experienced.
Love,
Kathy