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Almost normal

I don’t know if it’s this way for anyone else, but during my first days of an international trip almost all of my attention is on the state of my…jet lag!

What time is it “at home”?
How tired am I right now?
Am I going to be able to sleep?
Oooh, I feel like a nap, but I’d better not… etcetera.

So it’s the end of my second full day and I’m mostly feeling pretty good; one more and I expect to be all the way back to normal. At this very moment, however, I can hardly keep my eyes open. So good night.

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Duality

Thanks to my friend, Lisa, for the reminder that what goes up must come down. Or to be more specific to our travel experiences so far: that which starts somewhat down just has to go up!

And when this is your view for breakfast, you discover you can forgive any amount of delay on the way to getting here! šŸ˜€

Our little Airbnb studio is about a five minute walk from Hotel ColibrƬ, which was our first-morning-of-vacation breakfast spot.

By the way, colibrƬ is Italian for hummingbird. Fun, eh?

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Hurry up and wait

Ah, the joys of travelingā€¦

Got to Sacramento Airport with plenty of time before our flight (itinerary: Sacramento, San Francisco, Copenhagen, Milan), only to learn our flight to San Francisco would be delayed by a full two hours.Ā 

Finally arrived in San Francisco with barely enough time and rushed to catch the Copenhagen flight, only to learn we had missed it by minutes due to the delay.

Thatā€™s when things got really interesting! So interesting it was almost surrealā€¦

In fact, we never did understand exactly what happened. All we know is that we were sort of ā€œlostā€ between United, Scandinavian, and Lufthansa Airlines. End result? It took a full two hours before we were successfully re-booked onto a Lufthansa flight to Munich, which is where we are as I write this blog post.

Hereā€™s hoping the last leg of our journeyā€”Munich to Milanā€”will proceed without a hitch!

Update in Munich: so far so good!

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Ciao ciao

Today was about prepping and packing; tomorrow we fly to Switzerland to visit Ramesha’s family. We’ll also spend time with Ramesha’s (pre-Ananda) best friends, who’ve continued to be very close to us over the years.

I can’t really wrap my mind around anything else right now, especially since I really want to get to bed at a reasonable hour.

Buona notte!

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What we need…

….is LIGHT! (clap)

This morning at the beginning of Sunday service we sang a song titled: Yes, It’s Devil Worship. Interesting title for a humorous but very powerful song. šŸ™‚

Several listeners commented on the timeliness of the message, even expressing the opinion that the world needs to hear songs like this right now.

In his book ā€œIā€™ve Passed My Life as a Stranger, Lordā€, Swamiji writes:
In telling us how to overcome our own evil tendencies, he [Yogananda] often said, ā€œDonā€™t concentrate too much on your faults. That will only reinforce them. A room may be in darkness for thousands of years. Once you bring light into it, however, the darkness will cease to exist.

ā€œDonā€™t beat at your ignorance with the stick of self-blame. Hold good thoughts, perform good actions, and meditate. If you turn on the inner light, the darkness will vanish forever as though it had never been!ā€

We’re asking Master and Divine Mother to guide us in sharing this song (and other similar ones) with a wider audience. In the meantime, here are the lyrics to Yes, It’s Devil Worship. Enjoy!

Brother, Iā€™ve a faint suspicion
You and Iā€™ve been led astray:
Taught to drive the devil from us,
Weā€™ve invited him to stay!

What we need is light!
For we canā€™t drive out the darkness
With a stick, with a stick,
No, we canā€™t drive out the devil with a stick.

Some proclaim all men are sinners,
Canā€™t escape the devilā€™s might.
How their interest must intrigue him,
They wonā€™t let him out of sight!

What we need is light!
For we canā€™t drive out the darkness
Talking sin, talking sin,
No, we canā€™t drive out the devil talking sin.

Some of us were taught the slogan:
ā€œSocial evils must be slain!ā€
But can anger drive out sorrow?
How can passion conquer pain?

What we need is light!
For we canā€™t drive out the darkness
While we hate, while we hate,
No, we canā€™t drive out the devil while we hate.

Brother, have you ever wondered
Why the darkness lingers on?
If we want to see the sunrise
Let us turn and face the dawn!

What we need is light!
For weā€™ll only best the darkness
When we love, when we love,
Yes, weā€™ll only best the devil when we love!

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Balance

When I think of a workaholic, the image that comes to mind is of a corporate businessperson in a suit. I don’t think of people like myself and Ramesha. But, actually, we sort of fit the bill…admittedly, in our own unique way.

The problem is that when you love what you do… when you feel a sense of mission… when there’s always one more project or task requiring your attention…then it’s easy to lose your sense of balance.

So it feels like a big win that, when we had to rethink our visit to Assisi (for a variety of reasons), we chose to forgo the trip in order to stay in Lugano and dedicate some serious time to rest, rejuvenation, and just being.

Aaahhhh….good for us!

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Gone

photo of Master's Market in "downtown" Ananda Village
Master’s Market

Today was the first full day of officially being without our Market.

I know it’s for the best. I know change is good. I know something even better is in the process of manifesting. I know “when one door closes another door opens”. I absolutely know all this is true.

And…it’s still the end of an era and feels pretty weird.

The song lyric that keeps popping into my head is:
Don’t it always seem to goĀ 
That you don’t know what you’ve gotĀ 
Till it’s gone…

Even when you’ve had advanced warning, with plenty of time to adjust and make other plans, there’s still a shock to the system you experience when that place (or thing or person) really is gone. You might start to feel your appreciation more deeply and in more ways than you realized before.

I know it’s temporary, but for now I’m definitely feeling the hole in the fabric of our Village.

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Talent

ā€œTalent is a pursued interest. Anything that you’re willing to practice, you can do.ā€ Bob Ross

I didn’t even know who Bob Ross was but I really resonated with this quote when I happened upon it earlier today.

What I know from (often bitter) experience is that what we often think of as “talent” can end up being more of a curse than a blessing.

Why?

Well, first of all, it makes it a lot easier for the ego to convince you that you’re “special” because you’re so “talented”…and down that road lies all kinds of pitfalls and potential suffering.

It also makes it harder to learn discipline and even how to practice. After all, if it all comes “easy” in the early stages of playing an instrument you might begin to think that you reallyĀ are “hot stuff” — having fun and receiving lots of “strokes” — without ever establishing a solid foundation on which to build. There can even be a subtle sense of expecting something for nothing, and thatĀ never bodes well for the long run!

The end result is an all too common tendency to get a skewed perspective that’s essentially backwards, where we take credit for being talented, while downplaying the hard work aspect. The truth is that the only thing we CAN take credit for is the energy and effort we put out. We absolutely can NOT take credit for our “talent” or for the qualities and attributes that make us good at something.

I mean, does a professional basketball player take credit for the fact that he’s 7 ft tall? I hope not! But he can certainly take credit for the hours spent learning and then perfecting the skills necessary to excel at his sport.

Over the years of my career as a classical flutist, I came to envy my less “talented” friends; the ones who gained a reputation for their work ethic, plugging away in the practice room and simply getting the job done.

As I learned to be more like them, I developed and refined my skills to where I was eventually able to do a lot more with those unique abilities that I hadĀ been blessed with…which ended up being the best of both worlds!

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Two for one

Lately I’ve been feeling there’s a similarity between our Ananda Music ministry and the Hydra of Greek mythology.

[Full disclosure: I had a vague recollection about this but had to look it up to be sure.]

Anyways… according to the Mythical Creatures Guide, Hydra has many heads (as many as nine) and was slain during the second labor of Hercules. But this is the part I was remembering:

“If the heads are cut off, the heads would grow back. One head cut-off would result to two heads growing back in its place.”

I sometimes feel our projects are like the Hydra heads: as soon as we get a handle on one, two more appear to take its place! Thankfully, the similarity ends there, because we love what we do. Plus our projects don’t bite.

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Influx

We had such fun at choir tonight, welcoming an influx of new members!

There are increasing numbers of Village interns coming together as a group to sing — in addition to Ashtara and Arya, we now have Ben, Jake, and Tim (plus Caterina will join when she gets back from Finland).

Prasanna and Vineet from India came tonight as well and will be singing with choir for a while longer.

Then there are experienced choir members who’ve recently relocated to the Village from other Ananda communities: Matthew (from Portland) and Linda (from Sacramento).

A big welcome to you all!