This year, my wife Pat and I spent New Year's Eve in Maine with some friends. As we've done on a couple previous New Year's Eves, we attended the New Year's By the Bay celebration in Belfast, Maine. There were many performers in a variety of venues. Most are from Maine. We saw four different performers. Our favorites were The Gawler Family and Hawk Henries. They were relevant acts for the NewYear for different reasons.
We've seen The Gawler Family perform before and always enjoy their performances. The thing that struck me most during this year's performance was how much fun they seemed to be having. They clearly enjoyed what they were doing and enjoyed the people they were performing with. There was a lot of looking at each other and smiling. They also seemed to enjoy their audience. There were a few songs where the audience got to participate and the Gawler Family seemed to be energized by the audience participation. It was a rousing performance, with people dancing in aisles during the last instrumental song.
The Gawler Family band includes the father and mother, three daughters and a son-in-law. I had a difficult time finding a video of the entire Gawler family that I thought presented well what they do. So, I'm adding two links here: one of the parents performing with two of the daughters; and one of the 3 sisters performing.
Hawk Henries' performance was a completely different experience. Hawk Henries is a Native American flute maker and player from Maine. His performance involved him talking about the flutes he would play and instrumental performances of those flutes. For me, listening to the flutes provided a meditative experience. It was easy to close my eyes and let the soft, mellow music just float through my body. Here's an example of his music.
So, two very different types of performances. But they were both significant to me as New Year's experiences. The Gawler Family performance provided a joyful experience of interpersonal relationships. For the coming year, I pray that all people can learn to interact with each other in a respectful and joyful way, that will lead to a more loving and peaceful world. Hawk Henries' performance points more toward an inner experience of peace. There is so much going on in our world. We can become so fascinated by technology, so much involved in our work and family activities that we don't take the time to sit quietly and give ourselves some time away from the hustle and bustle. I also pray we can all allow ourselves the "luxury" of this quiet time and that it will fortify us and help us build a solid inner core, so we can more easily deal with the rest of what comes at us in life.
Happy New Year!
