A Little Musical Experiment

II made a widget! Thank you to Steve Griggs for teaching me about technology and enjoy the song I am sharing! This is a band that I discovered in a e-letter from a local concert hall. "Beach House?" I thought to myself. "I like literal beach houses. So colorful! So full of sand! I'll check it out." What I found is a beautiful record--Teen Dream. This is the last track from the album, and it leaves a good feeling behind... much like a weekend in an actual beach house. Fancy that. And enjoy! Then be sure to check out Steve's website, "Here's What I Hear," for some intelligent musical conversation.

Blackbirds Singing

Today, dear readers, I have a rare offering. Instead of contributing my words, I am contributing photographs. I have made no secret that I miss the beauty of the Carolinas. The large trees, green grass, distinct seasons, and abundant flowers and animals made moving back to Texas a tough transition for a woman who so craves aesthetic beauty. However, with time I have seen that Texas offers beautiful gifts of its own. In this case, it was my grocery store's parking lot. Birds, thousands of them, took flight and made swirling patterns across the cloudy sky one late afternoon last week, and I was fortunate enough to be carrying a camera. Enjoy! And enjoy the poem, writer unknown, that I have attached.

Blackbirds

I am 52 years old, and have spent

truly the better part

of my life out-of-doors

but yesterday I heard a new sound above my head

a rustling, ruffling quietness in the spring air

and when I turned my face upward

I saw a flock of blackbirds

rounding a curve I didn’t know was there

and the sound was simply all those wings,

all those feathers against air, against gravity

and such a beautiful winning:

the whole flock taking a long, wide turn

as if one body and one mind.

How do they do that?

If we lived only in human society

what a puny existence that would be

but instead we live and move and have our being

here, in this curving and soaring world

that is not our own

so that when mercy and tenderness triumph in our lives

and when, even more rarely, we unite and move together

toward a common good,

we can think to ourselves:

ah yes, this is how it’s meant to be.