A period of uneasy calm

from the Piano Concerto for the Left Hand in D major (Concerto pour la main gauche en ré majeur)  It was commissioned from Ravel by the Austrian pianist, Paul Wittgenstein, who lost his right arm during World War I.

We are experiencing a quiet period of autumn weather here, sunny by day but now with the first light touch of frost by night: the reflective calm before the storms begin and the cold really sets in.

“Perhaps hell is for those who ask for it; to those who claim their rights God gives their deserts, the rest he handles not in accordance with their merits but in accordance with his mercy. We all think we have rights – rights to so much pleasure and ease, rights to be let alone, rights to spend most of our money on ourselves, rights to receive apologies, rights to get our own back, rights to neglect other people’s cares and concerns unless we have a fancy to meddle with them.

Having rights is damnation; salvation is the receiving of Christ’s body and blood, as paupers existing on the dying charity of the Son of God. We are not our own; we are bought with a price.”

Austin Farrer: from The Crown of the Year