A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: My own experience and development deepen every day my conviction that our moral progress may be measured by the degree in which we sympathize with individual suffering and individual joy. -George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans), novelist (1819-1880)
I read that however you spend New Year’s Day is an indication of how your year will go. Well, hmmm, let’s see. How about we got in bed around 3am, we got woken up by a little boy at 7:15 am, the hot water heater plug blew out, we made black eyed peas, cabbage, risotto with Istra black truffles, bread with honey and butter, and chaurice sausage and had Ruinart champagne. I hid a dime…
This is what the sky looked like before the calendar flipped to 2012: This is what the beach looked like in Hollywood Florida where we were supposed to be headed today: This is what New Year’s Eve looked like:
Ground control to major dome, we are floating in the air. You think about your life in segments, in spans, in seconds and you know, I have to say at the risk of being thought a braggard – fuck me – my life is fabulous. Today ended 2011, we were at a party blocks from the LaLa where our guests from NY said it felt like NY, really? and then we were not too far…
Our friend in Zahara de los Atunes sent us a note from the beach – oh do we miss the beach, Zahara, our friends there!!
Instead of a list of things I hope to do in 2012, I’m thinking of the list of things that went so well in 2011. It really is nothing short of incredible when you start adding up all of your blessings in life. Starting small, yourself, then your partner, then your kid, then your friends, then your home, then your neighbors, then your neighborhood, then your city, then your country, then your world and it…
In this quiet hour before the New Year, we reflect upon the meaning of our lives. As one bumper sticker said, The meaning of life is to live it. And yet I harbor within a vision of my highest self, a dream of what I could and should become. May I pursue this vision, labor to make real my dream, be who I am. Step back away from what you have accomplished and see who…
Last night, I brought up something that happened a long time ago, when I was barely 20 years old and living on Burgundy Street in the Quarter and a guy lived behind me in an old slave quarters apartment. He was fond of my high heel shoes and borrowed them all the time, and then once asked to borrow a blue sapphire and diamond ring I had, which I lent him but wanted collateral for…
Last night, I got a free pass to go out and so I called a friend to go hear music but he was shooting Irma Thomas at the newly opened Joy Theater on Canal Street (can’t compete with that!). Then I called a friend to head over to Chickie Wah Wah with me and hear some twangy guitar music but she was at a performance. I called another friend who was on her way over…
I usually end my year donating to my favorite charities, but this year, it’s not going to happen in cash. We hauled bags and bags and boxes and boxes to the Salvation Army on Tulane Avenue of clothes, shoes, jackets, purses, jewelry, furniture, toys, books and whatnots. Years of accumulating more than we need and now in the hands of a charitable organization. I also spent hours working on a community project and have begun…