mood music

he's been playing and composing music for about six years or so, starting with piano, dabbling with the viola the year he went to public school, mostly with the keyboard since then, and he's recently added mixing digital music.

frustrated by the limitations of the free software available online, artemis asked for ableton line and a class to learn how to use it. a local mix music studio opened up this summer in town (how convenient!) and he attended an intensive week-long summer camp. he emerged with his own mix cd including original compositions in addition to mixes of others' music.

i consider myself lucky when he emerges from his room and offers to let me hear his newest work. and sometimes he's willing to let me share his work, like this newest release on soundcloud:

https://soundcloud.com/oxydized/pyromaniac-re

i can jam to it. i think he's good. yes, i love a lot of his artistic endeavors, but i'm also a musician and know when there's something i can connect with.

homeschool conference

among other reasons, this is why we go:

talent show:

project show:

art show:

it's a time and place to share and learn and see and do within a space that celebrates with us.

at the closing of the year

winter solstice is not at the very end of the calendar year, but it is a closing of sorts, a conclusion of the year-long journey towards the longest, darkest night.

we held our second annual winter solstice fireside celebration with friends old and new. there were s'mores and hot dogs and the burning of various things, a song taught and led by none other than ander, my child blessed with beautiful pitch and sense of rhythm and flow, some readings of solstice poetry and a prayer of sorts, connections between people established or renewed. laughing and hugging and appreciation and gratitude and cold and warmth and dark and light..

An abbreviated excerpt of "A Celebration of Winter Solstice" from The Circle of Life by Joyce Rupp and Macrina Wiederkehr.

"There is a tendency to want to hurry from autumn to spring, to avoid the long dark days that winter brings. Many people do not like constant days bereft of light and months filled with colder temperatures. They struggle with the bleakness of land and the emptiness of trees. Their eyes and hearts seek color. Their spirits tire of tasting the endless gray skies. There is great rejoicing in the thought that light and warmth will soon be filling more and more of each new day.

"But winter darkness has a positive side to it. As we gather to celebrate the first turn from winter to spring, we are invited to recognize and honor the beauty in the often unwanted season of winter. Let us invite our hearts to be glad for the courage winter proclaims. Let us be grateful for the wisdom winter brings in teaching us about the need for withdrawal as an essential part of renewal. Let us also encourage our spirits as Earth prepares to come forth from this time of withdrawal into a season filled with light.

"The winter solstice celebrates the return of hope to our land as our planet experiences the first slow turn toward greater daylight. Soon we will welcome the return of the sun and the coming of springtime. As we do so, let us remember and embrace the positive, enriching aspects of winter's darkness. Pause now to sit in silence in the darkness of this space. Let this space be a safe enclosure of creative gestation for you."

The Shortest Day by Susan Cooper

So the shortest day came, and the year died,
And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world
Came people singing, dancing,
To drive the dark away.
They lighted candles in the winter trees;
They hung their homes with evergreen;
They burned beseeching fires all night long
To keep the year alive,
And when the new year's sunshine blazed awake
They shouted, reveling.
Through all the frosty ages you can hear them
Echoing behind us - Listen!!
All the long echoes sing the same delight,
This shortest day,
As promise wakens in the sleeping land:
They carol, fest, give thanks,
And dearly love their friends,
And hope for peace.
And so do we, here, now,
This year and every year.
Welcome Yule!!

The sun is born again today
We greet the sun’s first morning ray,
We sing and celebrate the light,
The sun’s born in the longest night! 
(Diane Baker)