Wishing everyone a fun-filled and obstacle-free Halloween!
* Ganesha = remover of obstacles
Happy Ganesha* Halloween!
What I did today
Yesterday we moved much of the music office. We mostly focused on desks and making sure computers were set up and working, but other furniture and boxes had to be moved as well.
Of course, there was the usual messy debris left over, plus one last pile of items to be sorted (home, office, trash).
Which is what I did today! Now the old music office is looking quite empty (except for a few odd bits of furniture awaiting a new home) and really clean, while I’m feeling very tired!
Something devotional to end the week…
One of my most favorite songs of all time (thank you, Maitri Jones!), made even more beautiful with the addition of the perfect images (thank you, Neha Chakravarty)!
Thanks also to my sweet hubby, Ramesha, with whom I get to make such glorious music.
And thanks most of all to Swami Kriyananda and Paramhansa Yogananda…for everything.
Momentum Dash message for today
I use Momentum Dash for my new tabs. I love the photos and the quotes, and the daily message often hits home.
Sometimes — like today — the photo and message combine to really get my attention.
I wasn’t the least surprised to read, “Campagna (countryside), Italy” as this photo caption; I instantly recognized it as Italy.
And I interpreted the message as meaning to never stop dreaming about returning to my other “home” — Europe — namely Switzerland and Italy.
I miss our friends and family in both places so very, very much. But the time will come!
First chaos, then order
Reminding myself of this truth as we prepare to move the music office in the next couple of days!
It’s a little hard to work in the midst of increasing chaos, but there’s really no way around it.
Soooo…I’m doing my best to embrace the process.
Leaves that glow
Oh, how I love this time of year!
I love how autumn leaves seem to glow from the inside out, making me wish I could enter into their pure, vibrant colors.
Seeing the leaves also blanketing the ground this morning reminded me of an experience I had many years ago in Lithia Park (when I lived in Ashland, Oregon).
One of my favorite spots to sit and contemplate was a picnic table next to the creek, which was shaded by a huge maple tree. Well, one autumn day I arrived at my spot and not only was the tree transformed by golden autumn leaves, but the picnic table and the ground in every direction was covered in golden autumn leaves. I felt like I had entered into a magical, golden world.
It was astral, an experience I’ll never forget.
Plan vs reality
This pretty much describes my day. I hope to get more done tomorrow!
More about Tondi Gelato
Our last day in Santa Barbara was so full and exhausting that I didn’t have the time or energy to adequately sing the praises of Tondi Gelato.
First, some back story…
We had headed out to downtown Santa Barbara that afternoon with the intention of checking out the La Arcada Plaza, a cute shopping area.
But on our way we drove right past El Presidio de Santa Bárbara and decided we wanted to check that out as well.
But after we parked the car, we realized we were right next to a huge and very intriguing building (it turned out to be the City Hall) and we just had to explore it.
So, we ended up walking around City Hall, then down and around the Presidio, then back up and around La Arcada. By the time we got back to the car we were feeling a little pooped, but Ramesha suggested getting gelato, which gave us a second wind!
The only thing is that the gelato place ended up being rather elusive. Thanks to less than helpful GPS directions we ended up walking way out of our way and still couldn’t find it even after asking someone for directions.
We were laughing pretty hysterically at this point and were close to giving up, when we finally found it! And boy were we glad we did!
First of all, this is totally the real deal Italian gelateria. We ended up meeting the owner (Tondi is his nickname), who grew up in both Italy (near Lago di Garda) and Santa Barbara, and we really enjoyed chatting with him.
And the gelato was soooo good! You must go if you’re ever in Santa Barbara!
Ready for rain!
It’s a good thing we enjoyed those last few days of Indian summer in Santa Barbara, because now we’re gearing up for the biggest rainstorm we’ve seen in quite a while.
Really glad I followed my intuition and bought both rain jacket and waterproof walking shoes before we went out of town!
A foggy departure day
We packed up and left Santa Barbara fairly early, so I didn’t have time to take pictures. But I deeply appreciated Santa Barbara’s parting gift of FOG!
I especially enjoying heading inland and looking back over the completely socked-in coast, while ahead of us were patches of blue as the sun came breaking through. That was my daily reality for decades in San Francisco and it was like a piece of my heart went, “Ahh…that’s what I’ve been missing!”
So, now we’re home; very happy we went and even happier to be back.