A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes

Monday, April 16^th-

To start off the week, Monday was a day at home with the kids.  We did some gardening and then I helped Mark with his Art project.  Stef and I painted our nails, watched a movie, ate lunch and played a few board games. 

Tuesday, April 17th-

Tom took my stitches out at his place.  It wasn’t the most comfortable feeling ever.  The first stitches came out easily, but with the middle ones, some of the skin had grown over, so he had to cut through that a bit.  But, they are gone now, so I’m on the road to recovery! 

Wed, April 18th -

Wednesday, I woke up sick.  However, this week was easy with the kids: they had play dates, we watched Harry Potter, played various card games and video games…  We also went to a Harp concert in a near by town and ate dinner with Jerry’s sister and husband.  I wanted to introduce the harp to the kids and their parents.  The harpist was the well-accomplished Isabelle Perrin.  I talked to the kids about concert behavior and etiquette as well as how the harp works and background of some of the pieces she played.  It was a little long for Stef, so I let her go out in the hall where no one could see and she danced to the music there.  She has a short attention span and loves to dance, so I figured this would be a nice way to allow her to express herself and not interrupt the concert.  Mark really liked it as well.  And… hooray! We found a harp to rent! We'll be getting it next week. It's a 36-string lever harp, with only 3 levers per octave.  It’s quite different from the pedal harp I am used to playing back home, but I can’t wait to start teaching Mark how to play!  Also I can play again.  It’s been too long and I am having significant withdrawals.

harpisthannahneal.com

The harp is set up similarly to a piano, only the strings on the harp are like the white keys on the piano.  To make sharps and flats, or the black keys on the piano, you have to slightly change the length of the string.  You can do this by using a lever that pinches down on the string, making it shorter and thus higher, or you can use a pedal that is connected to the strings and presses down on the string to change the length.  I taught my 5^th grade class last year about the science and math behind the harp and played for them.  Basically, the longer the string, the lower the pitch; the shorter the string, the higher the pitch.  So I can raise or lower the note of a string by a half step by using the pedal or lever of the harp.

Left to right: Pedal Harp, Lever Harp 

There are 7 pedals on a pedal harp, one for each note in a scale.  (scale: A B C D E F G.)  On a lever harp, there usually is a lever for each string, which means you would have to change each strings pitch using the lever individually.  The harp I am going to rent only has 3 levers per octave, so only those strings can I have a sharp or flat.  If I want any other strings to be higher or lower, I will have to tune it beforehand accordingly.  To better understand, I will illustrate using the common note,  C.  (It is recognized on the harp as the red strings.  The black strings are Fs.)  On a pedal harp, I can change every C at the same time, simply by using the one C pedal at my feet. It sounds confusing, but having the use of the pedals frees your hands to play more.  With complicated music, your feet appear to be quietly dancing while your fingers flit across the strings to make a beautiful song full of accidentals.

Left: You can see my feet on the pedals at the floor.  I am about to change a pedal here in the middle of the song.  This was when I played the harp for my sister's wedding in 2006.  

My dream is to make music videos, or even just youtube videos, all around the world, with the harp.  I want to play on the top of the cliffs at Curl Curl here.  I want to play on the 360 outlook rocks in Austin, Texas.  And the bridge at the Neuschwanstein castle in Germany…the Napali Coastline in Kauai… Oh so many places to film with my music.  I would love to compile memories of my travels with my original compositions to remember, express and share my experiences and heart song.  (or should I say, harp song J )  Someday…

Below are some of my favorite places in the world.  Someday I'll play my harp here.

The Napali Coast, Kauai, Hawaii, 2010

The blue water and sky melt together to form one seamless backdrop of perfect shades of aqua.  The jagged green cliffs lure you in until you can do nothing but stare at the masterpiece in front of you. 

Neuschwanstein, Bavaria, Germany, 2007

King Ludwig II was an introverted, semi-psychotic German King of Bavaria from 1864 until his death.  He was often referred to as the Swan King, Fairy Tale King, and Mad King Ludwig.  These names came about because of his obsession for building extravagant castles as well as his need to be alone.  The castle above, Neuschwanstein, is the inspiration for the Cinderella castle.  This is one of my favorite castles.  My family and I travelled to Germany a few times to visit my Dad while he was stationed there for military duty.  We stood here, on a narrow bridge looking onto this exquisite architectural masterpiece in astonishment.  I, selfishly, am thankful for his unwise expenditures and lofty goals of castle making because of the relics that are left today, but I can only imagine how infuriating it would be as a townsperson to have a King start construction on one castle, only to begin another before the original's completion. Ludwig's castles included 1) Linderhof, his private retreat 2) Neushwanstein, the inspiration for Walt Disney's Magic Kingdom 3) Herrenchiemsee, an unfinished palace on its own island 4) Nymphenburg, Ludwig's birth place in Munich, and 5) Hohenschwangau, his childhood home.  

Fun Fact: The Swan King fell in love with The Hall of Mirrors in Versailles, France so he mimicked the floor plans and general idea in Herrenchiemsee.  In movies such as The Three Musketeers, there are scenes set in Versailles and in The Hall of Mirrors, when in fact they were filmed at Ludwig's castle in Germany, Herrenchiemsee. 

Hall of Mirrors, Herrenchiemsee, Germany

Hall of Mirrors, Versailles, France 

Ludwig disliked public events and avoided any type of social interaction.  He desired seclusion so much so that in one of his castles, he had a table on a platform that was lowered down through the floor to the kitchen beneath, where the waitstaff would place his meals, as not to disturb or even remotely interact with the eccentric royal.   

Curl Curl Beach, Sydney, Australia, 2012

The Swiss Alps, 2007

El Morro, Old San Juan, Puerto Rico, 2011

Manor, Texas, USA, 2005
My favorite Spot in the world, the field of dreams
at my Granny and Paps' farm

While growing up in Texas, my cousins and I would run out here and play in the tall grass.  We made forts in the trees surrounding the field.  In the fall, our families would invite friends for a big bonfire.  Paps would hitch the trailer filled with hay to his tractor.  All of our family friends would go for a hay ride on the trailer while the cousins covertly slipped away.  We grabbed silly string and flashlights and then positioned ourselves in tree houses and bushes along the trail.  Then we would jump out and scare the passengers of the hayride, spraying them with silly string.  Then we hopped on the hay ride to the field with the laughing passengers covered in silly string.  
The stars are magnificent here. Each shines like they have a story to tell, a song to sing. They each let out a single note.  You can see every one individually, hear each simple star song in the distance.  But then when you step back, they form into a harmonious song of light, sprinkled onto a flowing black sheet.  
Without city lights or worries of tomorrow, we all tilt our heads and gaze upon the stars.  Then Mom starts strumming on her guitar and we all sing, joining our songs with the stars'.  It's moments like these that I hold on to as tightly as possible, afraid they'll slip away at in moment.  
I have had dreams of this field.  I'm snuggled on a couch in the grass, watching the clouds go by, with not a care in the world.  Everything is right and good.  
Watching and protecting the field are two old, friendly oak trees.  They sit firmly, their rustling branches swaying to our songs on the hay ride in the field, their bark smiling as we build forts nearby.  I would imagine God is like these oak trees.  They sit there on the sidelines, silently cheering on the game.  Ready for when we win or lose to come running up to their arms.  Sad when we get too old to care or remember about the joys of climbing into their trusting and ever ready limbs.  They aren't the loudest of supporters, the oak trees, but they are always there, just like God.  

Someday we are going to make an elaborate tree house like the one in Swiss Family Robinson, with a bridge and several levels for each room.  Maybe I can do that with my children.  Someday.  The farm is my favorite place in the whole world because of the memories there.

El Yunke National Park, Puerto Rico, 2011

In 1940, President Roosevelt extended the New Deal to Puerto Rico.  The CCC, or Civilian Conservation Corps, was one of several New Deal programs.  The government hired men aged 18-25 to work on federal lands, such as National parks.  They made pathways, built monuments, towers and informative buildings in El Yunke Naitonal Park, as well as many others.  The tower above was built by men saved from the New Deal, in hopes of bettering the economy while preserving the rich forests of Puerto Rico.
We hiked through El Yunke, breathing in the fresh air, brushing past gargantuan leaves, trudging up hills and across streamlets when suddenly we came upon this tower.  We walked through the arch door and were surprised by what we heard.  The acoustics were dreamlike.  We stood there, just listening.  I couldn't help it.  So I started singing and my family joined in.  The illusory sounds melded together and swirled around in the tower and back into our craving ears.  I had chills up and down my arms.  Then, we climbed the spiral staircase and made it to the top only to find a glimpse of heaven.  The clouds were rolling over the tree tops and up the tower.  We were standing in clouds in a tower overlooking a sea of green.  It was between universes, standing in the clouds.  We sat down on the top of the tower and talked about what we thought heaven would be like.  What a perfect place and an unforgettable memory. 

Bioluminescent Bay, Fajardo, Puerto Rico, 2011

In Puerto Rico, there are three different lagoons with bioluminescent dinoflagellats.  Dinoflagellates are unicellular marine plankton.  This miniscule organism glows when agitated in the water.  Our family went kayaking here to revel in the illuminating wonder in the water.  Carolyn and I played in the water when we "accidentally fell"/were pushed in by our kind and jovial kayak local tour guides.  We made glowing water angels and watched blue neon water droplets slide down our hands and arms.  I want to somehow make a small harp glow in the dark and then play in a kayak and record it with a special camera that can capture this incredible phenomenon.