It’s been a big month! This is a quick feature, just to keep you posted about what’s been happening. Stay tuned, however, as we’ll have more soon. Be sure to check out the calendar for upcoming events!
Heading into a new decade
I’ve begun work on an album of my original sacred music for choir, piano, and organ. I’m hoping to have the album completed later this summer.
This project will give me an opportunity to work with colleagues and friends in various Southern California faith communities and educational institutions.
I’ll share updates as they unfold…
Compositions
Zanaida’s brand new work, “She Walks in Pools”, was commissioned for the CCDA SSAA All-State Honor Choir and addresses the timely subject of depression and anxiety. The piece will be premiered on Saturday, February 22 in Fresno, CA during the California All-State Music Education Conference.
The Best Christmas Tree
Christmas trees at the mall or in other public spaces are often massive. I’m not gonna Google it, but I’m certain they come out of a warehouse, pre-decorated with giant, tastefully color-schemed ornaments distributed all over them with factory precision. These trees look depressing. Does anybody care about them? Is anybody’s heart in them? I admit, I’m ignorant of the stories that might live in these mall trees. But what can be symbolized by these massive plastic mall trees that look decent from afar, but are oh so hollow and lifeless up close?
Then, there’s my Christmas tree at home. Every year on the day after Thanksgiving, we put up the tree and decorate our house for Advent, Christmas, and (more recently) Kwanzaa. I wouldn’t say that it’s always “fun”. It takes hours and involves a lot of annoying things like moving furniture, hauling boxes out of the dirty garage, fixing lights that don’t work, replacing melted candles, vacuuming and dusting, trying to get my not-so-young daughters to get off their asses and help! But it is VITAL that this ritual takes place. The result is a Christmas tree that, to me, looks great both from afar AND up close.
It truly takes hope, peace, love, and joy to decorate for the holidays! By painstakingly decorating, we literally infuse our tree and our home with all of the hope, peace, joy and love that we desperately need during the holiday season. We have put our hearts and souls into this ritual for as long as I can remember: it’s part of our heritage. The tree, the nativity scene, the Christmas village (which didn’t get assembled this year), the Advent wreath, the kinara, the outdoor decor, and almost every single ornament has a story. Even the management of these objects becomes part of the process, as things sometimes get broken or lose their meaning. Getting rid of these things is hard, but necessary. It takes care and discernment to figure out what to keep, what to discard, and what to replace from year to year.
Like the mall trees, I wonder what aspects of our world and of our lives might be symbolized by our own ritual around the Christmas tree and other decor in our homes. This annual practice brings together so many aspects of what make our family and our lives unique. We need this ritual in our homes because it is our culture, even our legacy, embodying all of the things that make this season special.
Thanks and hopes
May this Thanksgiving be filled with folks we enjoy having in our lives and food we enjoy having in our mouths.
As we gather, may we be slow to speak and quick to listen.
May our lives be a blessing to those in need.
May we never take our family and friends for granted.
May we be thankful for our many blessings, even in the midst of mind-blowing changes and devastating losses.
May we remember those who are missing from our tables.
May we practice making space, holding space, giving space.
May we be good to ourselves and to each other.
And may we remember to carry our good will with us throughout this holiday season.
Singers are athletes (and gamers)!
I live with a family of gamers. Therefore, I too am a gamer. Video games don’t come naturally to me, but I can get by and have fun. I also like watching my family members play video games from time to time because I love to see the excitement and joy it brings them. I play and watch video games with my family to show them that I appreciate the value and meaning in the games they play. But recently, my husband got me into a game I love to play myself.
I love Doom!
I mean, I love playing the XBox oneX version of the 2016 reboot of Doom. The first time I ripped off a demon’s arm from it’s socket and used it to pulverize that same demon’s skull into a million bloody pieces, thereby increasing my health meter, I was hooked! The music is epic and the graphics are incredible. Here are all the lessons I’m learning from Doom that are applicable to my life as a parent, musician, and teacher:
- Chores and projects are like demons coming to reduce your health meter.
- Slaying demons increases your health meter.
- Sometimes you don’t have enough energy in your health meter to slay the big demons.
- Sometimes you have to slay a few lesser demons to build up your health meter so you can take on the bigger demons with full health.
- When the demons are upon you, keep moving! Never stop moving!
- You can’t jump to a higher ledge if you’re not looking up!
- When the pace slows down and the demons are at bay, take time to reorient yourself and enjoy the beauty of the martian surface around you.
- Take time to search for hidden pathways and find secret treasures like keys and weapons upgrades that can help you slay demons more efficiently.
- As you advance, the demons get, bigger, uglier, and harder to slay.
- Sometimes you just want to shoot some random inanimate objects. It doesn’t advance your mission, but it’s entertaining and enables you to practice your aim.
- As the demons get harder to slay, your weapons become more potent and your health meter lasts longer.
- When the game ends and the credits roll, you won’t remember all times you died. You’ll think back on the good ol’ times you had slaying all those demons with your mad skills and cool weapons.
Many thanks to my husband for enabling my discovery of the art of video games. It’s amazing how well concepts and skills used in video games can translate to our everyday life and work. I’m glad my kids get to play so much – they’re learning a lot!
