The Fragrance of Christmas

Pure clear notes of piano echo through the house and resonate within my soul. With no swooning violins or thumping bass, no strident brass or tinkling triangle, this is just the essence of music – one man and his instrument in perfect harmony.

A parcel in the post is such fun. The excitement of its arrival, the anticipation of unwrapping and then, savouring the gift so lovingly sent. This parcel indeed contains not one, but three gifts – for me, my Mum and for Lisa. CDs all the way from the USA – from my friend, Elijah Boosenbroek, composer and pianist. 

 

It is ironic that it arrives when Lisa is not home in Stoneville but in Canada. Lisa and Warren have unexpectedly to leave on Christmas Eve, for her Dad suddenly passes away in Canada and they go to help arrange his funeral, console her sisters and will take the opportunity to go to Toronto to visit Colin and Pauline.

Family and friends come to help in feeding chooks, locking up cats and watering gardens. On one visit to make sure everything is going well, I find my grandson Robert attending to his chores. I email to Lisa:  “Went to your house today – the lovely Robert was there, in the chook yard cleaning out the duck pond. He couldn’t find the gate, so climbed a tree and jumped in.  Then, of course, he didn’t know how to get out.  Picture this: Robert locked in the chook yard for three weeks, hanging off the wire, eating raw eggs and pleading, “Let me out, Let me out!”  I showed him the gate, let him out and he made me a cup of tea. As I drove away, I heard a rooster crowing.  I think I got him out, just in time! ”

 

The story gives them a much-needed laugh and later she tells of meeting lots of cousins, aunts, uncles and other “rellies” and finding much love and genuine goodwill. “Damion, Graham & Warren were simply legends & proved what great taste we 3 sisters have in men.” It is a blessing that it is not the journey of pain first feared.

Sudden departures bring a mixture of feelings, memories and a sense of dislocation from the immediate world. Idle thoughts come to my mind of Colin and Pauline in Toronto, the trigger, a surprise.

 

Crabtree & Evelyn Christmas Oil

Blended spices and tangerine,

evergreens, amber and incense.

Environmental Oil, with Dropper

says the box, imbued with the exotic,

heady bouquet of foreign lands

Tucked away in my bedside table

A joyous fragrance of northern winters

Each time I open the drawer.

Now, the eyedropper is melted and

the glass holds nothing but little

molten drops of pure essence.

For twelve years this gift allays

 my fears while your dreams take you

 and your wife to Eire and Canada.

Help! The tenants phone for a plumber.

But the landlord and his wife

are on their way to see you, my son.

From the bedside drawer, I take the CD

with their travel notes and numbers.

No friendly plumber listed!

I search the Yellow Pages and scan

your brother’s sparse notes while I telephone,

juggle emails and open web pages.

Frustrated by unanswered phones

and wrong numbers, I fan the CD cover.

A warm and gentle aroma teases me.

I search my memory, and suddenly

 I remember with a smile

It is the fragrance of Christmas, my sons.

Elijah’s music swells and the power within his music echoes my love for these beautiful young men and women – my sons and daughters. It will be so good to welcome them home with music.

(Elijah-Solo Piano)

 

 

PS  Written for Christmas 2007, it is a little ironic that my Dad and I now live in the same unit as the aforementioned “tenants” and we also had the plumbers in, last week.  Happily the landlord called them.