Steppin' Out and Steppin' Up

Dear Diary,

It has been a busy weekend. After teaching all day Thursday, both elementary and middle school, I began Friday morning with a Zoom call regarding the upcoming Orff Afrique course in Ghana. Some big news and lots to do to get the course flying again after being grounded for five years. Then I hosted a Men’s Group on the topic of heartbreak, discussed amidst plants in a room in the SF Conservatory of Flowers. From there on to play piano at the Jewish Home and the usual banquet of music that strums so many strings of the heart and gives all of us, young elders and elder elders alike, a chance to step out of old, creaky, bodies and feel the Spirit refreshed. And from there a drive some 3 hours down the coast to attend a poetry retreat at Asilomar, step into another kind of soothing oasis with words strumming the heart strings to a rapt, attentive audience.

Spent the night at our Orff summer retreat place in Carmel Valley and had a lovely too-short breakfast with Peter, the best “boss” I’ve ever had because we understand each other thoroughly and appreciate each other equally. Back to Asilomar to meet up with mentee Yari and at the end of the day, rehearse a bit with the O Suilleabhain brothers, an Irish music duo who open each poetry session with song and give a concert on Saturday night— now with me on piano and Yari on cajon as guest artists.

Drive back late that night, arriving at 1:00 am and then up in time for a 9:00 am departure to make the four-hour trip to Yosemite with my wife Karen and daughter Talia. This was a fine idea for spending Easter in company with Yosemite Falls, Half-Dome, ponderosa pines, stream-soaked meadows, thundering snow avalanches that we heard first and sometimes got to see, chipmunks and a lone coyote. Resurrection indeed.

I uncharacteristically decided not to take my computer with me (gasp!)— hence, the absence of blogposts these last four days—but back home, some 45 legitimate e-mails (and another 80 junk mails) awaited me and so this morning was my vain efforts to catch up before heading out to San Francisco State and teaching the first of six classes at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute to some twenty people around my age! Jazz History in 12 Tunes the topic and how I loved it! They seemed to as well.

So there you have it. The good fortune and the gumption to get out of the house and bring the full measure of my character, work, modest talent, enthusiasm and love to group after group after group. Little kids, bigger kids, young adults, peers, elders. Constantly stepping out and showing up, sometimes out of my comfort zone, sometimes heading into its heart. Though it’s sometimes challenging to keep track of which ball is in the air, it is never exhausting, which is a good sign. That fact that the busyness energizes rather than depletes me means that I’m meant to do it and that the people I meet are meant to receive it. I’ve talked about this so much, I shouldn’t be surprised or astounded, but often I still am, pinching myself that I purposefully stumbled into the live I was born to lead. 

So diary, sorry I’ve neglected you recently, but now you see why. More ahead in the next few days— helping another mentee put on a concert tomorrow, singing with a guest artist at the Jewish Home, going to one concert by an alum on Saturday and another by a different alum on Sunday. The hamster wheel keeps spinning and I keep willfully stepping up to it.

See you around!

-Doug