Wind Chimes

Many years ago I gave my mother a wind chime for Christmas.  I thought she would enjoy having them hang outside near their patio.  I had always enjoyed my neighbor's chimes, and had even had a set of my own, though they were not a very well made fancy chime.  Their ringing was soothing and while it was somewhat the same in tone, it was always changing in tune.  At the time I still worked downtown and slipped out on my lunch hour to a store just north of downtown to select the chimes.  I loved this store because they had all kinds of nature things, including the J W Stannard wind chimes.  I spent a careful amount of time selecting the chimes because I wanted  them to be just right.  I finally settled on a six note, hexatonic scale, that was very soft and had a gentle ring.

After Christmas I wondered if she would ever hang them up and enjoy them.  I never saw them again, so I decided it was probably a bad choice in a gift.  When we were cleaning out my parents' house we came across the box with the wind chimes in it, just as it had been all those years.  As I opened the box and took them out I again heard the beautiful tones ring out.  So I brought them home and put them just outside my back door.  They are under the eave of the house so they don't catch a full breeze, but just enough to give them an occasional burst of quiet harmony. 

Last winter I had hung them in the garage and would occasionally brush against them in getting in and out of the car.  During the long cold days of winter they would lift my spirit with their soft peals.  Outside, their ringing always surprises me, but then it also quickly reminds me to be happy, no matter how crazy the day.   And I remember to slow down and take the time to enjoy life's simple pleasures and to appreciate the beauty of life.