Tag: video

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Perspective and laughter

Yesterday I spent a fair amount of time tuning into the hurricane and flooding disaster in the Southeast. This afternoon some work being done in the crawlspace of our building resulted in water flooding our bathroom floor.

The propane was already off due to the work being done. Now the water had to be turned off as well. Plus we had to scramble to find enough towels to get it mopped up before leaving for a birthday party.

I was complaining a little bit as we left the house but got ahold of myself pretty quickly. After all, a few hours without propane and water, and a wet bathroom floor is inconvenient, but remembering the situation in western North Carolina helped me put it all back into perspective.

So, when we got home from the birthday party, the bathroom had flooded again, even worse. Still no propane or water. Oh joy.

I needed to laugh, so it was the perfect moment to watch (again) this video of Carol Burnett and the late, great Maggie Smith.

P.S. If you’re like me and can’t figure out what Maggie is saying when we demonstrates “dropping your H’s,” here it is written out (first with the “h’s” added back in, then without them):

“It ain’t only the hurdling and the hopping over the high hedges what hurts the horses’ hooves; it’s the ‘hammer hammer hammer’ on the hard iron road.”
OR
“Tain’t only the ‘urdlin’ ‘n the ‘oppin’ over the ‘igh edges what ‘urts the ‘orses ‘ooves… It’s the ‘ammer ‘ammer ‘ammer on the ‘ard iron road!”

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Sharing the video of Jyotish’s celebration

I don’t know how Bhaktan and team captured this so beautifully on video (since I never saw them actively video recording during the event), but I’m grateful they did.

Not only for those who weren’t able to attend, but also for myself — and others who were in the midst of things — because it’s such a joy to be able to see it and hear it from the perspective of the audience.

If you watch it on YouTube, be sure and read the first comment. I’ve excerpted just a portion of it here:
“…The woman in blue introduced herself as Devi and carried an aura of peace, sweetness, and knowing as we began to chat. Upon leaving our brief talk, Jyotish looked at me, smiled, and pranam’d with hands folded 🙏 I was immediately uplifted and brought into an expanded state. A true blessing to have received his darshan. It wasn’t until a few days later that I was on YouTube learning more about Ananda that I realized they were the spiritual directors! The third woman was one of the Palo Alto Ananda leaders. Ananda is in good hands, led by God saturated souls.”

This man isn’t an Ananda member, but he totally tuned into the greatness that is Jyotish.

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Switzerland on my mind (still)

It’s not that I’ve been actively thinking about Switzerland a lot; life’s way too busy for that!

But I had a dental appointment the other day and there was this beautiful video playing on the monitor. My first thought was that it reminded me of Switzerland, but I figured I was getting a little fixated. After all, there are many beautiful places in Europe, with castles and mountains and lush green grass.

However, I had to explain to the dental assistant that I couldn’t address the issue with my tooth sooner due to being out of the country. She asked me where and when I said “Switzerland” she immediately gestured toward the monitor and laughingly asked if I didn’t recognize the images.

Sure enough, it was all Switzerland!

Turns out she “visits” different locations during her workday by selecting these drone videos. I never knew such videos existed, but it’s actually really cool.

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Gratitude for a beautiful birthday celebration

This evening we watched the video of Friday’s very beautiful Ananda Village event celebrating Swami Kriyananda’s birthday.

Of course, it would have been lovely to have participated ourselves (if only we could have been at the Village and in Lugano at the same time!), but it was deeply satisfying to see how wonderfully the music is going in our absence.

Kudos and heartfelt appreciation to the entire music team!

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What fun!

Today — for the first time in six weeks — we “performed” for Sunday service at Ananda Village!

It was via the magic of video as we’re still in Sacramento, but at least we had a reason to put on jewel tones and SING.

We can’t wait to get back to singing all the time once again.

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September 11 health update

Tonight I find myself thinking of the day before Christmas when I was a child. Or how my fifteen-year-old-self felt in the days leading up to my first trip to Europe. The anticipation, the preparation, the nerves. 

I’m feeling a lot of similarities on this, the final day before my bone marrow transplant week begins. The main difference, of course, being that I was entirely happy and eager about Christmas and that trip to Europe, while a bone marrow transplant inspires a rather more complex mix of feelings. 😏

At any rate, it’s finally here and we’re feeling pretty ready. 

A quick recap of what’s ahead:

  • Tomorrow (Monday, September 12) is when I receive a high dose of chemotherapy. Even though the actual infusion will only take about thirty minutes, I’ll be at the hospital for a good portion of the day due to necessary preparations beforehand (blood draws, tests, hydration, pre-meds, etc.) and afterwards (more of the same). 
  • Tuesday, September 13 is a “rest” day, but we’ll still report to the hospital first thing in the morning for tests, hydration, etc.
  • Wednesday, September 14 is the actual transplant (or “replant”), when they infuse my stem cells back into my body. That’ll be another long day. 
  • From that point on, it’s simply a matter of managing any side effects from the chemo and waiting for my stem cells to get to work rebuilding my immune system.

Because of the Labor Day holiday we had a bit of a break after the stem cell collection, so we tried to make the best use of our time to stock up on groceries, catch up on tasks, and record a couple of videos.

The topic of the last Sunday service we attended before leaving for Sacramento was “How Should We Meet Our Tests?” Not surprisingly, it hit pretty close to home, and we were inspired to perform a medley of three songs which we felt conveyed the essence of how to successfully meet one’s tests: guidance from God and Gurus; being part of a spiritual community; and music — especially singing! 

Many people shared that they really resonated with those songs, so we decided to create a video of the medley to share with everyone. 

And that’s it for now. As always, thank you for your prayers and loving support. 

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Proof it really happened :)

https://youtu.be/Szf57yJA1_s
Spiritual Renewal Week concert on Tuesday, June 28, 2022 at Ananda Village

In addition to creating challenges in presenting our Spiritual Renewal Week concert, the fire and power outage also affected how it was shared.

Usually concerts during big events are live streamed so that people worldwide can enjoy them, but that couldn’t happen due to being on generator power and other circumstances beyond my limited technical understanding.

The combination of a nearby fire and the power outage also left many Village residents unsure whether the concert was still happening, not to mention those who were considering evacuating.

I was sort of surprised to realize how strange it was to get home afterwards and not be able to pull up the live streamed video. And not to receive comments and voicemails about it.

It really did start to feel a little bit unreal, like I just imagined the whole thing. Turns out the proof is in the video!