Photos of decorations from my recital

I gave a recital of two great Mozart works at my home last Sunday, May 4th. Several good friends and colleagues joined me to play the Clarinet Trio and the Clarinet Quintet, both masterworks.

I decided to decorate my home with flowers, some cut from neighbors bushes and some from the store. Below are the photos. I love the way the scene with the white lilacs holds together with all the curly patterns in the Chinese art and the sculptures on the wall and on the table. The smaller bouquet of purple flowers is Wisteria cut from my own yard. The scent of lilacs and wisteria filled the house.

The sunflowers were on sale at the grocery store, and I think they look FAB in the cobalt vase on the mantle, like something out of a Georgia Okeefe painting.
White Lilacs, Wisteria with Art
Sunflowers in Cobalt Vase

Unbearable Lightness

Some of you may have noticed that I altered my blog header photo. I added the words “Unbearable Lightness” in script across the middle of the mystical looking woodland scene. (That photo is from Hocking Hills, Ohio, an area 40 miles south of flat Columbus. The region is hilly, unusual for Ohio. Th natural limestone hollows in the area, resembling caves, have been a tourist attraction since the mid 1800’s. Those beautiful natural formations exudes a magical feel. American Indians used many of the caves as meeting places for their enhanced acoustics.)

I read Milan Kundera’s book Unbearable Lightness of Being in the 1980’s. I’ve always loved the title and the book itself was a revelation for me. It’s message, that life’s mysterious existence and our even more inexplicable awareness of it, reminded me of Buddhist awareness of the power of the present moment. Yet Kundera embellishes the emotionality of being in the present, how excruciatingly poignant life can be both in its sadness and joy.

It all passes, the joy and the pain, as do we ourselves. How better to describe that terrifying and beautiful feeling, the emotional openness of being in the present moment no matter how desperately we my wish to get away from it, than with the phrase “unbearable lightness”? The irony of the phrase delivers the appropriate impact of such a powerful sense of aliveness.

So my blog is now un-officialy titled “Unbearable Lightness“.