It was 1degree F when we got up. My memory thermometer said it got down to 0.7F. My weather calendar indicates the record low for this date is 0 degrees F in 1919. The record high is 71 in 1990. The normal high is 42F. We will be lucky if it gets into the twenties. It is 10.2F right now.
We celebrated Naomi's 35th birthday last night with a nice dinner and a little red wine. Her birthday was on the twelfth but she had to work. I put some music on. Simon and Garfunkel's Bookends was playing and I remembered that I received that album for my 35th birthday. Wow! 45 years ago. The music still sounds good.
My brother and sister and law were over to our house for a party and as they left, Arlene [my sister in law] said, "We got you bookends for your birthday". They were leaving and I didn't clarify what she was saying. I thought she meant things to hold up books. I thought it was kind of a strange present, especially since we had a large library style bookcase.
A few days later, I received the album. I was overjoyed with the music. That was 1970. I quickly acquired the other albums they had out. 1970 must have been a pivotal year for me. That was the year I left Wilder Child Guidance Clinic to go into private practice. For a going away present they gave me Abbey Roads. One of my senior colleagues suggested I get ear phones and zone into the music. I did.
Bookends and Abbey Roads opened up big door for me and in marched; Crosby, Stills and Nash, The Grateful Dead, James Taylor, Blood, Sweat and Tears, Willy Nelson et al. I have to stop trying to list them as I know I am forgetting a couple of my favorites. The music of that era blew my mind and opened me up.
The music described the times and portrayed the pain of the world but it was also very hopeful. It gave dignity to struggling mankind and hinted that paradise was possible.
One may ask, "What did you listen to before that?" I listened to all kinds of folk music. Some of it Irish, English, American, Country. I loved Josh White, Burl Ives, Ledbetter, Woody Guthrie and many others.
Ideas for this blog are not suggesting themselves to me. So much of my blogs are the same. I reassure folks that things are okay and the world is not as bad as it looks. Some of the stuff I read is similarly reassuring. I sometimes get impatient. I want to see real change. I don't want to just listen to promises.
My impatience doesn't last long, because I do know we are on the verge of entering paradise. How do I know? I listen with my heart. I just know. I know all our minds are together and we are beginning to bring heaven forth upon this Earth. Let me quote something from a blog I read before going to bed last night: "If you want a peaceful world, picture a peaceful world. Your pictures are that powerful. Picture a world of goodness and mercy, and behold, it will arise. Instead of storming about the state of the world, bless it. Instead of rigorously trying to overthrow the world, picture a world you would love with all your heart, and that is the world that will appear before you. The world has been amazing how it has absorbed your slings and arrows. Now the world looks for a new appraisal from you, and it will follow your thoughts. You can't get off the world- while you are here- so be a cheerleader and so change it without fanfare, and My Will be done." This is a paragraph from a blog called, "Heaven Letters"
Sounds like good advice.
Love and Peace, Gregg
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