Tag: Musings

Some places and times when I’ve been the happiest

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

Coming from a long line of worriers, I’ve had to learn to embrace moments of happiness. My, but they’ve been there, all along. For instance?

  1. Flying along on a bicycle as a kid or canoeing and kayaking later.
  2. In a good contradance swing or a hambo or waltz, with the right partner. Ditto in a lively Greek line.
  3. At the opera. Or a great concert, meaning for me classical or jazz. Add to that singing harmony with others.
  4. In a “covered” meeting for worship.
  5. Cruising under sail.
  6. Atop a mountain.
  7. Lost in a great book.
  8. With friends over a great dinner. Sitting in my “smoking garden” during the summer, surrounded by friends, family, and good food and wine.
  9. Becoming half-awake, after a remarkable dream.
  10. Abed or not, in the throes of sex.

 

If you enter the woods reverentially

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

 Even a small grove or a well-maintained city park can deliver, but the full experience occurs once you get far enough away from the road that you’re beyond the litter.

Here are ten voices that reflect the wonder.

  1. “And into the forest I go to lose my mind and find my soul.” … “In every walk with nature, one receives far more than he seeks.” — John Muir
  2. “Knowing trees, I understand the meaning of patience. Knowing grass, I can appreciate persistence.” — Hal Borland
  3. “If you walk into a forest, you hear all kinds of subtle sounds, but underneath there is an all-pervasive silence.” — Eckhart Tolle
  4. “It is said that the forest has a certain limit if you look straight ahead, but the sides are boundless.” — Riccardo Bozzi
  5. “All forests have their own personality.” — Charles de Lint
  6. “I took a walk in the woods and came out taller than the trees.” — Henry David Thoreau
  7. “Anywhere which is in a forest, that’s my Zen place.” — Raveena Tandon
  8. “For in the true nature of things, if we rightly consider, every green tree is far more glorious than if it were made of gold and silver.” — Martin Luther King Jr.
  9. “It is not so much for its beauty that the forest makes a claim upon men’s hearts, as for that subtle something, that quality of air that emanation from old trees, that so wonderfully changes and renews a weary spirit.” — Robert Louis Stevenson
  10. “The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

In the end, it is a mysterious process

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

And you wonder what’s behind those stories?

  1. “Remember: when people tell you something’s wrong or doesn’t work for them, they are almost always right. When they tell you exactly what they think is wrong and how to fix it, they are almost always wrong.” — Neil Gaiman
  2. “Everything you could ever think of has been written. That’s worth saying three times. You’re not going to think of a new idea, per se, as far as plot or story. What you can infuse it with is your voice, because while every story has been written, there is only one you. We are unique snowflakes. Be yourself. Tell the story about the teddy bear who can talk, but give it your voice. Don’t try to make it Corduroy or Winnie-the-Pooh. Make it your teddy bear. That’s what you can give the world — give the world your voice.” — Drew Daywalt
  3. “I never tired of learning about the stories of strong women and finding a compelling way to tell those stories. I love to discuss the themes in the book — cultural standards, resilience, overcoming odds, equality, breaking barriers — so even when I’m tired, I’m always energized by the opportunity to have meaningful conversations around this work.” — Haley Shapley
  4. “An adjective habit, or a wordy, diffuse, flowery habit, once fastened upon a person, is as hard to get rid of as any other vice.” — Mark Twain
  5. “Acutely aware of the poverty of my means, language became an obstacle. At every page, I thought, ‘That’s not it.’ So I began again with other verbs and other images. No, that wasn’t it either. But what exactly was that it I was searching for? It must have been all that eludes us, hidden behind a veil so as not to be stolen, usurped and trivialized. Words seemed weak and pale.” — Elie Wiesel
  6. “The writing life is essentially one of solitary confinement — if you can’t deal with this you needn’t apply.” — Will Self
  7. “Dull, awful jobs like laundry, ironing and weeding suddenly feel like an urgent priority when you’re looking at a blank page that needs to be filled with a couple of thousand words before you can sit back and breathe deeply. … Writing is my joy, but not always; much of the time it is my job, and I have to write whether I feel like it or not, whether inspiration strikes or not. Th at is how you make a story unfold.” — Jane Green
  8. “Work on a computer that is disconnected from the Internet.” — Zadie Smith [Oh, but it makes quick research so much easier. I’ve definitely been relying on online dictionaries, for one.]
  9. “Sometimes the ideas just come to me. Other times I have to sweat and almost bleed to make ideas come. It’s a mysterious process, but I hope I never find out exactly how it works. I like a mystery, as you may have noticed.” — J.K. Rowling
  10. “But ‘constructive’ criticism irritates me. I do not object to being denounced, but I can’t abide being schoolmastered, especially by men I regard as imbeciles.” or “Explanations exist; they have existed for all time; there is always a well-known solution to every human problem — neat, plausible, and wrong.” — H.L. Mencken

 

When did I first discover that symphony?

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

Two Charles Ives quotes had me remembering that I borrowed the 2nd symphony from the Binghamton public library, but think it was the same Bernstein album of introduction I had perhaps taken out at my dorm’s library in Bloomington earlier or even before that from the Dayton Public Library while still in high school. It had a cool collage for a cover, which I’m unable to find online. Push Pin Studio? Oh, the days of vinyl, scratches and all!

I do remember being disappointed when the Cincinnati Symphony’s scheduled performance of the work conducted by Max Rudolf, which I could have heard on spring break, was instead replaced with a young James Levine at the helm in a different program, which a dear friend steered me away from. I still wish I had gone.

I would still love to hear it live, though that’s highly unlikely, at my age and remote location. It and its siblings should be in the repertoire of every American orchestra, the way Beethoven, Brahms, and Tchaikovsky are.

Still, I’ve had a custom of listening to the four symphonies each October, a private festival that usually spreads into the string quartets, piano sonatas, and so on. And I can even admit how much fun performing the songs in public can be.

~*~

As you can see, I admit to being a big Ives fan. He was not just a pioneering American composer but also a giant in the emerging insurance industry. If you want to know more, check out my longish Reflections at Chicken Farmer I Still Love You.

Among my personal fears

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

 Don’t we all have demons?

  1. My fear of jumping in — of doing it wrong, an unfamiliar act
  2. or of falling, physically
  3. or in debt
  4. or on my proverbial face
  5. fear of being subsumed or losing freedom, especially in relation to others
  6. or feeling shamed when I make a mistake
  7. being left holding the bag or unable to get to a plane or train in time
  8. of things breaking down or not doing what they should
  9. unable to find the right word, as in trying to describe a high-tech snafu or somebody’s name
  10. Though not so much now that I’m retired on a marginal income.

Being unlovable has somehow fallen away.