The Head of the Year

My dear Friends
Today is the first day of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. Unable to get to the Synagogue, as I have a heavy cold, I felt it important to make an entry on the blog so have struggled down to the corner of Spadina and Bloor, to the Joy internet cafe. I have just bought a beautiful big apple and some lovely honey in the Muslim shop further up the street. When I entered the internet cafe, run by Gabriel, we were joined by a guest called Ivona, while I said the Hebrew blessing over fruit, cut up the apple, and poured the honey over, in the hope to have a shana tova umetukah - a good and sweet year. May it be a peaceful one for all of us.

You may wonder why the title of this piece is head of the year. The Hebrew word rosh actually means head, and I have a rather poignant story to share with you about this. Some years ago I was asked to visit a lady in her fifties, who had been completely unable to move for some time. She was born in Russia, been a ballerina, and even when already crippled had directed a ballet troupe. I went and chatted with her by her bedside in Cambridge, accompanied by her four cats! I suggested that I might sing to her with my guitar the next time. She agreed, and love the Jewish music I sang to her.

I told her it might be a little while before I saw her again as it was going to be the Jewish New Year. As I was on the point of leaving and at the door, she called out: When did you say it would be the Head of the Year?' I had not mentined the word head, so I reckoned it came straight up from her subconscious. And her deep association with the Jewish people.

Soon after, she died, and I sang Jerusalem of Gold in Hebrew with my guitar at her funeral.

A new beginning for her, and me, and may it be so for all of you.
With heartfelt New Year greetings and Shalom
Sister Gila

Art among the hoodoes

My dear Friends
I couldn't leave the Badlands (although I am back in toronto) without describing one of the most beautiful aspects of the trip-the art. I met Leila and Dan in the art gallery in Drumheller, and i was struck by their welcome as well as their art. The name Leila in Hebrew and Arabic means Night and this unusual lady has developed a great talent for abstract art. Trained in the Red Deer College, not too far from Drumheller, which is visited by international artists, she paints large canvases on what seem to me to be deeply Biblical themes, with a difference...for example the one I liked best was an angular-faced man with a long beard and body, all covered in 'eyes'...yes, definitely a visionary, like Moses or Abraham.

Leila drove me to Carbon, a 'one-horse' town, but with an art gallery and the best upright piano with smooth silvery keys that i have played on for a long time. Actually I played on another beautiful upright while I was out West, followed by a Steinway Grand when I returned, but that is another story. Carefully observing the exhibits in Carbon, my eye fell upon a beautiful pot which Dan, Leila's husband had made, and i had just enough money to buy it.

Out back of the gallery there is a beautiful garden, with many herbs and resting places. A nice gentleman showed us round. It is Leila's dream to one day visit the galleries of London and Paris, and I hope with all my heart that she will be able to do so.

Shalom for now
Sister Gila

Japanese soup

My dear Friends
Who would expect to find Japanese soup, and delicious at that, in the middle of the Badlands? But tucked away across the street from the public library is a charming coffee shop/restaurant with the quintessentially Canadian name of Molly Brown's Caffe.

Discreet tables and wonderful music lead you to the counter where a smiling Japanese lady takes your order with the greatest respect. Alicia has been running this cafe for several years and came to Drumheller from the little Rocky Mountain town of Canmore, where I went with my cousin Ann many years ago.

Have you ever had the feeling of walking into an 'eating house' and feeling you just 'belong?' That's how I feel in Alicia's place, to say nothing of the soup, whose name I have already forgotten, but whose taste I will always remember.

I leave Drumheller in 2 days and go to the big city of Calgary before returning to Toronto; I carry many beautiful memories with me.

Shabbat Shalom. Peaceful Sabbath
Sister Gila

Drumheller

My dear Friends

The flight from Toronto to Calgary was great. I had a nice companion along the way, and it was interesting to realize how much i recognized the landscape from all those years ago. My cousin's son, who now lives on Prince Edward Island (Anne of Green Gables country) was there to meet me and apparently he had no difficulty in recognizing me. Although he thought he might have to look for a lady in a habit!

Actually it was hot, so i quickly changed into my shorts and we talked all the way back on the 80 mile journey. And then i met my late cousin's husband. Bill, and it was just like old times.

Today i have been wandering round Drumheller talking to people who have wanted to share their many and varied experiences of my cousin Ann, who left her mark on this little town and is remembered in so many different ways.

Time is running out on the computer in the local library so more later!

Shalom from the Badlands in Alberta
Sister Gila

Serenade at breakfast

My dear Friends

I have been staying for two nights with Eleanor in the Annex, the neighbourhood where I will one day live for good. She has a piano, so yesterday I sang a little and played-I am not really a pianist, but my busking is good enough to accompany my singing.

My brother Ronnie, who was 20 years older than me, was a bit of an impresario, and brought over the Omsk Russian Ensemble to Britain to give some concerts. One of their pieces, in Russian of course but translated into English, was 'Willow Tree.' It is a beautiful and simple piece about a girl asking a willow tree if her lover will come back to her. Reminds me of 'Der Nussbaum', a German piece by Schumann on a similar theme.; the girl standing under the Nut Tree hears the leaves rustling, as if her lover is calling to her.

Eleanor's late husband played the guitar; I noticed it standing in the corner of the breakfast room. Also staying was the English producer of a new film SKIN so at breakfast I serenaded her with three songs: Donna Donna, The summertime is coming and Psalm 23 in Hebrew. This film SKIN is important: set around a lady born to 2 white parents in South Afrrica and with a black skin. Try to see it when it comes to your local cinema from the Toronto Film Festival, on at the moment and second only to Cannes.

So we were 2 artists attempting the same thing: to move the hearts of people by our filming and our singing. I told the lady that if you move only one heart in a lifetime its enough.

A few years ago I sang and was interviewed about Joy one Christmas morning, on BBC Radio Cambridgeshire.The interview only lasted 5 minutes, but when I heard the performance later I thought to myself: if I die in the night tonight, I will die happy.

Thank God for music, and art and film!
Shalom from Toronto, the 24 hour city
Sister Gila

My cousin Ann

My dear Friends
In Toronto today, I got the news that my cousin Ann from Drunheller, near Calgary, has just died. Here is the piece from me which will be read out during the funeral next Wednesday- sadly, I will not arrive until the next day.

My cousin Ann

'Come to the Hoodooes!' I can almost hear Ann say. And so I did, nearly 30 years ago - how could I have known that I myself would be emigrating to the other side of the country she went to as a 'pioneer' with her Dad.

Over the years, on the few visits that I made, we dined out in the Rockies, trying different foods, striding out in a canoe on Lake Louise - a first for both of us: 'Throw your camera to the other boat, so they can take a picture, as back home they willnever believe me!' Ann cried.

Bonded together as Jewish Christians, on a later visit she would come to Mass with me and I would go to the Salvation Army with her on Sunday mornings. Like most Jewish Christians, she went deeper into her Jewish roots as she got older.

She was a late developer and an explorer and I am proud that she has carved out the way for me.

Thank you, my friend in Heaven!

Shalom from Gillian

(Sister Gila)

*Hoodooes are strange boulder type rocks which rise up from the ground in Alberta