Eveningland

Tonight was a difficult bedtime.  Scott had gone to listen to a piano recital and the kids were having none of going to sleep.  Michael wanted nursing and more nursing, John wanted "Daddy snuggle me" and Wendy had fallen asleep earlier in the day so she just wasn't tired.  Around 9pm we set out in jammies for a night ride in the West Fields (farmland west of our city).  Without giving our exact location I'll give you a snapshot of the view.  We live in a place where the mountains meet the valley floor.  We live fairly close to the mountain base where there is water and trees.  Out in the west fields the floor of the valley is drier and barer and emptier.  Scott likes to bike there, and it is a good place for peaceful, darker night drives.  That's where we headed.  The kids feeling excitement to be out after dark (it was just getting dark as we drove) with a chance to look out the windows at the gloaming and the appearance of stars, to chat and listen to music.  I put on Hem, one of our favorite bands.  Rabbit Songs is still my favorite....but this one was in the car. 

As the day faded into night and we skimmed through the evening my kids faded off in age-order.  First Michael, then John.  And then it was truly night and just Wendy and I awake in the darkness.  And we came upon track 10--Eveningland.  How perfectly appropriate and how beautifully stirring a track.  No words.  Just music.  And the most beautiful of all (especially, maybe? to me as a musician and a one who, though classically trained, finds such beauty in the simplest of pieces) my little girl's voice called out from behind me "Mama, this violin song is just so beautiful it makes me want to cry".  And we hit repeat for the next 30 minutes of driving until we arrived home. 

It was a moment of such beauty and clarity and gratefulness.  A one I cannot capture in words--go listen to the track.  And others like it.  Elgar's Enigma Variations --"Nimrod", and the beginning of Barber's Violin Concerto 2nd movement, and Barber's Adagio for Strings.   Oh, and go to Hem's Rabbit Songs for "Half Acre" and, and....I'll do another post of my favorite all-time heart-touching pieces.  But the beauty in your newly-six year old's recognizing that power of music....oh!