The idea of the harp in connection to some higher realm started the exploration of harp therapy. I bought the Cradle of Sound by Christina Tourin. I bought the 3 disk DVD of Therapeutic Harp by Williams. As I played, in the lower level of my parents house, the caregiver we had hired to take care of my dad who fell earlier in the year and broke his hip heard me playing harp and decided to buy one. While she was there, she bought a basic one and then upgraded to a dusty strings harp. She played every day though she had not played any music and struggled with the notation and with tuning. Still she braved taking the harp to a gathering and played along with a CD, kind of like lipsyncing only handsyncing.
This should have made me braver in my harp playing, seeing how willing she was to reach out into the world and bring even a few notes to better the environment where she was a caregiver.
Though my notes had inspired her, I failed the inspiration test at that point. I put the harp aside. To be revisited.
This was a dark spell where my father was failing and requiring 24 hours care. He had dementia, a catheter, a fragile heart, was a fall risk and wouldn’t stay down. My mother responded to the stress with her own dementia and feeling that people were bringing things and putting them in her closet and taking her money and jewels, etc. Throwing things.
I was the key person in the daily what should we do with the folks and how to keep them safe. My brothers came and helped so much. Truly I thought I was there to help my daughter finish college with a small child and so when she graduated in June of 2010 and I moved back to Portland.