Beyond sadness and stress - looking forward to a positve future

There have been some difficult and challenging times in recent times, not the least finally saying goodbye to my mother who passed away peacefully last month. Despite all those recent events, there are some interesting things to look forward to this year: -
The brass band I play for, Betteshanger band, has a track included on a new album "The Music Lives on now the Mines have gone" . That period in the early 1980's was a very emotive time for those associated with coal mines and their closure. I was playing for Betteshanger band (the know as Betteshanger Colliery Band) back then. In those days we practiced at the pit. Many of those who worked at the Kent pits had already experienced pit closures in Wales and the north of England. Moving to Kent to finally experience loss of livelihood yet again was particularly painful for those families. The album of colliery brass bands celebrates the culture of mining communities, sadly long gone in many parts of the UK. There is heavy promotion of the album including TV footage on local news coming up soon prior to the album release in March 2010. For those in south east UK, look out for Meridian news for a feature on Betteshanger band.

Things have worked out very well for me this year so far. I've achieved a lot in my job and worked through some major issues by use of therapy (needed for the work I do). I guess I'm one of those people that really believes in counselling/therapy. It takes a few attempts at it with different therapists to finally find the right person at the right time.

Just thinking back to my dear mother and how thoughts of her link with my music, I have a particular love of a simple piece of music written by Evelyn Glennie, arranged for brass band called "A Little Prayer". On the video below, it is played by David Childs.