Tag: spontaneity

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Serendipitous

After a very full Sunday, which was preceded by an unusually early Saturday, I realized this was going to be one of those evenings where I didn’t have much of anything to share.

Then it occurred to me that there might be newer readers who don’t know why in the heck I’m committed to writing Every. Single. Day.

So, I went back to the very early days of this blog (which I started on Swamiji’s birthday — May 19 — in 2019) in order to share the blog post where I explain about the daily writing.

But along the way I stumbled upon a different post (about spontaneity and my tendency to overthink things). And that inspired me to share the above “overthinking” meme, which I got a kick out of but didn’t know what to do with.

Rather serendipitous, no?

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Anywhere and anytime

After our spontaneous performance in the apheresis unit

Our new singing motto seems to be: “Anywhere and anytime” — including the apheresis unit of UC Davis Cancer Center!

When you’re sitting around for five hours hooked up to a blood separating machine, there’s lots and lots of time for chatting with the nurses who are watching over the process. By the end of two days they knew that we were musicians and that we direct the music ministry at our church.

As we were preparing to go, we thanked them all for being so kind and upbeat, while they assured us that we had been the perfect patients — all in all, it was quite the mutual appreciation society.

So, when — in the midst of all the thanks and laughter — they asked us to sing something before leaving, we didn’t hesitate. Of course I wasn’t in full voice, but it felt like a perfect opportunity to share some of the blessings we were feeling.

One of the nurses grabbed her phone and took the video; unfortunately it ended up sort of blurry and sidewise, but you can still hear the song — “Make Us Channels of Thy Peace” by Swami Kriyananda.

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Blessed by “Channels”

Lately, “Channels” has become sort of my theme song.

There was a special workday this morning at “Gurushanti”, a large home right next to Ananda Village that was recently purchased by Ananda devotees.

Because this property had been neglected for a number of years, the plan was to end the morning with a blessing by Jyotish and Devi, followed by chanting and a processional to invoke the presence of the gurus.

Well, during the opening prayer, Jyotish also made reference to the trees and the nature spirits, which — of course — had me thinking about “Channels”!

So, when the blessings and processional were finished, I tentatively asked whether they thought it would be appropriate to sing “Channels” and they enthusiastically responded, YES!

And so it happened that we spontaneously performed “Channels” — outdoors, in the sunshine, before a stunning view of forests and mountains, with a river far below in the canyon, birds singing, and flowers blooming. Even the stars were present, though we couldn’t see them.

What a thrill it was. And what a blessing. A completely unexpected moment of serendipity and Guru’s grace.

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World Brotherhood Day 2020

This evening we kicked of our (adjusted) holiday season by celebrating World Brotherhood Day entirely online! As with so many other events throughout this remarkable year, creativity and expansive thinking carried the day and it ended up being more inspiring than ever!

The interactive breakout sessions were great fun, but my favorite moment was the spontaneous sing-along of “The Christmas Mystery” after the event was officially “over” — pure bliss!

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Spontaneity

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! 🙂