nothing a walk to the coconut stand won't cure...

i have been a bit homesick and had a head cold today after the incredible 5 days in Madras (Chennai) India for the music festival. But its like the feeling after a large event, exhausted yet richer in experience. Highlight: temple concert last night (day after Hanuman Monkey Gods birthday) and in there was a 4 story high Black stone Hanuman statue...wow.

so i just wrote two blogs since i was out of internet zone for awhile. its almost 2009. excuses aside..i have been enraptured in my little world here of South Indian Music and Guru time.

doesn't mean i havn't thought of home and all of you fondly through the holidays.

2009 resolution...liberation from too much seriousness, PLAYFUL radiant lover Julie freed up.

love to all,

j bird

the Light returns...

Namaste!
I promised pictures but the camera had to take a trip to the sony service repair...timing is key in promises, make them but allow the natural flow of time to unfold...this lesson is always at the surface here in India. Culturally, the we have different sense of time ranging from dinnertime (here 8-9pm), to when things are right to undertake. Westerners here soon drop the "want it now" attitude if they want peace of mind.

Well, news around here is a very small xmas buzz, i mean wee...some children outside my window at noon strolled by singing jingle bells today (the 23rd) and a man in a shop wished me happy xmas when i bought some decorations to give to friends. For me, Xmas has always meant extra special connection to family and friends more than the occiasion itself--- i do miss that, but otherwise...laying on my roof under the coconut trees for 40 min. after a morning of violin practice and an early lake walk, and speeding around on my scooter in sleeveless to pick up a package from home has so far been a grand pre xmas-eve day.
Most of the westerners are gone from Gokulam (Yoga students that is) as the Yoga Shala has a two week break. Kind of like the "off-season" since come Jan. this place will be teeming with foriegners...that's when i will shift my set-up to Saraswatipuram neigborhood and dig into the music even deeper. David G. and I have a new Years performance planned- a kirtan, celebratory participation singing with a local Tabla friend, and we go 3-4 nights a week to do this Kirtan thing at various Westerners and Indian places.

My plans for xmas are to fly to Chennai tomorrow for 5 days to attend the biggest South Indian Music Festival in the world...entire month of Dec. is devoted to concerts, 150 venues thousands of concerts. Nagaraj and Manjunath are playing every day somewhere and I shall dive in. Each venue trys to outdo the next with free food specialties and glam treatment of Artists and audience. Indian Musicians are a joyful, fun lot...more soon.

I've been doing some "inner work" here and one thing has been the interesting process of "The Artists Way" by Julia Cameron. It's core work is morning writing everyday longhand to process and connect with the inner Artist. Week 7 has some great insights: That are especially poignant as I move toward a recording project of a few tracks of my own arrangments with some Local top Indian musicians:
"Do not fear mistakes, there are none" Miles Davis
Drop perfectionism in all things it is a refusal to let yourself move ahead.
Perfectionism is not a quest for the best in ourselves, its the part that tells us that nothing we do will ever be good enough- instead move ahead into action to ...RISK most of us talk ourselves out of risk.
We can not escape fear. we can only transform it into a companion that accompanies us on all our exciting adventures.

the small things...

Seeking occurs in time,and follows a path out of the present moment
into an imagined future.
Discovery is grounded in the present moment,
centered here and now.

Seeking focuses on a distant goal.
Discovery focuses on immediate Reality.

Seeking is fueled by restlessness and longing.
Discovery is delighted, fulfilled and satisfied.

Seeking is predicated on lack and grasping,-- and a sense of something missing.
Discovery is completely open and receptive-- accepting and embracing Reality,exactly as it is.

Good friends Phil and Grace in Bend mentioned they liked India "in the cracks". Perhaps they mean the small meaningful happenings like...

~walking 2 blocks to sit under a canopy a drink fresh cocnut "water" with a straw, whenever thirsty
~or sipping a wee 3 rupee "chai" tea at same walla, several times a day of course.

~walking just one block more to a small tin hut where a man irons clothes with a coal -fired piece in the heat of the day with a huge smile. laundry is an overnight journey out to the rocks where it is "slapped" clean and then sun dried.
~the special the moments of visiting an Indian family or individual where as the guest treatment is royal.
~asking directions in India...you'll likely get 4 different answers and versions in the same crowd and go somewhere entirely not where you thought (which turns out where you needed to be anyway).

~or how about the man who swings by the house several times a day singing "papayas...etc." delivering fruit and vegies right to the houses.

photo tour of the hood soon,

namaste!

intelligent vegetables

Life in india takes some delightful turns...
my new house mate brought me out to a farm 20km outside of mysore to an organic/ biodynamic gardening intensive based on Rudolph Stiener's work...www.basilacadamy.in
wow, the academics and details of growing high quality "intelligent" food from rich and fertile soil created from all natural methods including alignment with the moon, sun and constellation rhythms, cow dung composting etc. are fascinating ! cosmic farming on the Cauvery river outside Mysore...a welcome and serene departure from the city bustle. above pic is the layered compost piles we made.. cow dung slurries on a grand scale. And below is the group (a varied crew from Indian to new Zealand, canada and U.S) making the biodynamic soil and planting fertility boosters in cow horns (to be buried for months in either summer or winter depending on the mixture). Met some great characters here. Very interesting to "work" together...cultural differences are subtle and interesting... Indians have a great cooporation-team sense, whereas westerners seem to be more individually minded.


this Goshala Farm is something special (see purple lotus pond below) complete with morning and evening singing and music devotion in the small Krishna temple.
I am planning to go back soon to take a music writing stint and meditation break from city...

Now back in Mysore after this 3day course i am settled into my nest across the street from the Ashtanga yoga Shala of Sri K. Pattabhi Jois, the 93 year old legendary Yoga Guru and my original inspiration. He no longer teaches now (it is his grandson Sharath and daughter Saraswati) but i see him from time to time at his house and it often gives me tears of joy to see the light shining so bright in his eyes...he taught yoga to my Violin Gurus Manjunath and Nagaraj's father way back in the day so we talk of South Indian music.

I think of him when i am practicing music since with windows open sounds carry throughout the neighborhoods here.

Windows are surely open...its been very comfortable temps...70's 80's ...cotton is king.

Just finished a 3 night stint of concerts at Jogomohan Palace with some masters of South Indian Music. Getting around fine on my wonderful rented scooter, Indian traffic is a chaotic flow of horn language and anything goes, timing in the moment is everything...

Met some musicians here for recording projects and collaboration...

More soon, love and spice from India