The
last day of what has been a truly extraordinary, fun, satisfying and surprising
year, one that somehow has stood out from the crowd, a time when various
threads of my life’s direction came together in my personal multi-colored dream-cloth
and revealed a design both meaningful (to me) and beautiful. What stands out?
•
Taught Orff workshops in San Francisco, Oakland, Oregon, Michigan, New Orleans,
Oklahoma, New Jersey and Ohio. I crossed the Northern Border and taught in
Toronto, Vancouver and Niagara Falls, Ontario, crossed the Southern Border to
teach in Mexico City and flew across oceans to teach in Spain (Madrid, Barcelona) and Ghana, in
China (Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou), Thailand and India. Four continents, a few thousand teachers and the satisfaction of passing on what works well with children in music classes. Just about everywhere, the additional perk of
renewing treasured friendships and initiating new ones.
•
Recorded and produced first CD: Boom
Chick a Boom: Jazz for All Ages with Doug Goodkin & the Pentatonics. Performed
with the group at various local schools, the Freight & Salvage Coffeehouse
and the prestigious SF Jazz Center.
•
Finished teaching my 43rd year at The San Francisco School and began
my 44th.
•
Wrote two-drafts of my 9th book Teach
Like It’s Music and one draft of my 10th Music From Five Continents.
•
Received the Distinguished Service Award from the American Orff Schulwerk Association
for my many years of service in Orff training.
•
Spent some 30 intense delightful days on six different occasions with my children and grandchildren in
their home town of Portland, here in San Francisco, on the shores of Lake
Michigan and the beaches of Hawaii.
•
Wrote some 344 posts this year, 2244 in the eight years of this blog, hit over 402,000 Page
Views with 202 Followers.
Like
I said, a truly extraordinary, fun, satisfying and surprising year. I’d be less
than honest if I didn’t take some pride in the way my painstaking efforts over
years and years have borne fruit and appeared to bring some fun and pleasure
to, and some recognition from, others. The reward is always simply in the
feeling of good work well done, but it helps when the world takes notice and
affirms it.
Grateful for it all and may 2019 bring more of the same!
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