time – The BeZine

Video posted to YouTube by WashingtonPost .

What is this life if, full of care,

We have not time to stand and stare. –

No time to stand beneath the boughs,

And stare as long as sheep and cows:

No time to see, when woods we pass,

Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass:

No time to see in broad daylight,

Streams full of stars, like skies at night:

No time to turn at Beauty’s glance

And watch her feet, how they can dance:

No time to wait till her mouth can

Enrich that smile her eyes began?

A poor life this if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare.

Leisure by W.H.Davies (1871 – 1940), Welsh poet and writer

In 2007 the Washington Post posed the question: “Can one of the nation’s great musicians cut through the fog of a Washington, D.C. rush hour? Thus it came to pass that – masquerading as a street musician – the world renown violin virtuoso, chamber musician, and orchestra leader, Joshua Bell, played his Gibson ex Huberman (1713, Antonio Stradivari) using a bow made in the eighteenth century by Francois Tourte for the pleasure of DC Metro commuters. He treated them to the sweet strains Chaconne (Bach‘s Partita No.2), AveMaria (Schubert), Estrellita (Ponce), and closed with a Bach gavotte.

Bell concerts are packed to capacity and tickets can run to three figures. During the forty-three minutes he played in the D.C. metro, 1,097 people passed him by and he collected $32.17. Twenty of those dollars were donated by the only commuter to recognize him. Only four-or-five people actually stopped to listen.

The Washington Post’s Gene Weingarten has written the complete sad story of folks too busy and/or unconscious to take note (pun intended) HERE.

Joshua Bell, (b.1960)

Violinist, Classical Musician

If you happen to have time for some music, check out Bell playing Chaconne. Go ahead! I dare you … Make your day …

Video posted to YouTube by mlfilms.

Photo credit ~ Violinist Joshua Bell following a performance at the San Francisco Symphony in California U.S. courtesy of Alexduff under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license via Wikipedia.

BLOSSOMING

Danielle Mari

Awoke with this thought brought to me via dreaming memory. The central image comes from a moment at a wedding I attended years ago, a wonderful celebration of the union of two people incredibly special to me then and even more special to me now. The man who married these two souls (called Erik and Karen, for those of you keeping score at home), used this metaphor to illustrate the idea of patience. That image remained with me, resurfacing again and again over the years, gaining depth of meaning for me. Here, with apologies to anyone involved on that day, I have made it my own. Hope you enjoy.

Much as you want to

you mustn’t.

Wrest the petals,

force them open,

and you’ll bruise

fragile silken pistils.

Much as you cannot

you must.

Wait very patiently,

allow water to

wander up the stem,

fatten the bud.

Much as you can

you shall

abide an agenda

set by the sun

whose warm whispers

coax her unfurling.

Danielle is an active participant in a poetry community to which I belong. When I read this poem, I was completely charmed and certainly its message is relevant to all of us “in the bardo” … and who among us is not? With Danielle’s permission her poem is posted here. For more of Danielle Mari’s fine poetry, visit her at her poetry blog, Mission Improvisational. J.D.

Photo credit – Brunhilde Reinig , Public Domain Pictures.net.