In honor of my brother, David, who is fighting cancer, an my mother, Anne who passed away from cancer nearly ten years ago, I am joining the social media campaign to fight cancer today. For every blog post, Facebook update, and Twitter post with the hashtag #beatcancer, $.01 is donated to cancer charities. I’m helping to raise funds to #beatcancer, by blogging, tweeting and posting Facebook status updates. Click here to join me!
Category: Things I ♥
Counting Our Blessings
This week has been a doozie for my family; a death in the family; a divorce; a lost job; and many serious health problems.
In response to all of this, Dad sent out an email to all of us this week asking us all to share good news, he being the first to collect some really choice pieces:
- Noah had a successful piano recital
- Alex won an important prize at art school
- Max got a sports casting internship
- Phoebe will be in an ice skating show this May
- Faye is having an art exhibit in New York
- Sarah (my niece) was elected Student Body Vice President at her college
- Rick received an Eagle Scout award
- Elizabeth was recently reacquainted with an old family friend who has published a book
- Elise got a part in the school play
- Dad recently celebrated his 77th birthday, where Rachel helped him unwrap his presents. Daughter Sarah (me) was also there from out of town to help celebrate.
- Martin learned how to whistle (his dad still can’t)
- Andrew read a poem at the MLK celebration at his school
- Robyn and Charlie finally replace the 20-year-old linoleum in their home
- Margaret and Sarah (me) both had positive reviews at their jobs
- Sarah (niece) won some sort of spaghetti wrestling competition at college
You can probably tell that these are mostly grand kids and young nephews and nieces. Children most certainly are a blessing and a joy, and I think that we grownups need to learn from them to look within us and around us and count all of our blessings. It makes me realize that it is the small things that are bringing me joy and satisfaction, as well as appreciating the larger things that I take for granted.
Last week, my new friend Jean made me aware of a gratitude meme on Twitter, asking people to participate in an online and real life dialog about all the things they are grateful for. I have been thinking about all that I’m grateful for ever since, so when Dad sent out the email calling on us to share everything positive that is happening in our lives, it really resonated with me. Even the small things that seem mundane can make a difference in the right direction. Here are some things that I am grateful for:
- A job and career that provides for my family and gives me personal satisfaction
- An exceptionally strange and wonderful family that I adore, whether they realize it or not
- Getting acquainted with old friends through social networking tools, many of whom I wouldn’t have any idea how to reach
- Five years of marriage to the love of my life, and the community that supports our relationship
- My yoga practice that is making me increasingly mindful, open-hearted, and grounded
- My beautiful home in my favorite city
- Watching the drama of the change of seasons
- Challenges, past and present, that make me stronger, and life lessons that I continue to learn from years later
- The incredible generosity of my parents who provided me with everything that I need (and then some) to lead a meaningful life
So when the stress of my job rears its ugly head, making me cranky and moody and blue, or when personal drama threatens to bring me down, I now react by taking a step back, breathe deeply, and think of all of these the wonderful things in my life. This is not to deny the reality of the things that are hard, and sometimes suck, but to simply look at the good stuff along side of those challenges recognize the opportunities.
What are you grateful for?
I ♥ Pandora
Since I started listening to Pandora, a “music discovery tool”, I have been introduced to a lot of new music that I absolutely love. Po’ Girl, Girly Man, and Kate Rusby, are just a few of the artists that I have learned about that I now listen to regularly. The concept of this technology is still a little mysterious to me. It is the “Music Genome Project,” so basically you create “stations” by selecting what music you want to listen to, either by song or by artist, and it will play songs that you might like based on similar qualities. For the most part, this works pretty well.
Occasionally, however, it is way off. With my Stardust station, for instance, I was aiming for a little cheese, a little Sergio Mendez, Chet Baker, Blossom Dearie, and sometimes it will play songs that make my ears bleed. I keep the volume turned down pretty low so as not to disturb my neighbors at the office, but no matter how quiet, one of those songs come on, and I say to myself “What is that annoying sound?” Sure enough, it’s some horrible Michael Bolton or Celine Dion Song. And if anyone catches me while something like that is playing, I feel terribly embarrassed. But I can just simply thumbs down the song, and it won’t play again. I can also ask Pandora why it chose to play that song, and it will say something like
Based on what you’ve told us so far, we are playing this song because it has basic rock structures, a subtle use of vocal harmony, mild rhythmic syncopation, acoustic rhythm piano, and mixed acoustic and electric instrumentation.
If you like a song, you give it a thumbs up, and the station will base part of its programming on that song. This is cool, too, though I have really screwed up my favorite Girly Man station this way. I was going for mellow folk, and I had it so I loved it, but after a while, I wanted a little more variety. So I added Bon Iver and Belle and Sebastian. Big mistake. It started playing Nirvana and rockous Jeff Buckley tunes, which I love, too, but not while I’m at the office. There I’m going for Jolie Holland and Madeleine Peyroux. I’ve removed some of the song “seeds,” but it hasn’t been the same again.
But in all honesty, I must say that these little hiccups are entertaining, albeit embarrassing.
The social networking aspect of Pandora certainly has potential, and I don’t think I’ve explored it enough. I just discovered the Pandora Twitter feed, which I think will introduce me to other listeners doing interesting things.
I know there are some other music listening services out there. I tried LastFM, and it didn’t really work for me. It is the same idea, giving you music based on other music you like, and it was way off most of the time. I missed Pandora, so I switched back.
I can’t help myself, either. Of course I’m going to support a company based in my beloved Oakland.
Paradoxologies 