It was a weekend of colossal snowflakes. Twirling, swirling, pirouetting, waving-to-the-audience snowflakes. So cute, you can’t stop staring snowflakes. Snow that puts the world on mute. Snow that drapes over every horizontal surface and beautifies barbed wire. Snow that provokes stillness. We stoked the fire and settled into a reading evening.
We submerged into our book(s) and sat in companionable silence. We forgot all screens and beeps malfunctioning computers. After an hour of pure silence, I put on a CD (remember those?). This set of four CDs has been one of the soundtracks of my life for the last twenty years. (A great score!)
Furiously reading Martin Gilbert’s Churchill, A Life, trying to finish the 1K book before the inter-library loan ends (this is how I do marathons), the mounting crisis of Hitler’s threatened evasion of Czechoslovakia was creating inner tension.
Slowly I became aware that the music playing was such a befitting accompaniment to the words I was reading. Minor key, evocative, simply sad music. Naturally, it was Chopin. Recorded by the Slovak National Orchestra.
A Living Pencil 
Make that a dozen likes. This sounds lovely. I have to reconnect with print books instead of always doing audio so I can multitask. Incidentally there was a little Olympic filler on TV about a Czech gymnast in 1968, soon after the Soviet Union invaded her country to crack down on reformist movements. The gymnast, Vera Caslavska, turned her head away when the Soviet flag was raised and anthem played—her own little silent protest.
Oh, I’m off to look her up! Thanks, Anita!
Hauntingly lovely music, thank you!
Our granddaughter is named Vera and of course we think it is a beautiful name. Her name is the pronunciation like the city of Veracruz, Mexico and not the English way of saying it. We listen to CDs at our house all the time and lately have been fortunate to buy some older ones at our public library bookstore, Second Hand Prose. Folks donate CDs and books there and we so enjoy going there to shop. All the money benefits the library. It is a win-win! Hope you complete your marathon before the time runs out.
It’s always a joy to hear from you, jep. I love the name of the library bookstore. (I did complete the marathon! Whew!)