Month: February 2020

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The rhythm tap path to joy

My recent blog post about dancer Bunny Briggs set me off on a voyage of discovery. I’ve loved dance forever, but I never knew there was something called “tap” and something called “rhythm tap” (a form of tap dance that includes percussive heel drops, instead of only emphasizing toe taps).

And I never knew about the men who were masters of this style of dancing. They’re quite amazing!

But here’s the thing. There is so much JOY happening when these guys dance! It’s palpable. They are having all caps FUN, but in a harmonious, cooperative, supportive, joyful kind of way.

I was marveling about this the first time I watched the second video below and then the thought came: “But I wonder what they were really like? Were they decent people? How did they treat their wives and children?” And I struggled a little bit over the age-old conflict of witnessing the ways an artist can achieve transcendence through their particular medium (dance, music, art) without being in any way a completely perfect being.

What I think, however, is that when a person gets a little taste of this kind of transcendent joy for even one moment, in just one area of their life, it makes a lasting impression. In some subtle way it leads to them wanting more.

And so the search begins, as we achieve perfection and transcendence first in this activity and then in that practice, getting another taste, another glimpse of the divine. Until we finally find the infinite love and joy we’ve been seeking by merging back into our true source.

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Tough choice

The phrase that describes how I’m feeling tonight is: Round and round and round she goes. Where she stops…nobody knows! (You just have to replace she with it…it being my mind!)

I could sit here at my laptop, sorting through all the different thoughts and ideas running through my brain in hopes of finding something inspiring to write about. But that would most likely take quite some time.

And I would rather call it a day in order to have time to meditate and still (hopefully!) make it to bed before midnight.

Tough choice, maybe. But, I think, a better choice…

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New & improved

I’m loving my new and improved office setup — especially the nice big monitor. My laptop is great but the small screen can be a challenge when there’s lots of detail work to do.

What a blessing it is to have an IT department (quick shout out to Bob S!) that can hear what’s needed and make it happen, with a great deal of joy and without any fuss or muss.

I expect my productivity levels to rise dramatically as a result. 😉

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Feeling overwhelmed?

I admit that I certainly spend more time than I like feeling overwhelmed. It’s frustrating and, ultimately, non-productive in the extreme. So when I saw that yesterday’s post by Seth Godin (one of my favorite bloggers), was titled “Overwhelmed is a choice” it got my attention.

The entire blog post is powerful, not that long, and well worth reading. Following are the points that jumped out and grabbed me (italics emphasis is mine):

The internet is infinite. For humans, anyway.
In the time you’ve been reading this, more than an hour of video has been uploaded to YouTube. You will never catch up.
….it’s natural to feel overwhelmed. Too much to sort. We want a foundation to stand on, but firm footing eludes us for a while.
And then we find it again. Because we intentionally make ourselves unaware of the rest of it.
…And right now, someone who works for you has a question, ….or a co-worker is doing something without your oversight–and it’s all proceeding without you, because total information awareness is a fiction.
Find your footing and do your work. It’s a choice.

My new battle cry: “Find your footing and do your work!” (the antidote to overwhelm) 🙂

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Creeping is happening

Bedtime is slowly creeping later and later. And, not surprisingly, my wake up time is gradually creeping back to later in the morning as well.

So, I’m writing this before choir in hopes that after rehearsal I will completely avoid turning on the computer, avoid opening Facebook on my phone, and be in bed by 11:00 pm.

No more creeping!

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Way to go, Ramesha!

Ramesha and Christian are busy working on Ramesha’s next CD. In fact, they’re just finishing their third full day in the studio and today I got to be part of the project, too (recording flute, background vocal, and clapping tracks). It was great to see and hear all the good work they’re accomplishing; I’m particularly proud of the way Ramesha is going gang-busters with this exciting new business of his!

In order to get three or four uninterrupted days they had to move back into the “original” recording studio underneath Crystal Hermitage. It felt a like homecoming for me, bringing back memories of the long weekend I spent recording Secrets of Love in October of 1999. Amazing to realize, but that was before I had even met Swami Kriyananda!

I love this photo of Ramesha from today. His joy and enthusiasm are palpable! It’s going to be a great CD. 🙂

Such bright eyes and happy smile!
Studio with a view…plus Christian in the sound booth.
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God is the Doer

I accomplished a lot today, including sorting through a bunch of old papers and mementos. I used to have a major habit of clipping or copying interesting and/or inspiring quotes, so there’s a ton of stuff to go through.

This clipping from the early 1990’s caught my attention because I had pretty much forgotten just how earnest I was in my search for truth in those days. At the time I had no idea who Bunny Briggs was, but the way he gave God all the credit really spoke to me. Reading it all these years later, I’m struck by how perfectly it matches the spiritual teaching of always seeing God as the Doer…no matter what you’re “doing”!

Of course, it was great to be able to go online and learn exactly who Bunny Briggs was. One particularly interesting tidbit is that “at one point he thought about becoming a Catholic priest but his priest told Briggs that ‘God clearly wanted him to be a dancer.'”

“I couldn’t even pick up my leg if it weren’t for God.” What a great soul.

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Do you solfege?

If not, you won’t get this musician’s joke…

How did you do?

Well, let’s fill in the gaps with some background. To start with, solfege is “the study of singing and musicianship using solmization syllables”.

Ha ha! Don’t worry, solmization was a brand new word for me, too! It means: “a system of associating each note of a scale with a particular syllable, especially to teach singing”.

Also known as…the Do-Re-Mi’s (Julie/Maria explains it so well)!

Okay, now you can go back to the image at the beginning, say your Do-Re-Mi’s backwards*, and prepare to chuckle!

The bonus is that you actually learned a little bit of music theory.

* Do-Ti-La-So-Fa-Mi-Re-Do 😉

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Om Namah Shivaya

Shivaratri is an annual event celebrating the Indian deity Shiva, the destroyer of delusion. It also happens that — twenty-two years ago — it was my very first experience at an Ananda center!

I believe Shivaratri is pretty much the most “Indian” event of the year for Ananda. At Ananda Palo Alto two decades ago, there was Indian storytelling; Indian costumes; Indian dance; someone dressed like Shiva and his consort, Parvati; Sanskrit chanting; Indian decorations; and hot chai to keep us awake all night (the traditional celebration lasts from 6pm to 6am). Definitely not the usual entry point for a brand new devotee!

Needless to say, I have fond memories of that first Shivaratri. It was all completely foreign to me — colorful and chaotic and somewhat wild — and I loved it. It was also my first taste of true devotion.

Tonight Shivaratri is being celebrated for the first time in our new Temple of Light at Ananda Village, and I was tempted to see if I could do it again. But I’ve worked so hard on establishing a healthier bedtime routine and didn’t want to risk it. So I’m honoring Shiva by reliving it in my memory instead.

Om Namah Shivaya!