Another new experience.
Spending the night in Roseville at California Sleep Solutions, hooked up to a bunch of wires. Pretty interesting, really.
Well, nighty night. 😴
Studying my sleep
Spring has sprung!🌷
I was surprised to realize 2021 was the last time I shared this video in honor of the vernal equinox!
It’s my all-time favorite springtime song. Why? Because it just makes me so happy every time I hear it!
The words are by Shakespeare; the music and the performance are by Swami Kriyananda.
Happy Spring!
It Was a Lover and His Lass
It was a lover and his lass,
With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino,
That o’er the green corn field did pass,
In spring time, the only pretty ring time,
When birds do sing, hey ding a ding ding:
Sweet lovers love the spring.
Between the acres of the rye,
With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino,
These pretty country folks would lie,
In spring time, the only pretty ring time,
When birds do sing, hey ding a ding ding:
Sweet lovers love the spring.
This carol they began that hour,
With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino,
How that a life was but a flow’r
In springtime, the only pretty ring time,
When birds do sing, hey ding a ding ding:
Sweet lovers love the spring.
And therefore take the present time,
With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino,
For love is crowned with the prime
In spring time, the only pretty ring time,
When birds do sing, hey ding a ding ding:
Sweet lovers love the spring.
Post-recording blues
Today was a bumpy reentry back to the everyday world of laundry, errands, and grocery shopping.
All while feeling quite fatigued. And more than a little cranky (though I did my best to rein it in).
Ah, duality!
Progress and butterflies
We just finished our weekend of recording and I’m pleased to report that we’ve made a really good start on our Christmas album!
People have been asking us to do this for years, decades even. So, even though there’s still a lots and lots to do, it feels really good to finally be transforming the “idea” into “reality.”
PLUS…! Today was my first butterfly sighting of the year; two lovelies joyfully dancing around one another. Made my day.
I think Spring has most definitely “sprung!”
A weekend of recording
The Joy Singers recorded all day today and we’ll be at it again tomorrow.
More to be revealed soon, but tonight I’m done in and ready for bed.
Just as beautiful after 24 years
I had the incredible blessing of playing flute on Secrets of Love back when I was still very new to Ananda.
I hadn’t yet met Swami Kriyananda (who was living at Ananda Assisi at the time), but I spent three days and nights at Crystal Hermitage, playing his exquisite melodies for hours each day. By the end I felt very close to him.
Ananda was so much smaller then, and marketing and promotion were a very different story back in 2000. Word of the new album spread throughout the immediate Ananda World and then that was pretty much it, as far as I could see.
So, one of the goals of the music ministry’s collaboration with Crystal Clarity Publishers is to reintroduce the classic albums that might be unknown to newer Ananda members — hence, the relaunch!
And I must say, I absolutely love the amazing artwork of the new cover.
Quiet as a feather
I didn’t know what to write tonight, but then I happened upon this poem by Mary Oliver (thanks, Lisa!). It hit me like a ton of bricks.
Oh, how I crave this kind of “quiet as a feather” day off. One of these days…
TODAY
Today I’m flying low and I’m
not saying a word.
I’m letting all the voodoos of ambition sleep.
The world goes on as it must,
the bees in the garden rumbling a little,
the fish leaping, the gnats getting eaten.
And so forth.
But I’m taking the day off.
Quiet as a feather.
I hardly move though really I’m traveling
a terrific distance.
Stillness. One of the doors
into the temple.
― Mary Oliver
A pastel sky
Tonight’s sunset was beautiful pastels that made me think of Easter…and how it’s almost upon us.
Which is reflected in the increased flurry of activity as preparations for our Good Friday Oratorio performance kick into high gear.
God is great and God is good
Seeing this graphic brought back sweet memories of saying grace before family meals when I was a child.
God is great and God is good.
Now we thank Him for our food.
By His grace we all are fed.
Give us, Lord, our daily bread.
Amen.
God is love.
As I recall, our original prayer ended after the “Amen,” but then we had a meal with some family friends and their prayer was simply, “God is love.”
I guess we liked it because we added it to our prayer and it stayed that way forever after!
Actually, it occurs to me that I should ask my Dad if I’m remembering this correctly. 🥰
Within me lies the energy
I’ve been working intensively with this affirmation for the past few days as part of a reinvigorated self-care process.
Within me lies the energy to accomplish all that I will to do. Behind my every act is God’s infinite power!
(from Affirmations for Self-Healing by Swami Kriyananda)
Because we need ENERGY to get anything done, right?!?
But an insight hit me pretty quickly as I went deeper into the affirmation. It has to do with the words: “…to accomplish all that I will to do.”
Because I can have infinite energy at my command but if I don’t have the WILL to do something, accomplishment simply can’t happen.
Something to meditate on further.