Sunday Salon ~ piano edition

PIANO

Emily playing the Baldwin piano at her house on 3-15-14

Living in an apartment means it's hard to find a good time to play the piano.  It can disturb my neighbors, and it's so heavy to move that my son's friend Adam — who helped move me more than once — told me that my son had said, "If Mom moves again, this piano is kindling."  It's a joke, people, but there's truth in it.  Therefore, I gave my piano to my friend Emily.  She's one of my support-group friends who helped me when I had heart bypass surgery.  She's a friend who drives miles so we can meet for lunch.  She's now sitting at my — er, her — piano at her house.  My idea is that it would make much more sense for me to buy an electronic keyboard so I can play to my heart's content, listening to the music through plugged-in earphones.  And Emily can enjoy the piano I bought back in 1968.  Something that has been a joy to me for 46 years will be another family's joy for years to come.  For example, Emily wrote that her daughter and grandson "are here this weekend and they brought their fiddles.  I am enjoying being able to play music with them."

Bonnie playing the Baldwin piano on 4-10-10 (left) and on 3-13-14 (right), in two different apartments.

BOOKS

LIBRARY LOOT

Still Life with Bread Crumbs ~ by Anna Quindlen, 2014, fiction

This novel begins with an imagined gunshot and ends with a new tin roof.  Between the two is a wry and knowing portrait of Rebecca Winter, a photographer whose work made her an unlikely heroine for many women.  Her career is now descendent, her bank balance shaky, and she has fled the city for the middle of nowhere.  There she discovers, in a tree stand with a roofer named Jim Bates, that what she sees through a camera lens is not all there is to life.  This is a deeply moving and often very funny story of unexpected love, and a stunningly crafted journey into the life of a woman, her heart, her mind, her days, as she discovers that life is a story with many levels, a story that is longer and more exciting than she ever imagined.  Joanna Rakoff wrote for the New York Times Book Review that this is "a feminist novel for a post-feminist age."

ORDERED

Paul and Jesus: How the Apostle Transformed Christianity ~ by James D. Tabor, 2012, religion

This fascinating examination of the earliest years of Christianity reveals sharply competing ideas about the significance of Jesus and his teachings and shows how the man we call St. Paul shaped Christianity as we know it today.  Historians know virtually nothing about the two decades following the crucifixion of Jesus, when his followers regrouped and began to spread his message.  During this time the man we know as the apostle Paul joined the movement and began to preach to the gentiles.  Using the oldest Christian documents that we have — the letters of Paul — as well as other early Christian sources, historian and scholar James Tabor reconstructs the origins of Christianity.  Tabor reveals that the familiar figures of James, Peter, and Paul sometimes disagreed fiercely over everything from the meaning of Jesus's message to the question of whether converts must first become Jews.  Tabor shows how Paul separated himself from Peter and James and introduced his own version of Christianity, which would continue to develop independently of the gospel message that Jesus, James, and Peter preached.  This book gives us a new and deeper understanding of Paul as it illuminates the fascinating period of history when Christianity was born out of Judaism and became the religion we recognize today.

READING

Life After Life ~ by Kate Atkinson, 2013, fiction

(Click this link to read what I wrote about this novel on Wednesday.)

COMPLETED

Living Buddha, Living Christ ~ by Thich Nhat Hanh, 1995, religion, 7/10

Quote:  "You can touch the ultimate dimension right now by breathing, walking, and drinking your tea in mindfulness" (p. 152).

From The Sunday Salon's original website:

"Every Sunday the bloggers participating in that week's Salon get together — at their separate desks, in their own particular time zones — and read. And blog about their reading. And comment on one another's blogs."

Caturday ~ Aunty Acid and her cats

I could say the same thing (and I think I will):  "I've forgotten some of the men in my life, but I remember ALL the cats."  (Thinking of you, Kiki.)

Kiki on January 19, 2012

Friday Five ~ green and evolving

RevKarla @ RevGalBlogPals brings us today's "theme-less" Friday Five:  "Hi gals and pals ~~ Happy Friday to you!  I don’t have a theme this week, but just a variety of questions for your writing pleasure … Have fun!"

1)  How are you?  What’s taking up your mind-heart space these days?

I've been de-cluttering by packing up books and taking them to the used book store for cash and/or trade.  The trick is to come home without picking up MORE books.  Slowly, slowly, my apartment is looking less cluttered.

2)  It’s St. Patrick’s Day on Monday ~~ will you celebrate or give a nod to it?

I noticed my shamrock-green tee-shirt hanging in the closet the other day, the one I wear on March 17th — and sometimes other days of the year.  Yep, I'll wear it again this Monday.  As a wordsmith with ancestors from the emerald isle, I usually tell people that "I speak fluent blarney."

3)  My colleague is a voracious morning reader of blogs, online news, articles, etc.  What, besides RevGalBlogPals, do you look at frequently, if not daily?

I have a blog list on the sidebar (look over to the right).  That's where I list blogs I regularly read and add new possibilities all the time.  I only read the ones that appeal to me on a particular day, so when I notice I haven't been reading one lately — at all — I simply delete it from the sidebar.  It's an evolving list.

4)  I got nothin’ here.  This is a free for all.  Just tell us something!

Something.  Oh, right, SOMEthing.  I didn't see this Friday Five prompt until late in the day, which is why I'm posting it so late tonight.

5)  Use these words in a sentence or two:  map, magazine, sing, baby sloth, knit, penguin, love, weep, mountain, and messenger bag.

The magazine article detailed how to knit a cute penguin or a baby sloth to attach to my messenger bag.  Before we map out our trip, I'd love to tell you to sing my praises, but the resulting big brown blob of yarn was more like a shapeless mountain and would make you weep.

Beginning ~ with a bachelor breakfast

The Cat Who Ate Danish Modern ~ by Lilian Jackson Braun, 1967, mystery

Jim Qwilleran prepared his bachelor breakfast with a look of boredom and distaste, accentuated by the down-curve of his bushy moustache.  Using hot water from the tap, he made a cup of instant coffee with brown lumps floating on the surface.  He dredged a doughnut from a crumb-filled canister that was beginning to smell musty.  Then he spread a paper napkin on a table in a side window where the urban sun, filtered through smog, emphasized the bleakness of the furnished apartment. Here Qwilleran ate his breakfast without tasting it, and considered his four problems:

Yes, I did decide to end the quote without sharing Qwilleran's four problems.  Yes, it ends with a colon, instead of a period.  Yes, I'm curious enough to keep reading until I met the Siamese cat named Koko.  I haven't read a mystery in ages, and this small book looks like one I'd like, especially since it has only 192 pages.  By the way, the cover I've shown you above is not the one on my book, which features a small handgun and blood a cat has apparently walked through.  I like the cat on this cover better.

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts Book Beginnings on Fridays.  Click here for today's Mister Linky.

Library Loot ~ March 12 to 18

Life After Life ~ by Kate Atkinson, 2013, fiction

What if you could live again and again, until you got it right?  On a cold and snowy night in 1910, Ursula Todd is born to an English banker and his wife.  She dies before she can draw her first breath.  On that same cold and snowy night, Ursula Todd is born, lets out a lusty wail, and embarks upon a life that will be, to say the least, unusual.  For as she grows, she also dies, repeatedly, in a variety of ways, while the young century marches on towards its second cataclysmic world war.  Does Ursula's apparently infinite number of lives give her the power to save the world from its inevitable destiny?  And if she can — will she?

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire @ The Captive Reader and Linda @ Silly Little Mischief that encourages us to name the books we checked out of the library.  Click here to see what others got this week.

Monday Mindfulness ~ four pebble meditation

Photo by Ginnie Sams

This meditation, which I found on a blog post from 2010, was adapted fromThich Nhat Hanh’s LivingWithout Stress or Fear.  The idea is to gather four different pebbles to represent "distinct aspects of your true nature to live in happiness and free of fear and suffering.  The first pebble shall represent a flower; the second a mountain; the third, still water; and the fourth, space."  The whole meditation can be found here, but today I want to focus on what each pebble represents.

flower ~ represents freshness
mountain ~ think of solidity
still water ~ is about reflection
space ~ equals having freedom

Pick up the first pebble and visualize it as a flower.  As a matter of fact, see yourself as a flower and feel fresh as you breathe in and out three times.  Become fully a flower, as much as you are able, again.  I think I'll imagine myself like those jonquils above, which are growing now at my friend Ginnie's house.

The second pebble serves as your mountain. See yourself as a mountain and feel solid.  We can be solid because there’s a mountain inside each of us.  Think of yourself as solid, stable, and steadfast in spite of any mental or emotional winds.  It's possible to stand confident and unmovable like a mountain.  See the strong stones behind the jonquils — Ginnie lives on the top edge of a mountain.

Pick up the third pebble and visualize it as still water.  Reflect on things as they truly are, and feel calm.  Don't let anger, jealousy, or fear bring turbulence to inner waters.  Cultivate peace of mind by being calm.

The fourth pebble represents space.  Feel free by freeing up space and emptiness.  With freedom and space, there's room for happiness.



This YouTube presented by Plum Village brother Thay Phap Huu remind us of our flower freshness, mountain solidity, calm water clarity, and spacious freedom ("Pebble for your pocket meditation," YouTube, 6:22 minutes).  Ha!  The video even shows jonquils like Ginnie's.

Sunday Salon ~ what's up?

READING

FINISHED

The Invention of Wings ~ by Sue Monk Kidd, 2014, fiction (South Carolina), 10/10

I told you about this one when I got it from the library, so click the title to read about it.  The story was inspired by the historical figure of Sarah Grimke, an abolitionist.  This isn't a review, but I rate the book 10 of 10, my highest rating.  Some of the women from my church met Saturday morning to start a book club, and I praised not only this book, but the author.  I also especially like her The Dance of the Dissident Daughter (nonfiction) and The Secret Life of Bees, her highly acclaimed novel (which I also rated 10 of 10).

CURRENTLY READING

The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic ~ by John Shelby Spong, 2013, religion

I'm studying this one with a clergywomen's group on Facebook, and I'm already way behind in my reading.  I should focus on one thing or the other, but I'm studying with too many groups of people!  Like the next book.

CURRENTLY STUDYING

Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life ~ by Karen Armstrong, 2010

The goal of this study is not to "learn about" compassion, but to PRACTICE compassion.  Karen Armstrong shares concrete methods to help us cultivate and expand our capacity for compassion and provides a reading list to encourage us to “hear one another’s narratives.”  She teaches us that becoming a compassionate human being is a lifelong project and a journey filled with rewards.

CURRENTLY FINISHING

Living Buddha, Living Christ ~ by Thích Nhất Hạnh, introduction by Elaine Pagels, 1995, religion

I never finished it when I started in 2012, and now it fits in with my Monday Mindfulness posts on this blog and with my study of compassion with Book Buddies during all of 2014 (as I mentioned above).  I'll probably quote from this book a time or two, possibly even tomorrow.

CHALLENGES

I'm "working on" a couple of challenges, sort of.  The main reason I even signed up was curiosity about letters and numbers.  Neither of them will make me read more books, and I only occasionally think to update my lists.

The 2014 Alphabet Soup Reading Challenge is to read one book with a title starting with each letter of the alphabet.  I imagine some letters may be harder to find than others, but I've already got 8 of the 26 letters.

I've been doing A Century of Books since the beginning of 2012.  Since there didn't seem to be any ending date, I'll keep adding to my list until I've read a book for every year.  Obviously, I'm reading more from this century than the last, so I decided to have two lists and include two centuries:

20th century (1900-1999) ~ I've read 18/100
21st century (2000-2014) ~ I've read 14/15

NEW BOOK CLUB

I mentioned above that I am helping to start a book club with other women of my church.  The only problem is that I'm planning to move.  I met with them yesterday anyway, discussed books the group might read, and shared ideas about what to name the group.  Two possibilities that came up were Bookworms and Mind Benders.  Do you like either of those?  What does your discussion group call itself?

From The Sunday Salon's original website:

"Every Sunday the bloggers participating in that week's Salon get together — at their separate desks, in their own particular time zones — and read. And blog about their reading. And comment on one another's blogs."