Leolinda Bowers Phoenix, Arizona Retirement Communities

Aloha! I am the Designated Broker, Realtor® at Leolinda Realty in Sun City Grand. Licensed as a Realtor since 2004, I specialize in real estate sales in Arizona West Valley Golf Retirement Communities.

I have Bachelor of Science Degrees in Chemistry and Biology and a Masters Degree in Business Administration with Project Management concentration.

As a year-round Sun City Grand resident and full-time Realtor®, I can help you buy and/or sell real estate in the golf retirement communities of Sun City Grand, Sun City West, Corte Bella, Arizona Traditions, Sun City Festival, PebbleCreek and Trilogy at Vistancia.

Buyers and sellers receive what they desire when selecting me as their estate agent: an experienced, dedicated, well-educated, professional local Realtor® who specializes in real estate in Arizona golf retirement communities.

Please stop by my office anytime. I am located in Sun City Grand at 14800 W Mountain View Blvd.

I live here, I work here, I know this community!

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Christmas Bells Are Ringing

Dec. 2022

I love Christmas. First and foremost because it heralds the arrival of HOPE, needed today worldwide as much as it ever was in those dark days 2000 years ago when it came to earth. And yes, I like the trappings of the season as well. Over the past dozen years I’ve written about most of them in our Christmas Blog: Childhood memories. Nativity Sets. Poinsettias. Candy Canes. Christmas Trees and Lights. Candles. Christmas Cards, Santa, Stockings. Christmas Carols & Stories. This time round, my topic is Bells.

The first bell I’d like to talk about, is a mini-mighty one. It is tinkled by volunteers standing in the cold next to red buckets marked with the emblem of The Salvation Army. I think that small tinkle gets to the very heart of Christmas, giving from the heart, to those in need, with no wish, desire, or expectation for or of recompense. Pure giving. Christ-like. Beautiful. The best of all our Christmas gifts. I call that little tinkle of the Salvation Army, JOY BELLS. Every time you hear that tinkle, drop a little something into that red bucket. Every time. Even when you just gave at another store, or another day. JOY. You’ll feel it every time.

Perhaps that is why so many of the songs associated with Christmas center around bells. Whether tinkled by a volunteer, or jingling from a sled harness, they are a happy, hopeful, inspite of the cold, hard, or bleak in which the ring.

In my internet searches, I was astounded to learn that close to 4,200 Yuletide lyrics sing of bells. Here in the U.S., over 100 artists across 47 albums have sung of Christmas bells. Over the years, I’ve had the pleasure of singing in a number of fine choral groups, and just off the top of my Santa-capped head recall singing “bell” songs as varied as:

Silver Bells

Jingle Bells

Ding Dong, Ding Dong, Christmas Bells are Ringing

I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day, and

Carol of the Bells.

Of these, the two most poignant for me were and remain, Carol of the Bells,

and, I heard the bells on Christmas Day

Given the state of our world at the moment, even more so. Let me share the lyrics of both, along with a bit of the “rest of the story’ on why I think right now they are most apropos.

Carol of the Bells

Hark how the bells, Sweet silver bells, All seem to say, “Throw cares away.”

Christmas is here, Bringing good cheer, to young and old, Meek and the bold,

Ding -Dong, Ding-Dong, That is their song, With Joyful Ring, All Caroling,

One seems to hear, Words of good cheer, Oh how they pound, Raising the Sound,

O’er hill and dale, telling the tale. Joyfully they ring, While people sing, Songs of good cheer, Christmas is here. Merry, merry, merry, merry Christmas. On, on. They send, On without end, Their joyful tone, To every Home… (Repeat from the beginning.)

I invite you to find and listen to this carol. There are many versions on the internet. All are haunting. The song builds in power and intensity. More so when you realize the music was written by a Ukrainian composer, Mykola Leontovych in 1916. Yes, right in the middle of “the war to end all wars,” WW1. It was a time of great upheaval in the Ukraine. The song, based on a Ukrainian folk tune called “Shchedryk” was about a swallow. A swallow was considered a harbinger of Spring, and Spring of hope and new life. It was meant to buoy the spirit of the people. How ironic, huh? May it do that for them now, as it did then. The song didn’t receive the makeover we are familiar with till 1936, when Peter J. Wilhousky wrote the anglicized lyrics that converted it from a New Year’s song of hope to a Christmas Carol.

The second Carol, I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day, evolved out of an 1863 poem entitled “Christmas Bells” by American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

This poem bared the poet’s sense of melancholy, deepest sadness, and loss. It was penned in the middle of our Civil War, a war in which his son Charles was severely wounded in the Battle of Mine Run. Longfellow had also recently lost his wife in a fire, and himself was critically injured in his failed rescue attempt of her. It was a rock bottom time for our nation, and for Longfellow. Despondent, in deepest grief, on Christmas morning Henry heard the pealing of the bells in a nearby church, and overcome with emotion, set pen to paper. The reflections that poured from his heart ranged from despair to an affirmation of faith and hope. The original poem was rather long, so here I’ll share just a few of the salient verses.

I heard the bells on Christmas Day, Their old familiar carols play. And wild and sweet, The words repeat, of Peace on earth, good-will to men!

Then from each black, accursed mouth, The cannon thundered in the South. And the sound, the carols drowned, Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And in despair I bowed my head; “There is no peace on earth,” I said;

“For hate is strong, and mocks the song, Of peace on earth, good-will to men!”

But he ended the poem, which was later lyrically altered and put to music*, on a note of triumph.

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep… God is not dead, nor doth he sleep. The wrong shall fall, the right prevail, with peace on earth, goodwill to men.

May all of you join me in repeating that last verse as your Christmas prayer and affirmation of HOPE. Better yet, sing it. For as Father Warren, my old Franciscan music professor told us 65 years ago, “Singing is twice praying.” The world needs our song.

A blessed Christmas.

* Johnny Marks, working off earlier versions of Longfellow’s poem to music, scored the music into its present form in 1956. Bing Crosby recorded the song on October 3, 1956 (Feast day of St. Francis of Assisi, who introduced re-enactments of the Nativity, which later led to the Nativity sets still popular in Christian Christmases), using Mark’s melody and verses 1,2,6, and 7 of Longfellow’s poem. It instantly resonated with the public, and remains to this day a Christmas classic.

Leolinda Bowers Phoenix, Arizona Retirement Communities

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