Today I'm thankful for being able to chill with my momma and simultaneously catch up on some TV shows (yep, I'm readjusted to US culture alright) and go through some of the vibrant art pieces and incredibly smooth and innovative woodwork I was able to bring back with me from Cuba.
I'm thankful for the opportunity to come back and share my experiences in Cuba with family and friends in the way of informal conversations, community talks, and follow-up in the political realm. The delegation did not just intend to change the lives of the seven of us delegates. We are to be catalysts for change of nonsensical, unjust policies, and I dearly hope we can keep the energy from our trip going through the holiday season and beyond. We want to keep having conversations about Cuba in our communities and what we can do to end travel restrictions so you all can experience Cuban reality firsthand if you so choose, to end the embargo that is at this point grounded in inertia and stubbornness (If you want a whole list of reasons, please feel free to contact me! And when I get to it, I'll also be travel blogging on kemstravels.blogspot.com), and to encourage the thawing of relations between our two countries. As one of the community elders said in her message she wants us to deliver to our political leaders, "The people of Cuba love the United States like the people of the United States love Cuba. Why is this so difficult if we love each other?" Their spirit of pride in their country and love of ours and our people despite the political wrongs we have inflicted on them is incredible. That is what cross-cultural connection is about.
Re-centering myself here, I'm thankful that I can find both Christmas and non-Christmas music on my normal radio stations because while I do love Christmas carols, I can't handle them all the time. I'm thankful that my family, for years since it came out, can always agree to have the Peanuts Christmas cd on in our house around this time of year. And I'm thankful that my fingers still have enough muscle memory to practice our favorite carols on my flute that I literally only pick up for these carols every year since stopping band in high school. May our music bring joy and gladness!
My song of today: "Great is Thy Faithfulness" by Fernando Ortega, given to me by one of my sweet college roommates a couple years ago and I think it finally hit me this fall. I was able to figure out the guitar chords well enough, but it is really the piano in this version that fills me up. I'm realizing more and more how my brain works musically comes a great deal from my mom, and it's amazing how she can sightread or pick out a song from hearing it. I'm so thankful that even if my brain doesn't tell my vocal chords what pitch to hit when I see a C notated, that I can basically pick out melodies, harmonies, and chords from hearing something. My mom and I may not pull off the best cover of Fernando Ortega's version ever, but from listening to it over and over the last couple days and going from my brain to guitar chords to her notating for piano, we've got something, and it's pretty special.
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