The start of a new year always seems to suggest and invite beginnings and changes, thinking over what has come before and considering what may be.

In these shifting times with changes and uncertainties continuing in every aspect of life, music can offer reflection, hope, and guidance when considering all these situations.

 A few weeks before embarking on our first pandemic cruise, I researched our tour options. Even though COVID levels were under control in St. Kitts, San Juan, and St. Thomas, we did not feel comfortable sitting on a cruise ship tour bus or being part of a large group. Unlike many other passengers who felt safest aboard the ship, we wanted to explore St. Kitt’s historic sites, only reachable by car or bus. 

We’ve turned the calendar page. As December has now come to a close, the lessons of the previous year hover between one year’s end and the other’s beginning. The old, the icky, the struggles, the issues of that past year shift into the focus of lessons learned and goals for a new year.

It is rare that my husband and I return to a House of Worship in a foreign destination for a second visit. After selecting a cruise itinerary with a stop in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, we immediately placed The Hebrew Congregation of St. Thomas on our must-see list. Decades before digital images were in vogue, our young family trekked up the steep road to Synagogue Hill to visit this well-known synagogue with a sand floor, where we took a handful of pictures and then quickly departed with our four active sons. 

Winter: it's a season of connection and celebration, solitude and reflection.

It is also a time of stories, and of music.

Quite a few of those stories have to do with Advent, and Christmas. Whether those are within your faith or not, there is much to enjoy and learn in the stories. There are many stories of the season told with no words, as well.