Make Your Music, Even When Your Organ is Broken

Last night, I learned the story behind the writing of the Christmas carol, Silent Night or Stille Nacht, for all the German-speakers out there.

As the story goes, the organ in a small parish just outside of Salzburg, had broken and the priest worried that there would be no music for the Christmas Eve service.  It promised be a silent night, indeed.  

But Father Joseph couldn't bear the thought of a silent church on a night when there should be celebration and singing.  He wanted--needed--to make music that night.  He could feel neither calm nor bright until he had.

So he sought out the help of a friend from a nearby village, Franz Gruber, who was an organist and schoolmaster.  With him, Father Joseph brought the words of a poem that he had written, a poem inspired by the birth of a precious child in the village.  He asked Franz to compose a new Christmas carol that could be sung during mass and accompanied by a guitar.  

"But," Franz hesitated, "I only know three chords on the guitar..."

"Then it will be a song with three chords," replied Father Joseph.

And so, in a few short hours, using his three chords, Franz composed a simple carol and performed the song with Father Joseph at mass that night.  And, as the story goes, glories streamed from heavan afar as they joined the heavenly hosts in their resounding Alleluia!

In this holiday season, and throughout the year, we all have gifts to offer, we all have music to make.  Sometimes we run up against obstacles: our organs break and we feel like we lack the knowledge or the skill or the time to make the world better.  We feel like we are playing a guitar with only three chords.  

But sometimes, when we work with what we have been blessed with and share our gifts with others--we can create beautiful music together.  

As it happens, Stille Nacht is one of the most recognized and well-known Christmas carols in the world.  And people are still making music with this same melody 200 years later.  This story reminds me to see difficulties as opportunities and to seek out chances to make my own music. I hope that you will take a moment and ask yourself where you have the opportunity to sing a new song as well.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and a Blessed New Year to you and yours.  

Sleep in heavenly peace, indeed.  

A Day in the Life

Since I've arrived in Florence, people have been asking me questions like, "so, what exactly is it that you do?"

Honestly, living in Florence isn’t that much different than living anywhere else.  In fact, I do a lot of the same things that I’ve always done...

I wake up in the morning and think about the things that I have to do for the day. Sometimes I have to hit the snooze button once or twice.

Then, I head to work.  Some days, the traffic is just awful.

But honestly, with a view like this, I can’t complain too much about my commute.

I say “ciao” to my BFFs while I’m on my way.  They're usually just hangin' out...

I get to the office and greet my boss and my colleagues.  We work really hard.

For lunch, I can usually track down a decent panino....

Okay, I’ll admit, eating one of Luca’s sandwiches is more like religious experience than your average lunch.

On the way home, I marvel at my ostentatious neighbors.  Forget about the Joneses—here in Florence, we’re trying to keep up with the Medici!!

The wine here is, you know, just okay.  I make a pretty big sacrifice and always buy the locally made stuff…you know me, always thinking about the environment…

If it’s been a particularly rough day, I might just grab a pizza on the way home…

But I always save room for dessert!

So, I guess you could say that I have it pretty rough here.  

But what can I say? I’m doing what I love in a place that I love. I’m willing to make a few sacrifices….

Favorite Quote

Here is a quote that I just love:

"If I am an advocate for anything, it's to move.  As far as you can, as much as you can.  Across the ocean, or simply across the river.  The extent to which you can walk in someone else's shoes or at least eat their food, it's a plus for everybody.  Open your mind, get of the couch, MOVE."

-Anthony Bourdain

What is your dream trip?  What adventures can you find, even in the city where you are currently living?

The Gift of Silence

Walking home from an event on Monday night, I was blessed with the opportunity to see Florence in a way that I am not sure I have ever seen it before: in silence.

Sometimes I forget where I am--just the same way we always forget where we are.  It's so easy to get lost in work or the people around us or Christmas shopping and, especially when you are running on a schedule as short as a semester, everything seems so important.  We just don't take the time to stop and breathe.  It's easy to lose sight of the big picture when you are engrossed in the details.

But, sometimes I remember exactly where I am.  And, I have to say, those moments are exhilarating.  My heart skips a beat and I have to physically stop whatever I'm doing to savor a particular view or a particular sound or a particular smell.  Monday night, I had one of those moments.

I was walking along the river and suddenly found myself alone: the people that had been walking behind me, passed in front of me and by some magical miracle, there were no cars on the road.  It was just the river and me, the buildings and me, the bridges and me, the stories and me.  So I guess you could say that even though I was alone, I was well-accompanied.

I paused to drink in the sound of the water, the lights on the bridge and the beautiful solitude of it all.  For a moment, I was the only person in Florence.  

Even though I had walked that particular path dozens of times, I can't remember ever being so alone or it being so quiet.  

In a world of noise, silence can be startling.  Today I am grateful for the gift of silence.

An Open Letter to Americans Travelling and Studying Abroad

My Fellow Americans,

When leaving the train station in Florence, the first thing that you will probably notice is the McDonalds located right inside the train station and a second one directly across the street.  Every time I am returning home from the train station, I make a joke and say, "Wow!!  Thank God there is a McDonalds here!" and then everybody laughs (or sometimes, I am the only one that laughs, but I digress).

The reason the joke is funny (or, perhaps, not funny) is that there is so much truth in it.  I have met so many Americans travelling abroad who do not even try to acclimate themselves into the culture of a place they are visiting, who care less about learning new things or having authentic experiences, than they do about finding the closest H&M (I know, they are Swedish, not American) or McDonalds or just crossing sights off a list.  They pay no attention where they're going or whether their behavior or, in particular, the volume of their voices are appropriate.  They snap pictures without even taking a moment to stop and try to understand what they're looking at.  At their worst, they actually destroy the places they are visiting or living in.  It's sad, really, so sad.

Please don't mis-understand the purpose of this letter.  I am not an "America hater."  I do not hate America.  In fact, I LOVE America. I come from a family with a history firmly rooted in military service and I was raised to be a proud American.  I deeply respect the ideals upon which the United States was founded and I have deep respect for the men and women who have served in the military and the sacrifices that they have made.  In fact, that is why this whole situation makes me so frustrated.  Americans are, in general, kind, warm, open people who could bring so much to the places they visit.  They could also bring so much back to the United States.  I'm not talking about plastic miniature copies of Michelangelo's David or knock-off purses.  I'm talking about cultural knowledge, about observations, about all the parts of a person that can grow and develop thanks to time spent abroad.  Don't we owe at least that, not only to the people that we are visiting, but to ourselves?

That is why I am writing this letter, because I want Americans to demand more, from themselves and also from their fellow Americans.  When you travel, don't be afraid to try something new.  Don't be afraid to look around you and change your behavior to fit in better with the atmosphere of the place you are visiting.  Don't be afraid to admit that you were wrong.  Don't be afraid to embrace something different.  Don't be afraid to see something that might make you want to change.

To give a specific example, don't insist on English.  Yes, people speak English everywhere, it's the international language, I get it.  But you would probably be appalled if someone came into the US and demanded that you speak their language, right?  You're not obligated or expected by any means to become fluent in all the Earth's languages, but you are absolutely obligated to make a concerted effort.  Learn to say "please," "thank you," "hello," "goodbye" and "I would like."  Read it off a card, write it on your mirror, do what you have to, it's not that hard, I promise.  Language is such an integral and beautiful part of culture and if you can't at least appreciate that fact, why are you even travelling?

I can't tell you how sick I am of Italians telling me how surprised they are that I am American and I speak Italian.  I'm not saying this because I'm trying to brag about how well I speak Italian.  I still make a lot of mistakes and I still have a lot to learn.  But so many Americans don't even make the effort.  It's frankly embarrassing, especially when there are so many students who live here, many of them for months and don't even try to learn Italian.  Why does American have to be synonymous with "apathetic" and "ignorant"?  I certainly don't fit that description and I know many Americans who don't.  Try to speak the language, don't spoil the name of a country for all of us!

Don't be afraid to meander off the main drag.  Yes, see the Uffizi or the Louvre or the Taj Mahal, there is a reason that people travel to see these incredible things.  But don't be afraid to look beyond the restaurants and the shops with the flashing lights and the colorful photos outside.  In general, these places specialize in food and products that are mediocre to bad quality, at high prices.  Also, don't spend all your time eating in places that serve or sell things that you could get at home, the world is beautiful because of diversity and if you ignore that, you are probably missing out on something incredible.  That place where nobody is speaking English and the people are all locals is probably a good bet.  Unless you have a legitimate concern like a food allergy, there is not reason to be afraid to try something new, even if you don't know what exactly it is.

Please, don't be "THOSE" Americans, the apathetic and inconsiderate ones who only travel so that they have photos to post on Facebook the next week.  Recognize the beauty of diversity and be grateful that everything is not exactly the same as it is at home, if it was, what would be the point of travelling?  Furthermore, be proud to be an American, and realize that, whether you signed up for it or not, when you travel abroad, you are a representative of your country and people will make generalizations based on their interactions with you.  Be curious and show people that you care.  Try to experience something new and recognize that you may have to change your behavior in order to be culturally appropriate or polite.  This may require you to step outside of your comfort zone, but that is precisely the beautiful thing about travelling.

Before I close this letter, I must say, congratulations on your decision to travel or study abroad, I'm sure that you worked hard to get to this point.  That is precisely why you should not waste this opportunity.  This could be the very first chapter in a new story of your life. in which you can discover something new about the world and possibly have your worldview changed forever.  It happened to me and if you are brave enough to open your mind and prepare to see things in a new way, you might surprise yourself with what you can discover.

Buon viaggio!

Sincerely,

Erin Heffernan

Merci, Merci, Merci.

Thanksgiving this past week has left me thinking a lot about gratitude and the things for which I am truly grateful.

When I was visiting Paris, I saw something that I had never seen before.  Outside of a church, on one of the walls, there were several dozen plaques, all made of small white marble and they said "merci, merci, merci."

And somehow those words and that rhythm have stuck with me.  

Merci. Merci. Merci. 

 I wonder what  little miracles (or grand miracles!) had inspired these plaques, what the people who put them there were so thankful for.  Maybe they were just thankful to be alive, thankful for their families and friends, thankful for their good health. (or their noses?)  Those are always the things that I find myself appreciating the most.  

I'm thankful for the opportunity to travel, to find new (new to me, even when they are hardly "new") little pieces of the world, every week, every day. 

This past weekend, I was in Pisa.  Of course we took the obligatory pictures, but really we were there for an art exhibit featuring a number of paintings by the Russian abstract expressionist Wassily Kandinsky.

Kandinsky, Composition VII

I have studied Kandinsky, briefly.  I know some of the basic theories behind his most well-known works.  But what this exhibit gave me, apart from the cool opportunity to get really close to a handful of works by Kandinsky, was some unanticipated exposure to some Russian illustrations and folk art, something that I have NEVER seen before in my life.  And here's the funny thing, I loved it: the colors, the blend of "East" and "West," the stories and fables--the whole cultural aesthetic was beautiful.

Kandinsky, woodcut from the series Verses Without Words

Leaving this exhibit, I was prepared to book the next flight to St. Petersburg or Moscow.  To think that there was such a huge place, which such a rich culture that I knew, more or less, nothing about--those are the sorts of moments that I live for.

And so I got to thinking about all the other places in the world that I haven't visited yet (the phrase "the more I see, the less I know" comes to mind.) and all the people that I haven't met yet.  It makes my heart skip a beat to think about how many people there are and how many places that I know nothing about--and to think that someday, I might know more of them!  There are so many things that could happen, that can happen, that will happen.

So for today, I am most thankful for all the places that I have never been and all the people that I haven't met...yet.  And for the fact that I have the greater part of a whole lifetime to learn all about them.

I guess you could say that I have an awful lot to be thankful for.

Merci, merci, merci, indeed.