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."

Bonus Gratitude Post

365 Thank Yous: The Year a Simple Act of Daily Gratitude Changed My Life

by John Kralik

"John Kralik, at age 53, was a down-and-out lawyer, whose law firm was floundering. In December 2007 he felt he was at the lowest period of his life as he went through a painful second divorce and struggled to maintain a relationship with his two adult sons and young daughter.

On New Year's Day 2008 Kralik went for a walk on a mountain trail above Pasadena to do some soul-searching. While on the hike, a voice in his head said, "Until you learn to be grateful for the things you have, you will not receive the things you want..." Ana Jonas

It's All Music

#1676 - Playing Closer I Am To Fine by the Indigo Girls on Guitar

#1677 - Getting so into playing the previous song I almost left late for soccer

#1678 - In the Beginning by K'Naan on his Dusty Food Philosopher CD

#1679 - Aradhna - "a band that fuses traditional Indian devotional music (bhajans) with Christ-centered themes, composed primarily in the Hindi language"

#1680 - Love the Way You Lie by Eminem and Rihanna - I heard this on NPR tonight and I was really impressed with its authenticity.