Hugging the Midline

How Phenomenal is This?

You can check out this whole pictoral essay of the inauguration here.

That Was When I Ruled the World

I tend to get hooked on a single song, and want to hear only that song for weeks at a time. For the last couple weeks I've had Coldplay's Viva La Vida in my head, and I played it for Glen a dozen times on our drive home from Chicago yesterday morning. I'm especially in love with this sweet version of the song from a grade school chorus:

Doesn't this video make you want to be a teacher? I love the powerful energy in the room, and how the teacher and the kids are all totally 100% into the moment and clutching their hearts with rockstar emotion. It makes me think of my St. Thomas first grade teacher Sister Bonnie, who would shut the door to our classroom so we could secretly play indoor wiffle ball and would take her turn at bat wearing her veil. I remember laughing a lot in that classroom and thinking nothing could be more fun than school. I wonder what she's doing now.

I'm a little hard of hearing and I tend to mis-hear lyrics. My imagined lyrics to Viva La Vida are more hopeful than the real ones. My version of the lyrics go:

For some reason I can't explain
I know St. Peter will call my name

I just looked up the real lyrics and saw that they say "St. Peter won't call my name." Meh. I'm sticking with my more upbeat version; feel free to adopt it.

Feeling Inspired

Today Change.gov posted the ethics rules for Obama's transition team that will restrict the participation of lobbyists. Limiting lobbyists' impact on our government is my dad's favorite political cause, so I knew he'd be thrilled when I sent him the post: "WOW! You made my day!" was his quick reply. Later in the afternoon as our electrician was leaving our place he asked without prompting if I'd seen Obama's website. "It makes me proud to be an American again," he told me.

It's so cool to witness those around me feeling excited and proud and hopeful about our political process. And as someone who's pretty immersed in the Web both professionally and personally, it's especially cool to see how Obama is using technology. What a contrast between the current administration and the one on its way in. I can't wait to see what's next.

In Case You Needed Another Reason Not to Vote for McCain

Tasty

I've added some new items to my Inspirations page. The first batch a couple weeks ago was mostly on personal growth and spirituality; my latest additions are some great DVDs Jack has been loving lately, a memoir on Dan Savage's experience adopting a child with his partner, and a baking book, Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. Yum.

Speaking of cooking, lately I've been enjoying food blogs and food-related posts on general life blogs. A couple of my favorite blogs have recently mentioned popping popcorn on the stove; I had never done that and decided to give it a try. When I first told Glen that I wanted to make popcorn on the stove, he said, "You mean Jiffy Pop?" No offense to my sweetie; I think most Americans would probably respond similarly, but no, I meant popcorn from a regular old jar popped in a regular old pot.

Heat a little coconut oil in the bottom of a big pot, toss in some popcorn kernels, cover, and shake it over the stove until you hear it stop popping. A minute later you have this overflowing bowl of fluffy kernels, no gross chemical taste like you get from nasty microwave popcorn, no bag to toss in the garbage. Why does microwave popcorn even exist (outside of dorm rooms and office break rooms, I guess) when the real stuff is so much Greener, healthier, tastier, and less expensive, and just as quick and easy?

Speaking of tasty, Glen just walked through the office door and surprised me with a chocolate banana shake from the newly opened Dairy Bar. (I just re-read that last sentence; I meant to descirbe the ice cream as tasty, but the compliment fits my guy, too; proof below.) During opening week at the Dairy Bar the first year Glen and I met, I think he asked me at least half a dozen times: "Hey, did I tell you the Dairy Bar is open?" I teased him at the time for being so excited about it, but now that I've lived in a small town for a couple years, I realize what the annual opening of the Dairy Bar really means: Spring is almost here; there's no turning back.

Overtly, Purposefully Grateful

Blogging has helped me start to see a pattern in my moods. I'm generally content and naturally grateful for days on end, then somewhere mid-week I'll become all whanny whaa whaa around the edges for a day or two (like when a certain Excel spreadsheet has become such a significant part of my life that it hovers behind my closed eyelids as I'm falling asleep at night).

I've said it before and I'll surely say it again, but on those days when I'm feeling a little crabby, I think it's especially meaningful to dig deep and remind myself of a the many things I have to be grateful for. And really, it helps. You should try it.

74. The comforting sound of a whistling tea kettle



75. A husband who orders takeout when it's my night to cook, but I'm in NO MOOD for it



76. A perfect report card at Jack's two-year (two-year!) physical



77. Inspiration from a friend whose own gratitude list has rewritten the book when it comes to turning lemons into lemonade



78. The perfection of a sleeping toddler (and the good fortune that he indulged Mama's foolish picture-taking impulse without waking)

This post's title, by the way, is a nod to today's Beatles post on my hubby's blog, where he writes about music and movies and such.

Inspirations

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.

Words Are Flowing Out Like Endless Rain Into a Paper Cup

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