Chara

Chara. Greek for “joy”. The joy of giving. Char-ity. The joy of performing chamber music with friends at Menucha. The joy of Mozart's finale to the Jupiter Symphony. Joy to the world! Thomas Merton's: “Is it not obvious that when we have this freedom [to rejoice in the good of another] happiness will not only follow as a matter of course: joy would pursue us everywhere and we could not get away from it….If we rejoiced in the good that is possessed by others…we would not be able to look at a flower or a blade of grass or an insect or a drop of water or a grain of sand or a leaf, let along a whole tree, or a bird, or a living animal, or a human being, without exploding with exultation.” 

Written for friends to play at a benefit concert for the classical radio station in Portland, Oregon.