Heaven

Need I report that it was another glorious day with my new 50+ folks in the Sao Paulo workshop? Made especially sweet as it included a student I taught for 11 years in The San Francisco School and hadn’t seen since she graduated in 2009 16 years ago. She out-of-the-blue wrote to me just before my trip to Brazil asking if I know of any music study/gatherings in Brazil as she was coming here for an Urban Studies project. I mentioned my workshop, she signed up and there she was today, playing the Orff instruments she hasn’t for a long time, singing, dancing, improvising, playing body percussion.

 

Equally sweet was to share the day with a daughter of a student who didn’t yet exist when I first taught her Mom in San Francisco in 2006. She was born in 2007, the Mom returned to SF in 2010 and again in 2018 to complete her studies and the daughter, now 17, is a virtuoso recorder player winning competitions worldwide. I improvised recorder with her today on a simple piece with Orff instrument accompaniment, just so I can put on my resume that I did for when she becomes internationally famous. :-) Most importantly, a lovely human being who clearly had a lot of fun playing music and dancing in ways quite different from the virtuosic recorder world.

 

And the day yet more satisfying having another one of the SF Orff Course graduates translating for me, meeting up with another 6 graduates and another 5 who I knew from Orff Afrique. Alongside another 6 folks who just took the Tatui Jazz Course with me and on and on and on. One woman came up and reminded me that I worked with her in Munich at an International School and then in China at another. Another said she met me in Salzburg in 1995—30 years ago!! The casual tossing about of all these decades is more and more commonplace as the years pile up, but always astonishing and a bit sobering when I realize that no one will ever say to me, “I met you 30 years ago in Sao Paulo in 2025!!!” Although who knows? It actually is possible. 

 

I went on for excellent pizza with eight of these old and new friends. There was a moment when they were all happily chatting in Portuguese and suddenly, Time seemed to stop. There was an enhanced sense of Presence in the moment and while chewing on my arugula/ mozzarella pizza, the thought struck: “I don’t ever want this to stop.” I think I have made peace with the notion of mortality, especially as none of us has a choice in the matter. But truth be told, I don’t want this unbridled joy to ever end. My body in this moment felt wholly radiant, my heart full, my mind clear, not a muscle or nerve in my body calling for attention, not an unmet desire whining for fulfillment, not a restless heart yearning for love. It was all present in that moment and if I was a devout Christian convinced that heavenly angels awaited me to join their choir and float on the clouds in pure bliss, I still don’t think I could imagine a heaven greater than this. 

 

Of course, the Buddhists would say that I even have to let go of heaven, even if I spent a lifetime working to arrive. But for now, I believe I’ll just sit in its radiance and bask in its light and warmth. And then, joy of all joys, wake up to a second day with the same people!!