From: owner-good-noise-digest@smoe.org (good-noise-digest) To: good-noise-digest@smoe.org Subject: good-noise-digest V3 #136 Reply-To: good-noise@smoe.org Sender: owner-good-noise-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-good-noise-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk good-noise-digest Sunday, December 31 2000 Volume 03 : Number 136 Today's Subjects: ----------------- community [ThePsyche@aol.com] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 30 Dec 2000 16:24:26 EST From: ThePsyche@aol.com Subject: community It has been a while since I posted or since I have been able to post here. My computer crashed totally. In the weeks leading up to the holidays, right in the middle of that expectation called Christmas spirit, things here started to fall apart and we faced some personal challenges. It all started the first of December when the inside of our Toyota 4Runner was destroyed (by our meek and mild mannered dog and it is still a mystery why) including chewing off pieces of the dashboard....NOTE: this happened exactly one week after we sent our final payment in on the truck..... Next the garbage disposal died...backed up with brown muck in the sink, to be followed one week later by the untimely death of our dishwasher. What next in this 50+ year old house? The heater in our dining room had died and space heaters were not able to keep the room warm with the deep cold freeze we are in now, so we had to close that room off totally. When I attempted to take the leaf out of the dining table to make it small enough to fit in the living room, it stuck, I yanked too hard and pulled the table in two, toppling it over and literally breaking the wood and destroying the solid oak table we have had for over 20 years. (guess I don't know my own strength) A week later, working to a deadline, my printer died. I relied on my brother's printer to finish my work and drove back and forth between his house, Kinko's and my house for the next few days to get the job done. Feeling sorry for me yet? Let me tell you, I was feeling plenty sorry for myself. I guess that was about the last straw. I found myself short tempered and feeling there was sooooo much to do and deal with....my spirit was nonexistent. I didn't event turn to my music as I usually do when stuff starts getting to me. Then, the worst happened...worst being relative thing. My computer crashed. Since that is how I make my living, editing newsletters along with other desktop publishing duties, it was a major defeat. Finances are tight, so many other pressing $$ obligations and now this. I was not much fun to be around. The weekend before Christmas and I was hanging by a thread with worry and doubt and stress. Then the mail showed up on Saturday, the last mail delivery before the holiday. In it was a surprise package, a Christmas present for me from a lurking Wilcox/Gorka list friend. I opened it to find a wonderful letter about friendship and community and the spirit of the season. Also in the package was some music. This lurking pal had taken favorite music and put together a compilation CD for me that he called Potpourri of Friendship. I waited until the evening to sit alone by the fire, headphones on and get lost in the music. I believe in divine intervention. That gift arrived in the nick of time. When all the material stresses of my life and the expectations of the holiday season were weighing so heavy on me, the gift of music was there to remind me what was truly important in my life. The words of John Hiatt, John Gorka, Cry-Cry-Cry, Eva Cassidy, Jackson Brown, Pierce Pettis, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Cheryl Wheeler, Mark Cohn, the piano of George Winston and much much more. I sat in my darkened living room and looking at the map of the world was brightened with thoughts of all of you. December 29. I sit here at home on my husband's laptop (I like the sound of that!) to write this to all of you and wish you (a bit belatedly) a blessed and contented holiday season filled with family and friends and that spirit of community that comes when people share more of themselves than they do of their money. That is what is important about this list. You add a dimension to my life that many people do not understand. This year I had the opportunity to meet many friends from the list here in my own home for house concerts and for Tortilla soup and corn bread. I hope the new year finds more of you here sharing the community of good music and friendship. For Wilcox listers: A summer underneath is something I look forward to. For Good Noise listers: A new CD is something on our horizon!! So thanks to Andy for the CD package that arrived so unexpectedly and was filled with music to change a baa humbug mood to one of Kumbayah Baby! I guess that is what friends are for? Last night, I started to compose this in my head. I was taking dishes off the card table that is now our dining table and watched the sink fill with dishes. As I stood in my kitchen, snow coming down (yet again) and David Wilcox playing, I found some serenity and simple pleasure in washing the dishes. You were all with me in spirit. If only you had been here to dry them! Thanks for the community of music we have created and the list we continue to breath life into with each passing year. Namaste to one and all. Paula Bryn, music junkie ------------------------------ End of good-noise-digest V3 #136 ********************************