Musical Friends...

<p>So the other night we were invited to a friend's house to celebrate the season musically.  She and her husband are wonderful musicians and wonderful friends.  She has been an inspiration to me in a number of ways, but the most obvious has been her spirit and spirited fight against cancer.  It ate away at her hip during the last bout and the've rebuilt it.  She looks very very frail, but promised herself three things this season, the first was our benefit concert a week after her surgery. The second was this musical "session", and the third is our annual New Year's Day Jam session where we take over a church and turn it over to music and fun. </p>
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<p>Today though.  Today she got news that the pain in her stomach is a mass pressing against the aorta.  Once I stopped swearing I asked her if there was anything she needed and if she was still up for Saturday...  I quote:</p>
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<div>"I'm still coming!  The pain can be minimal at times (it is today).  I may have a rest before we come so hope to get there between 3 and 4 p.m."</div>
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<div>We've got a cot ready for her to rest on (her hip), and I know that she's mostly unstoppable.  I ain't got nothing to complain about.  When the physio has me wanting to scream I just think about her and her three bouts with cancer and her desire to just keep singing.</div>
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<div>I keep thinking of the old Quaker hymn that's now a folk favourite:</div>
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<div>"My life goes on in endless song above Earth's lamentation....</div>
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<div>No storm can shake my inmost calm as to that rock I'm clinging,</div>
<div>Since Love is Lord of Heaven and Earth, how can I keep from singing?"</div>
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