(not necessarily in that order)
I discovered and promptly fell in love with this quote by Helen Keller today:
“I believe that God is in me as the sun is in the color and fragrance of a flower — the Light in my darkness, the Voice in my silence.”
What evocative imagery! I loved being prompted to ponder “how the sun is in the color and fragrance of a flower”.
And I love absorbing myself in the truth that God is expressing in, through, and as each one of us in much the same way.
I guess I’m getting pretty darn accustomed to my Challenge lifestyle.
I was surprised when Ramesha asked whether the current Challenge was almost over; I figured I had another week or two left. But, in fact, tomorrow is the last day!
I’m not ready to say that it’s easy (especially Tuesday fast days), but it’s definitely getting easier. 😄
While reading various journal entries and random notes uncovered during my recent “dig”, I started to realize the full extent to which my life has flip-flopped every decade or so.
In 1993 I had been living in San Francisco proper for almost twenty years, and in the San Francisco Bay Area for my whole life. Although there was much I loved about SF, the issues of noise, traffic, parking, and freeways were constant.
By 2003 I had basically turned my back on my orchestral and freelance flute career in order to move to Assisi as part of an Ananda singing group. Living in the rural Umbrian countryside was a complete revelation. It was quiet and peaceful, and — now that I wasn’t in the midst of millions of other people — I discovered that I could actually tune into my own energy.
But by 2013 I was living in Los Angeles, of all places! Well, Swamiji had asked so we went, determined to serve Ananda and Master with as much joy and willingness as we could muster. But in LA the issues of noise, traffic, parking, and freeways were magnified a thousand fold.
And now, we’re getting close to 2023, and I’m grateful to be living at Ananda Village. It’s not quite as serene of an environment as Umbria, but it’s totally quiet and tranquil compared to SF or LA! Not to mention that it’s populated by a very high percentage of saintly souls.
It has indeed been a study in contrasts, but every contrast taught me valuable lessons and ultimately ended up making me that much more grateful for where I am and what I have.
I’m intrigued to realize what a head-in-the-clouds dreamer I was in high school!
The closest thing to practical on this list of goals is the last one: move out after graduation. At least that had some bearing on real life.
Well, I did manage to attend some little bit of the Monterey Jazz Festival (although I don’t remember a single thing about it). And I did go to Europe with a jazz band when I was seventeen.
But the Montreux Jazz Festival (in Geneva, Switzerland)?!? Buy a Porsche (or/and an Austin Healy)?!? Visit the South Pacific?!? Go to the Olympics (mind you, only as a spectator)?!?
I’m pretty sure that at this point in my life I didn’t have a job, and wasn’t even looking for one.
Grounded in life’s practicalities I was not. 🤦♀️
I spent hours today excavating piles and digging through layers.
There were artifacts dating back to the ancient “high school” era. Other finds were more recent but equally surprising (I found my checks!).
Lots of useless papers were thrown away, but now I have to actually figure out what to do with the stuff I want to keep!
I keep thinking about the Grumpy Cat phenomenon.
I sort of get it why and how this kitty became popular. I’m sure many people were charmed by her sweet yet disgruntled expression and found the snarky quotations of the memes entertaining as well. I couldn’t help laughing at them, myself!
And I think it’s great that the cat’s owner saw what was happening and seized the opportunity to create a fun and lucrative business out of her cat’s popularity.
But, I mean…! Even if you’re already in attendance at SXSW, why would you spend three hours in line waiting to have your picture taken with…a cat?!?
Now, it’s not like I think we should only do “meaningful” (i.e. “serious”) things. Heck, I like to laugh; I love musical comedies; and I probably spend more time than I should reading light and entertaining novels. But there’s no way I’m going to put out significant time, energy, and/or money to go somewhere in order to do something that’s essentially meaningless.
I find myself yet again giving fervent thanks for a life that’s filled to overflowing with beauty, with love, and with meaningful work and relationships…right where I am, every single day.
I was feeling rather out of sorts, and started looking for a photo that matched my mood.
I searched on the words “irritated”, “angry”, and “bad mood”, but nothing was quite right. Then I noticed the above pic and realized that “grumpy” exactly described how I was feeling.
However, I would have liked a better pic, so I decided to search for more images of “Grumpy Kitty” and discovered “Grumpy Cat” — a real live (well, now she’s deceased) cat who became an internet sensation because of her grumpy expression.
I became rather fascinated as I read (on Wikipedia) about this cat, who as of August 23, 2020, had 8.3 million total likes on Facebook, 2.6 million followers on Instagram 1.5 million followers on Twitter and 283,000 subscribers on YouTube.
I mean, really?!? Yes, really!!!
Check out this paragraph (also from Wikipedia): CNN, CBS News, and CNET called Grumpy Cat the undisputed “biggest star” of SXSW Interactive [in 2013] over Elon Musk, Al Gore, and Neil Gaiman. Over 600 fans waited for hours in the line, which was nearly three blocks long, to take a photo. Among the crowds were Internet entrepreneur Dennis Crowley, singer Andrew W.K., and actor Ian Somerhalder. Somerhalder took photos with Grumpy Cat and called her his “new love”, and described her as “very peaced out”, “sweet as pumpkin pie”, and “kind of amazing”.
The good news? As I reflected on the crazy, crazy world in which we live, I realized I was no longer grumpy. Yay!
Now I’ll leave you with a few of the memes that made Grumpy Cat famous.😂
A while ago I signed up to cook dinner for the Village internship program…and then promptly forgot about it. (I have no idea why I didn’t put it on my calendar — duh!)
A couple of days ago I got a reminder about it, and I have to confess that my first thought was, “Oh no! Do I really have time to do this?!?”
Well, tonight was the night, and (as usual) I’m soooo glad I didn’t bail.
Why? Let me count the ways…
All in all, an extremely satisfying evening.
Today was not about getting big things done.
It was hot and I was fasting. Not a great productivity combo for starters.
Then I encountered setbacks with a couple of government websites and decided I’d better wait until tomorrow to try again (normal blood sugar levels should help).
So I’m ending the day thinking about the tortoise, and how “slow and steady won the race!”
There are things I’ve been procrastinating about for way too long, but I got one of the biggies done today (YAY ME!).
So, I’m taking it easy on the blog-writing tonight. 😊