Beauty is as necessary to the spirit as food and clothing are to the body.
Fortunately, beauty is easy to invite into any home, for beauty has many faces.
What is beautiful to you? What makes you smile or your spirit soar?
That is the beauty that should surround you in your home,
and it will be shared with all who come to visit.
Seek out beauty in whatever form it speaks to you.
Surround yourself with beauty.
In the process, you will be creating something truly beautiful as well:
a lovely home graced with a happy, welcoming spirit.
~Emilie Barnes
I’m not sure how it happened, but somehow I convinced my husband to pick up a 150 year old pump organ for our parlour. This particular ancient organ had been listed online for free for a while; I had eyed it and thought about how lovely it would be to have in our old home – but I could not justify driving the distance and somehow managing to persuade my husband, who would be doing the heavy lifting, that this was a necessary item for our old fashioned life.
But somehow — wonders upon wonders — he agreed, as it turns out he was heading that particular direction for another errand. God bless husbands everywhere who pick up antiques and suffer back aches for their wives! What a good man.
“Okay, so it’s here – but how will I get it into the house,” my husband said, throwing open the van back doors and revealing a very dusty and grimy organ, which had been stored in a barn for obviously quite a long time. Right as my husband was eyeing up the ridiculous task ahead of it, a friend dropped by the house to pick something up. Perfect timing, I suggested, and nodded my head towards the friend in the driveway. I smiled and quickly ran to open the front door. It was raining, it was cold, but somehow the two men managed to carry the organ up the stairs and into the front parlour of our house — without complaining.
(photo from the ad)
Entranced with the relic of an organ, two excited little girls helped me brush off inches of dirt and grime; we worked together to do the best we could at cleaning this lovely little lady.
As soon as our task was completed and we had properly oiled and cleaned to our heart’s content, the girls were so excited to try it out. It did not take long before our parlour was singing away with the happy tunes of “Sweet Hour of Prayer” and many other sweet hymns. What a precious sound to my ears!
{I wish I could figure out how to upload a video here – it was so fun to watch this young daughter play out her hymn!}
“No family can afford to do without music.
It is a luxury and an economy; an alleviator of sorrow, and a spring of enjoyment;
a protection against vice and an incitement to virtue. When rightly used, its effects physical, intellectual and moral, are good, very good and only good. Make home attractive; music affords a means of doing this. Contribute kindly feeling, love. Music will help in this work. Keep out angry feeling. ‘Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast.
‘ Show us the family where good music is cultivated, where the parents and children are accustomed often to mingle their voices together in song, and we will show you one where peace, harmony and love prevail,
and where the great vices have no abiding place.”
It’s true – my family is not very good at sports, but we certainly love to make music. We have a guitar player, piano players, cello players, a harpist, fiddle, flute, piano players and now … a 140 year old pump organ has been added to our parlour. And while the value of a pump organ is very low in the world’s eyes, it has brought some musical fun to our day.
Left alone in a barn for many years, I am surprised this organ can actually play- but it does and we have enjoyed a few hymn sings so far around this lovely piece of history. It turns out that pump organs are just not desired by many people in our current world and as such, are not even valuable in a financial way – but in our home, we see the incredible beauty and musical value in such an old and outdated — but lovely– instrument.
“But the world needs music — the touching domestic song that tells in few words the loves,
the trials or the blisses of life —
the more sacred music that leads to the soul to communion with God —
it needs music —
it’s poor cry aloud for music;
they are tired of the inharmonious din of toil,
and a few sweet notes bring with them hours of pleasure to the weary and world-forsaken.”
{I love that this lovely old organ came from the town my husband grew up in Ontario.
My grandmother also has family connections to this city of Guelph.}
{What beautiful floral paintings on the panels…}
P.S. Now that I have shown you a part of the parlour in our little cottage farmhouse, the next post will also show parlour photos.
I will see you next time, dear friends.
by Gigi
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