Dreamy...

I've been watching Jack Johnson videos on YouTube today. I thought Jack Johnson and Ben Harper were a dreamy singing combo but then I heard Jack and Zach Gill, and then Jack and Dave Matthews. I'm a bit out of the loop in terms of the music scene, so I don't know who Zach Gill is but uh, yeah, he's cute and has a great voice... (Maybe I should stopped drooling over Jack Johnson long enough to read the album info from Jack Johnson's Sleep Through the Static. Zach Gill played keyboards and sang!! Here's a link to his music.)

I was in the kitchen thinking, "Oh, Jack Johnson and Eddie Vedder--that's my dream combination." Lo and behold, a few minutes later I accidentally stumble across this:
Eddie Vedder & Jack Johnson - Constellations (live at Kokua)
The Kokua Concert must have been amazing. I think I will put seeing Jack Johnson live on my "to do" list!!

Rainbow, Interrupted

Prism.
Sunshine.
Rainbows
on yellow walls.
Capturing them
with little hands.
Take a picture.
Edit.
Savor the results.
Like an artist painted it,
says Kai.

Beautiful Soul

Tea flopped down on her bed yesterday and told me to take her picture. I captured more than the moment. Her wise old soul seems to be peering out from that little body.

Monsoon

The $3000 Saxophone

That's the title of my dream last night. Any time I dream about numbers or money, it's a bit bizarre, and this dream was weird and vivid, as most of mine are. It has lingered in my consciousness all morning. In my dream, I am with an old friend and we approach a door--outside of it stands a former high school classmate who used to play the trombone, and in the dream, this classmate has some sort of grudge against me. Somehow it comes out that this trombone player is selling a saxophone and the friend with me happens to play the saxophone. He grabs the soprano sax and starts playing it and hits the most perfect notes with it. He pauses and asks how much the guy wants for it. Stunned, he replies "$1600." So my friend plays the saxophone again, this time even more beautifully, the notes rising and reaching perfection. "$3000" the guy says, suddenly realizing the value of this instrument he is selling. "Good," says my friend, "because I have $20,000."

What does all of that mean??? The dream is memorable because of the beautiful music but also because of my shock of the price of the instrument. However, my friend who was playing it, knew the value and felt it was worth it. I told him that he had an expensive hobby. "I shop at thrift stores," I joked. It was hard for me to imagine spending so much on something.

This all may have something to do with the West African drumming workshop I plan to take this weekend. The woman who teaches the class also makes the drums, and they are quite expensive. It seems all of my hobbies are expensive too: pottery, photography, and it if goes well, drumming. I haven't played the drums since 1992! The connection between a saxophone and drums other than the fact they are both instruments? My first choice for instruments in sixth grade band was the saxophone but about 20 other people wanted to play that, so I chose the drums instead. I don't regret my choice but I do wish I had learned to read musical notes, something that was unnecessary as a drummer.

I had to look up saxophone prices when I woke up (just for fun to see if my dream actually got the prices right--it did) and then the symbolism of the saxophone. In terms of symbolism, all I found was a website selling instruments, but they did have this interesting little tidbit about their West African logo, which makes me think this dream partly highlighted the importance of bringing music back into my life.

Curious about our logo? It is based on two adrinka symbols from West African wisdom traditions. The symbol on the left is the adrinka SESA WORUBAN symbol, meaning "I change or transform my life," and the symbol on the right is the adrinka BI NKA BI symbol meaning peace and harmony. They symbolize what you can do with music (transform and enhance your life) and what music can do for you (provide peace and harmony)! Are YOU ready to begin the journey?

Emptiness

This is a post with humor. I just had to get you with the title! Jevon jokes that no one reads my blog, but for my faithful reader(s?), here' s a good laugh for the day. So many of us do feel a little empty after this campaign, not to this degree, though! Jevon and I don't know what to do at night now that we can't read CNN.com and Huffingtonpost.com (and Fox news just to see the right wing bias). And what are the comedians going to do? It seems a little hard to make fun of Obama. He's actually a respectable, moral sort of person.


Obama Win Causes Obsessive Supporters To Realize How Empty Their Lives Are

Bound together

Today Kai went up to Tea and gave her a hug and said, "Tea, I love you. You're my best friend." Awww.... that was a killer. Most of the time, I'm playing referee, even though I know they love each other.

I think Kai has always loved Tea but he's been a little jealous. She took away the undivided attention he was getting before she was born. As a wise mom once told me, when a sibling is born, our children don't always understand what's happening. She said it's like saying to your husband, "I love you but I'm going to have another husband now too." It was a long haul before Kai and Tea really got along (or rather, before I could leave the room without worrying that he would hurt her). She has always adored him and is so forgiving and gracious with him (more so than she should be, I think!). I hope they treasure their years together. It's so weird to think we really only have our years at home with our siblings. After we move away, we see them much less, sometimes not even once a year (in my case).

Kai tied his and Tea's wrists together today with a homemade yarn rope. That way, they could stay together, he said. And when they walked, he had to wait for her instead of racing in front of her as he always does.

What a special bond siblings share...

Here's a chronology of some of my favorite photos of them together:

One hour oldWaiting until she's old enough to play

A touching momentSweet Kisses (photo by Stacie Pottinger)Hair styled by Mommy

Don't squish me!

Mr. and Mrs. Claus

Aww...

Following in his footsteps (photo by Deanna Dikeman)

At Shelter Garden (photo by Deanna Dikeman)

Tied together (taken today)