Allowing music and dance

Exercise is easily entering into the rhythm of my life and I am so glad. It was past time. Today I jogged/walked around the park a few times after our homeschool group met and this evening danced Gabrielle Roth's 5 Rhythms. I haven't done this in so long and it was wonderful. The 5 Rhythms are Flowing, Stacatto, Chaos, Lyrical, and Stillness. Dancing these 5 rhythms in that order is always an amazing experience. I feel so refreshed, alive, and lighter when I'm done. At times in the past, I danced them often. I also play the rhythms on the piano or guitar, which is extremely freeing. I haven't done that in a while either. Here's some clips so you can experience it a bit:






I just found out a friend of mine here is into dancing the 5 Rhythms and there's this lovely space to dance just a block away at the Curley School (a historic old school remodeled as artist live/work apartments) that hardly gets used. I'm going to see if I can get something going. And Jasmine loves dancing the rhythms, too. Yes, thank you. It's lovely when our interests intersect.

I've been hoping music would enter the rhythm of my life easily also. And I guess it is in a way. I've been drawn to read Hazrat Inayat Khan's Music. It is confirming for me what I want out of playing music. I've always been drawn to playing music, but I don't have the natural talent of hearing a piece of music and playing it. I've always improvised, allowing the music to just flow. I love doing it, it is so healing although shutting off my inner critic sometimes is not so easy. BUT--and it's a big but--I have never thought of myself as a musician or having any musical talent because I don't play songs. AND I've always yearned to be a musician or take my music more seriously. AND because I don't take my passion seriously, I think it's a "waste of time" to play.

Lately, I've been realizing that maybe the reason I don't have anatural talent for playing songs I hear is that is not the type of music I'm to play. And truth be told, even though I prefer playing the soundscapes I do, I could easily get caught up in the world of playing songs. It's probably--OK, most certainly--just the way it's supposed to be.

I've also been reading, realizing, and accepting that playing improvised music is the perfect thing for me to do. The Hazrat Inayat Khan book is so meaingful to me right now and isn't it amazing that it's been on my bookshelf for something like 4 years and I never read it until now. Here's another fabulous piece I read today from Hazrat Inayat Khan's Music:

The music of the universe is the background of the small picture which we call music. Our sense of music, our attracion to music, shows that there is music in the depth of our being. Music is behind the working of the whole universe. Music is not only life's greatest object, but it is life itself. Hafiz, the great and wonderful Sufi poet of Persia, says, "Many say that life entered the human body by the help of music, but the truth is that life itself is music". What made him say this? He referred to a legend which exists in the East and which tells how God made a statue of clay in His own image, and asked the soul to enter into it; but the soul refused to be imprisioned, for its nature is to fly about freely and not to be limited and bound to any sort of capacity. The soul did not wish in the least to enter this prison. Then God asked the angels to play their music, and as the angels played the soul was moved to ecstasy, and through that ecstasy in order to make the music more clear to itself, it entered this body. And it is told that Hafiz said, "People say that the soul, on hearing that song, entered the body; but in reality the soul itself was song!"

...this legend reveals to us...that the only reason why the soul has entered the body of clay or matter is to experience the music of life, and make this music clear to itself.

Really, I thought it was to worry about getting the house clean. LOL

A magical moment I want to share from our homeschool park day--the three teenage girls spontaneously organized games for the younger children. Here they are playing Red Rover, Red Rover.



....and sometimes a girl's just has to dress up as a medival princess.

The Best Day Ever 2

We've been often getting watermelons in our CSA shares for months now. I cut up the whole watermelon into chunks putting it in one big container and then cut up the rind in another. Then I can just grab some melon for breakfast or some rind for a salad. This morning, as I cut up a watermelon, I remembered that today is the best day ever, and instead of being a task, I appreciated the abundance and wonder of the watermelon.


I watched the rest of Hamlet (a very long movie) with Jaz and finished up several half-finished blog posts while Jasmine organized her CDs. And then lunch and off to the park for Girl Scouts. We got there early and I sat in the sun to read while Jaz played. It's so nice to be out.

I remember it was the best day ever and felt the tenderly beautiful kiss of the sun, while I read this from Music by Hazrat Inayat Khan:

Some Sufis who adopt a certain method of progress on the spiritual path...are known as dervishes. [They] have great powers of wonder-working and of insight. The are dreamers and lovers of God. The worship God in nature, especially in human nature. Among many ways of spiritual development they have one called Suma, which is listening to music. They listen to music in an assembly of the initiated...[and] address on another saying, "O king of kings, O sovereign of all sovereigns'' and are mostly clad in patched robes or in rags. They are the ones who are really entitled to enjoy the beauty of music; whose spirit and soul are responsive, with open centres, who make themselves into a medium of resonance for the music they hear: wherefore music touches them differently from any other people: music touches the deepest part of their being. Thus moved by music, they manifest various states. Anyone among them who is moved by the spirit may manifest ecstasy, Wajad, in the form of tears, sighs, or dance.

But one can learn from this the theory of the whole process of their spiritual development. By making God their Beloved, and by seeing God in the sublimity of nature, they created the presence of God....

At the community center where Jasmine's Brownie Troop meets, there is a small workout room with a weight machine and several treadmills, stationary bikes etc. As I ran on a treadmill, I remember it was the best day ever and instead of watching the readouts and thinking about how much farther to push myself, I enjoyed running into my best life surrounded by love. And when 3 other people showed up (the weight machine can only handle two) instead of grumbling to myself about not getting to use the machines I want when I want, I remembered these women are Queen of Queens and enjoyed their presence.

After girl scouts, I sat and read some more while Jaz played.

The musicians of India devote twelve hours or more of the day to the practice of different rhythms, improvising on them. And in the end they produce a psychological effect which is not music but magic; a magic that can thrill a person and that can penetrate the heart of man. It is a dream, a mediation; it is paradise. When hearing it, one feels one is in a different world....Instead of being played before thousands of people, only one or two or three persons of the same quality and nature come together to enjoy that music thoroughly. If a foreign element is present the musician does not feel inspired.

Once a musician was invited to play the vina. The musician came and was welcomed. He uncovered his vina. Then he looked here and there, and found some discord. He covered his vina, saluted and began to leave. Those present felt disappointed and begged him to play; but his answer was, "No matter what you give me, I do not feel like plying." This is a very different thing from making a programme months ahead....A singer in the East never knows what he is going to sing before he starts singing. He feels the atmosphere of the place and the time and then begins to sing or to play whatever comes to his mind.

It is the best day ever to sit under trees during a beautiful sunset watching the children play and reading exactly what I need to. Thank you.


This evening, I was in the bathroom. Usually I notice it's a mess, but as I remembered that this is the best day ever, I felt grateful and my soul opened up to the love and beauty always around me.

The most common thing I noticed with my thoughts is that I'm nearly always thinking, I "should" be doing something other than what I'm doing. If I'm cleaning the house, I "should" be getting some exercise, if I'm helping Jasmine with something, I "should" be cleaning, or if I'm blogging I "should" be playing music. On and on ad infinitum. But when I remember it is the best day of my life, I realize that it's all just perfect the way it is. To quote from Hamlet:

"There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so"

A New Vision

My friends, Nina and Peter, are excitedly planning a Thanksgiving feast and get-together. My mom spends Thanksgiving with her siblings in Washington and last year Jazz and I had a great time at Nina and Peter's Thanksgiving to-do. Well, this year I practically had to invite myself. The issue--it seems to be my switch to eating living foods. Yesterday Nina publicly expressed more than once how high and mighty I am because of it--and not in a nice tone of voice at all. The truth is I talk about it much less than is ideal--except here. I tend to not talk about amazing things I experience but keep it to myself, just to avoid situations such as this.

It's been bothering me and I've been doing all the usual things--seeing the situation as a mirror that has something important to show me etc. And because the conversation about Thanksgiving included talk about alcohol and getting plastered, I'm thinking of alternative Thanksgiving plans. Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center has a Thanksgiving potluck and spiritual ceremony every year. I've wanted to go ever since I learned about Living Foods three years ago, but haven't gone yet. This could be the year. So I was on-line checking out Tree of Life and also checking out what Raw For Life from Phoenix is doing (a very affordable 4-day ThanksLiving Retreat at Eden Hot Springs) AND I found Laura Fox's Vision Garden.

Several things on her site inspired me so deeply that my petty concern over someone's unkindness seem just that--petty. There's so much beautiful living and loving to do.

Here's a piece from What is Visionary Stewardship?

You can become a Visionary Steward by:

a. Selecting a part of Earth Life to take care of. What do you love most? The rivers, oceans, lakes? The animals? Certain types of plants? The air we breath? Human organizations? Children?

b. Get into a meditative state and ask your Source for a Vision that is aligned with the Highest Good of this part of Earth Life you are choosing to care for. Be sure to have pen and paper handy before starting.

c. Write out the Vision you receive. Make a picture of it, or tape the words somewhere you can see them every day. Spend five minutes each day imagining and feeling ‘as if’ this vision is a reality now!

....and from Waking up Humanity

Brothers and Sisters of the Light, Beings Divine, Friends,

We have a mission and a purpose.

We have the powers of Creation embedded into the fabric of our very being, with and by and through the power of Universal Divine Love.

It is time for us to take it to the next level, to take ourselves to the next level of our abilities and our willingness to leverage them on behalf of a sleeping humanity and our beautiful mother planet, Earth.

Not with fear, not with resistance, not with judgment or blame: With the pure power of our Creative Essence and… Pure Joy.

I have been having many conversations with God/Source/Creator of All Creators/Pure Love/Well-Spring of Our Collective Being lately....I tell God, “I have compassion for Humanity, God. I want them to be well. I want them to be safe. Please wake them up.”....

The response from our Divine Creator, our Source called by many names, is that I am — and we who know are — to SPEAK and share WHAT TO DO. Creator has said many are feeling a need to do something, but they don’t know WHAT to do......Please DO NOT HOLD BACK AT ALL! Remind everyone of our powers of creation, daily!

Become inspired to find new ways to do this! I anybody can shift it, we can....The entire Universe is watching as humanity decides. Yes, as Humanity decides it’s own fate. Will we stay in slumber, attached to outmoded paradigms and ideals based on scarcity, hate, separation and unknowing?.....

Or will we FORGIVE ONE ANOTHER, ACTIVATE OURSELVES, and WAKE UP to the higher priority structure.....calling us to LIVE fully, to be true to what feels REALLY GOOD to each of us, from a soul or spirit perspective– from a HEART perspective — to share our gifts without hesitation and without allowing old paradigm structures getting in the way of our giving of our gifts. And, yes, to do all this with JOY! Silly joy. Giddy joy. Off-the-hook, outrageous, uncontrollable joy-bliss-mirth-fun.....

Love, Laura

...and from We are the ones we have been waiting :::::: for

Music is the core of the awakening consciousness movement. If it’s true we have the power of creation in us as the seed of who we are then we ought to use it.....We can sing our way home, om, together. .....and MOVE our bodies to the rhythms of the very life which sustains us, which we are. This is what I propose..... Let’s dance.

Let’s dance this planet back into harmonic synergies of light, just because we CAN. And together, it’s more fun.

Love, Laura

I'm starting to play music again--a bit. But now I'm ready to a lot.

....And to add some life this post--living, growing life. Here's pictures of my sprouting project.

Broccoli microgreens

.....and lovely vital wheatgrass.

Living our Truth

Today we finished the sequel to Stargirl-- Love, Stargirl. We both liked this one even better. Stargirl is homeschooled. In Stargirl, she goes to public school and experiences the idiocy of the social scene with grace and aplomb, but in Love, Stargirl she's back to homeschooling.

Jasmine likes to study deeply human nature and the whys and whats and hows of people's behavior. The themes of fitting in and being true to oneself, conformity and individuality have been big for Jasmine this year. Stargirl and Love, Stargirl definitely dive deeply into these topics and she adored them.

She also requested that I read her Max Lucado's You are Special and If Only I had a Green Nose. Both these books deal with how to be true to oneself in a culture that encourages conformity.

I'm rereading Gaia's Garden: A Guide to Homescale Permaculture and learning things I didn't on my last reading. This is a simply amazing book; if you garden or think you might want to garden someday, read it. I'm preparing for a series of three 1 hr talks I'm going to do on sustainability.... and researching Shakespeare movies to order for Jazz from the library and of course playing with living food. And through it all, I'm still "shoulding" on myself, thinking I "should" be cleaning the back patio instead. Is this true? Or could I possibly be true to what is calling me in the moment? YES, that's a resounding Y-E-S.

And on the same theme....We attended an incredible library program with musician Mark Holdaway this afternoon. This guy is absolutely passionate about the Kalimba and inspired the whole audience with his passion and love of what he does. He plays and sells kalimbas and teaches others who want to learn at Kalimba Magic. It was wonderful to see the effect of someone being true to themselves and their passion on others. Jazz is ready to buy a kalimba.

Mark Holdaway after program with instruments (picture by Jazz)

Audience members can't wait to touch these beautiful instruments

(picture by Jazz)

Blessed Silence

The cooler weather is finally here. While most of the rest of the country is gearing up for a winter of more inside activity, we are breaking out of hibernation and into the sun. Today, I turned the air-conditioner off and heard the birds chirping and chirping. Have they been chorusing so loud everyday but we never heard them over the air conditioning fan? Well, I didn't listen to music even though I started a cleaning frenzy in the kitchen I wanted to hear the birds.

Maybe it's something to do with throwing open the doors to the fresh air after months of having them closed that's doing it. I think I'm definitely spring cleaning. It was hot last week. Over 100 every day, I think, and now blessed coolness and freedom from the sound of the air conditioning.

Yesterday was the first fabulous day. We spent it outside enjoying the sun (instead of hiding from it). I wanted to celebrate the weather; get out and do something special, but I wasn't inspired. This is not my ecosystem; I'm homesick for water and trees. Jazz suggested the packing a picnic and a blanket and heading to the plaza. It was perfect!

We spent most of the day there. I laid in the sun. I read Hazrat Inyat Khan's Music. Jasmine climbed her favorite tree. We ate lunch. We went to the library and somehow the book Stargirl fell off the shelf and into my waiting arms. Jasmine played. I sat in the shade and read Music. The Universe is so good to me. I always read the right thing at the right time.

Then we found a shady bench and watched a minor accident through it's whole incarnation (trading insurance, police showing up etc.) and started Stargirl. Jasmine went and got an ice cream cone and ate it and then made mudcakes. It was perfectly perfect. When our water was gone and my throat was dry, we trekked home to eat mango passionfruit coconut Popsicles. Decadent and perfectly perfect. Amen.

Admiring flowers in the Plaza

Jazz watched Romeo and Juliet all day the day before and begged me to watch it with her last night. My passionate actress has been speaking in something like Shakespearean English and acting extra dramatic. Is this why Ashland Oregon is calling so loudly to us? The Shakespeare Festival?

But back to today and spring cleaning, the bees started invading the house, so doors got closed and I turned on a great album we've been listening to a lot lately, Miles From India. It's a collaboration between members of the Miles Davis Band and some great musicians from India. Jazz and I both love it.

Later, we listened to the whole book of CD, C.S. Lewis's The Magician's Nephew while Jazz began tackling the back bedroom and I finished up in the kitchen and...

....and prepared for a day with the girls. I'm going to Phoenix tomorrow with three wonderful women to shop the farmer's market and whatever else hits our fancies. When have I done this last? Spent a day with friends without Jasmine. I think it was the orientation for Prescott College over 4 years ago. I'm excited. And Jazz gets to spend the whole day with grandma.

Tonight I finished reading Star Girl to Jazz......Wow! That's all I can say for now but I'm guessing I'll write about it in a post soon. I've been thinking about her--Stargirl---all day.

....and in between it all, ART happens.

Creating beauty inspires cleaning house

A couple of days ago, I got an overwhelming urge to make window stars. These are popular in the Waldorf school movement. They are made from kite paper from Europe. My mother--my crafty but oh so busy mother--had the paper and a book on how to make them and I asked her if I could use them. So for the last three days gorgeous window stars have been blooming. Today we started putting them up on the windows.

The window stars have inspired Jasmine to clean. Yesterday she rescued her dollhouse from the back room and cleaned it and today helped me with deep cleaning the dining room to honor the beauty of our window stars.

Several nights ago, I checked up on all the homeschooling blogs I have links to. A post about cleaning and chores on The Sparkling Martins has been at the edge of my mind ever since. Dana writes that her children help with housecleaning without any coersion because she's always cleaned with joy. I have aspired to this but it has not happened. Actually Jasmine does joyfully help with chores fairly often BUT...this girl knows how to create a mess and definately has a different standard of cleanliness than I. We live in a fairly small house with my cluttery mother and I am sensitive the clutter so....I want Jasmine to keep her things neat.

We've tried to come to solutions that are mutually acceptable mostly to no avail. Eventually, a few weeks ago, I moved all of her stuff out of living area into the back bedroom and have allowed her to keep it how she wants as long as there is a pathway to my clothes.

Back bedroom-photo 1

Back bedroom-photo 2

The cool weather is finally here. Yeah. Time to get out and play. I'm feeling so vibrant and alive like the electrons in my cells are spinning faster. I am so so grateful for this living food lifestyle. I don't even want to eat cooked food.

The soundtrack for last couple days--Jasmine choose The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and I listened to a couple Bill Frisell albums Blues Dream and Ghost Town, Putumayo's South Pacific Islands, Putumayo's Brazileiro, and a Mercedes Sosa album.

This evening, Jazz handed me A Course in Miracles and said "Read this" I opened to...

"I do not know the thing I am, and therefore do not know what I am doing, where I am, or how to look upon the world or on myself.

Yet in this learning is salvation born. And What you are will tell you of Itself."

and....

"You see the flesh or recognize the spirit. There is no compromise between the two. If one is real the other must be false, for what is real denies its opposite. There is no choice in vision but this one. What you decide in this determines all you see and think is real and hold as true. On this one choice does all your world depend, for here have you established what you are, as flesh or spirit in your own belief. If you choose flesh, you never will escape the body as your own reality, for you have chosen that you want it so. But choose the spirit, and all Heaven bends to touch your eyes and bless your holy sight, that you may see the world of flesh no more except to heal and comfort and to bless."

I am filled with waves of gratitude that I have been led on this path and my little angel who helps remind me.

Art First! was The Soundtrack of Our Life

This morning I did art first and then cleaned the kitchen and it was wonderful. Why don't I do this more often?

The Quotes are from The Presence Process by Michael Brown the two in orange are:

Although we may not know where we are going right now or how to get there, there is and aspect of our Being that does know. There is an aspect of our Being that knows everything.

A joyful, abundant, and healthy life is pouring itself upon us in each moment. When we "live in time", the vessel that we are is turned upside down. We, therefore, spend our life experience getting instead of receiving.

Jazz joined me and made here own artwork with poems and quotes she likes.




I'm inspired today to post about the Soundtrack of our life--what we listen to. Today it was Putumayo's Acoustic Brazil and Lila Down's Tree of Life. Often, as today, if we're absorbed in something, I'll listen to one album several times. Yesterday, the mood for me was Meditative Gregorian Chants.

I like Gospel music, spiritual music of many traditions, Jazz esp non-traditional, world and ethnic music and more. Jasmine likes most of the previous but sometimes gets bored with the spiritual music. She also really likes classical music especially ballets, musicals, and anything with a great rhythm. Lately she has been into The Nutcracker and Jazz for Kids: Sing, Clap, Wiggle, and Shake.

We also listen to spoken word albums. I have taped myself reading several books including Byron Katie's A Thousand Names for Joy, Michael Road's Talking with Nature and Journey into Nature, Kenny Werner's Effortless Mastery and parts of Abraham-Hicks books, A Course in Miracles etc. I listen to these when I am cleaning or cooking. For the most part, Jasmine enjoys these tapes and sometimes even asks for them.

We sometimes listen to books on CD, especially when we clean together. The last one was The Wizard of Earthsea and The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula le Guin and upcoming The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain.


Today I met the muse for the first time while playing the piano. I don't know how to explain it except that I felt an actual presence of an energy I would describe as the Muse. It was exciting for me because it is exactly the kind of thing I would love to have happen, but I wasn't expecting or even hoping for it. It just came out of the blue. Ain't life great!


Jasmine has built a house with chairs and sheets in the dining room and today I found her in it teaching one of her girls to read.


And in the Living Foods department--More Fun Things to Eat.

This week I've been playing with some new things. We are getting lots of green peppers and onions in our CSA share so I slice them thin and mix with lime, date paste, chili powder, and salt and dehydrate until soft and then store in fridge to add to salads or other things.

Local greens are still hard to come by, but Nina brings me back arugula and collard greens from the farmer's market in Phoenix. Believe it or not, collard leaves make an excellent wraps. I've been filling them with Guacamole, living salsa, and the pepper-onion mix OR with the following filling: diced apples and green tomatoes, fresh basil, lime, garam masala, date paste, and salt.

This filling is also excellent in green apple coconut wraps--if I don't eat them all first. They are made by throwing apples, mature coconut, lime, a bit of chia seeds, and a pinch of salt in blender and then dehydrating.

I also made my first batch of living spaghetti, with partial dehydrated tomatoes, fresh basil and oregano, onion, garlic, date paste, apple cider vinegar, and salt and served it over pasta made from zucchini. It was so good that I called up Nina, our CSA coordinator, and volunteered to do a raw food demonstration for them as soon as we are getting tomatoes and summer squash. I am definately hooked.

Corn chips have been a big staple of mine whenever we are getting corn in our CSA share. I usually do a batch with about 3 cups of fresh corn off the cob and add lime, chili powder, salt and a tomato if I have one. This week I made the best batch of corn chips yet, by adding an apple and an avocado. They were so delicious that I polished them off before I could share with anyone, and now corn is out of season for another month or so.

And with my non-local cauliflower I made raw popcorn to die for. Just cut up cauliflower into small pieces and add olive oil, nutritional yeast, spirulina, and salt. Then sit down and enjoy.

Feel the Music and Dance like No one is Watching

This morning as I played the piano, I experimented with experiencing the music in my body inspired by Touch the Sound (an absolutely amazing documentary about Evelyn Glennie), which might be my favorite movie. When I really pay attention, I feel the notes vibrate along my spine and into the center of my body going up as the notes went up and down as notes went done. The lowest note on the piano was at the lowest point on my spine. This is simply amazing. The top few notes on the piano I'm playing are not sounding real notes, but the top note that had a pure tone resonated above my third eye. Could it be that the piano has the range of our chakra system?


I looked up Touch the Sound on You Tube to post the revelant part and the whole movie is there. I also found this--a TED show on Evelyn Glennie--that I've decided to post instead. She is simply amazing, one of my heros.




This afternoon, we played around with a bellydance DVD and the put on music and danced free-style bellydance. My little dancer is simply amazing.




Some wonderful things occured in my life today. I have much to be grateful for, yet my mind is heavy with old belief and the habit of negativity. I think it is the same as usual but now feels unbearably heavy. At times this inspires me to use the tools I've been guided to to change my thinking. I belive this is a time of clearing on fundamental level. In eating living foods my body is clearing toxicity and the rest of my life is ready to clear also. So my own negative beliefs are in my face ready to be dealt with. Thank you. All is so Perfect.

I finished one tape's worth of Arnold Patent and got to listen to it while I played in the kitchen this evening. I filled another load in the dehydrator with sprouted buckwheat apple cinnamon granola and butternut squash cookies.

....and more about watermelon rind...it is absolutely delicious cut up with just a bit of dressing (mine Olive oil, apple cider vinegar, a bit of agave syrup and a bit of salt) and sea salt. Absolutely divine and it feels so vital. I've been eating it all afternoon and I can't wait to cut into the next watermelon so I can eat the rind. Ha ha.

Thankfulness and 10 days in Europe

I've decided not only to do Thankful Anyway Thursdays, but also to start out every blog post with five things I am thankful for. Today I am so incredibly thankful that I was led to A Course in Miracles, I am thankful for the internet and that I have been led and inspired in so many ways, I am so thankful for this parenting and unschooling journey--I am learning and growing in ways I could not have even imagined, I am thankful for music and You Tube videos--today I played around with this one;


....and sunflowers--today the first of the Mammoth sunflowers opened .

The garden is becoming a jungle of melon, squash, and cucumber vines. Here a Lakota squash is growing up the chicken tractor.

We got a new game--10 Days in Europe-- in the mail this afternoon and of course had to play it right away. It was fun and although it took a couple of games for Jazz to get the hang of it, she was definately holding her own by the time we quit. It's a great strategic game and the added bonus is learning Geography without even trying. The object is to create a 10 day trip through Europe using cards you have been dealt and those you draw. The journey must be feasible, either through countries that border each other or on a plane or boat.

Deep in concentration...

....still

I listened to Zap Mama while I preparing dinner and Jazz danced. Yes, I am taking pictures of her dancing, it just takes time to get the good ones. Well ....someday I'll get it, just not in the middle of making dinner.

Fabulous Music

Djivan Gasparyan may be my current favorite musician and I am learning to put You Tube videos onto my blog. Please enjoy.

Djivan Gasparyan (Armenian: Ջիվան Գասպարյան born 1928 in Solag, Armenia) is an Armenian musician and composer. He plays the duduk, an Armenian double reed woodwind instrument related to the orchestral oboe. Djivan Gasparyan is known to be the master of Duduk. He has won four world-wide gold Medal UNESCO competitions (1959, 1962, 1973, and 1980). In 1973, he became the first musician to receive the honorary title of People’s Artist of Armenia (read more)