Fun With My Family
At my house, family has always been important. Every major holiday should involve some sort of family gathering; it seems incomplete without crowds of cousins, piles of cake, and lots of laughter.
My grandma’s farm was my favourite place in the world when I was little. I think it’s because of the memories. Things like running around the barn, trying to avoid cow-patties, playing crokinole in the living room or euchre in the front room. Sitting around a table with my eight girl-cousins, laughing and calling to the boy-cousins in the other room, climbing trees, running in the fields, looking at the antiques that covered every available surface. Winter nights spent curled up in the attic bedroom with my cousin, imagining that we lived in the 1800’s.
Now, my grandma has moved off the farm. Some of my cousins are married, and there are even a couple babies wandering around. But even though the location isn’t the same, I think every one of us still considers family time a real treasure. We talk about the antiques, and which of our parents has the clock from which room in the farmhouse. We had a crokinole tournament at our last get-together. We often play euchre, and after eating a massive meal we still run around outside, laughing and chasing each other. We even bring the kids along.
Music Is My Life
When I was four, I started taking piano lessons. I didn’t stop until I was fifteen, and by that point I’d learned how to play the trumpet and baritone as well. I wasn’t stunningly good at any of them (I’ll let you in on a little secret; I didn’t really try hard enough to be very good at any of them), and so my instrument-playing slowly dwindled down to a few carols on the piano at Christmas.
In my second year of university, I decided I wanted to learn guitar. So I got one, and started teaching myself. I realized I enjoyed it, and had vague notions of starting to play the piano again too. It didn’t really happen, and while my guitar occasionally still makes an appearance, I’ve realized something; I don’t have to play music to love it.
Music makes me so excited, and that had translated into a desire to play it (I still have that desire; I just need the self-discipline that goes along with it…). But even if I’m never a concert musician, music is still one of the most powerful influences in my life.
Listening to music, hearing it in my head, singing it (sometimes in the wrong key) – music is an integral part of my life. Some of my greatest heroes are musicians, people who capture my emotions, my thoughts, my fears, and translate them into notes and harmonies and lyrics. The right song at the right time can bring me out of a bad mood, give me a release for pent-up joy, remind me of grade 6, make me break down in tears, bring me into the awesome presence of God, even put me to sleep.
Continue reading Beth's lifestory 1.2.3.
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