When I took an online course called The Happiness Baseline with Monique Rhodes, one of my favorite features of it was the notion of going on a “date” with yourself. I took myself out to breakfast several times, went on a day trip to Newport, Rhode Island, watched the sun rise (both close to my house and at a wildlife refuge close to the ocean) and went to a wonderful nursery and flower cutting garden in southern Rhode Island called The Farmer’s Daughter. Instead of cutting flowers – which is tricky for me living with a cat – I took lots of photos of the flowers. I also saw a bunny rabbit, bought some of their farm raised vegetables and so thoroughly enjoyed myself. Here are some photos from that venture to a new place I had never visited before, creating a most wonderful date with myself.

photo by Utpal Marshall – Enthusiasm Awakeners Group and friends sing at the 3100 Mile Race in New York.

August 27, 2021 is the 90th birth anniversary of Sri Chinmoy. Some of his meditation students undertook projects as a tribute to what would have been his 90th birthday this year. I did some brainstorming and considered ideas like going for a 9 mile run ten times or writing 90 poems. I did write one poem about the birthday:

Ninety horizons
on an endless road.
Reaching down from eternity
with a clap and a cry
that summons
awake, awake
long slumber no more.
-Guru’s 90th birthday
poem by Sharani

I chatted with my good friend Julie who lives in Washington state and we were on the verge of picking out 90 songs to learn and sing together on Zoom when another acquaintance from the Sri Chinmoy Centre, Parvati, reached out to me about her idea – and presto Julie and I were embracing her project as the course of action to take.

The project is called 90 Days for 90 Years. Starting 90 days prior to Sri Chinmoy’s birthday anniversary this year, songs to learn and sing are posted to the website, devotionsongs.com. It is the inspiration of Parvati, the leader of a group of female singers named Enthusiasm Awakeners. The singing group was formed by Sri Chinmoy in December 1999 and he composed songs in English as their group’s repertoire. Over 8 1/2 years since their group formed, he composed a total of 1,582 songs. His larger musical body of work comprises a total of almost 7,000 English songs and over 13,000 Bengali songs. There were a number of singing groups formed by Sri Chinmoy including both local residents of the Sri Chinmoy Centre in Queens, New York and internationally as well. Many of the other groups learned and performed songs in Bengali rather than English.

Thus, starting on May 30th Julie and I meet on Zoom each night and go through the songs issued for that day – approximately 17 a day allows for doing all 1582 by the time of the birthday. The scores are posted to the website along with practice recordings to listen to for the sake of those who don’t read music well – that would be me!

Parvati wrote a piece about the group in Inspiration Sun in 2008. She states, “1,528 songs in eight years and five months. That averages to nearly
one song every two days. That amounts to a stunning amount of pure Grace. These short songs never cease to amaze me. Guru can say so much in 30
words or less. He can illumine, inspire, educate, sympathize, cause laughter, cause tears — all within a melodic minute. I can not adequately express how these songs have affected my life, I can only simply and honestly say that they have saved me.”

Here are a few that touched my heart deeply:

A kind woman named Dawn Emsellem who lives in Portsmouth, Rhode Island created a wind phone on the edge of her property which abuts a land trust with walking trails. What is a wind phone? It is a phone booth with a disconnected rotary phone and a book to write messages of remembrance in for people to speak to their deceased dear ones and let the wind carry the messages to the beyond.

I read about it on the Channel 10 local TV news channel’s website and visited it with a close friend who lost both her mother and a cousin within this past year. As for myself, I recently lost a former roommate who died quite unexpectedly at the age of only 55 from a heart attack that struck with no warning signs.

It is along a very beautiful road with stunning old trees arched over the road and while there I saw a bunny rabbit and a flock of birds all along a fence down towards the trails.

The idea of a wind phone came originally from Japan and I feel so lucky to learn of this one here in Rhode Island and that I live near enough to visit it almost as soon as it was created.

Here is a poem I wrote about my impressions:

Goosefields Windphone

The cry of the geese
the tears bittersweet
the wind carries
your whispers
to your loved ones’ feet
Dial direct – dial within
the windphone to the other side
Ultimately always with us
find the sandbar
above your grief tide.
-poem by Sharani

That night when I slept, I dreamt of my paternal grandmother who passed away 30 years. I didn’t converse with her on the wind phone, focusing more on those more recently departed. I haven’t dreamt of her in a very long time and I feel she is using a wind phone of dreams to say why didn’t you talk to me? I loved her very much and feel the synchronicity of this dream is telling me the wind phone is real, real indeed.

The season of Spring officially arrived yesterday, Saturday March 20th at 5:37am. While it was sunny, when I went out on the bike path that I live along on Saturday it was very windy and there was a chill in the air. One day later however when I ventured out again on the bike path, it was sunny, much warmer and less windy. So the second day of Spring felt like its arrival from my vantage point. Especially when I saw my first dandelion of the season alongside the bike path!

Question: What is God’s favourite season?

Sri Chinmoy: God’s favourite season is spring, when new hope, new life and new creation dawn. What God always wants from Himself is transcendence. This He can do only when He exercises new hope, new life and new creation constantly.
–Sri Chinmoy, God the Supreme Humourist, part 1, Agni Press, 1974.

I relished going outside to do a 2 mile virtual race in the warm sunshine where for the first time in months I didn’t even wear a jacket. The race was the 10th in the Sri Chinmoy Grand Prix Series of thirteen 2-mile races (one per week) that began on January 19th. Since the pandemic began last year, the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team has added regular virtual race series that people from across the globe can participate in. Participating in these virtual races has been the one silver lining to how radically life has altered since a year ago. This is the second 2 mile Grand Prix Series and I have also done 5k, 10k, half-marathon, 1 mile, and relay events in the virtual series sponsored by the marathon team. To my wide surprise, I did my fastest time yet in this series that began in January. Because Sri Chinmoy advocates that inner and outer running can blend together and support each other, I typically offer a couple of minutes of prayer and meditation before it starts. I time myself and measure the distance with the Runkeeper app on my smartphone. I was in good company on the East Bay Bike Path today with many enjoying the spring weather. I spontaneously got inspired to intentionally smile at 9 people as I did the race as gestures related to Sri Chinmoy’s 90th birth anniversary this August have me preoccupied with the number 9!

When I sat to offer gratitude for a couple of minutes after finishing the race, I turned on the voice recorder on my phone to try to capture the cacophony of birds chirping up a storm. Listen here for a taste of what I enjoyed!