banal doggerel

 Mother's Day gifts readied.

Make new friends, but keep the old;
Those are silver, these are gold.

This bit of folk wisdom has been rattlin' round in the grey matter this week.   It's been a long slog of a winter and my current aim to attempt to match nature's exploding exuberance.  Reconnecting with some long-time friends in the past week has done much to revitalize my slumped mettle.

Perhaps it's because we're in the midst of mother/father's day and graduation season is all around, but sentimentalism is in the air.  In that spirit, I offer laconic homages to these stalwart and steady friends.

During a delightful lunch on a  sunny Seattle Sunday, I realized that G and I have been friends for twenty-six years.  We met when my dad's school hired her for her first teaching job. She's courageous and zest-filled and continually brings buoyancy to my life.  She also was my first piano teacher.  

That sentence alone needs to be engraved somewhere.  While I was immersed in conversation at a recent dinner party; speaking of career paths, etc. I realized what a gift those piano lessons were.  

At 16, I had no inkling of an idea that I would be a professional musician and that my career would take me around the world.  And part of that began with those after-school lessons--pounding out Bach to drown out the janitor's vacuum in that tiny Oregon classroom.  Who knew that path would meander through Carnegie Hall and throughout Europe?  Who knew that I would conduct myriad choirs and teach hundreds of students?   It started with a half-hour piano lesson.

Thank you.

Had tea yesterday morning with another strong woman.  A entered my life as an elementary student and we morphed from mentor/student to friendship to sisterhood.  She brings beauty to everything--from painting her house perfectly to raising three gorgeous children to her incredible zaniness.  She has provided a durable help-line for every crisis in my life.

Thank you.

And the final nod of gratefulness from the weekend goes to my aunt E.  There really isn't a way to express the depth of our friendship.  I've learned so much from her:  baking, sewing, gardening, a deep love of words and music, delight in wit and fashion.  Her wisdom and advice is invaluable.  As is the stability of her address; as I've wandered the world, it is steadying to be able to know that her home is always there.

Thank you.

(the view from her driveway yesterday)

End of mawkish meanderings; please don't be offended if you weren't written about--these were just the three friends  whom I saw in the past few days.

And now it's back to the job hunt...