Pete's 90th birthday party!

Here are a few photos from our Pete Seeger 90th birthday party adventure. As a result of some recent work (as well as a lifetime of work), Jono had the opportunity to go to Madison Square Garden and perform with some GREAT musicians, all of whom were exceedingly warm and genuinely nice people. Some of the girlfriend perks are getting backstage and having a great seat! The show was fantastic. Truly moving at times! There are lots of videos on youtube....

The banjo is Pete's famous oldie which says; This machine surrounds hate and forces it to surrender. For me, holding the banjo which was just lying around in the dressing room was a highlight! The whole concert was a benefit for Clearwater, Pete's longtime cause attempting to save the Hudson River. It took me nearly the whole show to realize that the lights in the background were in the shape of a sail. Maybe because I was so busy focusing on those purple pants!

After this I'll stop. at least I'll try to stop!

Speaking of Frida, her diary is very inspiring. Especially if you, like me, fill journals with drawings, doodles, big ideas and small ideas...

Here again are the flowers. The flowers for the grandmas(especially those sassy ones with fabulous glasses and legendary wigs...) and the families and the babies. The flowers for the lovers and for those seeking love. The flowers for the artists and musicians and the dancers and the mammas and the papas and the movers and the stayers... The flowers that absolutely won't stop blooming every spring and absolutely won't keep blooming when they're finished.

One day later...

One day later and it's all completely different. More irises with purples about to boom and though you can't really see from the photo, the wild roses have begun to open by the front door. The penned in part from yesterday's post is the vegetable garden. We try for tomatoes, basil, cauliflower, cabbage, peppers and eggplant with varying degrees of success. Growing things here is definitely a completely different thing from the jungles I was able to accidently grow back east! 

  

Home

This morning, out the door, on my way to work, running late, I sat down on the front seat of the car which faces the house and just stopped for a minute. The sky looked so blue and the green so abundant and the flowers so ready and some in bloom.... I went back in the house and grabbed the camera to take this picture for me and for you and so that someday later I won't ever forget how astonishingly stunningly beautiful this morning was at our home.

Now it's late evening and the sun has gone down and there's a nice cool breeze for comfortable sleeping. We took a stroll after dinner and agreed that this time of year in Santa Fe is about as good as it gets! 

area code haiku

Here's a good one.

I can't take credit for the idea but I like that I have friends who come up with this stuff...

Area code haiku:

 your area code determines the meter.

ex. 505

five syllables

0 or 10 syllables

five syllables

(zero can be zero or ten, you choose)

Please send your area code haiku!!!!

Passover

Yesterday I did a spring cleaning job which included the book shelves. On a bottom shelf, in the back I found a bunch of old journals which I put aside. Today, I've been going through them wondering if these kinds of things should be kept or left behind...

But look what I found-

Written on Passover in 1998-

Passover- Freedom from Slavery

Some of the most important qualities that have kept Judaism alive throughout its tumultuous history are the perseverance of individual beliefs and persistence of these beliefs in an organized, cooperative whole.

These are the very qualities that humanity needs to re-embrace in terms of increasing the quality of our life on earth.

I think that if we use this holiday as a reminder of the power of confidence in our convictions as well as the importance of maintaining convictions that are not solely self serving but are positive contributions towards a more tolerant and communicative collective good, it will have imposed its message on more currant priorities.

While it is always important to remember where we come from, it is as important to take power from and responsibility for where we are going.

In trying to use history to reflect on and reflect from, what I see to have always been the most detrimental factor in Judaism (as in all belief systems) is an incredible intolerance for any differing viewpoint. I think that if we truly want to see changes or to have our beliefs (whatever they may be)  be embraced, we need to add to the perseverance and the persistence an element of tolerance and generosity towards those with different understandings of life and its many questions.

To do this, I think the easiest way to begin would be to start at home with ourselves and our family and friends.

We spend so much time in opposition to those who are supposed to be our closest allies; Our families, our friends and even ourselves. Look at the implications here. We can't take responsibility to maintain communication, compromise and tolerance with our loved ones and we expect these qualities so often from people who not only don't know us but who can't possibly understand our perspectives unless they are open and we are patient.

So, my proposal is to spend the next year focusing on living our own lives as close to our ideals as possible.

Maybe if we can really learn how to communicate, compromise and tolerate those who we love, we can then begin to do the same with those we don't know and expect the same in return.

*Copied exactly as written.

I think I could express the idea more clearly today (I hope I could!) but I think the gist comes through.

For Kerry!

A wise old owl lived in an oak

The more he saw the less he spoke

The less he spoke the more he heard.

Why can't we all be like that wise old bird?

-old nursery rhyme