A Breath of Fresh Air

Last night we had a wonderful treat: the Hilary Hahn violin concert. Dallin received the tickets from me for Christmas as a belated Christmas/early birthday gift (that I can share with him!) The concert was held in the Macky Auditorium on the University of Colorado-Boulder campus. I don't pretend to be a music critic, but I thought I might try to describe the evening.
Hilary Hahn is my age and it seems her parents decided while she was still in the womb she would be a professional musician. Her musical training history is quite staggering. She started studying violin a month before her fourth birthday in the Suzuki program of the Peabody Conservatory. At ten she entered the Curtis Institute of Music. While there she studied with many legendary violin greats. She made her international debut at 14. In 1996 she made her Carnegie Hall debut. She is a two-time Grammy Award-winning soloist with eleven solo albums in twelve years of recording. She tours the world over, performing with some of the best orchestras, etc, etc.
The concert was more like a senior recital: Hilary with piano accompaniment and nothing more. Her pianist, Ukrainian-born Valentina Lisitsa, was equally stunning. They toured the world performing together in 2007, so they were amazingly attuned to one another.
Hilary started with Variations on a Theme by Corelli, which was absolutely flawless. She has intense control and there is no margin of error. Every note was pure and sweet and strong, even when the dynamic was piano. Above all, her style has perfect technical brilliance. She commands every note. Dallin kept saying over and over during the concert that was it like a breath of fresh air.
My other two favorite pieces from the evening were the Violin Sonata No.5 in F major, Opus 24, "Spring" by Beethoven and the Partita No. 1 in B Minor by Bach. The partita was performed as a violin solo, no piano accompaniment. In other words, every note, every dynamic, every nuance, every bow movement was the entire show. Again, she basically represents violin perfection in my opinion. It was simply flawless and gorgeous and clear and sweet and and so powerful.
As if such a performer and such a performance weren't enough, she favored us with THREE encores. It was just lovely. Lovely, lovely.

The Power of Righteous Influence

At our stake Relief Society woman's conference this past weekend the theme was the righteous influence of women. I have been thinking on that all this week and certainly have positive personal experience with the good influence of women. Case in point, three examples of women I have come to know recently:

An adorable young mother of three, thirty-something, in my ward competed two weekends ago in Houston in the national running championships for the half-marathon. She finished third in the nation. In other words, her average mile (x 13) was 5:30; she finished all 13 miles in an hour and 12 minutes. The first-place finisher is a two-time Olympic medalist. My friend has qualified herself for the 2012 London Olympic games in long-distance running (marathon and/or half-marathon)! Yet, she is an amazingly unassuming, humble person. When I expressed my shock and excitement, she seemed to sort of shrug it off. "Running is what I do," she said simply. "But none of it would be possible without God's help." Think what kind of powerful influence for good she will have (and is having) on her coach, her teammates, her fellow runners, her sponsors, her country!

Another friend was born and raised in China and grew up Buddhist with near governmental approbations for atheism. As a young married woman living in Singapore, she felt the desire to seek higher education and picked, of all places, Brigham Young University. Soon after, she found the gospel and after a lengthy investigation, joined the church. She told me she felt, from her very first Sunday meeting, a kind of all-encompassing peace that she had never known before. She said she felt at once secure and settled and somehow more hopeful for the future than she ever had before. Think what a blessing she can now be for her family and friends as she has opportunity to share her testimony. Think of the ripples she could create for good. Think of the power in her righteous influence.

Finally, just this last Sunday a woman was invited to share her thoughts on a certain Christ-like attribute she was trying to gain. For her, a young mother of two, patience with her three-year old son was the single-most important thing on her mind. She shared how she had made it a goal and a matter of prayer and fasting for over a year. Her greatest desire was to have the patience in mothering to respond with compassion instead of anger. I found her simple example very inspiring. That is righteous influence.

I have known women on school boards, city councils, and as attorneys in high places. I have known women who initiated child advocacy reform in their local and state government. I have known women who started charitable organizations for leper communities in India. I have known women as presidents of organizations and principals of high schools. I have also known women who perhaps never ventured beyond their own neighborhoods, but had righteous influence at their own kitchen tables and in their own living rooms. Whatever the realm of responsibility, how ever large the sphere of influence, there is power in living righteously.

Righteous womanhood is everywhere in the world. I am greatly encouraged by the goodness in all women, and have blessed by many, many good women of all walks of life. It is especially encouraging for me to think of the influence of "the covenant [women] of the Lord, who [are] scattered upon all the face of the earth;...armed with righteousness and with the power of God in great glory."

My life has been richly blessed by the power of righteous influence, beginning with my own mom.

Thoughts after a Winter Walk

• I appreciate texture in the winter landscape so much more because the usual visual interest is blanketed in snow. The coarseness of cottonwood bark or the silhouette of a maple or a cluster of cattails is so much more striking in conjunction with a uniform white background.
• The forest may seem dormant, but the crisscrossing tracks of animal prints give proof that it is certainly not dead.
• I love coming across a Mugo pine or other dense evergreen shrub filled with dozens of tiny snowbirds making a cacophony of simultaneous noise. It makes me smile to think what they could be discussing in such earnest.
• Birdwatching, in general, is so much more rewarding in the winter with all the naked trees. I spotted two northern flickers and two woodpeckers of some kind, as well as sparrows, finches, and towhees.
  
• The look of snow laying on evergreen trees is so romantic. The powdered sugar icing look on a Colorado blue spruce or Scotch pine is just lovely.
  
• Snow makes for great creative doings, like making snow angels and snow forts. In the nearby park someone had created a miniature snowman family: daddy, mommy, and baby on a picnic table.
  
• As long as it is not windy, I love the freshness of winter air. I also love all the reflected light from the snow.
  

It's Relative

Earlier this week it was -17, the kind of cold that freezes nose hairs. Today it was 40 and felt balmy. I drove with the windows down and the fresh air was most welcome.

I had a few hours less of nausea today than yesterday, and after a three-week sick-tummy-roller-coaster, those few hours made me feel like a million bucks.

The temple reopened this week after a two-week maintenance close. I was missing my temple time after just two weeks. My friends in Atlanta have been without a temple since July 2009. But, in a little over three months they will have the spiritual high of a temple open house and temple dedication by the Prophet.

Without realizing it, I dropped my cell phone getting out of the car this morning in Denver and it fell face down in a puddle of slushy snow for 5+ hours. When I came back to the car I miraculously discovered it under the front driver side tire. The speaker sound is a little fuzzy, but it works and it isn't an crushed pile of plastic in a parking lot 50 miles from home.

Every Saturday morning in January I attended stake choir rehearsals. The 75-member choir and 10-member orchestra are performing tomorrow for our Relief Society women's conference. I have been privileged to mingle with some of the very best musicians in the stake for weeks. Most are music majors who have sung in choirs or played in orchestras, professional and otherwise, for years. I attend as a mediocre, off-key singer, who struggles to breathe in the right place, and hit high-ish notes. I also attend hoping to learn a few things about how to run a good choir rehearsal. I should feel envious or embarrassed or less-than-up-to-snuff. Mostly though, I am amazed that I can claim association with such a phenomenal group.

Sew Busy

When baby comes our guest room/creative universe will become the nursery. The room is currently inundated with my craft projects, some major, some minor, of all varieties. In anticipation of packing all that up, I have felt some extra initiative to finish something. Amazing what a deadline can do for you! With some return of my strength and energy and in the last two days, I put time and energy into my living room pillow project. And, it is complete!The project was to take the original four pillows from the couch and make them...well, a little less bachelor pad (Dallin approved). All four pillows now have a checker front, two have solid red backs, two have floral print backs. The adorable little rectangular one was a Christmas present from my mom. I have started this couch throw with matching fabric, as well. The front face is done; it still needs the batting and backing and a final sewing of all layers together. Yea for progress! One project down, just *** to go. (Eek!)