(not necessarily in that order)
We had a beautiful Easter morning (oh, right — Happy Easter, everyone! 🌷) and a delicious Easter lunch with friends afterwards.
But the main focus of the day has been packing, packing, and more packing!
Making progress but still have a ways to go before I can hit the sack.
We leave first thing tomorrow morning, so it’s definitely down-to-the-wire time!
Last night at this time we were soaring in the afterglow of the Oratorio.
Today was back to earth time, but with a pretty bumpy landing.
The fact is that — despite being totally excited to go — I’ve been struggling with the reality of packing for our trip to Europe.
It’s overwhelming for several reasons. The first and most obvious is the short amount of time between finishing the Oratorio and leaving (two days!).
There’s also the fact that we haven’t traveled internationally in almost four years, so all the prep is feeling sort of strange and unfamiliar.
Finally, we need to leave the apartment in decent shape because a friend from Ananda India will be staying here while we’re away.
So, yeah. I’m feeling a little stressed.
That’s what tonight’s performance of Christ Lives: An Oratorio was: an experience beyond words!
In fact, we had to invent some new ones to capture how we felt when it was over.
Instead of “shell-shocked”, we were “JOY-shocked”; and instead of gobsmacked, we were “GOD-smacked.”
It was such a powerful experience that I can’t even write about it yet.
It was an early morning after a long day/late night, but this moon made it feel magical.
I love full (and almost full) moons!
I think spring might finally be here to stay (let’s hope)!
Working late, but finally off to bed… after midnight!
And with a big day tomorrow. 🤦♀️
There’s still so much to do before Oratorio, Easter, and then departure for Europe!
It’s all starting to blur together…sort of like in this photo!
I was catching up with a friend I hadn’t seen in some time, comparing notes on life and its lessons.
We got pretty philosophical, agreeing on the importance of not being overly focused on oneself. But then she shared something that I found extremely helpful.
Basically, she related how she had made the decision that: “If I’m going to think about myself, let it be something good.”
When she said that I immediately found myself reflecting on how the tendency is to spend tons of time focused on me, but almost all of it is negative self talk. It’s the worst of both worlds!
So, I’m going to adopt this as my own and practice telling myself good things about me.
Okay, I confess: I picked the number at random.
But the point is that today I encountered something new to add to my already very long list of things I love about Ananda.
We were at a birthday party for two dear friends, with probably twenty or thirty people in attendance.
The organizer got us all seated in preparation for some sharing of stories about the birthday people, but one of them had a niece who wanted to read a story to us. So just like that — no questions asked — we all sat quietly and listened to her read her book to us. She was also very careful to show us the illustrations on every page.
I found it both wondrous and utterly charming. First of all, that she felt safe and comfortable enough to share in that way (especially considering that many of us weren’t close acquaintances of her family).
And secondly, that all the adults in the room gave her our focused, respectful attention, with absolutely no impatience or condescension.
A lovely, magical moment in time.