Spring has sprung! There are so many flowers that came out from the ground just in the last few days, happy from all of the rain. Whenever I see the heads of spring flowers coming up from the ground, I feel the love of the people who planted them years ago. What courage they give us… without any words, just quiet in their being. I realized last year that for some reason one of the groups of daffodils around our front cedar trees always shows bigger flowers than the year before. This circle of flowers blooms, dies, sleeps and wakes up, blooming again, bigger every year. Here they are again this year, the most beautiful yet, and so I say my prayers that my music might grow like these flowers. My hope is that the more I come back to study and play a great work, the better and more musical it will become. In March I found myself reading  Die kleine Chronik der Anna Magdalena Bach. It is a memory of Bach written by his wife Anna Magdalena. Have any of you read it? I don’t know if it is translated into English, but it is a very easy, casual read. There is not much written about Bach’s music except in the last chapter, but you can learn about Bach as a teacher, a colleague, a husband, a father and as a person from the testimony of his beloved. Interestingly, this time as I was reading I found that I was more interested in Bach as a father. Perhaps becoming a parent has helped me to focus on how to share my life with young lives. It is interesting to think about what part of the book will travel to my heart the next time I come back to it. As I return Anna Magdelena’s book to the shelf, I also say thank you to all the flowers for giving us courage and hope for the future! See you at the next PLU recital by Curt Sather on Sunday, April 9 at 3 p.m. and the reception at David Dahl’s afterwards. And for a real spring garden experience, the Dahl residence is the place to see true beauty of nature in bloom! A treat you don’t want to miss!

—Naomi