Written the morning of July 17, 2021 at the Blue Chair Cafe, Sewanee Tennessee
Paths of Sewanee
The clouds roll by as I step out for a morning walk in Sewanee.
Sleek shiny black skinks greet my bleary eyes as the bird song awakens my ears to their frenzy.
The morning sun waking me hours after waking the birds thrilled to meet another day.
Eating handfuls of wild raspberries growing by the haunted graveyard, crossing the path of Mr. Grumpy Turtle and a nervous, twitching little rabbit; I walk.
From deeper in the wood, movement happens and just as we exchange looks, a young fawn leaps away.
But mostly, and because they permeate Sewanee, it's the trees that silently make their presence known.
The oaks courageously standing watch over the woods.
The exhalation of the forest spreads a kind of delicious, sweet air that I take in with every other step.
Breathing in the trees.
An exchange of sorts between their ancient wisdom and my ancient knees.
Paths open and close.
Drizzle.
Rain.
The heat of the sun.
All blend together morning after morning.
Then another music starts up, joining the bemused bird choruses of cardinal clicks, chick-a-dee-dee-dees; as the locusts' gnarly sounds rise to join the crickets: Another exchange begins, another complex interplay for the day as a lone tuba warms up on a bench outside, exploring their own paths of sound.
Another kind of sharing.
The singers start their warmups inside stone walls as a meadow of pianists fly across their keyboards in whirls of scales.
The conductors wave their magic wands of birch in front of eager young magicians creating sounds from air, from metal, from wood, from horsehair.
A magic permeates Sewanee.
Courageous young musicians exploring their own unique paths via our many musical tour guides;
Following the maps of trails created by composers - some from long ago, some forgotten in time, some emerging as saplings from their own thousands of forests strewn across the world.
Music.
From under a canopy of green, vistas open before us - of majestic valleys and skies;
From under a canopy of symphonies and arias, real and imagined vistas open before us - visions created from sound that stir the soul.
And more steps are taken, magical and musical.
And more of the forest unfolds along these paths in Sewanee, visited by echoes of Beethoven, Verdi, and Williams;
Echoing down into Abbo's Alley where children still dance to the music of the trees.
Listen.
