A Harp Is Always a Good Thing

My Daughter Sarah said an amazingly profound thing today. Although it’s been said in many ways before, she has put the magic of music into a new light for me. She has been a busy musician this summer with playing a Pop Gig one night, understudy for the lead in an Opera another night, playing Harp in a wedding, bussing tables, doing day-care, and then culminating in her last Gig here for the Summer at Chamberlain’s Old Forest Inn in Curtis today.

On the way home from Chamberlains she said to me “Daddy I have been struggling with writing my Essay for my College Applications for weeks.” She said she couldn’t come up with anything concrete. However, she woke up at 2 A.M. last night and it finally came to her. She said she had been struggling with working and practicing music all summer and had very little free time to even go for a swim. She said her fingers were sore from playing the Harp for hours and hours. Nonetheless, she said it was all really worth it because when she played at our local coffeehouse, the Anchor Inn in Naubinway last night, she realized she made a connection with her audience that was “unexplainable” She said that right there she realized she had connected with people in a very special way. There were people who had tears in their eyes as they experienced the joy of the sound of a Harp, an instrument that’s not in every corner music store or one you get to hear live very often. In fact, hearing a live Harp is even a rare thing in Manhatten, New York or Paris, France. But, to hear it on the edge of the “Grid”, in the little Upper Peninsula Town of Naubinway, Michigan, with the cedar trees and the water’s edge all about you, is even more “magnanimous”.

When Sarah played at the Wedding, then the Anchor, then Chamberlains, people said it’s as if the clocks stopped, time stood still, there was nothing else but the music and the feelings of relief that it brought. People said the problems they were thinking about just disappeared, that they were connected for a moment, to something beautiful, and soft, and loving, and ethereal, you know, beyond this little world. I think that Sarah has experienced the love, touch, and voice of God in this music. That is why it was so touching, I think that of all the instruments and voices ever created, that the sound of the Harp is the closest you will hear on Earth to the sound of God’s own music.

As profoundly proud I am of Sarah and her accomplishments, I am most assured and pleased that she has felt the power of connecting to others thru a loving voice. I am well-pleased that she has realized that there is a connection, a communication, a relationship going on here that transcends the physical boundaries of our lives and bodies. She has heard the voice, the Voice. It woke her up at 2 AM and gave her the answer she sought. I certainly hope you too hear such lovely music today, are transcended, and brought to that lovely moment that takes you outside this World. Thank you Sarah, I thank you for becoming the lovely Woman you are, but even more so, we should both be thankful for that Eternal Voice.

Pictures will be forthcoming.

Howdy My Friend---although I am doubtful that anybody would still be in ear shot of this BLOG---as I am so far off the GRID---and haven't posted anything since March, 2010. However, if you are "lucky" enough to get this post---let me know!!! This is the season of the year I LIVE for---not that I live for seasons---but figuratively, this is where my joy about seasons begins. First, it will soon be getting cooler outside and I don't like it much over 62 degrees. That means the Salmon start coming in close to my house. In fact, despite the warm weather, they are responding to their Natal Call and are now being caught within 5 miles of my house anyway out at "the can" at Five Mile Reef.

Secondly, despite the warm weather the leaves are starting to change to a panorama of colors that help me recall memories of cutting wood with my Dad, starting fires in the fireplace, and fishing, fishing, fishing for Salmon and Steelhead Trout. Then, not too long after, the leaves recede and the rain turns to the beautiful snow. I can't tell you how much I love snow---I like to watch it come down from the sky and slowly take control of the Earth. I like to roll in it, play in it, ski in it and enjoy the solitude it brings by chasing the non-winter people away. I am always taken aback by the folks that say they "gotta get outta hear before the snow falls." They have to get to Florida or Arizona and into the traffic and the heat before "it's too late". As they look at me and talk to me they assume I feel the same way. I scratch my head because soon I will go out and cross country ski, snow-shoe, drive a dog team thru the Wilderness, fire up a snowmobile, enjoy the solitude of a frozen lake as I watch the Wolves run accross it---make a bonfire on the snow piled frozen beach and generally just enjoy this incredible land without all the crowds.

Well, to thier credit they don't know I did the tropical thing for many years and enjoyed the warm, humid weather and lifestyle of Florida---cleaning green mold from my leather shoes, killing scorpions in my shower, and spraying for german and palimino roaches at least once a month---trying to find five square foot of beach to myself at the Ocean---and on and on. I like such things for a week in February, but that's about it!

I have found it's a lot easier to get warm than it is to get cool in my life. And perhaps I've arrived in that the Prisoners I care for now refer to me as "Dr. Cooler who is better than Dr. Cool". You can have Florida and Arizona---just compare and contrast such places to my day tomorrow when I am trolling over crystalline waters in front of my house catching salmon---and the nearest boat is 30 miles away. I have the "Ocean" to myself for relative pennies on the dollar. I have it made. Wish you were here to enjoy it with me. God Bless, Jeff.