The holiday season is approaching and we all
– have a chance to freak out in the pre-Christmas rush or
– to make the conscious choice to savor the yearly chaos and imperfections.

Imagine a time where your home is beautifully decorated with candles, sparkling lights and festive red ribbons, pillows and mistletoes. On the table there are nuts, fresh oranges and some fir branches, fruity and fragrant.

You planned some stuff, some things are working out, others (lots of!) just aren’t.
Still, you feel content, you lean back and take a long and calm look at things.

You probably notice something interesting.
It’s not about outer things. It’s not about what’s apparent.
It’s about kindness and the ability to say yes to life.

 

Here are some ideas how we bring some inner glow to all the sparkle, the presents, opulent meals, lucky (and sometimes clumsy) moments in the splendid gatherings with friends and family:

Full attention
Listen with your heart. This does not work when your mobile lies on the table. Electronic devices do not belong to any kind of face to face social interaction or party. Leave this stuff in the drawer. No technology, that’s important! It divides your attention.

Approval
Notice all the good things people tell you and confirm how much they are doing right. Life is difficult. We all give our best. Praise all the constructive ideas and personal accomplishments. It makes a difference!

Admiration
Say what you love. Nice dress, you look great! What a beautiful cake – how much effort it took you to make it for us! I like what you just said – you are so strong-willed!
– We are used to thinking these things but we are not used to say them out loud.

Greatfulness
Nothing is granted. We are all borrowing.
The cosy home, the furniture – we are lending what is given to us. The amazing people in our life – we are invited to enjoy their company, nothing more. Even our body ist just a loan. Some day we will have to give it back.

Have a wonderful December,
with so much love,
Anselma

p.s. Need some Christmas Tunes? For TWO and for THREE players, in beautiful arrangements. You are welcome! Thanks for choosing to play out of original sheet music books like ours, not from xerox-copies that destroy the publishing world and the livelihood of composers.

Problems are part of life. We don’t like them. We avoid them. We run from them.
We want a life without them.
But still, they are there. And as soon as we solve one, a new one is on the horizon.

Music is such a magnificent playground to learn about life for every hindrance you can think of sooner or later will march into your practicing room. You will be tired, frustrated, exhausted, impatient, angry on the composer / conductor / yourself / god (pick one or all of them!), disctracted, lost and hopeless. Old friends on your path as a musician. Stop giggling!?

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Living means being with people.
A beautiful social setting equals life quality.

We tend to forget that.
We think, it’s about things. Or goods. Or to-do lists.
No. It’s about people.

Pondering this I understand that we do have to found our life in some very simple, but universal basics.

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Today I have a little story for you. A true story.
Once there was a woman named Anselma, who was a very regular person, wife and friend.
She loved music.
And she loved people.

She did not like that in our society there was strife, disagreement and a destructive competition. She experienced that all of these were non-existent when people came together to make beautiful art, to play music together.
All the differences in personal attitudes seemed to be of no interest when humans gave their best to create audible harmony on the highest level.

So she dedicated her life to exactly this wondrous thing: music. On the highest level that was possible for her.

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We are always practicing something. All the time for we are beings of habits.
Habits are the most crucial forming element for our character.
We can speak all day long about this, that and the other.
But nothing speaks louder than what we do – especially what we do when no one is watching.

Stats Inc. did a study about reliability of baseball players. It turned out, when the game comes into the critical phase and the pressure is rising, the players drop 13% in their overall batting average.

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What about being born on Monday, the 1st of Shakespeare?
Or having your wedding day on Saturday, 20th of Aristotle?

Beautiful dates, a bit exotic to our ears. But not for the ones of the french Auguste Comte who in 1849 invented the so called “positivist calendar”.

 

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Once upon a time a little reed was growing at a riverside.
It looked into the world around and thought to itself: How do I want to live?

It saw some beautiful blue butterflies and it thought, I want to nourish these beautiful butterflies! I will go and make very lush blossoms in the spring!

It saw the stunning oaks and high poplar trees and admired their vitality and longevity and it thought, I want to strengthen myself inside, to be like them! When something good happens to me, I appreciate myself and all the helpers who made it happen.

And it did just that.
It tried to be strong and make lush blooms to nourish others.
It praised itself and all the wonderous helpers when something beautiful occured. When a butterfly came along it tried to look gorgeous in order to be seen and to be able to provide good food for it.

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The idea of a soccer game for all beings with legs came up in the jungle. So orchids were not allowed! But animals of all sizes and insects were invited to form two large teams and bring their best players. They would be sorted by size.
The first team was the big animals team: tigers, gorillas and elephants.
The second team was formed by the small brigade: chinchillas, frogs and insects.

The game began and everybody gave their best. After the first half the score was 10:0 for the big animals. When suddenly a strange phenomenon occurred.
The lion started laughing and jumped down on the grass. Followed by a chuckling gorilla and then a snickering elephant.
They all laughed so hard that they could not get a hold on the ball any more.

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Robert J. Burdette stated, that in every week there are two days we should not worry about. Two days off our plate, two days less burden.
It’s not weekend.

The first day is Yesterday.
This is a day where stuff happened, where we used wrong words, where we did something less than perfect. Yesterday is the day, where we can think over and over what we should have done so much better! But still, it stays the same.
Yesterday is over.
Gone for ever, never to return. No amount of money will ever bring it back.

 

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Happiness seems to be like a wild animal. We look for it in the jungle of life, the journey is quite an adventure, we come to see strange and unexpected places.
But as soon as we try to catch it, it likely escapes.

Happiness is a common denominator in our lives. We all like it’s presence, it gives us meaning and strength. Still, happiness looks different to everyone, it is subjective.

 

 

 

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