Then I tried to cut small circles out of red construction paper to represent ornaments. After two of these, I knew I just wasn’t up to the task.<\/p>\n
With my lack of coordination, it would take all afternoon to finish the Christmas cards for my sisters.<\/p>\n
I managed to draw the ornaments onto the tree with red wax pencil and a circle stencil. I glued the tree onto folded parchment paper. And then I carefully wrote the words Merry Christmas! <\/em>on the cover, and a short poem inside.<\/p>\n The cards were not elegant, but they were heartfelt. Though they looked like they’d been made by a mentally disabled child, they would carry\u00a0the fused-glass ornaments I made for my sisters.<\/p>\n It was an ordeal: the labor of making the cards, wrapping and cushioning the ornaments, and then carefully packaging the whole thing into US Postal Service boxes so that they’d arrive safely.<\/p>\n But it made me feel a little closer to that glittery fuzz that we call Christmas spirit.<\/p>\n I was tired. But it’s the last evening before Ann goes home, and Tom arrives tonight for two weeks’ vacation. I really want to keep up that Christmas spirit.<\/p>\n I don’t have any decorations – they are in storage – but then I remembered: The Messiah<\/a>.<\/p>\n Every Christmas, at least once, I play the entire oratorio all the way through and sing along with it. (Trevor Pinnock \/ The English Concert & Choir<\/a>)<\/p>\n When I lived in Seattle, every Dec. 26 that I was in town, I’d take part in the Messiah Sing-Along<\/a>.<\/p>\n When I lived in China, I organized a small group of other foreigners, made (illegal) photocopies of the music, and we sang along with the recording.<\/p>\n So, this evening, while Ann cooked and we waited for Tom, I put on that beautiful music, and sang.<\/p>\n It made me feel the way it always has: gliding along\u00a0a golden thread that extends back many centuries. To a time when the places of the Bible were not primarily known as war zones. To a light that shines above and beyond any one religion.<\/p>\n This year, it meant something much more.<\/p>\n Singing the Messiah made me feel connected to everything in my past. My long-term memories.<\/p>\n Every one of those lovely phrases, sailing over gorgeous arpeggios and piercing high notes, came rippling out of me without strain. I hadn’t forgotten any of them.<\/p>\n My brain is still intact.<\/p>\n Hallelujah!!<\/p>\n Today’s penny is a 1985, for the 300th anniversary of Handel’s birth.<\/p>\n Dec. 18: I struggled with the scissors. Moving them slowly\u00a0back and forth across the green construction paper, I came up with a shape that lacked an identity. It resembled a fir tree only because I used pinking shears to give it a jagged edge. Then I tried to cut small circles out of red construction … read more Hallelujah!<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6348,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[317],"tags":[520,485,493,121,521,154,519,223,504],"class_list":["post-6342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-beauty","tag-520","tag-aneurysm","tag-brain","tag-christmas","tag-gifts","tag-memory","tag-messiah","tag-music","tag-recovery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6342"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6342\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6352,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6342\/revisions\/6352"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Dec](\"http:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Dec-18-1985-300x225.jpg\")
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