Imagination and Murmuring

I wanted to share three paragraphs I read this morning in a devotional book called Patriarchs and Prophets, written by Ellen White.  They were words I needed to hear on this fine, sunny day, after feeling discouraged listening to last night's news.  I am really DONE with what's going on out there.  To add to my dis-ease, there are some big question marks about my family's more immediate future (where we will live when our lease is up).  I was certainly imagining things, rather than resting in God's care, moment by moment. These strong words are found in a chapter ("From the Red Sea to Sinai") about the Israelites living in the wilderness with no defined end point:

They had not as yet suffered from hunger; their present wants were supplied, but they feared for the future.  They could not understand how these vast multitudes were to subsist in their travels through the wilderness, and in imagination they saw their children famishing.  The Lord permitted difficulties to surround them, and their supply of food to be cut short, that their hearts might turn to Him who had hitherto been their Deliverer.  If in their want they would call upon Him, He would still grant them manifest tokens of His love and care.[...]

Many look back to the Israelites, and marvel at their unbelief and murmuring, feeling that they themselves would not have been so ungrateful; but when their faith is tested, even by little trials, they manifest no more faith or patience than did ancient Israel.  When brought into strait places, they murmur at the process by which God has chosen to purify them.  Though their present needs are supplied, many are unwilling to trust God for the future, and they are in constant anxiety lest poverty shall come upon them, and their children shall be left to suffer.  Some are always anticipating evil or magnifying the difficulties that really exist, so that their eyes are blinded to the many blessings which demand their gratitude.  The obstacles they encounter, instead of leading them to seek help from God, the only Source of strength, separate them from Him, because they awaken unrest and repining.   

Do we well to be thus unbelieving?  Why should be be ungrateful and distrustful?  Jesus is our friend; all heaven is interested in our welfare; and our anxiety and fear grieve the Holy Spirit of God.  We should not indulge in a solicitude that only frets and wears us, but does not help us to bear trials.  No place should be given to that distrust of God which leads us to make a preparation against future want the chief pursuit of life, as though our happiness consisted in these earthly things.  It is not the will of God that His people should be weighed down with care.  But our Lord does not tell us that there are no dangers in our path.  He does not propose to take His people out of the world of sin and evil, but He points us to a never-failing refuge.  He invites the weary and care-laden, "Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest."  Lay off the yoke of anxiety and worldly care that you have placed on your own neck, and "take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls."  Matthew 11:28, 29.  We may find rest and peace in God, casting all our care upon Him; for He careth for us.  See I Peter 5:7.

I hope these words may inspire you, too!

On the Cusp of Uncharted Territory

I've been thinking back to all the children and teenagers I've started on the violin (or taken on in the very earliest stages of their violin development) in my thirteen years of full-time violin teaching.  I think I've started about forty-five young musicians in the course of my teaching in seven cities.  To be clear, I've lived in five cities, but had two commuter locations - Erie, Pennsylvania for a year when I lived in Cleveland, and Gig Harbor in the last few years here.  Forty-five beginnings is a lot, but in truth I've taught many, many more transfers.  I cataloged all the beginners I could remember yesterday:

Cleveland (before I took my first Suzuki teacher training): 7 beginners in two years
Rochester: 7 beginners in four years
Huntsville: 4 beginners in one year
Birmingham: 6 beginners in one year
Kent/Gig Harbor: 21 beginners in five years

Out of those forty-five beginners, I am only currently teaching twelve of them.  More than half of them have been casualties of my moves.  And of the nine I started here who aren't with me still, two have moved away, two have moved on to a new teacher, and five have quit, either because of family circumstances, or they were ready to move on to new interests in life.

With all those beginners, several stand out for various reasons, but three stand out in particular.  They are the three who finished Suzuki book 1 and had at least one lesson in book 2.

M was the first.  He was an 8-year-old boy from my church whom I started in Cleveland.  I did not yet have any Suzuki teacher training, and I can think of some gaping holes I left in his training.  But he did have some pretty fantastic things going for him.  We got along quite well, and it was he who christened my hard-working metronome "Mr. Beep."  He made it to Hunter's Chorus, the third piece in book 2 before I moved away.

L was the second.  She was just four, and had started with another teacher in Rochester the year before that teacher had retired and moved away (ironically to Tacoma).  She was still in Pre-Twinkle land, which is totally to be expected at that age, and was one of my first "experiments" after I took Pat D'Ercole's book 1 course.  I taught her for four years before I moved away myself.  She played her book 1 graduation in June of that last year, and at our very last lesson together, which was after I'd already cleared out my studio, and was, in fact, the night before we drove away on our moving-to-Alabama adventure, we started on the Chorus from Judas Maccabeus together.  A tiny, tiny toehold into book 2.

U was the third.  She had her first lesson around two and a half years ago when she was starting Kindergarten.  She has checked off all of her book 1 pieces, save that big ol' hairy Gossec Gavotte, and now has dipped two lessons into book 2.  She's learned the notes to the Chorus from Judas Maccabeus, we dived into a new Tonalization study, and we started her very first vibrato exercises.

That's it.  The rest of my extensive book 2 through book 7 and beyond teaching has been transfers.   Taking my own students beyond book 1 is pretty much uncharted territory, and traveling there is where I get to learn what the fruits of my book 1 teaching are.  I will likely find some gaps and also be quite pleased that I built certain things the way I did.

I'm on the cusp of this new era.  I've got three more kids who are in the course of checking off their book 1 pieces, and are studying the Gossec Gavotte.  And I've got three more who are in the G Major section of book 1, and are headed hard toward the end of the book.  I'm going to be getting a lot of new experiences in the near future, and it seems almost unfathomably wonderful!

And to top it all off, I'm taking book 2 again this summer with a teacher I've been dying to take another class with - the amazing Ronda Cole!

Moving On

The end of the school year upon us means the end of a few things.  It's the end of my Bible study for the year, which more significantly means the end of Anne's first year in Fish Class.  I think it was tough for her to say goodbye, and she has been super clingy at home for a couple of weeks.  It also means goodbye to a few of my students - two are headed off to college, and two are moving on to other interests in life.  But the biggest goodbye is to Fox Island.

I knew it would be temporary when I made my first trip out there with ten-month-old Anne.  The family who invited me to teach in their home had two children who were studying with Jared, and they offered us a gorgeous place to teach and help finding students out on the Peninsula.  We took them up on their generous offer.  The first day I sat in their lower level living room looking out the picture windows on the rain pouring down onto the Sound, I knew I would be happy to teach there every Tuesday no matter how terrible the students might be (not that they were).  I've enjoyed walks on the beach during teaching breaks.  I will be sad not to have that this summer when the schedule is lighter and the days longer and drier.

May 30th we are moving operations onto the mainland in Gig Harbor in response to another generous offer from another student family.  The Fox Island family has moved on in their cello studies, and they will be moving on to a smaller home soon to suit their next season in life.  Anne will miss her lovely babysitter.  I hear the new house (which Jared has scoped out for us) is on acreage with forrest, not to mention the family pets - cats, dogs, ducks, geese, and goats, plus a hot tub.  Sounds kind of wonderful.  But I won't have a lovely beach view.  I will likely be teaching in the basement with no windows whatsoever.  So those students had better start practicing hard and sounding awesome.  It's a long drive out there!

View of the Olympics from the house

Looking out over the Sound

Cute, cute, cute little boy in the daisies at the Spit

Looking at Mt. Rainier from the Spit

First time sitting on the beach

Sunset from my teaching room

Sunset over the Olympics

Middle Class Messies and Religious Freedom

We moved into this apartment almost five years ago.  At that time we had been comfortable in our 3/2 condo plus Jared's office in terms of our possessions fitting in nicely and not being junky and overcrowded.  We got here and crammed it all into our new 2/1 apartment minus office, having offloaded very little, other than a queen mattress with box springs, a generous round side table, and our washer and dryer (which are hanging out in my in-laws very generous garage awaiting the time we can use them again).  Then... we added a piano, two children, all of their clothes and toys, two strollers, snow shoes, a trike and scooter, an exersaucer and playpen, two chests of drawers, a toddler bed, and who knows what else.  I clean out a bit from time to time, and I reserved today for a big bedroom overhaul.  I think I'm ejecting around four to five cubic feet of material from our house permanently, and I also have reconfigured my clothing folding technique so that we can actually find some things in the drawers; see Exhibit A and Exhibit B:

But anyway, it does feel quite crowded.  I go through phases where I care and phases where I don't care.  I'd love to move into a bigger space, given the fact that we are not just living in 800 sq. ft. with four people and three cats, but we are also running two businesses in here with clients coming in throughout the day. 

To go along with this, I was watching a little video the other day about an anthropological study of middle class materials in homes, and I have to admit it was super stressful to endure.  And fascinating.  And totally relatable, to my regret.  They talked about women who commented on clutter in their homes had elevated cortisol levels.  Yep.  Anyway, you can watch it, too.

  

So, the state of my closets may or may not be all that interesting, but the BIG thing I've been wanting to write about for several months is religious freedom in the US to go along with our difficult political and social climate.  I've started on it about three times and then erased everything I wrote.  So now I'm going to leave you with three podcasts and an opinion piece which will explain some of my thinking.  Even if you're not into interpretations of Biblical prophecy, hang in past the first minute or two, because the historical stuff is great and stark.  I personally learned new things about Vatican II, Francis Schaeffer, and Hillary Clinton.  The man who is speaking is a religious liberty expert, and registered Republican, but don't expect him to be anything but objective in his look at the history of religious freedom in our country.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

I realize that there is no visual bling for those podcasts, and maybe you'd rather just skip over them, but don't!  They're so worth your time whether you're a religious person or not.

Also, this opinion piece about prayer being part of the resistance movement, or should I say, being the ultimate resistance movement is worth reading, especially in light of the historical material in the podcasts.  I'm not against calling Congress and taking to the streets and donating to causes you support and writing letters, and all that.  I may have done a few of those things lately.  But I think I need to spend even more time in prayer.  

Bopping About Town

It's pictures of the kids.  Mostly Anne is bopping around town.  Lazarus is mostly hanging in the living room.

Recreation at 7 months of a photo of Anne at 7 months

This one was Anne.

A week ago Friday it was a long, sunny evening.  Anne and I went out for a walk/ride around the neighborhood.

Heading out

Walking the walls.  (She loves trotting along the tops of the retaining walls.)

Retrieving some dandilions from a side yard.

Cat toys, baby toys - they're all the same...

For some reason, his face reminds me a lot of my brother when he was little, in this photo.

Another trip to the rhododendron garden...

Giant Solomon's Seal

Last weekend we set up the fairy princess tent in the living room.  The sillies had fun in there!

And... I finally finished my knitting project for Lazarus.  The 9-months size sweater fits him now, and will for a while.  But the baby bonnet is for a baby with a big head and a 'fro, I think.  Anne can wear it, but Lazarus disappeared  beneath it.

New swim suit was worn for three days running even though the weather wasn't amenable.

Checking out the time on her new Hello Kitty timepiece from Jeffrey and Linda

The enormous outdoor checkers/chess set is also useful for teething and for house construction.

Thursday was seriously foggy in the morning.  Then it cleared off and got hot.  It was already 70 at noon when Anne and I went down to the fountain in downtown Kent, donated by the Rotary club.  Later in the day we had a thunderstorm with hail and TORRENTIAL downpours worthy of Texas, the Midwest, or ALABAMA.

And I'll leave you with an extra-blurry selfie of Lazarus and me in the living room mirror in our matching colors....