Category Archives: mystical experiences

Happy Anniversary.

classical music, family history, gratitude, healing, memorials, mystical experiences, nostalgia, psychology, sociology, , , , ,

August 14.

It’s always somebody’s birthday.

And, I think I often forget that.

Today was also the wedding anniversary of R.A. and Paul. Paul was a really fun traveling companion, full of energy and optimistic anticipation. Loved birds, and trails, and fishing and hunting. Took this body all the way up Mt Washington, on foot, in spite of itself. Always eager to face a new day.

Poor thing got stuck married to the wrong woman. Yeah. It happens. People do things, especially when they crack 35 years old. He played the oboe like a pro, with no college degree in music; but, that still never meant that he should be with me.

So, this would have been our 25th anniversary. Maybe there would have been a couple kids. Hopefully, not unhappy, neurotic kids, but there might have been one or two. And, maybe we would have finally gone to Montreal, today, like we should have on our honeymoon. But, life has moved along and Montreal, last I checked, was still intact.

People say single women should just travel alone. There’s a whole world still waiting to be experienced from that singular point of view. And, according to a couple I know who have already been around the globe, there’s a cruise line they take that always has at least one of us on board. To the pure, all things are pure; not my place to question why.

Sigh. Maybe it’s time to plan a sea faring wardrobe. Today could be a really sad day. But, given the number of people who think I have it made, might be time to prove that to them. Or, to myself.

Happy Anniversary. Happy Birthday. Happy Day.

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© Ruth Ann Scanzillo  8/14/16   All rights those of the [single, female] author, whose story it is, and whose name appears above this line. Thank you for your deference.

littlebarefeetblog.com

Carter Brey’s Cadenza.

classical music, images, mystical experiences, , , , , ,

CarterBrey's Cadenza.

On March 17, 1987, New York Philharmonic principal ‘cellist Carter Brey performed as touring soloist with the Erie Philharmonic. At that time, I was a hired member of the EPO cello section. Rococo Variations and another work on tap, his selected candenza was one written by famed ‘Slava Rostropovich, who had been his principal teacher.

After its rehearsal, I approached him in the wings with what could only be termed the vacant, simple-minded slog of a bedazzled twenty-something, who had squandered all hope of scholarly insight by daydreaming during Cutler Silliman’s music history class.

“So…! What did you think of the cadenza?”, he tried, looking at me keenly, with expectation.

My response was incoherent.

(Twenty-seven years hence, that loop would replay in my head like the Voice of Chucky.) Hell bent on redeeming myself, I’d scuttled home and gotten to work. The result: this little morsel, which he would receive from me in snail mail. A copy, of course; I’d kept the original, just in case I’d wake up, say, twenty seven years later and realize it had all been a………..yeah. Time to learn the tune.

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© 1987 lettered collage by Ruth Ann Scanzillo, presented to Carter Brey that same year.

Originally published at littlebarefeetblog.com, with accompanying caption,  © November 20, 2014; Re-Posted on March 17, 2016

All rights strictly reserved, on the artwork and the blurb. Thanks. — Ruth Ann Scanzillo

littlebarefeetblog.com