(not necessarily in that order)
Today’s celebration of Dad’s 90th birthday was a resounding success.
It left me both exhausted and deeply appreciative of how blessed I am to have grown up in a large and loving family. Especially considering that my wonderful Dad is who he is thanks to his family.
So, here’s to family — quirky, flawed, complicated, challenging — but loving one another just the same, to the very best of our ability.
Yep, every few years my birthday falls exactly on the Summer Solstice, which is kind of fun.
I hope you’re doing something enjoyable on this, the longest day of the year. I’m headed to a rehearsal myself.
But that’s okay, because Ramesha made me French toast for breakfast and my gift was a brand new tablet, which will be very convenient when traveling.
Plus these beautiful flowers were awaiting me when I got to the office.
It’s been a lovely birthday.
Tonight’s celebration of Master’s birthday was perfect.
It was an incredibly beautiful altar; the choir songs and Jitendra’s chanting were filled with devotion.; the meditation was deep; and Jyotish and Devi gave inspiring talks.
What more could one wish for?
“Buon Ferragosto!” is what I’m seeing everywhere I look on Facebook today.
It brings back memories of Ananda Assisi’s busiest season, as well as of monumental traffic jams when we (occasionally) forgot and made the mistake of traveling on the actual day. Not a good idea.
Fortunately, the memories are mostly very sweet.
But what exactly is Ferragosto? It’s a public holiday that originated back in 18 BC (that’s a really long time ago!) and is still celebrated throughout Italy on August 15th.
The name translates to Feriae (Festival) Augusti (for Augustus, the Roman emperor). Emperor Augustus made August 1st a day of rest after laborers had spent weeks working hard on the farms and in the fields.
The custom was for the workers to wish their employers “Buon Ferragosto” and receive a monetary bonus in return. This became law during the Renaissance throughout the papal states.
Then, starting around the 5th century, the Catholic Church moved the observance of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary to the same date. For observant Catholics in countries like Italy, Spain, Greece, Mexico, etc., August 15 is right up there with Easter and Christmas.
August 15 also just happens to be the birthday of one of my favorite humans: our friend and colleague in the music ministry, Jeannie! 💖
I started writing this blog on Swami Kriyananda’s birthday in 2019, largely as a way to combat my tendency to doubt. I doubted not only myself, but also whether I had anything worthwhile to share.
On the day after Swamiji’s birthday that year — my second blog post — I shared how I had been inspired by what famous blogger Seth Godin had to say about the benefits of writing a daily blog, and how “The first 1,000 are the most difficult”.
Well, today I realized that four years of daily blogs means I’ve reached 1,460 posts! Not only am I well past my first 1,000 but I am, in fact, having a lot of fun doing it.
So, that’s the background to today’s post. But what I really want to share is how this is the first time in almost twenty years that Ramesha and I haven’t been in an Ananda community or center, celebrating Swami’s birthday with our spiritual family.
It definitely feels rather strange.
We thought about trying to perform somewhere, but we don’t even have a guitar with us here in Lugano. But then I thought about a recent (and very impromptu) “performance” that we gave during a family luncheon couple of Sundays ago.
The primary entertainment was the duo Tacalà, a lovely couple who’ve been specializing in the traditional popular music of Ticino for the past twenty years. A number of extended family and friends were in attendance, with everyone singing along with a lot of joy and great gusto.
But someone had told the duo that we were musicians, and at a certain point they invited us to sing. We were rather hesitant about making the switch from the fairly boisterous sing-along mood to our more “spiritual” music, but they wouldn’t take no for an answer.
So we sang. First we did a couple of perky, upbeat songs (“I Will Always Think of Thee” and “Life Is Beautiful”); but when they asked for a third one we figured, “Oh, what the heck!” and sang “O Signore mio altissimo/Make Us Channels of Thy Peace.”
There was actually quite a bit of talking going on in the restaurant as we began but then things settled down and people absolutely loved it.
It feels appropriate to share this on Swamiji’s birthday because it represents our ongoing gift to him.
Swami gave us so much — the music, of course, but also spiritual family, community, divine friendship, guidance, unconditional love, and so much more – and in return, we can keep singing and playing his music anywhere and everywhere the opportunity arises.
You see, Swamiji wanted his music to help people, mainly by raising consciousness. And every time we sing — especially in the extremely unlikely places! — we experience yet again the tremendous power of our music to change people for the better.
Thank you, Swamiji. And happy birthday!
Today’s photo is of Ramesha and his brother, Fulvio, whose birthday was today.
For the first time in seventeen years we’re actually in Switzerland and able to celebrate Fulvio’s birthday in person. We all went out to dinner as a family, eating great food and having a whole lot of fun.
In fact, I haven’t laughed so much in a long time.
Today was about my usual post-Christmas ritual of catching up.
It involves sleeping a little later; having a chance to finally view the many Christmas e-cards, emails, and texts that accumulated during the past week; shopping for groceries; and attending to household matters.
Of course, there’s not a whole lot of time to focus on catching up because we have to start planning the music for the celebration of Yogananda’s birthday on January 5 — and that’s right around the corner!
It’s been a flower-filled birthday, with these beautiful bouquets delivered right to my door!
Ramesha and I took it easy today. We grabbed delicious salads to go from a nearby cafe, then ate them while sitting by the pool at Crystal Hermitage.
The evening has been spent reading (or listening to) my many birthday messages on Facebook, Messenger, text, email, and voicemail!
All in all, I’m feeling extremely blessed.
Because my sister, Cathy, and I were born right near the summer solstice (five years and one day apart), it often happens that one or the other of our birthdays coincides with Father’s Day.
Last year my birthday did so, but this year Cathy has the honor.
So, Happy Father’s Day to the best Dad ever, my #1 Fan and constant support!
And Happy Birthday to my beautiful baby sister, whose smile spreads light wherever she goes.
I’m grateful to have both of you in my life. 💗
I started the day by making it to the Temple of Light to meditate. I was a little behind schedule, but it was a beautiful meditation, so I’m not complaining!
Ramesha and I also meditated in the Moksha Mandir this afternoon. This is where Swamiji is buried; it has an amazingly powerful, beautiful, and expansive vibration.
Then we gathered as a community in the lower gardens at Crystal Hermitage and celebrated Swamiji’s birthday with choir and a small group, a joyful sing-along, brief talks by Jyotish and Devi, birthday cake, and lots of love and laughter.
It was an altogether lovely day!