A Special Valentine Wish to my Friends At the Epsom Chinese Rest Home, Auckland. New Zealand.  15 February 2012.

Today I went to play piano for my dear friends at the Chinese rest home, which is in Epsom.  I love going to this home to sing and play, and I also love going to the one in Browns Bay, and to the home in Stanmore Bay, both on the North Shore of Auckland.

My friend played his ER HU today. His Chinese  ER HU music has become a regular part of our ‘show’, and is much appreciated by the residents at the home, many of who have lived their working lives in China, and so miss all their friends and relatives over there very much, as well as the culture.  The old Chinese music which my friend plays on the ER HU is just so painfully and  so equisitely beautiful, even to my Western ears.  It has a profoundly nostalgic effect on the old Chinese residents.  You can hear the running streams in the music, the mountains, the people, the colour of the sky, and all these things are expressed in their eyes as they listen to the Er Hu. This is remarkable music, especially the beautiful tunes which were composed by the blind musician, composer and Er Hu player.

We have also worked out some songs which we can play together,  such as Jingle Bells, and Auld Lang Syne, which help to create a wonderful sense of unity, despite the language barriers – I don’t speak any Chinese, and he does not speak English, except for ‘thankyou’.

Today we were lucky to have some boys from the local Grammar school turn up to spice up our afternoon.  Two of them played piano, and all of them sang very well.  We got a little choir together at the end of the afternoon, and they, being the incredibly good sports that they are, obligingly sang things for the residents, like ‘Amazing Grace’, and ‘Silent Night’, and the old Irish protest-peace song ‘Kevin Barry’.

I  always encourage my friend to get this ancient Chinese instrument out.  He plays it so well.  He was a high school teacher in China in his prime, teaching Chinese language.  He learned to play the ER HU in his teens, while he was studying to be a teacher.  That was all a very long time ago, but he still plays the instrument with much feeling, and much technical skill.

I had been thinking of going to work overseas.  But the reality is that I cannot leave all these lovely people any more.  They would all be very sad if I left them, yet again.  So many times have I done this.  Leaving them and moving to Wellington.  Making new friends at new rest homes in Wellington, and then leaving these Wellington people to return to Auckland.  Each time you leave, people get sad.  They miss you, and you miss them, and this causes a whole lot of sadness for us all.

So, since I have finished my degree in Wellington, and my two young sons are no longer studying or working in Wellington, I will not go there again to live.  For the meantime, I am going to enjoy being with all these dear people whom I have come to love up here, and who love me so well.

My rest home friends make my afternoon of piano playing and singing such a joy.  I am given so much more than the fee which is paid me.  Through them, I think I have learned more compassion, love and understanding.  My elderly friends have so much to offer in the way of spiritual gifts.  They are kind and good and generous.  Dear Lord, I pray for all elderly people in homes all over the world.  St Valentine, please think of them.

Karuna Devi.