Today's Easy

#1746 - There is a pond less than one mile from my house that I noticed a year or two ago had a path cleared for skating. I didn't think the city cleared it, but I didn't know. I tried skating on it once last year, but I was alone and scared (I'm cautious about frozen bodies of water and I think it had thawed some the previous week, so I didn't explore much.) Today I finally tried again.

It was a gorgeous day and after the cold of Dec/Jan I felt completely safe. Usually when skating alone I get bored after 15 minutes. However, this was not a loop on an ice rink, it was a path that went at least a few blocks and then circled a small island in back. I had so much fun I skated for almost an hour.

#1747 - It was right as I completed the loop that my question about who clears all this ice was answered. There was a plowed path up someone's backyard to what looked like a ride-on lawn mower with a plow on front. Clearing all that ice with that small vehicle would take quite a while! I decided (and I think in part thanks to doing this blog I had the idea) to write a thank-you card to these people.

#1748 - Human Body - It makes perfect sense to me that people's bodies adjust to temperatures. What doesn't make sense to me is the fact that I spend 95% of my time in 68 degrees, and yet MY BODY STILL ADJUSTS. Yes of course 40 degrees feels cold in the fall after a summer of warmth. But why does 40 degrees feel balmy today when I SPEND 95% OF MY TIME IN 68? Our bodies are so smart!!

#1749 - Telling the last story, the Epilogue, in Jorge Bucay's Dejame que te Cuente to my brother and sister-in-law and then us discussing the meaning of it afterwards.

#1750 - There is a Celtic service once a month that I really enjoy. During the service they interweave beautiful poetry readings. I've thought that I would enjoy being the reader, but I figured they practiced sometime during the week. I already sometimes don't go to the service because it isn't nearby, so I didn't want to drive across town for a practice too. I've been going for at least three years, and for whatever reason (Lisa, my positive day, who knows...) I felt motivated today to ask when they practice. The answer, "before the service," no extra drive required. I filled out the slip to volunteer.

Power to the People

#1736- I did something today I have only done when moving. I emptied the refrigerator of all its contents and cleaned it. Beautiful.

#1737 - Because of my question of the day Wed, I found out that Elizabeth Gilbert is in town tonight speaking for FREE. I learned this 3 hours before the event. I am grateful that I am single and childless and often without plans because this made it easy to get ready to go.
For transportation reasons I never made it. However, I sat in the living room peacefully for an hour waiting thinking I might, and thought I was a little disappointed, I was more so grateful.

#1738 - My brother thanked me for just listening when he was contradictory the other day.

#1739 - This morning I heard the news around 8:30am. It said the Egyptian military had agreed to end the state of emergency if the protestors stopped. I learned the "state of emergency" has been in effect in Egypt for 30 YEARS (as has the current president). "It bans more than three members of a political group meeting without permission." The commentator said that though this was a step, what the protestors really wanted was the President to step down and it didn't look like that was going to happen.

Then at 7pm my brother asked me if I heard about Egypt today, "Yeah a little." I responded.




The EGYPTIAN PRESIDENT STEPPED DOWN! AFTER THE PEOPLE DEMANDED IT AND THE MILITARY HELD RESTRAINT ON THEIR WEAPONS. Here are the simple and beautiful demands if you want to read them.

#1740 - It has been a "leaderless movement". There isn't a certain name or face that made this happen, it came from the people.

Question of the Day

#1726 - I was in a bad mood earlier today. Who knows why, but I was blaming it on nothing really changing. At some point later I picked up the guitar and started playing/singing/praying the songs from the last Taize service I went to. It was during one of these prayers that I received a phone call, I have an interview for a job I am really interested in.

#1727 - I went back to the guitar and sang those prayers again.

#1728 - There are some errors on the data entry I am doing that are going to take (feels like) forever to fix, and that is ok, or at least since I have only begun fixing them, at the moment it's ok.

#1729 - Cherries, Bananas, Black Raspberries, Pineapple/Coconut Juice, Strawberry Greek Yogurt and Flax Seed Smoothie

#1730 - And now what you are all waiting for - my QUESTION OF THE DAY. This is inspired by the fact that if I could choose anyone in the world to come to Minneapolis, I would choose the Dalai Lama. And he is coming. So my question is - "If you could choose anyone (currently alive) to come to where you live for a public event - whether it be a musician, speaker, politician, writer, artist, magician, whatever...who would you choose?"

This is my top of the head list (which is absent any women unfortunately):

#1 - Dalai Lama
#2 - Cory Booker (mayor of Newark, NJ)
#3 - Krishna Das (musician)
#4 - Echhart Tolle (writer)

Deep Freeze

#1716 - My friend Jed requesting to hear my songs which led to the impetus to make simple recordings of them

#1717 - Using "impetus" in that previous gratitude

#1718 - You know at one point in my life I didn't think I had any artistic ability. Similarly, for much of my life I thought I had a horrible singing voice. Now a days I'm singing all the time and I don't care who hears.

#1719 - I have been sitting next to a window much of the day where a cold draft is coming in. All day long it has reminded me, how lucky I am to be warm.

#1720 - My Dad's birthday is coming up. He asked today if I would be willing to defrost clean/out the deep freezer sometime. Yeah! I'll do it for his birthday, my kind of present.

Thai Fortune

#1706 - The message in my Thai Fortune Cookie

#1707 - Right before going to the restaurant I was hungry, and probably would have been impatient, if I were not practicing guitar.

#1708 - The smile on a woman's face who was cross-country skiing. It reminded me of the smile of my freshman roommate in college - pure and genuine.

#1709 - Right after thinking this I stopped to rest and she started talking to me. She said was a little afraid because she hadn't skied in years. She used to compete, but that was 1/2 a lifetime ago. I told her it certainly looked like she was having fun (and as I watched her head off I could see how naturally it came backed to her, it was beautiful.)

#1710 - This brief interaction infused the rest of my ski with a bit of joy.

Egypt

#1696 - My brother's interest and knowledge of international affairs, today specifically the current situation in Egypt

#1697 - Egyptians demanding free and fair elections

#1698 - My friend's baby eating almost an entire bag of frozen peas and carrots (and butter). "More," he kept saying.

#1699 - His language acquisition - today he said "lettuce" for the first time.

#1700 - Letting people know the DALAI LAMA is coming to town May 8th. YEAH!!!

Pommelo

#1686 - Watching the DVD that came with K'Naan's Dusty Foot Philosopher CD

#1687 - Simon (?) the awesome man in the DVD who gives more in a day I'd say than most of us do in a lifetime.

#1688 - http://www.4real.com/tv/ - this was one of the segments on the DVD. I guess it's a TV show called "4REAL." I've just seen the K'Naan one, but it looks like they take famous people to highlight cool things going on in places around the world. I just read a paragraph there about a man named Kimmie Weeks and it gave me the chills (in a good way).

#1689 - Using my strategy and a bit of his intuition, a friend of mine chose the word "whiffet" as his word of the year. That's right WHIFFET

#1670 - I just read Mr. Mraz's blog dated Jan. 31st-

"Gratitude can be a bitch to get sometimes. This is why it is called Practicing Gratitude – because it isn’t easy - you have to practice."