Whistle Dance .net

The Next Chapter: East West

2011-12-12T16:04:00.001-08:00

Well. This is the closest I’ve come in 9 years to going an entire year without blogging, and it didn’t seem like I ought to let that happen, so here we are.

One of the main reasons for this silence is that I have vastly less (can you do that?) free time to write these days, due to the fact that I have a new job. And despite what I said back when I started my last tutoring job, this one is full-time. “What could induce you to do such a thing?” I hear you cry. Well, I’m glad you asked.

East West Bookshop in Mountain View is owned by Ananda, so over the last few years I’ve gotten to know a number of the folks who work there. Tushti and Surendra have been the managers for the past 9 years, and earlier this year asked me if I’d like to take over for them when they move to Oregon in January. After a bit of time spent wrapping my head around the idea of doing a very different job than I ever expected to, I decided it would be a fun new adventure. I’m joined in this by my new co-manager Nooshin, and the transition is going quite well. And we even have our photos in the new edition of the East West Magazine, so it must be official!

I feel immensely fortunate to be given this opportunity. I’ve spent a lot of the last few years of my “temporary retirement” doing increasing amounts of volunteer service for Ananda, and loving it. But there’s been a little part of me worrying in the background about the possibility of having to go elsewhere eventually, and work for a cause I believe in less, just to make money. So this job feels as much like a gift to me as a service to God, gurus, and all spiritual seekers of the Bay Area.

In other, less dramatic news, I got a hold of Pa’s ukulele recently, and have been having a surprisingly good time with it. It’s strangely addictive, actually. This is one of those cases where I can get a sense of what Yogananda meant when he said that “thoughts are universally, not individually, rooted.” The current ukulele fad that’s going on these days feels very much like a thing that I hopped onto for a ride. I’m enjoying it, but it doesn’t entirely feel like it came from my own head.

P.S. Okay, technically I have been blogging more than once a year, since I post to the Ananda Family News blog fairly often. But the word “blogging” for me will always default to my own little corner of the internet here on WhistleDance.

Christmas Card 2010

2010-12-27T17:27:00.000-08:00

Cheryl and I sent out Christmas cards this year, but due to the sheer, overwhelming number of wonderful people we know, we inevitably missed some of you. But never fear! Now you can print out your own card at home! It's even customizable — just check the boxes that best suit your desired holiday experience and voilá! Enjoy!

L.A. Pilgrimage

2010-12-01T20:25:00.000-08:00

Mom and I spent three days of the long Thanksgiving weekend on a trip to Los Angeles, to see all the SRF-related sights, and to visit the new Ananda ashram house for one of Swami Kriyananda's talks. I had never seen Lake Shrine, Mt Washington, etc., and Mom hadn't been there since the 80's, so it was a fun new adventure for both of us. I put a few photos up here.

I loved finally getting to see all the places I'd read about in the AY, many of which seem as though they've simply dropped in today from 6o years ago. Hollywood Temple, for instance, is completely surrounded by giant Kaiser buildings, which makes the already small church look even more miniature. But SRF has a knack for creating beautiful places, thanks in equal part, I expect, to our guru's vibrations and their gorgeous landscaping. You can still meditate on the temple grounds, blissfully unaware of the surrounding skyscrapers.

We also went to Forest Lawn, where Yogananda's body is in the mausoleum. Not much to see there, of course, but kind of incredible to think that the only thing actually separating us from him is a few inches of marble. Similarly, I enjoyed getting to meditate in the Temple of Leaves, and do the energization exercises on the Mt Washington tennis court, knowing that he had done those same things on those same spots. We even got to stand in the very room where a young Donald Walters was accepted by Yogananda as a disciple. The spiritual aura of these places is palpable.

The Ananda visit wrapped up our trip, and it was fun to show up as a surprise to our friends there. The quartet of singers we've got down there is sounding amazing. (Ananda music is always good, but that morning it was write-home-about-it good.) Swamiji gave a great talk, and even stayed around for a blessing line for a while afterward. I took the opportunity, appropriately for the Thanksgiving weekend, to quickly just thank him for everything he's done and created that has had such a profound effect on my life.

On a related-but-unrelated note, I've just heard that Daya Mata, president of SRF, passed away last night. Aum and blessings to her soul....

What I've Been Up To

2010-09-21T09:25:00.000-07:00

The short answer, obviously, is "not blogging." Not that there hasn't been anything to share, I just haven't been as much in the mood to spend time writing about it all these days.

So here's the Cliff's Notes version of it. In the last 5 months, I have....

written an article for Ananda's Clarity Magazine.
been to Yosemite with Cheryl for our anniversary. (Hmm, photo-posting is another thing I haven't kept up with. Oh, alright, here's one.)
sung in a concert.
meditated a lot, and done some yoga on and off.
attended Spiritual Renewal Week at Ananda Village.
done a lot of volunteer work for Ananda (creating and managing a blog and a Facebook page, working on a database migration project, helping post class recordings on the internet, and miscellaneous other things).
gotten a job.

I'll go ahead say a bit more about that last item, since it's the biggest single change in my overall situation. But no, I haven't gone back to a typical 9-to-5. I enjoy the lifestyle I've created over the last couple years since Google, and so I prefer to keep a flexible schedule, with time for serving in ways that are important to me, whether or not they pay. But to keep some of the financial energy flowing, I'm now working for Revolution Prep as a teacher and private tutor. I'm doing SAT prep right now, and maybe more stuff later on. I enjoy getting a chance to do more teaching, so as part-time jobs go, this is a good one.

[P.S. I guess, since I have a new employer, it's time to add my disclaimer back in: I speak only for myself.]

Me and the Impending Doom

2010-04-07T14:31:00.002-07:00

This weekend, I got to be part of a small reader's theater production at the Ananda Easter brunch and festivities. We did an adaptation (by Dambara) of P.G. Wodehouse's story "Jeeves and the Impending Doom," which was a great deal of fun. I played the part of Bertie Wooster, and was joined by Nirmoha (Jeeves), Mom (Aunt Agatha), Tim (Bingo Little), Nishkama (Mr. Filmer), and Cheryl (swan). And, as luck would have it, we were video taped! So if you like this kind of stuff, have a look, and enjoy!

Wodehouse Play 4/4/2010 from Ananda Palo Alto on Vimeo.

Meditation Teacher Training

2010-03-26T10:06:00.000-07:00

I recently spent 9 days up at The Expanding Light retreat in Ananda Village for Meditation Teacher Training. The course is intense, but an overall fantastic experience. Savitri and Diksha are excellent teachers, and made the whole thing very enjoyable.

Each day starts with getting up around 6:00, and going to the first 2-hour sadhana session of the day - energization exercises, yoga postures, and meditation. (Or, in my case, going over to Hansa temple for the community group meditation.) Then there's an hour for breakfast, and a couple hours for class, and that rounds off the morning. There's a short noon meditation, and then lunch break. In the afternoon we have two more hours of classes, and the second sadhana of the day before dinner. After dinner we'd have another class most nights, leaving us maybe an hour or so before bed to keep up with the course reading. A couple evenings were "free" time, which mostly meant doing reading, working on the written assignment, and preparing for presentations and student teaching. So it was a pretty full schedule.

What I found, though, was that once I got into the flow of it, I was able to stay in "always-on" mode pretty much all the time. I can't remember the last time I'd been so completely focused for such a long time, and it was an amazing experience. There was a really good illustration of that on the penultimate evening. I had a couple free hours to work on my final presentation, to be given first thing the next day, so I was doing that. Then my neighbor came by to talk to me about her presentation, and to run various ideas by me. I was able to just completely switch modes and focus on her, and then go directly back to working on my own project afterward. No transition time, no frustration, no wasted energy, no nothing. Just being right in the moment with whatever I was doing at the time. It was great to get to practice that so clearly.

Another amusing little bit for me was my morning walks over to Hansa. Getting there by 6:30 meant it was still dark, and I didn't have a flashlight. That made it tricky at first to find and follow the trail through the little section of woods I had to traverse. But though the trail was indistinguishable visually from the rest of the forest floor, I found that I could hear it as I went along. My feet crunched on more fallen leaves when I strayed off the trail than when I was on it. Of course, once I'd done it the first time, it wasn't as tricky, but I was amused at following a trail by ear, nonetheless.

Lake Shasta

2010-02-22T17:29:00.001-08:00

Cheryl and I went up to Lake Shasta over the Valentine's / Presidents' / Chinese New Year three-day weekend (it seems we're being very efficient with our holidays this year). We rented a lovely little cabin at Tsasdi Resort, right by the lake. The weather was pleasantly gray and only a bit drizzly, making it nice to stay inside and be cozy, and also pleasant to hike around by the lake occasionally. The water level in the lake is still extremely low, because all the rain this year still hasn't been enough to recover from several drought years. That's a shame, but it does mean that there's a huge border or red dirt between the water and the treeline, which makes a very picturesque color combination in places.

We also took a tour through the Shasta Caverns, which are quite impressive. I thought it was silly, though, when at one point the guide turned off all the lights to show us "how dark it gets inside a cave." That could have been quite dramatic if it weren't for everybody's cell phones and cameras and such providing backup lighting! Oh well.

Other fun parts of the trip included a stump alien, wild turtle riding, and stowaway Bedouins.

(See more photos here.)

Singing in the Choir

2009-12-11T10:18:00.000-08:00

About 5 weeks ago I joined the Ananda choir, singing tenor. (Major thanks to Ramesha for helping me figure out how to sing in that range, which will be much better for me in the long run than faking bass.) Tonight I'll be singing in the annual performance of Swami Kriyananda's oratorio: "Christ Lives."

This is a bit of an adventure for me, since a lot of the choir members have sung this many times before, and so we've been pretty light on the rehearsals this year. Which is trickier if you're the new guy. In addition to keeping up with the songs we've been singing for Sunday services, I've been trying to learn the 12 oratorio choir pieces, with just a few rehearsals and a practice CD. Last night at the dress rehearsal was actually the first time I ever sang some of the songs with the choir. But I think I've got it okay. I've learned the music enough that I don't need to carry my binder with me, which was my main goal. It's easier to pay attention to the director and tune in to the rest of the choir if I'm not looking down at music all the time.

At the dress rehearsal we mostly did the full-choir pieces, with just spot checks on the solos and small group pieces. It'll be nice to hear all of those in their entirety tonight, because we've got some fantastic singers, and beautiful songs. So I'm really looking forward to tonight, getting to both sing and listen to a lot of wonderfulness.

If you want to attend the concert, it's free (donations accepted) and at 7:30 tonight. Here's the info. It'll be great!

Visiting Quena in Vermont

2009-10-29T15:15:00.002-07:00

I just got back from spending several days in Vermont with Quena and having an absolutely lovely time. The excellence included, but was not limited to, the following:

Quena!
Really, it doesn't matter where I'm going. Quena's been my best friend for 12 years, and spending time with her is always the most wonderful part of such a trip.

Dancing
I was in Vermont for four nights, and danced on every single one of them -- three contras and one English. The contra dance scene out there is fantastic, with lots of fun dancers of all ages, and music that just blew me away. I think my favorite night was probably the Brattleboro dance, with music by Ethan Hazzard-Watkins, Anna Patton, and Peter Barnes. I love Anna's clarinet playing especially, and there were lots of good dances that beautifully matched the music (and vice versa). The Saturday Greenfield dance was also excellent, and I really liked Clew Bay's music, their 10-year-old drummer, and the surprise extra lindy hop at the end.

Apples
On the gray and rainy Saturday morning, Quena and I went to the Scott Farm apple orchard, which was delightful. We spoke with a guy who looked like some craggy old wild man of the mountains, but who turned out to be extremely sweet and as enthusiastic about his apples as a wine connoisseur. He sold us a bunch of Calville Blanc d'Hiver apples for our pies, which "sparkle, like champagne." We also got an assortment of other varieties for applesauce, including Cox's Orange Pippin, Red Spy, Empire, and others I don't remember.

These apples inspired a great deal of our cooking, baking, and eating for the rest of the trip. We made a full size apple pie, and 10 mini pies in muffin tins (which we took to the Saturday dance to share with friends and with the band). We also made 5 jars of applesauce (some with ginger), and apple-onion crepes. And there were still enough for me to bring a bag home. Yum!

(We also baked other things that didn't involve so many apples, like a cabbage pie for dinner. That was the same day we made all the apple pies. I kept inadvertently mis-quoting Lt. Worf: "It is a good day to pie!")

Hiking
On Sunday the sun came back and we went hiking around Kilburn Pond in the Pisgah State Park (in New Hampshire). We had to wear special "don't shoot me I'm not a deer" colors, since it's hunting season, but we had no encounters with either the hunters or the hunted. The woods are gorgeous, and I loved my first taste of the fabled New England fall colors. My favorites, though, are the evergreens that still pop up to accent all the bright oranges, yellows, and reds.

Celebrity Sighting
One afternoon, Quena and I were in the co-op buying more supplies to help us bake all our apples, and she pointed out that Keith Murphy (of Nightingale) had just walked into the store. I'm a big fan of him and the band, so I allowed myself a moment of fan-boy excitement before deciding not to bug him, and just let him buy his groceries in peace.

Shortly after that, we ran into a friend of Quena's, made some introductions and small talk, then continued shopping. But then I heard behind us that the friend had also found Keith and started talking to him. She was saying something along the lines of "you probably don't remember me, but you stayed at my parents' house in New Mexico several years ago when you were on tour..." etc. So at that point I just had to go over and join in. "I hate to interrupt," I said, "but I couldn't help overhearing, and I wanted to mention that you also stayed at my parents' house about 12 years ago when you were playing some dances in Santa Cruz..." (it's true). He took it all very good humoredly, turning next to Quena, extending his hand, and asking "and when did I stay at your house?" I found it all highly amusing.

Delta Blooper
I'll wrap it up with one other funny story from one of my plane flights. Lots of the Delta employees were wearing pink shirts for Breast Cancer Awareness Month. One of the stewardesses also made an announcement to say that they'd be selling pink lemonade to raise money "for breast research." There was general laughter until one of the co-stewardesses nudged her to correct herself and clarify that it's breast cancer research.

Anyway, it was a wonderful trip all around, and you can see a few pictures here. And now I'm home.

New Address

2009-09-22T14:48:00.000-07:00

I got the keys to my new apartment today! I don't have to be out of my old one until the end of the month, though, so I'll probably be moving in in stages (with the moving van / furniture / helpful friends and family stage being on Saturday). Anyway, it's time to update my address if you care about snail mail, or actually finding me, or things like that. If you're reading this on Facebook, the new address is in my info tab. If you're not on FB, want my address, and don't already have it, just let me know.

Farewell, Fair Wall

2009-09-08T13:14:00.000-07:00

Well, it's time for the next and last update on my living room wall art project. (See previous posts: 1, 2, 3, 4.) This was never the sort of project that would have an actual end point, but given that I'll be moving in a couple weeks, it seems time to declare it "finished." I'll be taking all the little squares down soon and packing them up to take with me, but I very much doubt I'll have a similar wall space in which to recreate the overall mosaic. Though I wouldn't necessarily want to, really. This is something that's just sort of grown up here at The Live Light Ward, and it would seem out of place if it were transplanted elsewhere. I could conceivably start a new overall design using the same pieces, of course. But I think I'll more likely just retire it all and see what new project the new apartment suggests to me, once I've moved in. I'll miss this guy, though.

Moving to Ananda

2009-08-31T11:16:00.000-07:00

I just signed the papers yesterday to move into an apartment at the Ananda community in Mountain View. I'll be doing the actual move in late September, and I'm greatly looking forward to it.

I'd been vaguely wanting to move to the community for a while now, especially after spending two weeks at Ananda Village, the original Ananda community, for the Living with Spirit retreat. But I hadn't let myself get too attached to the idea, since I didn't think I could justify raising my rent as much as I thought I had to. Then last week I found out that there's a "junior one-bedroom" apartment there with almost exactly the same rent as I'm paying now. So I just tossed the excuses out the window and went for it.

Since the apartment is a "junior," I'll have about 1/3 less space than I do now. But I don't really need all the space I currently have, and there's a bunch of stuff I've been wanting to get rid of, rearrange, and/or simplify anyway. So I think it'll be a fun challenge to find a way to fit well in there.

And it's a nice little apartment, in spite of being small. It has a lovely fenced-in patio, with space for all my potted plants, and even some actual dirt to plant things in. (And of course there's the community garden I can play with, too.) It's probably one of the sunniest apartments in a complex with lots of big, shady trees, so that's sort of the best of both worlds in that department. And I think it's literally the closest apartment to the meditation temple, which is just a very nice place to be.

Add to all that the fact that I'll get to live in a beautiful community with a spiritual family of wonderful people, and I think this will be a very good move. "Ananda" means "Joy" in Sanskrit, so as we say at the end of service every week, "I will live in joy!" (Literally!)

SYTYCD Solos

2009-08-09T16:53:00.001-07:00

One thing I was appreciating during this latest season of So You Think You Can Dance was the solos. It seemed to me that more people were actually putting some thought into choreographing their solos to the music, and we had less of the "just turn on some song and do your stuff" kind of thing. I find that hugely important, since to me dance is inextricable from music. If you really want to have the biggest impact, you've got to get the most out of each part of the equation.

Brandon, however, deserves special props for taking this to still another level during the penultimate week of the show. He went beyond simply choreographing with the music, and also optimized both his choice and editing of the music. I didn't know the piece he used, but it was orchestral, choral, and hugely dramatic. Not only that, but he used the ending of it, with a powerful, bravissimo!-sort of ending that practically commands you to stand up and applaud your hands off. Combine that all with the fact that Brandon is a fantastic dancer, and it's no surprise that he got a standing ovation from the judges.

In fact, I think it's incredible that I've seen 4 seasons of this show now and this is the first solo like this that I remember. You'd think it would be a no-brainer, but so many dancers just let their music get cut off wherever the 30-second break comes. So even if it was a beautiful solo, you're left with a sense of frustration at the interruption, rather than a sense of satisfaction from the completion of an excellent performance.

As for the actual results, I thought Brandon had it in the bag after that solo. But Jeanine was tied with him in my own preferences, so I was quite please with her winning in the end. (And she had a wonderful tango-esque solo the last week.) I was surprised at Evan making it into the top 4. As much as I love him, Ade was honestly the better dancer. But oh well, it was still good to see the "nice guy" get that far.

And as for the choreographies, I thought the final competition show was kind of weak for a finale, aside from the Paso Doble, which was probably the best one of those they've had on the show yet. Throughout the season, though, there were some really good routines, so the final results show with the judges' favorites was excellent. I thought the hip hop routine that started the whole season was excellent, and I was also very impressed with the "Addiction" contemporary piece, and Brandon and Jeanette's tango. Lots of good stuff.

Worms Eat My Garbage

2009-07-21T17:07:00.001-07:00

A little while ago I read Worms Eat My Garbage, by Mary Appelhof, which got me inordinately interested in worms. It's hard to have a regular compost pile if you live in an apartment, but a worm bin solves that problem perfectly. It's compact, neat, doesn't smell, you can keep it inside if you need to, and the worms do most of the work for you. They'll even regulate their population based on how much space and food you give them.

So on Saturday I picked up a "Wriggly Wranch" worm bin at a discounted price from the San Jose Environmental Services. They sell these and other composting systems periodically, and also give composting workshops (see the schedule). You might have to be a resident of Santa Clara county for all that, but other places offer similar things (e.g. San Mateo county). The Worm Dude was also there selling worms, so I got them at the same time.

And so now I've got about a thousand worms (1 lb.) all munching away at the compostable portions of my garbage, making nice fertilizer for my plants, and keeping more stuff out of the dumpsters and landfills. Yay for worms!

(And before any more people ask, no I'm not naming them all....)

Living with Spirit Recap

2009-07-17T20:16:00.001-07:00

I got back from Ananda Village on Sunday, and finally posted a few photos from the retreat I was on. I've been a bit slow in processing the experience for presentation to the external world, but I wanted to say a bit about it before I got too far away from it.

The Group
The Living with Spirit participants were about 25-30 people (it fluctuated, because some folks who live at the village came and went), between the ages of 16 and 30 (I think I was the oldest). And it was a really good, cohesive group of people. The program doesn't have any requirements about specific spiritual beliefs, but this year it seemed like everyone there was either already involved with the Ananda path in some form, or was taking to it right away. And that was really good because however much you want to affirm the ultimate oneness of all Truth, it does help to be on the same page with how you talk about it with everyone. But there was also enough variety in everyone's background and experience and skills that each person brought something really unique and valuable to our little community. It felt like we all really quickly formed a close family, with everyone having an important role of their own to fill, which was a really good way for the group to function.

The Camp
Our campsite was located about a 7-minute walk along a dusty dirt road from "downtown" Ananda (which is about six buildings, plus our showers). We had a pretty good kitchen setup, since someone had gotten running water, electricity, and gas out there. That let us have a sink, stove, and refrigerator, so we could do all our own food. We also had a couple outhouses, to save us some of the walks back to civilization, and then we all just set up tents wherever we could find the most shade. (It was 100+° the first few days.)

The Food
Ananda-associated food has always been excellent, in my experience. Being a clever vegetarian cook (including being able to piece together gourmet meals from random campsite supplies) seems to be a very common quality among people there. I was even inspired to buy two Ananda cookbooks, and I hardly ever buy cookbooks. But heck, the sun burger recipe alone would have been worth the price.

I also had some food-naming amusement, thanks to Greg and Briana. Greg made minestrone soup on the day that Swami Kriyananda arrived at the village, and dubbed it "mineswami" soup, after which he also decided we should have "chakra chip" cookies. At breakfast on the last day, Briana came up with "om-meal" and "Anandamoyee Ma-shed potatoes." Awesome.

Sadhana
We had two sadhana periods each day (well, most days) -- one at 6:00 AM, which was usually the best temperature of the day, and one in the afternoon before dinner. They usually consisted of energization exercises, yoga, and meditation. For me, yoga was the new part and I took to it, as they say, like a duck to investment banking. But over the course of the two weeks, I learned to relate to it a bit better, and grok it a little more. I still don't care for the more stretchy poses, or anything that I don't feel like I can even approximate. But I do feel the benefit of a lot of them, and even started rather liking some of the balancing poses. (Maybe that's just the dancer in me enjoying that kind of a challenge.)

The Farm
A lot of this retreat was not just spiritual practice, but also "karma yoga," meaning detached action solely for the sake of service. Which is, of course, a spiritual practice in its own way if you do it right. The theme this year was sustainable agriculture, so we spent a lot of time just working on the Ananda farm, mostly with the vegetables and fruit orchards, but also doing occasional other stuff like building fences or trails. I've been gardening enough this year that I think I enjoyed this all more than I would have in the past. It's especially nice, after just having potted plants on a balcony, to get out and work with plants in the actual ground for a change. The hardest part for me was thinning the apples on the apple trees. It seems so horrible to pick and throw out so many baby apples, but it does let the remaining ones grow bigger and sweeter.

Swami Kriyananda
Swamiji arrived from Italy in the middle of the first week, so he could be there for Ananda Village's 40th anniversary celebration on the 4th of July weekend. He's 83 but in better shape right now than he has been in years, which made everyone very happy. He even sang a few solos at the concert on Saturday night, effectively getting "Love Is a Musician" stuck in everyone's heads for the rest of the trip. (I really want to do a cross-step waltz to that song.)

Our group also got to spend an evening with Swami at the Crystal Hermitage. He didn't give a lecture or anything, just plunked himself down and asked what we wanted to talk about. There were a lot of us, and I wasn't one of the few who actually got to ask him a question. But Swami has a way of managing to talk about everything, regardless of what questions actually get asked. So I think everyone comes away satisfied at the end anyway.

The Yuba River
We had a field trip day each week, and on the first one we went swimming in the Yuba River. It's a gorgeous place, and delightful to swim in, but getting there was more of an adventure than I'd expected. To try and pass up the most crowded, close-to-the-road, areas, we hiked up hill for a while, then hiked/slid back down to river level, then ended up fording the whole river to get to a small, untenanted beach on the other side. All this while carrying our towels, other personal items, boxes containing picnics for 30 people, a large cooler full of drinking water, and a guitar. I was the one carrying Parkle's guitar, and I gotta say it made me pretty nervous clambering over rocks in the middle of the river with that. But we made it okay.

We swam upstream for a while, getting out occasionally to clamber over small waterfalls and such things. I can't remember the last time I swam against a current, so that was pretty interesting. There was one spot of relatively calm water with a 30-foot rock over it that was good for leaping off of ("the Acid Drop") though I passed on that, myself. Some of us took a little detour off to the side of the river to find an old mine tunnel with great echoes, where we chanted some extremely satisfying "OMs." The turnaround point for most of us was at a place with a waterfall inside a cave inside a waterfall. Then we swam back, with the current this time. That was mostly easier, though the waterfalls were still tricky. We went over the first one with just a few bumps and it seemed okay. The second one looked easier, but completely bashed everyone up. (I still have bruises and scrapes on my legs from that. At least I went feet-first.) After that I was a bit more careful and went around some of the others. Back at our home beach we had our afternoon meditation wherever we could find places on the rocks or the sand, which was a lovely way to wrap it up.

The Donner Pass
Our other field trip was to go hiking up Donner Pass in the Sierras. We started around 7000 feet in elevation and got up to a peak at 8500 feet. That's a beautiful place to hike. I love all the mountain rocks and trees, and the trails are good, and we even found a patch of snow to play in (in July!). We stopped and had lunch just short of our destination, then Greg and John had us all close our eyes while they led us around the last outcroppings of rock. They lined us all up and had us all open our eyes at once, to a spectacular view looking all the way down to Donner Lake. We went down to the lake itself later on, but since that water had been snow just days before, I opted not to go in. (It was cooler there around the mountains, anyway, so I wasn't frying as much as usual.)

The "Point" of It All
A lot of people have asked me whether I got what I wanted to out of this trip. It's a fair question, though I don't think I feel like writing a complete answer here on my blog (nor could I if I tried, I expect). But yes, it was good, and I'm glad I went. While some specific experiences were especially powerful (the evening we spent on healing prayers, for instance) a lot of the real benefit came just from being in that environment. That land has been a very intentionally, devotedly spiritual community for 40 years now, and you can feel it, just being there. It's also very good to spend time around people who are constantly helping each other to remember to think of God, and to find the spiritual aspect in everything they do.

Om. Peace. Amen.

Living with Spirit

2009-06-28T08:09:00.007-07:00

I'm leaving today for the "Living with Spirit" retreat up at Ananda Village. So for the next two weeks I'll be camping, meditating, doing yoga, taking classes, experiencing life in a spiritual community, and doing other fun things. Oh, and hoping I don't miss my first tomatoes, though Cathy will be looking after them for me. See y'all mid-July!

A New Favorite Narrator

2009-06-25T13:19:00.000-07:00

I just finished listening to Shantaram, by Gregory David Roberts, narrated by Humphery Bower, and I have to say I spent every one of those 43 hours completely enthralled with his voice.

First of all, he's Australian (appropriate for the first-person protagonist of the book) so everything is delightfully accented, even just the "base" narration. But it's the character voices that always really sell me on a good narrator. Most of the book takes place in Bombay, so there are umpteen different Indian characters, all with distinguishable, recognizable voices. Aside from that, though, there are numerous characters from other countries, with accents as diverse as French, German, Spanish, British (London and Liverpool versions), Canadian, American, Iranian, Pakistani, and Afghan. And as if juggling all that weren't enough, he also handles cases like British-educated Afghan, New York Pakistani, and an Australian faking an American accent while speaking Hindi. The guy is a genius.

And even beyond the accents, the overall narration is just exquisitely done. Every little shading and coloring of emotion and meaning is conveyed perfectly in the intonation. Not too much -- I've heard narrators that overdo it -- but just right. This goes both for matching explicit descriptions in the text and for applying his own interpretations to the rest of it. There have been a number of times when I could tell that I would have read something in a very different way in my head, but that Bower's version worked much better.

So if you're a connoisseur of good narrators, definitely listen to this. (Or I expect any of the other books he's read would be excellent as well.)

Peas!

2009-06-16T11:08:00.003-07:00

I think peas really have to be just about the best plants ever. Lacey gave me a couple small Cascadia Bush Snap Peas about a month ago, and I got to pick and eat the first one last night. I love these little plants. This is how awesome they are:

They grow quickly.
Their vines climb with delightful little grasping tendrils. (I always think vines are wonderful.)
You get to build trellises for them (or, in my case, tie crazy arrangements of string and sticks to balcony railings).
The flowers are adorable.
The peas are delicious!

I mean, really, what more could you want?

30

2009-06-08T11:06:00.002-07:00

(Potshots #2797, by Ashleigh Brilliant.)

Well, it's a new year and a new decade for me today. Thirty still sounds like too big a number, but I've also kinda been looking forward to getting out of all the late-20s nonsense of the past few years. So I'm assuming it'll be good. :-)

I got to do several fun things this weekend, starting back on Friday with dinner and birthday stuff with Mom, Lacey, and Cathy, before going out waltzing. Then a Waldon gathering on Saturday (more of a general family reunion, but family + apple cobbler + double chocolate brownies is close enough to a birthday celebration for me). Then yesterday Cheryl and I made one of my weirder ice creams (about which, more here) and other amusing sillinesses.

So today, the actual day, will probably be a bit different. But I always like to make sure I get some quiet, introspective time around my birthdays, to think and write and such. And to plant a lot of new seedlings in my garden. And to work my way through the leftovers of five different, excellent desserts from this weekend. That'll make for a good day.

Homemade Vanilla Extract

2009-05-29T11:53:00.001-07:00

As with many good things of this sort, this was inspired by my sister. Turns out it's actually quite easy to make vanilla extract.

Get a bottle of vodka.
Get 6 vanilla beans.
Slit the beans, stick them in the bottle, shake it up.
Put it in a cupboard for a few months.

You can take it out once in a while to give it a shake, and to watch the color deepen as it goes along. I find this kind of thing rather fascinating, actually, so I took photos at intervals:

As you use it up, you can top it off with more vodka, and if you need a vanilla bean for something, you can pull one out and replace it with a fresh one. So it can be a fun sort of ongoing thing. Yum!

And Hills for Climbing

2009-05-21T11:57:00.002-07:00

Nightingale has a beautiful song on their third album called "Hills," which I only started really hearing properly a couple weeks ago.

It's actually from a poem by Arthur Guiterman, and apparently they turned around the last two lines, but that's the part I now like most about it:

God, give me strength to climb,
And hills for climbing.

We can pray for strength, but what is strength without a use for it? Both sides of the equation have to go together.

Those lines for me resonate back two years ago, when I saw the movie "Evan Almighty." I think it was a decently entertaining movie, but one part burned into my brain and crowded the rest of it out. Morgan Freeman, as God, is comforting Evan's wife, and says:

Sounds like an opportunity. Let me ask you something. If someone prays for patience, do you think God gives them patience? Or does he give them the opportunity to be patient? If they pray for courage, does God give them courage, or does he give them opportunities to be courageous? If someone prayed for their family to be closer, you think God zaps them with warm, fuzzy feelings? Or does he give them opportunities to love each other?
(video clip)

It's a good reminder. If we're going through difficult times, we're not just suffering -- we're learning to be patient, or brave, or loving, or whatever our own personal lessons need to be. It's an opportunity to consciously acknowledge and accept those lessons. Sometimes it may be hard even just to tell what's going on, but we can still keep climbing our hills, and trust in the strength that goes with it.

So let me hold my way,
By nothing halted,
Until, at close of day,
I stand exalted.

Dance Limericks

2009-05-12T11:04:00.000-07:00

In honor of Limerick Day, which I only just found out existed, I dug up a bunch that I wrote probably about 8 years ago. In Richard's social dance classes, we had to write a one-page "essay" each quarter, to justify him giving us an actual unit. After a few years of this, I occasionally had to get more creative, like when I submitted the following collection of limericks. Many of you Richard-Powers-groupies out there may recognize some of his teaching metaphors. :-)

An arrow protrudes from my chest,
And a laser beam comes from my vest,
I take the blow with my back,
As we roll, Jill and Jack;
The waltz tends t'wards violence, at best!

The hustle, as a dance, isn't funny,
Except when one hops like a bunny,
I simply can't stand,
To see a one-two-three-AND --
It just makes my insides all runny.

Occasionally persons pontifical,
Say the waltz is a dance quite centrifugal,
But whether forces act out,
Or around and about,
Is a question considered most difficul'.

There was a young lady named Cindy,
Who danced a remarkable lindy,
Her skirts and her hair
Just flew through the air,
Whether or not it was windy.

Some people may think you are odd-ish,
When the ska plays, and you dance a schottische,
With a one-two-three-hop,
And some pivots on top,
That makes their legs tangled and knot-ish.

There once was a dancer named Luke,
Who made a bet with a good friend from Duke,
That he could waltz 'round and 'round,
And around and around,
And around, until ready to ... stop.

While attempting to waltz on my toes,
I repeatedly fall on my nose.
It is quite a treat,
To get off of my feet,
But my nose flows a rose on my clothes.

Son of Contra Plus!

2009-05-04T16:16:00.000-07:00

So if you missed out on Contra Plus!... well, you missed out. But Bob and I are going to be DJing for the first couple of hours at Big Dance this Friday, so you can come get your fix of contras + couple dances there. We won't have the incredible band we had a week ago, but we've still got plenty of good stuff lined up, so it'll be fun. Come dance! (And then stay up all the rest of the night and dance some more!)

Contra Plus!

2009-04-14T09:11:00.000-07:00

Bob, Lacey, and I have been organizing a new dance event. It's called Contra Plus!, and will be about half contra dances and half couple dances -- waltz, swing, polka, tango, etc. The music will be awesome, Decadance will be performing for us, and Bob and I will be calling. If you haven't done contra before, just come to the class beforehand and we'll get you up to speed right away. If you're primarily a contra dancer, it'll be a fun chance to do more couple dances. Full event details are on Facebook -- feel free to pass it around and invite all your friends!

Thirteen Moons

2009-04-09T18:40:00.000-07:00

A little over a year ago I was beginning my first Vipassana meditation retreat on the evening of a full moon. On today's full moon, I'm going to start level 1 of Ananda's meditation class series. I like the symmetry of that.