I created a new page that I've been wanting to add for a while — Inspirations — with links to books that have been meangingful to my life. Hope you enjoy.
Also, I'm starting a book club soon, and would love to hear ideas for other books we should read — fiction, nonfiction, parenting, spirituality, environmentalism, whatever.
It's been really interesting living in a community where Transcendental Meditation is so pervasive. I've thought a lot about TM and have considered learning the technique (I probably won't learn it through official channels, though, as it costs about $2,500), but I hadn't thought much about the Maharishi himself until his death on Tuesday.
More than 1,000 people flocked to the domes in Fairfield Tuesday night for an impromptu memorial. The articles I've read quote the Maharishi's followers as feeling like they've lost a close family member. My inbox has been full the last couple days with e-mails from my local mom's group sharing reflections about his life and teachings and how much he will be missed. In Glen's five-person office, two of his co-workers are flying to India for the funeral; when one of them called the passport office in Chicago to get a rush passport, she was asked if it was for the Maharishi's funeral; clearly this wasn't their first call.
Glen and I have both been touched by what we've seen these last few days and have been inspired to learn a bit more about him and his teachings. So today at lunchtime I walked over to 21st Century Books and bought a copy of the Maharishi's translation of the Bhagavad-Gita, which I've heard is considered to be his most important work. This is not light reading, people, and it might take me a while to slog through it. But I feel compelled to learn more about this person who has been pivotal in the lives of so many of my neighbors.
TM took off in the late 60's partly because of the Beatles' brief interest in the movement. John Lennon wrote the song Across the Universe during that time (Glen is going to have a heart attack if he clicks on this link; iTunes didn't seem to have the Beatles version so I linked to Rufus Wainwright's version instead), including the mantra "Jai guru deva om," which Wikipedia says means "salutations to the divine guru." I've seen that mantra a lot in e-mails about the Maharishi these last couple days.
So it's a lovely synchronicity that on Monday, the day before the Maharishi's death, NASA beamed Across the Universe into space to commemorate 50 years since NASA was founded and 40 years since the Beatles recorded the song. The transmission was aimed at the North Star, where the words "Jai guru deva om" are set to land in about 431 years.
Drawing of the Maharishi by Fairfield artist Beth Alonso
My list of movies, books, and music that touched me the most in 2007:
Plenty of blessings to count today:
This morning when I was heading to work along Highway 63, several cement whooziwhatzits dropped off the back of a truck and I drove over one of them, shredding my right front tire.
While I waited for the guy to come change my tire (thank God for Better World Club, our AAA alternative), I had an hour or so to kill. Luckily I wasn't injured in my little accident and the only damage to my car was the ruined tire. But it scared me enough to get my mind going, to remind me how easy it is to get thrown off track, how precious each day is when we're not guaranteed a tomorrow.
Several years ago I read the book Conscious Loving by Gay Hendricks, and one idea really stuck with me. Hendricks says there are certain lessons we each need to learn, that the universe is determined to teach us one way or another. (I promise not to throw the word "universe" aroud this venue too much...) He says it's up to us whether we choose to be conscious in our lives and pay attention to the gentle lessons that come our way, or whether the universe is forced to teach us lessons the hard way. I don't remember if the book uses this particular word, but I think of the hard route to life's lessons as the "sledgehammer approach". I've had to learn one or two lessons that way, so ever since reading that book I try to be conscious enough in my life that my lessons will come to me in a fairly gentle manner.
Maybe it's not quite accurate to think of slamming my poor little Honda into a block of cement as a "gentle" lesson, but it sure could have been worse.
While I was waiting for my tire-changing angel to arrive this morning, I started thinking that maybe this little accident would serve as my gentle reminder to get back to something that's important to me, but that I've been avoiding for a while — writing. I do a smidge of writing for my job managing web content; I've done some freelance magazine writing; and I wrote in a journal almost every day from the ages of 10 to 34.
When I was 34, I met my sweetie, Glen, and in short order I moved to be with him in Fairfield, we got hitched and had a baby, and now we're living this sweet, happy, comfy-cozy family life. I've journaled less since I've had a family because: 1) I guess I tend to journal more when I'm depressed or mad, feelings I haven't had a lot of need for in recent years. 2) Being mom to a toddler keeps me busy! 3) How can I get up early to write when I have a warm hubby I could snuggle with instead? 4) How can I sit at the computer after Jack's in bed when Glen has The Office on the DVR and a spiked mug of hot chocolate ready to go?
But I do miss writing for myself. I've wanted to do some writing that's more personal than corporate web content or magazine journalism, but more structured than scribbling in a journal. I've rarely written anything personal in a public forum, and I'm slightly apprehensive about it, but I'm going to give it a shot. I think it will be good for me, and maybe there's something from my personal experience that readers can appreciate.
