The Disappearing Bed and Other Unusual Occurences of 2018

      

        Please forgive, my dear readers, the unexplained silence of the past weeks. You see, along with a few dramatic alterations I've made to my life, a recent series of slightly consternation-causing events have been thrust upon me as well.

        I know, I know, you came on here to find out the cause of the unusual titling of this post....when you've read to the end, comment if you read the post simply because of the title.

       Okay, to get right down to it. At the start of this year I made two decisions which radically changed the order of my day. The first, more dramatic rather than necessarily traumatic, was my decision to get rid of my bed. You may be asking, "Now why would you do a thing like that?" Fear not my friends, I have no plans to become an Ascetic nor am I contemplating reducing my wardrobe to a solitary weave of fabric and color. I didn't get rid of my bed because I slept too much, because I considered it carnal, or because I wanted to get another one. I did it simply because I desired for other purposes, footage it occupied.

    For months, the bed had been bothering me. I wanted a desk, but there was only so much space in my room. Plus I wanted to move all my music operations, including violin, banjo, and my stacks of music into my room, but both of those things weren't going to happen. It was either/or, and even one, was doubtful, with the great hulking bed glowing in it's voluminous corner, or should I say, third, of the room.

      I got the idea when a friend of mind got rid of her bed for a different reason, and after I realized that I could sleep just as comfortably on the floor as anywhere else with three pillows and a blanket. The thought had simply never occurred to me.

    Get rid of my bed, I might as well contemplate the removal of the skyscraper sized dust bunny beneath my bookshelf. It just wasn't an option that crossed my mind...I'm indebted to my friend for the brilliant solution.

  The deed was done on January 2nd, my brothers hustled in and, each in his own singular fashion, disassembled my bed and removed it from the premises. I shall say I wasted no time in purchasing a desk and relocating my musical goods. I've been very happy with my room. I can now, roll up my "bed" and stuff it in the closet every morning and I love having all my music accoutrements in one place. That change has been very satisfactory. I can enter my room with the smugness of a carpenter who has just built a very sturdy house for himself.



       So that was the dramatic decision of 2018. Let me tell you about the traumatic one.

  I got rid of my laptop.

     Yep....you heard me. I know what you're thinking, I'm enough of a regressive that I refuse to get a smartphone....and now, I just got of the one "mobile" electronic device I do have. It's been hard, I'll admit, but after getting rid of it, I really understood how much the deed needed to be done. Okay, I didn't toss it in the dumpster. I gave it to my mother and asked her to hide it in a place I'd never find it, so I wasn't tempted to dust it off in a moment of weakness. You see, now that I'm done with school, I really don't need to spend that much time on the computer. Everything that needs to be done can happen here where I am now at the general family computer in the common area, where I can't hide away and watch movies which was exactly what I was spending my spare time doing. Not a good thing, people. And thinking about it, how many really good movies out there are there? Yep, it definitely wasn't healthy. I was staying up late, neglecting my family, music, and friends and all around, wasting my life. I had prayed, attempted to stop before, but with the computer there, I'd always come back. God helped me see that prayer wasn't a substitute for obedience. Active steps needed to be taken to obey and He made it clear that for this season, at least, the computer needed to disappear.

   For days after I'd determined to do it, I struggled with the decision, but after one very late night, I quickly packed up my computer (so quickly in fact, that my mother had to go back and dig out something I'd forgotten to take out of the bag after she'd hidden it) and handed it to my mother before I had time to reconsider. My addiction was like the ring from Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. I hated to give it up, but was so much happier once I did...it was like a weight taken off my shoulders. I've been absent of late because I have been trying to catch up on all the things I let slide over the past few months such as my writing and composing as well as regular music practice and learning new songs.

    And there it is, what more can I say? Let me know if you agree with my drastic decisions and the reasons behind them.

        I want to close by sharing with you the song I'm working on now. I've chosen Gabriela Benackova as my study as I'm learning Anonin Dvorak's beautiful aria Song to The Moon from his opera Rusalka. Czech is the hardest language I've had to sing yet, pronunciation wise. I must say, I can't make heads or tails phonetically of the connection between the way a Czech word is spelled and the way it's spoken. Ah - well, that's what pronunciation guides and voice teachers are for. :)

      Enjoy this lovely song...maybe I'll video the finished product when I've learned it and share it with you all. For now, have a lovely week, and do at least one thing you've wanted to do, and know you ought to, but haven't due to your own inhibitions.  

       Soli Deo Gloria

           ~ Christianna