There is a moment...

     The magic begins to work on the heart, with the first step in the climb up the hill, crowning Cambria's East Village. It quickly reaches the mind as one recalls the wrap of sound, image and memory that are so delicately woven in this special place on this special night.

    Lana is quick to tell that this night, the Candlelight Concert is the highlight of her year, let alone this festive season.

      For almost 150 years the Chapel has been aglow above our village tucked between the Pacific and the Monterey Pine and Oak forests of the Santa Lucia Mountains. Readers of LightBreezes have received impressions since 2011. 

         There is a moment in this traditional evening when time melts and when emotions and feelings and your sensory memories glide into a kind of current and all that you've ever known of Christmas and family are there in your head and heart as the sweet music and narrative write even more code.
      Judith Laramore's annual Reflections open those portals with her exquisite narrative. This year recalling a cold and drafty winter on Hoot Owl Lane outside Bluffton Indiana, my mother's hometown, was a literary Norman Rockwell for the soul. Colorful and vivid scenes, family gatherings, visits to  aunt Norma and uncle Charles on Chicago's Lake Shore drive and the special place in her heart for Aunt Lois created a homily to the nurturing love of family at the holidays. They are universal memories.
       And of course there is the music and the magnificent players arranged by the renown Brynn Albanese who makes the violin an instrument of love.

      We were treated to a world premier of sorts. John Neufeld, a Cambrian arranged and Orchestrated almost all of John Williams movie compositions for decades. He did an innovation on Ave Maria for this special night on the hill in our little village. 

    Before the Farewell, blend of instrument and voice, Bruce Black again told tales of family humor and treated us all to the annual Twas The Night Before Christmas.

      And so, Christmas has come again, and the magic of the season has been lit by the candles glowing in an historic chapel, flowing from a hill top mixed with sweet music and memory, a place where life and dream weave.

      See you down the trail, in Ireland.

THE WEEKENDER-FUN & GAMES AND MAGIC

MAGIC MEMORIES

   Nostalgic warmth can come with a variety of memories.

    Both daughters tell us the sound of basketball sneakers on hardwood, the din of the cheering fans and pep bands and the tones of announcers recall their childhood weekends. Usually a chili or stew simmered a delicious appeal into the mood, completing the sensory recording of a winter's afternoon.

     The girls live elsewhere, but some things don't change.
Even with our address only a mile or so from the Pacific, the magic of a Big Ten Rivalry captivates us. Where I used to have half time or post game chats with dad, or after he passed, with my mom, a real fan to the end, now I'm frequently on with my dear friend Frank, from Falls Church Va.- by way of Indianapolis basketball courts.
     Lana and I met at Ball State and we are fans and supporters of our Alma Mater BSU Cardinals-"the fiercest bird in the robin class" as our old friend Dave Letterman says.  Still, we have jointly been IU fans, at least as long as our marriage.  And I grew up where IU basketball was a religious experience. I've been a fan since I learned to dribble, but I've always had a chunk of heart dedicated to  the Butler Bulldogs, because of the legendary Tony Hinkle and some of their incredible small school big achievements and tenacious brand of basketball.
      We used to book spring vacation travel plans around the IU, Ball State, or Butler NCAA tourney schedule.  Usually it was the IU game we had to catch at an airport, or on a car radio or not fly that day. 

     I've even spent decades watching John Mellencamp become an old man of rock as he and a succession of beautiful women and/or wives take their special seats in Assembly Hall. 

     The best places to watch basketball in Indiana are at the new arena at Ball State, the Bankers Life Field House in Indianapolis and the blue print for all great basketball palaces, the Hinkle Field House at Butler University. While IU's Assembly Hall is a terrible venue to see a game, unless you have near the court seats, the spirit, energy and enthusiasm is one of the best to experience.

     It's hard for non mid-west or basketball loving people to get this, but there is a soul calming, almost meditative peace in watching Big Ten or NCAA college hoops.  A couple of California friends talk about baseball with the same reverence.  Something magic about a good game on TV. My dad extended that to golf, and I get that too. 

    The nostalgic memories of my dad, brothers, mom and later my daughters in that mix of familiar sounds and pleasing aromas are a magic at work. 

SPEAKING OF MAGIC

AND GOLF

     Thanks to my golf loving fraternity brother Brian for finding this incredible video of the week.

    See you down the trail. 

THE WEEKENDER-MAGIC

HOW DID HE DO THAT?

     Were you too a sucker for a magic show? Amateur or big production professional-it didn't matter.  Even after buying magic tricks at a local store I was always fascinated by the tricks.

      The Weekender provides this video and asks, how did he do it?

      And then it seems that Luke, Hemingway and little sister Joy are working on a variation of "how many clowns can you get in a car?"

Three cats in the Jade plant.

Perfect for your cat nap?

Have a good weekend.

See you down the trail.