(not necessarily in that order)
We spent most of the day up at the Ananda Meditation Retreat for the annual meeting of the Ananda Sangha Worldwide Outreach Ministries — always deeply inspiring and fun in equal parts!
It’s amazing what we accomplished last year and 2020 promises to be almost as eventful. 🙂
And it’s always a joy to spend time at the Meditation Retreat, laughing with dear friends like Durga and Vidura, and eating delicious food prepared by Lallah and Brannon.
All in all a lovely day. 💕
Can I just say how much fun we’re having in choir?
Today was one of those non-stop days, filled to the brim with tasks and challenges both expected and unexpected. It was all good but I felt like I hardly had a chance to catch my breath, arriving at rehearsal feeling rather frazzled and not especially prepared.
But it really didn’t matter. Because there we all were (close to fifty of us), joined together in fellowship and in the joy of singing our glorious music. Feeling our energy rising in response to the vibration of high consciousness.
So we sang and we laughed and we sang some more. And it was just so fun because there was so much JOY.
I’ve been reflecting on this quote from Yogananda. I feel the truth of it — especially the part about the world being “a terrible place, there is no safety here” — but I can’t say that I truly comprehend it.
Still, I find it helpful…and comforting…to try and wrap my mind around it. Bottom line? “Live for God and God alone!”
“Don’t take life so seriously. This world is a terrible place, there is no safety here. But what are we to do? We must stop taking life so seriously. Delusion can be overcome by holding steadfastly to one philosophy: everything here is nothing more than God’s motion picture. Don’t make a fuss about anything. Whenever you worry, remember, you are deepening the cosmic delusion within you. It is your own dreams that frighten you. In every form of sense experience you must remind yourself, ‘IT IS A DREAM!’ So don’t be attached to the passing dreams of life. Live for God and God alone.”
— Paramhansa Yogananda
Sometimes I’m just blown away by the beauty that’s all around us. The photo above is what I saw as I took a short walk at sunset. Truly glorious.
Then at dusk the new moon and Venus decided to put on a show. Pure magic.
Although I shared a few posts on Facebook for Reverend Dr Martin Luther King Jr’s birthday, today I’m feeling to dedicate my blog post to him. And not only him, but also Mahatma Gandhi, whose use of nonviolent resistance in India greatly influenced and inspired Rev Dr King.
King once declared that “Christ showed us the way and Gandhi in India showed it could work”. He also wrote that Gandhi’s teachings were “the guiding light of our technique of nonviolent social change.”
Both Gandhi and King were so insightful, eloquent, and inspiring. Here are two of my favorite quotes:
“You know, a lot of people don’t love themselves. And they go through life with deep and haunting emotional conflicts. So the length of life means that you must love yourself. And you know what loving yourself also means? It means that you’ve got to accept yourself.” — Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr
“Keep your thoughts positive because your thoughts become your words. Keep your words positive because your words become your behaviors. Keep your behaviors positive because your behaviors become your habits. Keep your habits positive because your habits become your values. Keep your values positive because your values become your destiny.” — Mahatma Gandhi
Feeling very thankful for the impact these great souls had — and are still having — on our world. 🕉✝🕉
I have to keep reminding myself that it’s a marathon, not a sprint…
I’d like to be further along than I am.
I’d like not to have spent an hour scrolling through Facebook posts tonight.
I’d like to be about to get into bed, instead of quickly getting this written shortly before 11:00 pm.
But for each thing that I’m not yet doing just as I’d like, there are other things that I’ve been doing — consistently! — for a while now. I’m getting close to being ready to share about those things. Maybe in another week; I don’t want to jinx it!
And it’s amazing how accomplished I feel! 😂
Actually, that’s pretty much it for tonight. I think I’ll go on home and bask in the afterglow while fixing an relatively early dinner for a change.
There’s nothing like constantly attempting things that are completely out of your comfort zone to keep you humble.
This blog is an excellent case in point. I shared back at the beginning about how it took months to even start writing. And a few months ago I pushed through my resistance and learned how to make it possible for people to actually subscribe (or follow) the blog.
Well, I got a few subscribers but they weren’t actually receiving a notification when the blog came out. Oops! The only problem was that I had run out of oomph for that particular learning curve and so it just stayed like that for quite some time.
But it’s a new year with new energy, so it was time to try again! Ramesha helped get me going and I started tackling the next learning curve.
Created the email, set up the schedule, and awaited the notification. It came — yay! Opened it and tried to click through to the blog post — Nothing. Niente. Nada.
Back to the drawing board.
Realized that it’s up to me to enter the hyperlinks (duh). Which I did, then rescheduled the email, awaited the notification. It came — yay! Hyperlinks worked — yay!
But then I received an email from a friend (thanks, Erin!): “I love that spontaneously I’m finally getting these emails about your blog. I signed up awhile back but they never came until now. But there’s no link to click?? Lol 😂 maybe I’m missing something?”
Hmmm…guess I didn’t put the hyperlinks where people would actually find them to click on! Arrrgghhhh!
Hopefully the third time really is the charm, but I can’t help but think about the people who really know what they’re doing when it comes to this kind of stuff, which seems really impressive to me right now. On the other hand, most of them have probably never played Mozart’s G major flute concerto. For what it’s worth. 😄
What made tonight’s choir rehearsal so great?!?
It’s in moments like this that I really love my job. 🙂
So, I wrote about a delightful video yesterday, which — of course, I had to view a few more times today, in company with spouse and friends who I roped in to enjoy it with me.
And it got me to thinking about the magic of 3/4 time, also known as “waltz time”. There’s just something so uplifting about it…
I was recalling a Christmas season many years ago when I still lived in San Francisco. I’ve never been a big fan of large shopping centers and try to avoid them entirely at Christmas time. But for some reason, I was in the Stonestown Galleria and feeling a little frazzled.
Well, as I walked out of Macy’s I realized that Tschaikovsky’s the Waltz of the Flowers was playing over the sound system and immediately started feeling better. Then, as I came down the escalator, two things happened: one, I overheard people humming along to the music, and two, I saw a couple laughing as they danced a few steps together to the music.
Even after all these years I really can’t find the words to describe just how wonderful I felt in that moment — united in joyous harmony with complete strangers through the power of uplifting music!