This is a selfie taken during our music meeting last week, when we celebrated Ramesha’s birthday (a week late).
I love being part of this team!
Our music team
Family & flowers
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.
Grateful for Ramesha
A friend captured this moment at the beginning of Tuesday’s Inner Renewal Week class and I absolutely love it.
I’m so grateful for Ramesha, and for the blessing of sharing my spiritual path and music dharma with him.
Happy Valentine’s Day
I can hardly believe it, but today was the eighteenth Valentine’s Day I’ve shared with Ramesha.
For our first Valentine’s Day in 2004 we had dinner at a pizzeria in Ciriè, Italy (outside Torino), where my singing group was staying for a few days.
We had gotten engaged exactly one week earlier, on February 7. Ramesha was planning to ask me on Valentine’s but couldn’t wait. 😊
And here we are, almost twenty years later. What a blessing. 💗
A family kind of day
The morning was dedicated to spiritual family, at the annual Ananda Sevaka retreat.
A hybrid of in-person and online, I was deeply inspired by inspirational talks from Jyotish and Devi, as well as the creative energy generated in the Zoom breakout rooms that followed.
Then the afternoon was dedicated to human family, as my brother, his wife, and their daughter — who live in Southern California — arrived (together with my Dad) for their first visit to Ananda Village.
I toured them all around the property, then drove into town to have dinner with them before they headed back to Sacramento, where they’re visiting with other family members.
All in all, it was a fairly exhausting day, so I was happy to spend the evening relaxing and watching a show with Ramesha — my core, every day, all the time, love-of-my-life family. 😊
Random thoughts on a full day
Lovely walk.
Productive music meeting.
Music team lunch with David Eby.
Brainstorming and discussion around rhythm, timing, movement, and body percussion.
Walking down memory lane with old videos of the Santa Clara Vanguard.
Thoughts about how thrilling it is to experience precision, mastery, oneness, and being in the “zone.”
Meanwhile, Ramesha was in the studio for the first day of recording his new album. So, now it’s time to go home and see how he’s doing.
Swamiji’s laughter
One of the things I loved most about Swami Kriyananda was his laugh. It was so warm and infectious, with so much joy flowing through it.
I also loved how much he loved to laugh!
When I was living in Assisi and becoming better friends with Ramesha (he was still Fabio then, of course), I realized that one of the things I was coming to love about him was his laugh.
In fact, the first gift I gave Ramesha was a photo of Swamiji in Palo Alto — laughing!
Indeed, I am the fortunate one!
Today is Ramesha’s birthday and here he is with his present: a beautiful painting — titled “O Holy Night” — created in Pune, India by our friend Shamini. It arrived with a few days to spare — just enough time for me to select the frame!
I think I’ve already shared that my spiritual name means “the fortunate one.” Well, I definitely feel fortunate — and extremely grateful — that this great soul decided to incarnate and that he’s sharing his life with me.💘
Let’s celebrate the light together!
In yesterday’s blog post I talked about our upcoming Christmas concert, but I didn’t mention any specifics!
So, here’s the scoop: the concert “premiere” will be Sunday, December 20 at 6:00 pm (Pacific time). All the pertinent information , including the link, can be found at www.ananda.org/christmas.
Plus you can check out the other inspiring events which are listed there as well.
And of course I want to mention yet another wonderful event (which isn’t listed on the Ananda website): Ramesha’s LIVE Kirtan Concert!
He invites you to join him for devotional chanting and short periods of meditation that will help you open your heart to the deep blessings of the Christmas season. It’s happening this Saturday, December 19 at 5:00 pm (Pacific time) on Ramesha’s Facebook page.
Here’s to a glorious, inspired, heartfelt, joyous, uplifting, fun, beautiful Christmas (take that COVID-19)! ✨
What we’ve been up to
This is what Ramesha and I have been working on for the last month or so! It’s been a blessing to dive deeper into singing together and creating something like this together. And now we’re feeling determined to get back to doing more of this together!
It’s also been fun for me to compare the way we’re going about it now, compared to the way we’ve put out other CD’s over the years. Ramesha has invested a lot of time and resources in learning how to better promote and market our music and boy is it making a difference!
For example, I’m accustomed to having one or two parts to sing or play on the recording and then I’m done; but for this there were also background vocals to record and other aspects of the arrangement/production on which Ramesha wanted input from me and Christian (our recording engineer).
Then there was a day dedicated to videotaping ourselves singing the song four times through (as a duet, each of us solo, and close-up on the guitar) so that Bhaktan would have all those different video angles of us to use for the lyric video (which you just saw above). Plus all three of us spent time searching for additional images that we felt conveyed the vibration of the song, so it was a collaboration in that way as well.
Ramesha has also kept busy creating artwork and landing pages, and writing emails to let friends and fans know about it, and a gazillion other details (bravo, Ramesha!) Finally, we videotaped a little mini-documentary, in which we shared thoughts about the song and the project (see below).
Whew!
All in all, it’s been a eye-opening new experience for me and the feedback so far has been very positive. Of course, our hope is that many people will hear it and find comfort in the profound message of this song during these unsettled times. 🙏