A non-musician friend sent me this joke and I can’t resist sharing it!
Two musicians are walking down the street. One says to the other, “Who was that piccolo I saw you with last night?” The other replies, “That was no piccolo, that was my fife.”
Yeah, I know…but it made me laugh! And speaking of laughter….
For years I kept a Bizarro comic that showed two cowboys; one is holding a double bass and the other has a flute. As I remember it, the caption read: “You’d better wipe that smirk off your bass unless you’re looking for treble.” At the time I was half of a double bass/flute couple, so that lived on our refrigerator for years!
Not familiar with Bizarro? Well, here’s a sample; one final chuckle to wrap up the day (with apologies to banjo players everywhere).
Unusual due to the fact that tonight I cooked something from a recipe (which is an extremely rare occurrence around our house).
Granted, it wasn’t a hard or complicated recipe by any means. But, as so often happens with recipes that I see online, it looked really good, so….
I left the browser tab open to “remind” myself to do something with it. Then (after about two months) I clicked on the “easier” version, which was beginning to seem a little more likely. So now, two tabs remained open for several more weeks.
At that point I was determined to close those tabs, so I finally cut and pasted the easy recipe into my Google Doc titled, “Recipes to make (now or someday).” And after another month I bought the ingredients, which was only about three weeks ago!
And what was this recipe that captured my imagination and wouldn’t let go? Corn pudding, related to “spoonbread,” which I had looked up after seeing it mentioned in a book.
This particular recipe is a 4-ingredient, 4-minute Corn Pudding to which I added broccoli (everything is better with broccoli in my book). Both Ramesha and I give it a thumbs up.
Started making some small changes, then doing my best to stick with them. Bit by bit, new habits are forming and starting to stick. That makes me feel better and increases my commitment and determination.
I’m almost afraid to post this in case I jinx myself! 😂
“Choose joy” has been my chosen mantra many, many times throughout the years. But I love the additional wisdom contained in these words…and the photo simply says it all!
We started the day off feeling deeply inspired by Anandi’s Sunday service talk on Divine Love. Then we celebrated with French toast for lunch, followed by opening our Valentine’s cards and simply chatting for a while.
It was the sort of cold and gloomy day that’s perfect for getting cozy with a movie, so in the afternoon we watched the 1997 Cinderella featuring Whitney Houston and a whole slew of other great movie actors. I had barely heard of it before a few days ago, but it was thoroughly enjoyable.
However, it got me thinking about another version of the same musical, so…! With the patient indulgence of my wonderful husband (and after a delicious tortellini and broccoli dinner) we watched Cinderella again — this time the 1957 live television version with a very young Julie Andrews.
It was an altogether enjoyable, relaxing, and love-filled day. 💝
Doing something is always better than doing nothing.
While studying at the SF Conservatory of Music I struggled to establish consistent practice habits (and, yes, consistency in all my practices has been a lifelong issue). I’ll never forget the lesson in which my flute teacher expressed his frustration with me by saying: “Just get the flute to your lip once a day!”
In other words, don’t focus on the hours of practicing I needed to do; just get the flute to my lip…for two notes. A scale. One phrase of a piece. Consistency.
Then there was the mentor who suggested a similar thing for exercise: “Just put the shoes on and get out the door…” For half a block. For a block. For a mile. Consistency.
When I started a serious meditation practice the struggle was just as real as ever. So I told myself: “Just get your butt in the chair!” For five minutes. Ten minutes. Thirty minutes. Consistency.
It’s never gotten easy for me, but if I do it….it works!
I had no idea what Disney Plus was until I read a review for the new Pixar movie, “Soul,” and learned that Disney Plus was the only way to see it.
After a quick Google search to educate myself, I decided that it would be well worth signing up for the streaming platform just for that one movie alone. Then we got busy and “Soul” slipped off my radar…until tonight.
Which is an example of divine timing, because it was the absolute perfect ending to a challenging week, being literally what my soul needed.
What can I say? It’s not just that it’s all so extremely well done. It’s also that virtually every aspect of the story held a deep resonance for me — from band class and jazz clubs to metaphysics and family relationships — it all rang true.
And when it was over, I felt drained in that special way that happens when a movie really takes you on a journey, and you come back having had an experience that changed you from the inside out.
I’m always a little surprised, yet deeply comforted, when I “own up” to my low moments and then receive so much loving support and encouragement in return. I have the world’s best network of friends, for whom I am so very, very grateful!
One of those friends reminded me about the astrological perspective. Which brought to mind a quote from my astrologer friend, Drupada: “It’s just astrological weather.”
Yep. And like the physical weather, it can be messy and inconvenient and scary at times, but it passes. 🌈
Ramesha posted this photo last Sunday, in honor of the day — seventeen years ago! — when he asked me to marry him. I was focused on other things this past weekend, but it was such a sweet post (and so many people shared loving comments!) that I didn’t want to let it pass me by.
So, here goes yet another walk down memory lane…
As of the end of October we were officially “an item,” but spending time together wasn’t so easy, with me either serving at Ananda Assisi or touring with the Italy singers, while he worked in Lugano.
We managed to get together a couple of times in November, me taking the train to Lugano and him driving to where the singers were spending a weekend near Torino. This was also the month when Swami Kriyananda made the decision to move to India, which had us all in a certain amount of shock.
By this time, it was clear that I wouldn’t be joining Ramesha and other dear friends on the pilgrimage to India, so we had to accept the reality of spending our first Christmas and New Year’s apart. I made another train trip to Lugano in mid-December so we could celebrate our Christmas early; we were both pretty sad but did our best to look ahead to when I would travel north again to see him on his return.
He encountered flight delays, so I actually got to Lugano before he did and was able to welcome him home. My vacation time was only supposed to last two weeks, but was extended indefinitely due to the completely unexpected but quite serious legal drama being played out at the community in Assisi.
Though greatly concerned for our spiritual family, we couldn’t help feeling grateful for the opportunity — finally! — to spend a whole month together. In fact, as the weeks went by our relationship just got better in every way.
The singers had performances near Torino planned for Valentine’s weekend, so the plan was that Ramesha would drive me there, then I would go back to Assisi with the group.
I’ll never forget the Sunday before our planned departure. We had finished meditation, then enjoyed a leisurely breakfast. I was still in my comfortable but rather sloppy meditation T-shirt and leggings as we sat at the table talking; speaking of our hopes and dreams; and sharing deeply spiritual thoughts.
There was a sense of profound connection. Then Ramesha made a frustration kind of sound, said he’d be right back, returned with a little red box, and asked me to marry him. Just like that. He said his plan was to propose the following week on Valentine’s Day, but he just couldn’t wait.
