🌞 Sunny, clear, crisp fall weather. 💪 A bimonthly follow-up appointment that confirmed my continued strong remission. 😊 Random encounters with some really fun and interesting people. 🛒 Calm and efficient grocery shopping despite pre-holiday crowds. 💖 Ramesha in a sweet and cheerful mood throughout.
…but I started the morning feeling mildly irritated and couldn’t shake it off as the day went on.
Hence the irritated looking kitty (I can almost hear her growl).
I’m once again reminded of my astrologer friend who explained “astrological weather” to me — meaning that sometimes our inner turmoil is impersonal; it simply happens and will pass… eventually.
I sure hope I wake up on the “right” side of the bed tomorrow!
I was absolutely fascinated to stumble upon this page of “Advice” from the legendary jazz pianist/composer, Thelonious Monk. The soprano saxophonist, Steve Lacy, is the person who actually wrote these quotes down during rehearsals as a member of Monk’s band in the early 1960’s.
Reading these points provides an amazing insight into the mind of this creative genius. And, while I’m no creative genius, I do resonate with a number of his observations.
Check out this article to see the complete list typed out, but here are three that really got me:
Just because you’re not a drummer, doesn’t mean you don’t have to keep time. The way I understand this is that every musician (or singer, if we’re talking choir) has got to be all in. Not just listening to someone else do it, but actually and actively fully engaged yourself.
Whatever you think can’t be done, somebody will come along & do it. A genius is the one most like himself. Someone in the comments shared this quote by e. e. cummings: “The hardest challenge is to be yourself in a world where everyone is trying to make you be somebody else.” Personally, I found myself thinking of how Swami Kriyananda encouraged Ananda members to be original, but in the true sense of originality: coming from one’s origin, from deep within, instead of from ego. In fact, one of Swamiji’s songs says, “Dare to be different! Dare to be free.”
(What should we wear tonight?) Sharp as possible! I like this because it tells me that Monk saw himself as a serious professional and expected the same from his band members. I feel similarly with our music on Sundays: we should be “sharp as possible” because we have the privilege of presenting our music to the whole world as part of Sunday service. I mean, what an honor!
I was all set to follow-up on my Thelonious Monk theme, but then I started seeing related articles about other great jazz musicians.
One thing led to another and… well, I now know a lot more about Chick Corea, Wynton Marsalis, Elvin Jones, Paul Desmond, and Michael Jordan(!), but I’ve run out of time to actually write the blog.
It’s been too long of a day and I’m too sleepy to get into the back story of why the great jazz pianist and composer, Thelonious Monk, has been on my mind today.
It’s something really cool (to me, at least), but it will have to wait until tomorrow.
In the meantime, I started re-listening to some of his recordings and thought I’d share this one with the legendary jazz saxophonist, John Coltrane. Exquisitely beautiful.
Sometimes I have an idea for a blog post but don’t get to it right away. Occasionally, it rolls around in my brain long enough that by the time I sit down to write, I’m no longer sure that I didn’t already write it!
When that happens I usually review my recent posts. But tonight I also decided to check that I hadn’t started out but then saved it as a draft.
I was surprised — in fact, I was rather shocked — to discover that I’ve accumulated fifty-seven draft blog posts. Fifty-seven!
Yikes!
The oldest dates all the way back to September 2019 — only a few months after I started blogging. It’s going to be interesting to step back in time and see whether any are still pertinent and usable…or whether I’ll be doing a lot of deleting.
Christmas Concert 2019 (in the Temple of Light at Ananda Village)
There’s a not-so-subtle shift that happens for me pretty much every year about this time.
Basically, no matter how early we start preparing for the Christmas concert, there’s nothing like the week before Thanksgiving to bring everything into a razor sharp focus.
So, yeah — this is the week when the countdown clock starts ticking and the pressure begins to build.
Luckily, we had a wonderful rehearsal tonight — both Village Choir and Ensemble — so I think we’re actually in good shape.
We were winding up our day of town errands with a visit to the grocery store and I had a hankering for a cookie.
So, I walked over to the spot where there used to be an assorted cookie display. It looked a little different, but the colorful assortment was still there.
I walked to another side of the display to examine the full selection and noticed that some were quite large and of a rather unusual shape.
Funny, it almost looked like…yep, a bone. And that’s when the truth finally dawned on me!
Don’t get me wrong, I love dogs. And I have family and friends whose dogs are their family, which is great. But this has surely got to be an “only in America” classic. 😂
I absolutely love living in the midst of a forest of magical, golden oak trees at this magical, golden time of year.
Of course, I’ve been admiring dramatic red, orange, and yellow foliage for weeks. But there’s something about the more subtle, muted gold of the oak trees that really does it for me.
Especially since there are so many of them here, so I end up feeling surrounded by golden magic.
At any rate, this was my view as I went to get into my car shortly before sunset this evening.
It’s been quite the journey and the process has seemed to take forever, but the live recording of last year’s Oratorio is almost here (the release date is December 1st, but it can be pre-ordered now).
