Taking Time.....

THE SITUATION

In Washington , DC , at a Metro Station, on a cold January morning in 2007, this man with a violin played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, approximately 2,000 people went through the station, most of them on their way to work. After about 3 minutes, a middle-aged man noticed that there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds, and then he hurried on to meet his schedule.

About 4 minutes later:

The violinist received his first dollar. A woman threw money in the hat and, without stopping, continued to walk.

At 6 minutes:

A young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again.

At 10 minutes:

A 3-year old boy stopped, but his mother tugged him along hurriedly. The kid stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head the whole time. This action was repeated by several other children, but every parent - without exception - forced their children to move on quickly.

At 45 minutes:

The musician played continuously. Only 6 people stopped and listened for a short while. About 20 gave money but continued to walk at their normal pace. The man collected a total of $32.

After 1 hour:

He finished playing and silence took over. No one noticed and no one applauded. There was no recognition at all.

No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars. Two days before, Joshua Bell sold-out a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100 each to sit and listen to him play the same music.

This is a true story. Joshua Bell, playing incognito in the D.C. Metro Station, was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment aboutperception, taste and people's priorities.

This experiment raised several questions:

*In a common-place environment, at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty?

*If so, do we stop to appreciate it?

*Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context?

One possible conclusion reached from this experiment could be this:

If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world, playing some of the finest music ever written, with one of the most beautiful instruments ever made . . ..

How many other things are we missing as we rush through life?

My hope for myself is slow down, feel, notice, experience, share and fully embrace this life I am living. What beauty did you notice today?

A Birthday to Remember

I woke last Friday, the morning of my 50th birthday, to my lover Paul arriving at my bedside, and sweetly slipping under the covers alongside my warm, sleepy body.

We lounged comfortably in one anothers arms, and talked about things of no particular importance. As lovers do, we kissed and caressed and shared appreciation for being in each others lives in our own unique way.

Suddenly, there was a bump on the window above my head. I jolted upright only to see a masked man wearing a cowboy hat, scarf and trench coat, and taping a “happy birthday” banner to my window. My initial startle turned to glee and my day of celebration was officially on a roll.

Paul and I wandered off to breakfast (or at least I thought that was where we were going), when instead of breakfast, Paul delivered me to the yoga studio. I entered the studio rather confused, only to find my dear friend Joy waiting for me at the inner door. It took me a moment before I realized that this was part of the plan! Paul kissed me on the check, told me to enjoy my day, and suggested that whenever asked, I simply say “yes”.

After yoga Joy asked if I’d like to grab a quick breakfast. Remembering the words of Paul I said, without hesitation, “yes”. As we walked to the car another masked man jumped out from behind the hedge. Joy and I both let out a little screech of startle. This man pretended to be menacing and told me to be quiet while he sang “You are so beautiful to me…..” and wrapped me in bright red tinsel, covered me in stickers and put bows upon my jacket. When he was complete he ran off down the railroad tracks with a bit of a skip and jump.

I giggled my way into the car and on to the restaurant. Joy suggested she drop me at the front door and she would go park the car and be right back. I said “yes”.

As I walked into the restaurant I noticed there was a large crowd waiting to be seated and thought perhaps we should go somewhere else, as I knew Joy was in a hurry and this was not known to be a speedy restaurant (albeit my favorite). After only a few steps inside the jam-packed restaurant I found Thunder (or should I say Thunder found me), dear friend #3. He reached through the crowd to grab my hand, and led me to a table for two. He had already ordered us breakfast. It took me a minute (or two) to realize the perfection of this moment, and the brilliance of the design that Thunder and I would get to have a one-on-one breakfast. As Thunder described his appreciation of our friendship, masked man #3 sauntered up to our table. He was dressed in a black wool jacket with the collar turned up high. He handed me a rose, whispered Rumi in my ear, and left me with a kiss……. I said yes.


I suddenly felt transition in the air. Thunder was putting on his jacket, had paid the bill and was ushering me out the door. We left our breakfast partly undone and stepped out the front door into the cool, crisp, wintery morning, to find a pedi-bike waiting for us (this is one of those bikes that have a little bench seat carriage on the back). Thunder helped me into the carriage, the driver covered us with a blanket, and we set off on the chilly (and wonderful) ride to town. We chatted and laughed and giggled all the way to the plaza. Thunder tapped the driver on the shoulder and said, “you can let me off here”. He kissed me on the cheek and bolted off into the park. The driver turned to me and said, “where to?”. “I have no idea, you better ask that man….” And as I pointed toward Thunder, he disappeared behind the hedge. The driver said, “Oh, I know where you’re going.” We continued on up the road.

Soon I saw another friend, Maya, standing on the sidewalk. She was here to take me for a stroll in the park (yet another one of my favorite things). As we strolled along, masked man #4 came bounding across the grass, grabbed my hand, fell to one knee, sang some-thing-or-other, and kissed me long and hard on the mouth. He completed the kiss with the smirk of a bandit and ran off down the park.

We giggled our way through the park, until, after much dawdling, Maya delivered me to masked man #5. This particular man was sitting on a park bench looking rather menacing. He remained silent, stood, reached into his pocket, and pulled out a postcard with a picture of the Beatles and on the back it said “Dear Prudence, If you want me to I will. Love, Ringo”. He asked if he could give me a ride, I said yes…..

It was a short trip to the spa, and took me but a moment to see the names of dear friends on the sign in sheet and realize there was a party going on in the hot tubs! We soaked, giggled, floated, hung out in the sauna, and Jessica washed my hair.

With the most perfect of timing, Dear Friend #5, Jacquelene, showed up, with instructions to “wisk me away to my next destination”. I said yes….

As we got into her car, she blindfolded me, put on music, and told me to relax. We drove a bit, and then a bit more, and then we arrived……

Jacquelene walked me into the house blindfolded, removed my outerwear and boots and led me into, what I knew to be, the living room. I could hear the fire, I could sense people in the room, and I could smell the aroma of yumminess.

These friends asked if I’d like to remain blindfolded, or take it off. I chose to stay blindfolded for awhile and let myself drink in the anticipation and joy in the air. I quickly ascertained what friends were in the room and felt loved and held and appreciated and seen. I spent the next four hours receiving the real royal treatment. The gave me a massage, yummie food and a hot tub.

Upon completion of the Royal Treatment, I was delivered to the actual birthday party, where all the masked men and friends of the day were gathered, all wearing masks, and all ready to receive and celebrate me.

The evening included dinner, ice cream (instead of a cake, cuz it’s my favorite) dancing, story telling and more. We sang and danced in the new year, we set our intentions and we witnessed our love and friendship.


I have never felt more loved, been more seen, been held more dearly or honored so deeply by such a beautiful group of people.

Today I feel well loved, and am in deep appreciation of this as a reflection of loving well.

My 50th year on this planet is easily summed up in the words of Paul McCartney, “and in the end the love you take is equal to the love you make”.

Thank you for giving me so much to love.

On a day when the wind is perfect,
the sail just needs to open
and the love starts.

Today is
such a day
~ Rumi

*Masked Men: 1) Ross 2)Randy 3)Cary 4)Paul 5)Stevo - THANKS!

Six Billion Paths to Peace Goes to India

Six Billion Paths To Peace Goes To India
Kim Keller, Correspondent

In November of 2009 Six Billion Paths to Peace and I visited the South West region of India. I had been before, and have a deep love for the country, the people, the culture, the food and the vibrancy. My first visit was designed around a humanitarian project to build wells in the villages that had lost their water source to the Tsunami. That trip had been focused and full. This time I wanted more time to experience life in India, and to connect on a deeper level with the people I met along the way. After my time working with Shinnyo en and the Six Billion Paths to Peace Initiative, I knew this would be a wonderful way to connect, share, listen, and promote the idea that we all have our individual paths to peace, and to help others identify theirs.

Shinnyo en provided 15 digital cameras for me to take on my trip. Once I arrived I found a school that was inspired to hear about the Photo Peace Project and I was graciously invited in to work with a group of 8th grade girls.

The girls and I spent some time brainstorming the word “peace”, and identifying how our ideas around peace were similar, different, difficult or easy. Although we did experience some language barrier, the concept of peace easily crossed that barrier. The girls then took the cameras home for a week with the assignment to take photos of what they think peace really is, how they see it in action, and how the idea of peace impacts their lives. When I returned to their school the following week we spent the afternoon putting their captions to the photos.

Attached is the slide show of a small sampling of photos and captions from the girls at Sri Shanthi Vajaya Girls School, Conoor, India, Tamil Nadu. Since my return home I have been sharing the pictures and captions from these students with young people across the state of California and asking them to share their own ideas about peace, and to identify their individual paths to peace. Students have been creating Peace Flags that are being strung together and creating hundreds of feet of flags. Thank you to the Shinno en Foundation for creating the opportunities for depth of conversation, deep reflection, and creation of the visual representation of hundreds of students towards creating our own Paths to Peace.

Dancing Through Transition

Today we danced.
The woman who ran the dance encouraged us to pay special attention to the transitions between the music, between our dance partners and between the rhythms. Right away I noticed that my automatic response to transition was to slow down or stop during the transition, but I had an overriding intellect telling me to keep moving, keep pushing through, keep “doing” something. I had some mystery voice telling me that if I came to a complete halt I’d somehow loose my momentum and be unable to start back up again. And so I pushed. Sometimes I had to push hard, sometimes it was easy, but it was almost always a push.
And then I thought about my life, and all the times I’ve been in some sort of transition, as I am now. I’ve transitioned through my children leaving home, divorce, break up, unrequited love, hurt feelings, declining income, bankruptcy, shifts in my work, my family and my heart. Each time my thought has been to keep pushing, keep moving, keep doing. In fact, often times the doing-ness of the push would help me avoid and deny the pain or difficulty of the transition. Sometimes, I think the push is necessary. I have experienced times that if I didn’t push, I would come to a complete standstill and be unable to care for myself or my loved ones. And so push was all I could do. But there are other times when I could find a way to push and remain gentle and compassionate with myself as well. A way to push without avoiding or denying that change can be difficult.
Transitions can be scary. As my life continues to move into new territory, new relationships, new homes, new work….. these can all be unsettling and difficult. There are learning curves to be had, loss to be mourned, changes to be experienced – and all of these things have often times left me uncertain and frightened. There have been times when the fear is paralyzing, and others when the new opportunity is exciting and inspiring. Either way, change feels uncertain, and sometimes I believe it is in my best interest to slow down, and perhaps, at times, to even come to a stand still. To allow the movement to subside, allow the decisions to unfold instead of be pushed, and to simply sit in the uncertainty and allow whatever is next to show up. I continue to try and remember that the Universe is always on my side, always conspiring for my success and has my best interest at heart….. even when it doesn’t look or feel that way.
While I plan to keep dancing through the transitions, I think I'm more likely to slow down when necessary.

Wake Up

Every day I attempt to start my day in a way that leads to joy, love and possibilities. Take a listen to this and tell me what you think!
Click Here!

On a Clear Day.......

Yesterday I flew home to Southern Oregon from New Mexico through San Francisco. Our plane left Albuquerque shortly before the sun had risen. Consequently, the flight West was accompanied by a beautiful sunrise. By the time we reached the Grand Canyon the sun was just lighting up the Western Ridge and the bright reds and oranges of the canyon walls were breathtaking. Soon we were over the glaring white snow covered mountains of the High Sierras. We flew directly over my childhood hometown of Mammoth Lakes and I could identify the ski runs, Convict Lake and see the tip of the mountain where the gondola runs. I looked North and gazed in wonder at the snow capped peaks as far as the eye could see. And then came the gorgeous San Francisco Bay. The sun was shining brightly, not a cloud in the sky, the red Golden Gate Bridge was radiant. I was even able to make out the building in the downtown area where I sometimes work. Rarely do I see the Bay Area so fogless and clear. As we continued North I was astonished at how crystal clear the sky was. Again, I could see rolling mountains and lakes and the curvature of the earth until it disappeared into the distant horizon. I could identify numerous landmarks along the way, and soon I could see the sun reflecting brightly off the newly white surface of Mt. Shasta. The surrounding dark green rolling hills seemed to go on forever. Suddenly, the captain made an announcement:

“Ladies and gentlemen, it appears there is a weather condition in Medford that may impede our ability to land. Current visibility is such that we cannot get permission to approach the runway at this time and may need to divert to Redmond.”

Redmond is 125 miles East of Medford and my head began to ache with the possibility of being loaded onto a bus for that long, curvy trek across the Cascades. I immediately began to doubt the information the captain had just given us. How could this be possible? It had been so crystal clear for my entire trip that there couldn’t POSSIBLY be enough clouds or fog or WHATEVER to prevent us from landing!!! I mean, REALLY, can’t he just look outside and see that it is crystal clear? And besides, its not even winter time yet so again, he must have bad information!!!

We circled Medford for about 10 minutes, and as we looked down out of our windows the report was confirmed. Everything as far as the eye could see was perfectly clear and sunny, with the exception of the little valley Medford seemed to be sitting in. Medford was solidly packed with fog. Perhaps the captain did know more about the situation than I did.

It wasn’t long before I laughed at how my own desire to get home had begun to cloud the facts we had been given, and how I used my own current experience to prove my own point of view. I began to use my own experience of cloudless skies to second guess the new information and reports of cloudy skies for others.

The same thing happened when I read a newspaper article yesterday about a law regarding child abandonment. Two years ago the State of Nebraska enacted a law called “safe haven”. The law stated that children could be abandoned at hospitals without parents fearing legal action. The law was created to prevent parents from abandoning their babies in dumpsters. It was decided that people unable to cope with parenthood needed a safe option. However, as it turned out, the law is now being used in an unexpected way. In the course of the past year over 30 children had been deposited into hospitals and abandoned there to become the responsibility of the state. The majority of these children ranged in age from 11-17. I was immediately appalled. How on earth could any parent simply drive their child to a local hospital and leave them there? One nurse reported a little 6 year old boy pleading with his mother, “mommy, I’ll be good, I promise I’ll be good, just don’t leave me here.” My heart broke, and I immediately began to judge and condemn these parents as unloving, uncaring and overwhelming selfish.

Then I read on.

The reasons for these abandonment’s varied widely. Some of the children left behind were incorrigible teenagers and the parents felt they had exhausted every avenue of assistance and were simply at their wits end. One young teenager had become so violent and aggressive he had become a danger to the rest of his family. One young single mother had done all she could do to feed and house her child, she was now homeless and hopeless and this seemed the most compassionate option for her child so that she would not have to live on the streets and be subject to the violence there. Another single father was mentally ill and feared for the safety of his child based on his own inability to cope.

These are people in severe pain and distress, more than I could even pretend to truly comprehend. Their lives were not the same lives I had lived. Their view from the foggy basin of the valley was not the same view from high in the sky as I rode along in the plane.

It wasn’t until we finally landed and I disembarked that I saw and felt how dark and heavy the fog really was. I quickly put on my jacket and wrapped my scarf tightly around my neck. The dense heaviness of the wet fog immediately soaked into my body and I could feel the cold dark oppression. Our landing had felt completely blind. There was zero visibility and it was obvious we were landing with extreme technological assistance. Only then did I have a deeper understanding that I only ever have a piece of the picture. I have only my own vantage point. There was obviously more to know and understand in just about any situation than simply what I knew to be true for myself.

I know it is said to “never judge a man until you have walked a mile in his shoes.” I guess this is just a long way around to saying the same thing. The cloudless flight reminded me that my vantage point of life is very limited and specific only to my own experiences-and the world is oh-so-much more than that. In the future I’ll be reminding myself gently to be on the look out for a more global perspective on life’s multilayered issues.

I Took My Heart Dancing

I took my heart dancing today
I was tired and didn’t want to get out of bed
But my heart tapped me ever so gently
“come on, lets go dance” she softly said

I took my heart dancing today
And was reminded how lovely she is
As I felt her moving and gliding and stretching
Whispering she says “thank you, I love this”

I took my heart dancing today
She wanted to take the lead
Sometimes my intellect over-rides
But She knows that dancing leaves her feeling freed

I took my heart dancing today
She stretched, she twirled, she leapt
As she moved across the floor of dancers
She saw she was growing weary of being gently kept

I took my heart dancing today
She knows my every move
The gyration of hips, the movement of arms
She was really into the groove

I took my heart dancing today
She pushed me and began to radiate
The feeling of heat down deep in my core
Inspiring and reminding me the dance is a cocreate

I took my heart dancing today
And poetry filled my soul
Words and music and harmonies
As we danced I began to feel whole

I took my heart dancing today
The many pieces of me came together
The unrequited love, the fractures, the pain
When suddenly the worries of my heart seemed to be light as a feather

I took my heart dancing today
It was nice to let her be in charge
I’d like to let her lead more of the time
She keeps my life feeling large

Take your heart out dancing real soon
I’m sure you’ll be surprised to see
The ease in which a mood can adjust
And the joy in taking time to just “be”

Dancing can bring new ideas
Adjust a dream, a vision, a hope
Shakes things back into perspective
And keeps you hanging on, even when at the end of your rope

So dance big, dance often, dance loud
Do it alone, with others or bust
Dance inside, outside or even in the pool
But dance your dance, its and absolute must