Change happens

Posted by Edith Cook on Saturday, April 26, 2014 Under: Personal
Life does not stand still. We change and grow old--unknowingly sometimes, but still, it happens. Then we are reminded now and again with a remark from someone like, "You look good for your age," or "You're doing well, considering." Considering what? That my mother did not live much past forty? Neither did my brother Karl, the one of my three younger sibling who was close to me in age and outlook on life. He, too, was taken from my by cancer before he ever reached his forty-fifth birthday. How I miss him!
 This picture was taken by atc visitors to my home for whom I played guitar. Playing music is a way of remembering loved ones without neccessirly talking about the long-ago past. Lately I've been playing the elegaic aria, "Ach ich habe sie verloren," from Ch. W. von Gluck's Orpheus and Euridice. I play the instrumental version, of course, but in the opera, Orpheus laments the loss, forever, of Euridice--right at the moment when he had the chance to retrieve his beloved from Hades. It's his own impatience and lack of faith that caused the loss--but his loss is poignant all the same. The tune is lyrical and melancholy, befitting my current state of mind, which is preoccupied with my cancer-stricken far-away cousin.

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About Me


Edith Cook Though I now live in Wyoming, I make frequent return trips to California with visits to travel club members along the way. At home I play classical guitar, enjoy gardening and cooking, and participate in group yoga. Getting together with family and friends is high on my agenda. I value people who write or make music and love it when my adult children and their offspring play their instruments, sing songs with me, or discuss what they read and write. Such gatherings help me cope with the losses in my life, which have been severe. Next year I hope to visit family in Germany.

 

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