Dec 8

Today’s tea was “Assam Exotic.” One thing we appreciate about this calendar is that its teas are extremely tea-like. Much as we love the David’s Tea Advent Calendar, there have been years where we’ve drawn eight vaguely adjacent sachets in rapid succession, and they’re all lovely and sweetened and full of hibiscus, and after that it becomes difficult to describe them.

Assam Exotic was a full-bodied Assam, but not so strong that it needed milk. That’s sometimes a tricky balance to get right, and we appreciated being able to drink it unadulterated.

We drank it before rushing out the door to church and then off to a singing lesson. It’s been sort of music all day, because later on we met up with family to go see Maria. It was enjoyable, and it’s always a treat to hear someone sing Vissi D’Arte better than we currently do, but it wasn’t really about the singing so much as the love story (?) with Onassis. It’s not that that’s uninteresting, it just strikes us as a bit bizarre when the whole first act is called “The Diva” and then proceeds to be about everything but the music or even the woman who sang it. But we’re biased. We signed on for the story of La Divina and what did or didn’t happen to her voice in all kinds of technical detail. Probably no one else did. So, have a poem instead.

I Am In Need of Music
Elizabeth Bishop

I am in need of music that would flow
Over my fretful, feeling fingertips,
Over my bitter-tainted, trembling lips,
With melody, deep, clear, and liquid-slow.
Oh, for the healing swaying, old and low,
Of some song sung to rest the tired dead,
A song to fall like water on my head,
And over quivering limbs, dream flushed to glow!

There is a magic made by melody:
A spell of rest, and quiet breath, and cool
Heart, that sinks through fading colours deep
To the subaqueous stillness of the sea,
And floats forever in a moon-green pool,
Held in the arms of rhythm and of sleep.