Remember Cool Stuff You've Done It's Balm for Your Soul

Sam and I think it’s a good thing to occasionally remember some of the cool stuff you’ve done. This is an especially good idea when you’re feeling a little low wondering what good you’ve been responsible for in the great scheme of life. Since I’ve been on kind of a nostalgic bent lately, I thought I might list of few of my cool memories.

Magic lights at the Illuminaires Fire and Lantern Festival

Because of the warm days and mild nights we’ve been experiencing, I’ve been thinking about the Illuminaires Fire and Lantern Festival that occurs in July or August every year at TROUT LAKE in a park near Vancouver, B.C. This is a wonderful evening of tribal music, fire dancing and lanterns. The entire park is filled with lanterns hanging from trees, floating on the lake and carried around on poles; the whole park is lit up by tiny candle lights. The lanterns themselves are all made by those attending the event. Kathleen and I took her daughter Lauren and Lauren’s college friend Danica to the event and although we didn’t make lanterns, we marched around the lake with all the people who had. It was like the night was lit by a million fireflies – total magic. It was sensual, sexy and spiritually uplifting all at the same time.

Another cool thing I’ve been a part of is sponsoring and producing a chalk art festival on the sidewalks of downtown Bellingham. That was when I was publishing a community newspaper. I had seen a television show about this guy creating a fantastic chalk art drawing on a sidewalk in Italy somewhere and I thought, “How cool!” A few days later I was talking to the director of the local arts organization and she had a photograph of someone drawing a chalk-art picture. When I inquired where the photograph came from she told me she commissioned the artist to do the chalk-art drawing in hopes of drumming up support for a festival. I put up $500 of my newspaper’s money to help buy chalk, helped round up a bunch of civic leaders – a judge, a city council woman and others – to help plan the event and we advertised it and rounded up a number of entrants and held it on an August day and it was MAGICAL! What incredible and colorful pictures people produced. I’m proud to say that chalk art festival is now in its 20h year.

A fine example of chalk art created in downtown Bellingham 

I apologize if it sounds too much like I’m bragging, but those are such feel-good memories, they serve to remind me that even though I may never come this way again, at least I experienced some feel-good magic when I had the chance.

Another cool thing I’ve been a part of is singing in concerts. I am particularly fond of singing The Messiah at Christmas time. I sang it with the Whatcom Chorale in Bellingham one year in Assumption Church an old Roman Catholic Church there and the sound of that wonderful piece of music – especially the Hallelujah Chorus bouncing off the tall spires and stained-glass windows just caused me to shudder with delight. That was almost as good as performing Christmas music at the Eureka Inn in California when I was a high school student. And just when I thought no one could improve on The Messiah, along comes The Young Messiah, which is absolutely incredible. I play it every Christmas season over and over and over. I was able to sing a solo and a duet in a performance of The Young Messiah and I am so grateful I was able to do that.

Hope you don’t mind that I indulged myself here a little. It gave me great comfort to do so. You should give yourself comfort with some cool memories too. It’s a real balm for your soul.