When the days grow shorter, they draw us inward to reminisce about our lives and think about the past and future. Although the wise sage would encourage us to live in the moment and in the now, it is human nature to think about our past successes and failures, hopefully learn from them and then ponder how to live a more fulfilling future.

However, music can blur the bounds of time. It allows you to live at once in the past, present and future, like a winter sun, beating down on sheets of ice (ice, water, steam: solid, liquid, gas— concertedly existing).

And what other time of year is it perfectly acceptable to walk up to a stranger’s door, knock, and then once the occupant is revealed, sing holy songs to a perfect stranger, only to be greeted with a smile?

A wise man once told a tale about giving his friend a few Mandarin Oranges. While eating the oranges, his friend started speaking about his future plans. Although his manner of speaking was engaging and his plans, wonderfully grandiose, the wise man was not the least bit impressed. All he could think about was how his friend was wasting his Mandarin Oranges.

He stopped his friend in mid-sentence. “If you are not going to appreciate the Mandarin Oranges, then I am afraid you will have to give me the last one in your hand back to me.”

His friend immediately stopped talking, looked down at the orange in his hand, and began to peel it methodically. As he raised the naked orange to mouth, he looked at the wise man who now wore a slight smile of satisfaction. The friend bit into the piece of fruit and the wise man let out a soft, tranquil sigh…

Even the successful lament about not being able to always enjoy life as it happens. It was on the cusp of winter, twenty one years apart, that the world lost two wise musicians, who had this to say.

“It's being here now that's important. There's no past and there's no future. Time is a very misleading thing. All there is ever, is the now. We can gain experience from the past, but we can't relive it; and we can hope for the future, but we don't know if there is one.”

--George Harrison

“Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.”

--John Lennon

Happy Holidays from Kylmyys. We hope you enjoy every moment of our holiday gift to you.