Well, this morning I woke up before the alarm. In fact, it was before the crack of dawn!
I made it to my appointment on time, then did some banking and grocery shopping before heading home. I was concerned about making it back in time for an important meeting but it turns out I was a few minutes early and the first one to arrive.
The whole day continued along the same lines. Full and productive, all afternoon and into the night, since Tuesday is when both choir and ensemble rehearse.
But now I’m pooped and ready to hit the sack. And I’m thinking how nice it would be to build up some early morning momentum.
We had two meetings today. both of which — together with a couple of important meetings from last week — are adding to our sense of the increasing momentum and growing magnetism of the music ministry.
Left to right: Johanna (Mantrini), Frank, Sharon (Bhagavati), David, Swamiji, Lewis, Cristina, Karen, and our manager, Rosella (Lata)
A friend sent this photo to me in the past week, completely out of the blue.
I’ve gotten rather sidetracked from writing about my early experiences with Swamiji and the music, so I’m sharing the photo in order to not completely lose the momentum.
I’m pretty sure we were in Swamiji’s house after a meeting with him (it must have been before we added Bhaktan to the group).
Something has evidently shifted. I spent the entire afternoon sorting through an impressive accumulation of stuff that was stored in our bathroom.
We’ve moved so much (seven or eight times in the past ten years!) that stuff was repeatedly tucked away without having the time (or the bandwidth) to make conscious decisions about what to get rid of and what to keep.
So today, a lot was discarded, quite a bit was set aside be given away, and I reorganized the space to keep those things we actually need.
It felt both freeing and exhausting. Especially in this heat!
I’ve got my eye on a different area of the apartment for tomorrow. Hope to keep the momentum going.
We’re having a great time singing together — just for fun — once a week!
Hopefully it will turn into a lot more music-making by the Harmony Duo, like when we first returned from Europe and were performing together all the time.
It’s taken a full five days, but the dust is settling a bit in terms of my personal upset and process. There are a few things that I’m now seeing with more clarity:
The Gift Growing up without having to confront constant, overt racism meant that my sense of self was largely free from identification with the issue of racism. I’m deeply grateful for this.
The Work But because I wasn’t constantly confronted with overt racism, I was largely able to avoid facing up to it. These past few days have helped me understand how important it is that I let myself see how much I was affected by racism, and allow myself to feel the collective pain.
The Sad Reality One of the most helpful things I’ve learned at Ananda is the concept that reason follows feeling. Which means that logic becomes irrelevant when feelings are fully engaged and passions run high. Which leads to…
The Impossibility Having my sun in Gemini means that “communication” is BIG for me. There’s a part of me that really does believe that if “they“ just got to know me and we could just talk, then I could make “them” understand! But that’s the very definition of prejudice, isn’t it? Who I am is irrelevant; I’m never going to convince a true bigot that I’m worth knowing.
So another helpful thing I’ve learned at Ananda is the importance of focusing one’s energies on those who are positive and open and willing, while ignoring — whenever possible — those who are negative and derogatory (obviously, if someone is not just negative but threatening, you can’t ignore them!).
There are many people who want to understand, who want to help, who want to be part of the solution. If we focus our energy and resources on strengthening and nurturing these connections, we’ll increase our magnetism and build the momentum…and I have faith that change will happen as a result.
Ramesha is riding a wave of growing momentum and increasing interest in the deeply devotional chanting album he’s about to launch.
This is the artwork for the second single, which also has a beautiful lyric video (thanks once again to our resident videographer-extraordinaire, Bhaktan!) that Ramesha will be releasing later this week. He calls it “a song for compassion” and that’s a perfect description of the vibration and message of this chant.
Ramesha’s joyous excitement is contagious! But, really, I’m just super pleased to see all his hard work and focus coming to fruition.
I just had to share this because it describes how I’m feeling…😊
I’m so glad I did not wait until January 1 to begin the practices that tell me — through concrete action, not empty words or intellectual theories — that I am worthy of self-love and self-nurturing and self-compassion and kindness.
The rebounder (mini-trampoline) that I’ve been absolutely craving since last summer arrived last Friday. So I’ve been “bouncing” for four days now.
On Monday, I commenced my “early rising” practice; it’s only been two mornings so far, but I can feel the difference. And, yes, I’m tired because I’m not yet going to bed any earlier, but I have faith that will come. And in the meantime I’m enjoying seeing the sun rise and having time to practice self-care (meditation, yoga postures, walking, etc) before the day gets away from me.
So tomorrow morning I start the new year off on the right foot, while already gaining momentum.
