(not necessarily in that order)
This evening we had dinner with friends in their beautiful new home. There was laughter and sharing; there was delicious food and a incredible array of desserts.
To cap it all off, one of our hosts suggested watching “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” — and it was just exactly what I was needing in the midst of this busy week — to relax and chuckle and resonate with the heart-opening message of this enduring holiday classic.
I’m doing all kinds of wonderful stuff — music, Christmas play, enjoying family and friends, handling needed health stuff, even doing a bit of Christmas shopping — but lately it seems like the doing is never done!
Tonight I’m realizing how much I need some just being time.
“If you don’t like where you are, change it. You’re not a tree.”
–Jim Rohn
I really got a kick out of this quote when I saw it this morning. Not sure why it struck such a chord with me, but I absolutely love it!
It sure has been a jam-packed few days.
Concert. Sunday service. Christmas play rehearsal.
And now, today (it’s already Monday, December 18 in Norway) is our turn to be featured on the ChoirMate Advent calendar!
We’re practically famous! 😅
This isn’t the greatest pic (although I’m grateful to our friend, Neha, for capturing a few shots on my cell phone), but hopefully it conveys some portion of the joy that filled the room at the end of our concert tonight.
Hats off to choir, ensemble, accompanists, and tech crew for a job (extremely) well done!
There sure is a lot of good stuff happening right now!
Tomorrow is our Christmas concert and two days later — well, one and a half days, considering time zones — the Ananda Village Choir & Ensemble is going to be featured in the Advent of ChoirMate.
What IS the Advent of ChoirMate? It’s actually a very cool thing where every day until Christmas a different choir from all around the world is featured. You can check it out here and see the choirs that have been featured so far: https://advent.choirmate.com/
ChoirMate is based in Norway, which is why we’ve got to get the final details of our featured webpage finished before December 18 (PST).
Bookmark the link so you can “open our door” on December 18! 😊
If you’re ready for a blast of Christmas joy, please consider joining us for our annual Christmas Concert, THIS Saturday, December 16 at 5:30pm (PST) in the Temple of Light at Ananda Village.
This year’s concert feels special on several levels. To start with, it’s the first time since 2019 that the full Ananda Village Choir gets to sing on the Christmas Concert.
Secondly, early this year we made the decision to experiment with having a smaller ensemble of dedicated singers who were able and willing to put in the time and effort to take their singing to another level. I believe that outpouring of additional energy is going to bear beautiful fruit in this concert.
Finally, it feels special…just because! I can’t even explain the feeling; maybe the stars are somehow aligned. Who knows? It just feels really, really good.
We start early (5:30pm PST) in order to make the concert accessible to families with small children; that’s also the reason the program only lasts about an hour.
And if you live too far away to join us in person, watch the concert LIVE using this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDCI8OPwO0g (or you can just click on the video above).
I hope you can join us in celebrating the love of Christ and the joy of this Holy Season.
For a few scary minutes tonight I couldn’t get my blog website to open!
I tried using a different browser, but kept getting the same error message saying the site was “refusing” to load.
The reason I felt a little panicky is that I’ve written something in this blog every day since May 19, 2019 and certainly didn’t want to miss today due to some fluke of a website issue.
Thank goodness I thought to Google “WordPress site refusing to open” and discovered that I needed to empty my cache. Even more to the point, I learned I should do so once or twice every month (I think I’ve only done so maybe once…ever)!
Oops. 😊
I don’t love how huge and all-pervasive Amazon is as a business, but tonight I’m feeling really grateful for their service.
I get so busy during the holiday season that I tend to forget little details like — “what the heck am I going to wear for the Christmas concert?!?”
It’s not like when I lived in San Francisco or Palo Alto or Los Angeles, with multiple options within minutes. I mean, we live in the boonies — thirty minutes outside of Nevada City!
Our “big” city is Grass Valley (where there’s JC Penny and a new — but very small — Target). Or we can drive an hour to Auburn (where there’s a big Target and a Ross Dress for Less). An hour and a half drive will get us to Roseville and big shopping malls, but I dislike shopping at malls in general and especially at Christmas time!
Besides, at this time of year I don’t have time to spend hours driving to stores, hoping they’ll have the style, color, and size I need. So, when I suddenly realized I had nothing to wear just over a week before the concert I turned to Amazon.
And as of today I have in hand three blouses and one black skirt, and I can relax knowing that at least one blouse is going to work well.
So, thanks, Amazon. I appreciate it.
“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” — Mahatma Ghandi
I’m continuing to reflect on Parvati’s Sunday talk, which is maybe why I keep seeing quotes that seem to relate.
The reading for the week’s topic was Living in the Presence of God (from Rays of the One Light by Swami Kriyananda), which starts with these words:
In the Gospel of St. Matthew, Chapter 25, we read of a King – capitalized, for the reference is to God – who welcomes certain devotees to the divine consciousness, saying, “I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.”
The elect asked him when it was they had served Him in these ways, and the King answered, “Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”
Listening to the reading a memory surfaced of hearing that scripture for the first time at Sunnyhills Methodist Church in Milpitas when I was just a little girl. I still find it profoundly moving today.
On Sunday I saw more clearly the difference between helping only the person as opposed to serving God through that person. Like what Mother Teresa said about each person being “Jesus in disguise.”
“I see God in every human being. When I wash the leper’s wounds I feel I am nursing the Lord himself. Is it not a beautiful experience?” — Mother Teresa
Each of us has to find our right way to serve. After all, we certainly don’t all have the exact same calling. But whatever we do, we need to do it in the full awareness that every person is a child of God, and that we are serving God through them.