(not necessarily in that order)
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.
This morning was spent driving to Sacramento for a consultation with a specialist at the UC Davis Cancer Center, followed by a lovely lunch visit with my Dad and sister.
This was especially perfect as it was Ramesha’s birthday and he hadn’t spent time with them since our Father’s Day/birthday (mine and Cathy’s) celebration back in June!
When we stopped to pick up packages in the mailroom on our way home, we found a box of flowers addressed to Fabio Nani, which we assumed were for his birthday (which would have been a first in his experience).
But we were wrong! The bouquet of tulips came with a note addressed to me, saying: “Sending you healing thoughts and a little sunshine to brighten your day.” And it was from Amy Porterfield and her team. She’s the founder of the Digital Course Academy which Ramesha has been getting so much out of this past year.
He had written to the group to explain why he’s taking a break in order to help me during this time of health challenge, and received a tsunami wave of supportive responses that culminated in this thoughtful gift.
What an amazing group of people; they don’t even know me, but they are supporting their colleague with so much love.
I’m once again humbled by the overwhelming support we’re receiving.
I can’t express in words how happy I felt when I glimpsed my new plants just outside the front door this morning.
They made my heart sing!
I took more photos, simply because I can’t seem to get enough of these beauties!
My mother, Louise, loved all kinds of flowers — roses, gladiolus, bottlebrush, morning glories, cyclamen — but I believe rhododendrons were her absolute favorites.
I see them all around the Village at this time of year and they always make me think of her. 💗
This is all I’ve got for tonight. Enjoy the beauty.
Nayaswami Bharat gave a wonderfully inspiring talk this morning. At one point he shared about the palpable aura of love he felt in nature while hiking in a remote mountain valley, and it brought to my mind a somewhat similar experience I had many years ago.
Of course, the location was the opposite of remote! I was living in San Francisco; a basically cheerful and optimistic twenty-something student at San Francisco State University, finishing up my undergraduate degree in flute performance. Certainly I had my share of normal young adult angst, but hey! I was living in the city I loved; I was immersed in the music I loved; and I was more or less high on life.
One of the best things about living in The City was that it was absolutely fantastic for walking. I spent hours a day walking on Ocean Beach and through various neighborhoods, enjoying the moderate temperatures, the mystical fog, and the beautiful flowers and trees everywhere.
On this particular day, I was walking through the SFSU campus, enjoying the sunshine, and feeling good, when I remember being literally stopped in my tracks by a bunch of flowers.
I mean, they were just part of the campus landscaping, but something about them was so, well, vivid…! They were beyond beautiful, beyond “alive.” I just stood there for a while, marveling, and wondering.
Then I went on about my day, but it stayed with me. To the point where even now — close to forty years later — I can practically see those flowers — and feel that feeling — again. In fact, I believe I caught a glimpse of the truth expressed in this verse from one of Swami Kriyananda’s songs:
There’s joy in the heavens,
A smile on the mountains,
And melody sings everywhere.
The flowers are all laughing
To welcome the morning;
Your soul is as free as the air.
Yes, I believe I had the good karma in that moment to (somehow!) open up and receive the joyous consciousness of those flowers. What a blessing.
This is what my friend wrote in her Facebook post:
“Running errands this morning after picking up this lovely bouquet from the florist….! It made everyone smile! From the solemn banker to the lady in the fruit store to the check out clerk, everyone wanted to have a look & see the pretty flowers! I think I will do this more! Just walk around town with a big bouquet of flowers to see everyone smile! :)”
I told my friend I thought it was an excellent idea! And if I lived in town — where I could easily go to the florist and where it’s natural to run around doing errands — I would do it myself.
And just think, after spreading joy by carrying the flowers around for a while, you would get to increase the joy by either enjoying them at home or by gifting them to someone else! Definitely a win-win-win sort of deal.
I think this is the sort of thing Swami Kriyananda would have loved. 💐
Another way in which I let doubt block my creativity is with spontaneous photos and videos. I’ll be in the moment, having fun or experiencing something that I feel to capture and share, so I’ll grab a quick snapshot or video on my smartphone.
But then the overthinking kicks in: Is it too silly? Will people understand? Is it done well enough? Maybe I’d better wait until I have time to write the perfect caption. Etcetera, etcetera… (what a fun word to see written out)! And you guessed it: months later I run across those moments, still in my photos folder!
No more! I’m now going to share three spur-of-the-moment videos that I took three(!) years ago during a short vacation in Ashland. While strolling through Lithia Park I was inspired by the flowers, the trees, and the river, and started thinking of Swami’s song, Channels. After some doing, I persuaded Ramesha to sing the pertinent verse of the song while I took shaky videos. Yeah, it is pretty silly…but it was fun!
Update: I completely forgot I was the one singing “Flowers”! If I had remembered I probably wouldn’t have posted it; guess the joke’s on me! 🙂