Running, Walking and In Between

After waking up, breakfast, quiet time and general puttering around in the kitchen, I was finally ready to go for a run. I had gotten some brand new running shoes the day before, and I was dying to try them out. My old sneakers were retired from running, as they had seen better days.

Now, I'm not a 'runner' if you think of a runner as someone who does marathons as a hobby, but if you think of a runner as a person who attempts to move both feet in a forward motion while clomping them up and down, then I'm a runner through and through. I'm persuaded that to runners, I looked funny, to non-runners I looked funny and to those in-betweeners at my level I certainly didn't look inspirational. In fact, I felt rather like a shire horse trying to do dressage. :-) Thankfully I had no observers save the few drivers that drove by me on my otherwise private route.

The sun was warm, the breeze was welcome and the surface of the road was just the right texture; firm enough to not be muddy, and soft enough for a bit of cushioning. A rapidly disappearing layer of snow still lay under the trees on either side of the road. I felt like my feet were pounding, thumping and thudding the ground; all of the things that they shouldn't have been doing! Oh well. I was enjoying the fact that I was able to be where I was with the strength and health that God gave me, along with all the added blessings of a sunny, warm day and a safe road to run on.

I had brought my mp3 player with me with a playlist of inspirational instrumental/vocal songs to keep me going. I decided that on the way down I would not use it, but that I would rather enjoy nature.
On the way back, however, I turned it on and began my run back. I decided that some of the most inspirational music to run to is the soundtrack from 'The Man from Snowy River'. I'm not a fan of the movie, but the soundtracks are great. Andrew Peterson's 'Pillar of Fire' is one that it's hard not to run to! Especially since I was "homeward bound". I began walking once I had reached my goal of running over 3 miles. Andrew Peterson's "Just as I Am" began playing as I neared the entrance of my road. I'm so glad that "He loves me, He does." Just as I got back to our house, "Rocky Top" started to play. I had to smile. There "ain't no smoggy smoke" near my house, and it just may always be "home sweet home to me".

---

I feel so privileged and blessed! Just last night I was reading Ephesians 5:1-21. I've been learning lately just how important it is to heed the exhortation given in verses 15 and 16:

Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil.

In Ephesians chapter 5 we have three different verses that talk about walking.

• Verse 2 says to "walk in love".
• Verse 8 says to "walk as children of light".
• Verse 15 says "be careful how you walk".

Then  in Hebrews 12:1-2 the author compares living out the new life Christ gives (2 Corinthians 5:17, Romans 6:4) to running a race.

Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 

Here it says "let us run with endurance the race that is set before us". The race that it talks about in that verse is our lives. At the finish line is a reward in heaven from God (2 Timothy 4:7-8). Are you 'entered' into the race? Jesus said "I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved...". John 10:9. The only way to be right with God is to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Savior from your sins: That we stood guilty before God, that Jesus died to take the punishment we deserved for our sins, and that He lives again.

I know I don't fully comprehend or follow the commands of all of these verses. It is my prayer that I will learn to walk more and more the way God wants me to every day. But I do know this: Whether I'm walking or running, I have a reminder from the Bible to

• Walk in love
• Walk as a child of light
• Be careful how I walk
• Run with endurance

I'm thankful to the Lord who gives me the ability to enjoy His creation by walking and running in it, but I'm even more grateful for the fact that I'm His child. It is my strong desire that I would

...Walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. Colossians 1:10

(photo credits: Microsoft images)

A Great Piece by Bach!

Recently I started learning how to play the Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 (or part of it, anyway!) on the violin. It's a piece by Johann Sebastian Bach, and I really like it. Not just because it's by Bach, but that is a good reason to like it. :-)

Before you watch the video, here's a quote from Bach that I appreciate.

The aim and final end of all music should be none other than the glory of God and the refreshment of the soul.

I agree that all music should give glory to God, and a lot of it is certainly refreshing to listen to and enjoyable to play.
Here's a video of the bit of the Brandenburg Concerto that I'm starting to learn. This video is well worth watching, not only to hear the music, but also to see how every instrument, musician and part comes together to form this beautiful and lively piece. The musicians are also fun to watch; they look like they thoroughly enjoyed playing this piece together. :-) I hope you enjoy this video as much as I did!

Hymn Chords

Here are some nice resources for hymn chords that I use often.

• CCF Chordbook - This website has chords for many of the classic hymns.
• The Gospel Music Archive - This site has a large database of songs which include gospel songs, contemporary songs and classic hymns.
• Christian Gospel Songs - This website has chords for many hymns, gospel songs and worship songs. 
• Praise and Worship Chords - This website has chords for a few worship and praise songs.

 The nice thing about having so many different websites with hymn chords is that you get a variety of keys. For example, with the three links I have up above you have Amazing Grace in the keys of G, D and F, respectively!

Also, as a bit of a side note, I recently added "reactions" to my blog posts. If you like one of my posts but you don't want to leave a comment, please feel free to click on one or more of the little check boxes if you thought one of my posts was neat, useful, interesting and/or thought-provoking. If you'd like more options... you can leave me a comment. ;-)

One of my favorite Pandora radio stations

I like to listen to instrumental music while I do my schoolwork. One of my music sources is Pandora radio. I wrote a blog post a while back about Pandora.
One of the things you do on Pandora after you've made a free account is create 'stations' with your favorite musicians (if they're in the database). Pandora then adds songs with similar qualities to your station. As you 'thumb up' or 'thumb down' various songs, you can streamline your station somewhat so that it mostly only plays songs that you like, or songs that are very similar to the ones you like already.

One of my favorite stations is called 'Greg Maroney Radio'. Greg Maroney is a pianist, so it's not surprising that most of the music you hear on the Greg Maroney station is piano music. I've customized the station to my liking so much that it's become 'my' station. In other words, Pandora has saved all of the songs that I've 'thumbed up', or in the language of Facebook, 'liked'. It mostly plays songs with similar qualities to those that I've 'liked'.

Pandora allows you to 'share' your station with other Pandora users. So if you want to listen to some nice (in my opinion!) piano music, then here's the link to 'my' station. 
http://www.pandora.com/?sc=sh138141511343262553

Most of the piano music that you'll hear could be classified as 'new age' music. New age is a very broad term, but in this case it simply means contemporary piano music. 'New age' piano music generally has a very soothing, rolling, pretty sound. Some of the music that you'll hear is more folk style, with hymns or other tunes that you may recognize. However, most of them are original compositions by the individual artists.

The artists that I've added to the station other than Greg Maroney, are:

Anne Trenning

Bernward Koch

Brian Crain

Dana Cunningham (Holiday)

David Carnes

David Nevue

Emile Pandolfi

Fernando Ortega

Franz Liszt

George Winston

George Winston (Holiday)

Greg Maroney

Gunnar Madsen

Jennifer Haines

Jim Brickman

Jon Schmidt

Karen Marie Garrett

Kevin Kern

Lorie Line

Michele McLaughlin

Paul Cardall

Peter Kater

Philip Wesley

Tim Janis

Also, you get 40 free hours of listening time on Pandora. And there's more than just piano music on there, too! :-)

Concert, kitties and construction

Concert: I had the opportunity to play in another concert! This event was mainly organized by my violin teacher (Susan Ramsey). It went very well! I'm glad my Dad got most of it on video! :-)You can actually watch a short clip from the dress rehearsal here. The video takes a while to load. You can actually see me for about 1 1/2 seconds! :-) You can also read a little about the concert here
http://www.svweekly.com/joom1511/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1885:-foxcroft-academy-string-program-concert&catid=33:campus&Itemid=215
and here
http://dailyme.com/story/2010032000001922/bangor-daily-news-maine-joni-averill.html

Kitties: Today the kitties had a a big adventure. Well, maybe it was really a small one, but for them it was a big one. It actually started Saturday.
Ollie had the bright idea of climbing up one of the pine trees near the house. Perhaps he was chasing birds. But anyway, he climbed a little too high for his own comfort and got "stuck" about 20 to 24 feet high in the tree. We left him for a little while to see if he would come down by himself (he could have if he tried; there were lots of branched to latch onto). However, he kept on meowing and meowing and sounding quite pitiful, so we decided to attempt a rescue. Mind, this was about 30 minutes before I had to leave for the concert dress rehearsal. Dad got out our tallest ladder and I climbed up to retrieve our miserable cat. Well, he was up too high for me to reach, even from the top of the ladder, and I didn't feel comfortable climbing up the branches to grab him. So, down I went and up Dad went. Much maneuvering and a piece of cooked chicken afterwards, Dad and Ollie both made it to the ground.
I also made it to the dress rehearsal on time. :-)

                                             Eppie on the ground, perhaps contemplating how
                                                        much smarter she is than her brother :-)

Me in the tree  

 

  Ollie in our apartment in one of his favorite places and poses

                                                                    Eppie again
              
Some good friends of ours from CT have been here for the last couple of weeks helping us with construction on our house. Today a plumber came to help with, yes, you guessed it, plumbing. They needed to access some pipes from the outside of the house. They were up on the roof, so, out came our tallest ladder again. Both of the kitties were outside and they decided to explore the ladder. Mom found this out later when she found Eppie clinging to the screen one on of the skylights. She managed to get her inside through the skylight. Now Ollie had gone all the way to the tippy-top of the roof. Here's a photo of the spot where they climbed up (there wasn't any snow on the roof when they climbed up today, though!).

Sooo,I climbed up the ladder and rescued Ollie. I wonder if he'll ever learn his lesson? Or maybe he just has Spring fever. :-)

Autoharp hymn chords: Immanuel's Land

Lately I've been playing the autoharp some. I mostly play hymns on it, and I've decided to write down chords for some of them. There isn't much autoharp music out there, so I decided that, to make things easier, I'd make some up. :-)

Most of the hymns that I've written down chords for aren't "chorded" in the same keys as they are in the hymnbook that I use most of the time (Hymns of Truth and Praise, or "the red book"). That was just to make it slightly easier to play, plus I'm more familiar with keys like G, C and F. 

Here's one of my favorite hymns, which is actually really written in F! :-) 

Immanuel's Land / The Sands of Time are Sinking

By Anne Ross Cousin 

Music by Chré­ti­en d’Ur­han; ar­ranged by Ed­ward F. Rim­bault

    F                  C          Dm

1. The sands of time are sinking,

        Bb         F   Bb  C

The dawn of heaven breaks;

C     F            Bb          F        C

The summer morn I’ve sighed for

C     F              C/C7  F

The fair, sweet morn awakes:

Bb/F7 Bb                C    F

Dark, dark had been the midnight

Bb                     C F

But dayspring is at hand,

F Bb F       Bb F        Bb    

And glory, glory dwelleth

F        C F

In Immanuel’s land.

Orchestra concert!

http://centertheatre.org/

I suppose that poster is slightly misleading, since not ALL of those performing in the orchestra concert will be talented students of the Foxcroft Academy. Don't get me wrong; I'm sure all of them are students and that all are talented, but not all are students of the Foxcroft Academy.

One of them is a student of the Green Gambrels Academy.

Please pray that I would be practiced up enough for the rehearsal on the 14th, and, of course, for the concert on the 16th.

I don't know if this is considered giving out secrets or not, but here's a sneak preview of the four songs I'll be playing in during the concert. The arrangements we'll be playing are simplified versions, so what you'll hear isn't exactly what you'd here at the concert, but here's the gist of the pieces:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlLPLO90fSk - The part we'll actually be playing is from about 1:00 to 4:28

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lC1lRz5Z_s - The part we'll be playing is about 0:00 to 4:19

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WomiJqiPQY - We're playing the whole thing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTZb4_0TlNY&feature=related - We'll be playing something similar to what you'll here at 6:37 to the end of the video

So, if you happen to be in the area on the 16th, you can pop in if you want. :-)

A fiddle CD?! Part B

A couple months ago I mentioned in a blog post that I wanted to make a Fiddle CD. Well, I've been playing around with the equipment that I have lately, and I've recorded a couple of fiddle tunes. They're pretty rough, but it gives a vague idea of what I'm after.

Mary Willie's (after you click the link you'll need to click another link on the page)
Ash Grove

What do you think?

Good Christian websites

Here are some links to some good Christian resources online. I'm sure there are many more, but these are just a few of the ones I've come across.

Sermons/Messages:
Voices for Christ - This website has hundreds (thousands, perhaps) of messages by many excellent speakers.
GoodNewsNows.info - This website has several different CD with good gospel presentations which you can order or listen to online.
BUCKIT Week messages - These are the messages from the 2008 and 2009 BUCKIT (Bible University Christian Knowledge Intensive Training) weeks. You can read more about what it is here.

Articles:
Uplook.org - This is the website for the Uplook magazine. You can read the latest edition and browse older editions as well.
Powered Youth - This is a sporadically updated website/online magazine with articles by and for young people.

Publishers:
Lamplighter Publishing - Lamplighter publishes books with excellent character-building stories. They have recently starting producing them in dramatized audio format.
Gospel Folio Press - GFP publishes many good Christian books, calendars and more.

Music/Hymns:
The Cyber Hymnal - This site has the tunes and lyrics for thousands of hymns.
Saints Serving - This website provides good resources for learning to sing 4-part harmony from Hymns of Truth and Praise (the red book) and Hymns of Worship and Remembrance (the blue book).
Bible Memory System - This website provides Scripture verses put to music.
PursuingLife.com - This website has many of the Psalms arranged a capella.

A fiddle CD?!

For a while now it's been my dream to make a fiddle CD. I know it sounds pretty ambitious!

I have two studio microphones, a sound mixer, program, and the instrument(s). Somewhere down the road I may actually get to recording it! I've started to plan what fiddle songs I'd want to put on it. I have almost 15 minutes planned out so far; about a quarter the length I'd want it to be! Oh well. It's probably better to start small. Anyways, in the past I've actually recorded a couple of the tunes I'd want to put on the CD. It's just a rough idea of what I would want it to sound like.

Here's the list of tunes that I have so far, in no particular order.
You can click on the links to hear the tunes. Please keep in mind that these are very rough recordings! :-) All of them except Mary Willie's are solo fiddle.

1: Newtune 304 (simply an unnamed tune I made up) / Rakes of Mallow - 3:30
2: Boys of Bluehill / Off to California - 4:02
3: Mary Willie's - 2:04
4: St. Anne's Reel / Soldier's Joy - 3:31
5: The Ashgrove - 1:44


Here's another recording I did with Jessica of Boys of Bluehill (click the link). It's more complete, but it doesn't include Off to California. Jessica also provided the guitar backup for an older version of Mary Willie's. Other instruments that I would like to include in this project are my mandolin and autoharp.

So anyways, that's what I have so far for my ambitious yet-to-be-created project. It may or may not come to pass, but I'm hopeful. :-) And off to my 12:00 violin lesson I go...

Pandora.com: online radio

Do you like listening to music? Well, there's a website called Pandora.com and once you make an account you can listen to music for free for 40 hours a month! The way it works is you chose an artist that you like, and based on their music styles Pandora will play songs similar to the ones that are played by the artist(s) you've picked. You can have as many stations as you want.
You can also pick from the categories that Pandora provides. Sometimes there are audio or video ads, but they only come up occasionally.

You can also use the thumbs up and thumbs down options that are provided on each song to show whether or not you would like it to play again on that station or not. You can also skip certain songs.

Some of the artists whose stations I have include: Greg Maroney (piano music), Chamber music (Baroque), English Chamber orchestra, James Galway (mostly classica), Maggie Sansone (Appalachian/Celtic folk music), Kim Robertson (harp music) and others.

It's a nice way to find new music. :-)

The address is Pandora.com.

An Instrument of Righteousness

My recent experiences in learning to play the violin can, I think, be paralleled with my recent experiences in growing in my walk with the Lord.

As my violin teacher has put it, "Playing the violin is an exercise in multi-tasking." It most certainly is!

Both your left hand (which plays the notes) and your right hand (which holds the bow) have their own jobs to do. Both of their jobs are important; without the bow, you won't have any sound. True, you can pluck the the strings (pizzicato), but that doesn't give you all the sounds the violin can give. It's only one sound. Without the fingered notes, you won't have a melody. True, there are four open (non-fingered) notes you can play, but that only gives you a preview of what the violin is really meant to sound like.

How does that compare with the Christian walk? Well, two things that are equally important to
growing in the Lord are:
Reading His Word and prayer. You can pray without reading (or meditating on) the Bible, and you can read the Bible without praying. But think about this. The Bible has everything that God wants us to know in it. What's He's done in the past, what He's doing now, and what He'll do in the future. They all correlate. We can learn from the past, know what He wants us to do right now, and learn how that related to our (and the whole earth's) future. I for one would certainly want to read about that!

The God of the Bible is a personal God. He wants us to get to know Him and follow Him and serve Him out of love. One of the privileges we have as believers in Jesus Christ as our Savior is that we have the ability to speak to Him whenever we need to. Paul says in Colossians 4:2 "Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving;". In James 4:16 it says "The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much." Jesus Himself prayed often to His Father. In Luke 6:12 it says "It was at this time that He went off to the mountain to pray, and He spent the whole night in prayer to God."

We have the same ability to communicate with our Heavenly Father directly as Jesus did! I think that's quite an honor.

So you may be able to see how prayer and reading the Bible go together.
God communicates to us through His word.
We communicate to Him through prayer, which His word commands us to do without ceasing.
They go hand in hand (no pun intended!).

Now back to the violin analogy. There are many small things that you (in general) need to think about while you play. Left hand: Your arm position, thumb position, finger position,
intonation and the various techniques that you use when doing exercises or playing a piece. Trills, shifting, slides and grace notes are just a few of the things your fingers have to do. Right hand: Adjusting the pressure on the bow for the different volumes, keeping your hand flexible and getting the right bowings (up bow or down bow) are a few of the things that your bow hand is responsible for.

Why? They all add to the sound, ease of playing and overall smoothness of playing the instrument. I would be the first to say that it's not easy! At least for me, anyway. I'm certainly not "there" yet. But I'm striving to discipline my ears, arms, hands (and my left thumb!!) to play the right way. There's a lot to it, but it's worth it'll be worth it in the end.

Do you see where I'm headed? The apostle Paul talks a lot about discipline.
1 Timothy 4:7-9 says "On the other hand, discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness;
for bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come."

In the same way I need to control my body and make my hands and fingers do the right things when playing the violin, and I need to discipline myself for the purpose of godliness.
But the passage says that godliness golds promise for the life to come as well as the present life. It sounds like it's more worth disciplining myself for!

Of course that type of discipline sure isn't easy, either. Hebrews 12:11 says "All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it,
afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness."

It's not always enjoyable for me to practice the violin. But I want to become a better violinist, so I keep on trying. In the same way, growing in the Lord can be a slow process. But it sure is worth it!

So anyways, I just thought that it was neat how learning to play the violin sort of parallels learning about growing in the Lord. I don't understand everything about growing in the Lord, and I doubt I ever will, but I know that the He will keep on being patient with me, like He has been all along. :-)

"When we walk with the Lord in the light of His Word,
What a glory He sheds on our way!
While we do His good will, He abides with us still,
And with all who will trust and obey." - John Sammis

2 Corinthians 3:18 - But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.