The Artist's Life: August Garden and YouTube Videos as a Creative Medium

A Japanese cucumber takes to the fence

This year, the tomatoes are surprisingly spare in their production. I was looking forward especially to the Cherokee Purples, which are so delicious. Six or so tomatoes on my one Cherokee Purple plant--ah well.

Even the cherry tomatoes are a bit stingy, well that is except for the chaotic mass of cherry tomato plants that seeded themselves from last year. They are forming a little tomato jungle in a section of the garden, outside of tomato cages and supports.

I do have some nice squash plants adventuring up fences and along the ground--kabocha, zucchini and delicata from the look of them. 

It's time to get the autumn garden going and yesterday I planted some swiss chard, kale and arugula seeds in a big raised bed.

It's August already. The summer is flying on much too quickly. But so it is.  Fortunately, we still have a bit more of it to enjoy.

Speaking of enjoyment,  I find that I rather enjoy making YouTube video clips.

I know that public speaking is at the top of the list of fears for many people. I used to be in that camp, but not these days. I don't recall exactly when things changed in that regard. But they did. I love public speaking and performing in general. To me, it's a form of creative play and expression that is invigorating and delightful.

Hostas are blooming and it's time to clean up the beds, too

The sunflower next to the compost area  is tall and happy

The process of creating YouTube clips gives me an opportunity to practice performing, and gives me feedback on body language, gestures and what works or needs change or improvement.

In its own way, it's like growing a garden.

With the help of my friend Anne, I recently created three YouTube video clips.

One video clip introduces my new book Songs of the Inner Life and talks about the healing power of memoir and life review. Two of the clips focus on A New Wrinkle, our musical revue on aging.

In those clips, I share snippets from several of the songs, including The Silver Tsunami, Sex after 60 and Hip Hop Elder's Rant. The videos are available at the Sage's Play website and I invite you to take a look at them. They are not perfect, but they are a lot of fun.

Fortunately or unfortunately, I am not a perfectionist. I do enjoy refining and improving whatever it is I am working on though. So I expect that as I continue with my YouTube explorations, my offerings will be even more fun both for me and for the viewer.

Today, I am heading over to Skylark Assisted Living to conduct my monthly group, Adventures in Aging. I plan to lead a deep relaxation experience with some music in the background. And of course, we will talk together, too.

I joined the Ashland Chamber of Commerce recently! It's part of my effort to become more locally visible and to make new friends and supporters in the community.

I did a book reading and signing at the library in town recently. That was lovely. My friend Neville, who now lives in Hawaii, arrived for it and stayed for a few days with me.  One day, we drove up Shale City Road to the Grizzly Peak trail, where wild daisies, lupine and grasses made the hillsides very beautiful.

 Composer Laura Rich and I had a wonderful meeting with Ilana Rubenfeld, who created the Rubenfeld Synergy Method. Ilana was a conductor earlier in her life, and has considerable musical background and skill. We met with her to talk about A New Wrinkle. As we left, she gave us a copy of her book The Listening Hand. I just finished reading it. A wonderful book--what a marvelous career she has had helping others heal. While she may be retired from that work (after training many others to carry it on) she brings all that experience and humor to her current life. She is a really vivid, enjoyable presence.

I am happy that she likes us and our musical revue, and am looking forward to more contact with her as time goes on and we get closer to production of the revue.

Ciao for now, dear reader. Hope your summer is blessing you with joy, relaxation, insights.

The Blessing of Friends

"Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us." -- Albert Schweitzer


The other day I was contemplating various subjects. As usual I found myself musing about the brevity of life and my unfinished artistic and other projects. Will I live long enough to finish?

Of course not. One always pops the cork in the midst of things. Ha ha.

So I find it useful to practice bouyancy and detachment as well as passionate engagement. It's a paradox like so many things in life.

My thoughts turned to Occupy Wall Street-- a ray of hope for this sorry country. But even the unfolding saga of OWS cannot stop me from entertaining my escapist fantasies, which become more pronounced as the weather gets colder. I get the urge to pack everything up and move to Belize, Equador or Bali. The darker the days get the more attractive a leisurely expat life in some warm clime becomes.

Then my thoughts turned as they often do to the Tibetan master Gyatrul Rinpoche, who has been such a precious example and presence in my life since 1976. He continually lights the flame within me. He reminds me of the kind of being I aspire to become--thoroughly generous, kind without reservations and deeply wise.

I began to think of my other friends. I am blessed with some truly marvelous friends. Their character, qualities and the ways in which they respond to their lives also light the flame within me.

These beautiful flower images were taken by one of my friends, Melani Marx. Melani works with energy and helps people accomplish inner/outer change. She's a gifted healer and feng shui consultant-- she's brilliant on many levels. One of the gifts she shares is her ability to capture pure moments of beauty in photographs.

What a blessing it is to have real friends, who love, appreciate and accept everything you are -- and even give you a bit of constructive feedback sometimes on your habits or activities. (which can be shocking but is so useful when offered with all that love).

I think of my friends as a gorgeous mandala or bouquet. Each flower is gorgeous by itself, and altogether, quite a splendid display.

What is it that I find so beautiful about my friends? I began to reflect on their qualities and realized that my dearest friends are all complex and deep.

They are each committed to the process of healing and spiritual awakening.

Every one of them has a ridiculous and wonderful sense of humor.

My friends are insightful and creative. They are kind and sensitive.

They can be fierce if they feel it is needed.

Most of my friends have a marvelous capacity for storytelling.

One of my friends speaks in language that is so beautiful, rich and poetic, so ironic and incisive that when I'm conversing with her we enjoy a respite from the awful sound-byte style of communication folks ordinarily engage in these days. Instead, we venture into another more delicious way of being, exercising our poetic language muscles to row our boat far out into the ocean under the moon. I love that!

My friends have beautiful gifts and they share them with everyone they meet in the river of life. I am moved by each one of them, by their courage, their openness and their love.

Tesoro de mi vida--my friends are that to me.

One of my friends sent me this beautiful video clip of Mercedes Sosa and Joan Baez singing "Gracias a la Vida." Can you listen to this without crying? It sure moved me to tears the first time I heard it.

Now there are two sages at play!

"A friend is one before whom I may think aloud."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Yes'm, old friends is always best, 'less you can catch a new one that's fit to make an old one out of."

- Sarah Orne Jewett