Keira McArthur

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Becalmed.  Deeply uncomfortable, since I expected forward movement.   There’s nowhere to go but down, into the fathoms of unexplored shadowlands beneath my hull.  Heat stroke like a sluggishness drug, an IV drip drip to erode the well-focused plan until I only vaguely remember what, why, how… Like road pizza I’m pissed off by this. I […]

Do we all have a natural buoyancy?  I wonder.  Some call themselves ‘sinkers’, and describe the great effort required to stay afloat.  This is subjective, of course. Effort, to some, is a thing to be minimized if not avoided altogether.  To others effort is a joy,  a ‘coming to meet’, a solid, positive investment in something […]

I went subterranean twelve weeks ago, maybe more.  Came up again two days ago, I think.  I know this because I found myself gardening yesterday. This was a tunnel of a place I’ve been in, a way into and through the deep, long list entitled Impossible-but-Necessary.  In twelve weeks strong and beautiful people died, shockingly, […]

I stayed over because of the cat. He’s not mine, but I care for him over the winter while his owner’s away.  Six toes on each foot. Patti says that makes him magic. He’d been locked in the basement for four days until yesterday when I got the store owner to let me go down […]

Only slowly have I become aware of the enormous reservoir that floats above me like a helium ship vast, volatile impossible I am Astonished I’d have noticed it years ago, but I’ve only recently developed the habit of looking up Like the water towers in every small town there’s a name writ in large letters […]

A facebook friend of mine wrote this in his status update this morning: May 18, Facebook:  T.M. – 7 mins · New York, NY, United States : Everything we do is a selfie. (see MMcL) If you’re reading these, I do SO agree T.  And Marshal. Blessed long weekend.  I’m grateful to be here in […]

played and explained by Joanna Wronkowska   This reminds me of a man I will always love, though I’ll probably never meet: Excerpt from ‘Anthem” by Leonard Cohen: Ring the bells that still can ring forget your perfect offering. There is a crack, a crack in everything – That’s how the light gets in.  

I’ve given myself two weeks to answer a list.  On my list are relatively small goals but they are necessarily comprehensive, since the overall aim is to break through a log jam of old unfulfilled ideas, to clear out what is no longer useful or appropriate, and give form to the ones with a vigorous […]

Rehearsing and conversing with the highly engaged and engaging pianist Marc Pierre Toth and composer Richard Mascall last night, the day after dinner with pianist, singer-songwriter, electronic artist and visual artist and dear dear friend Kati Gleiser – and snowshoeing with her today.  Talk  – of Shanghai, Japan, Hannover, my neice Anna in Germany, The […]

I highly recommend watching this TED interview with Sistema Founder Jose Abreu,   and then watch this video of Sistema Youth Orchestra performing in Caracas under sistema graduate Gustavo Dudamel (now conductor of the LA Philharmonic, and two other leading orchestras on two other continents) I happy-cry every time I see this. The following text […]

Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring, Sheep May Safely Graze, Air in G, all the Brandenbergs, Arioso – playing these pieces is like eating home-made split-pea soup on the third day of chilly rain, book in hand, and a woodfire toasting your damp toes. Bach is ‘home’ to so many of us – harmonious, reassuring, refined, […]