Alicia de Larrocha

I've been watching, listening to various YouTube posts.  She was an incredible artist.
Here's a killer performance of De Falla's Danse rituelle du feu.  I especially love the shots of her eyes, widening and narrowing as she listens and plays.  She's so focused, and the music so intense!

And here's the first movement of the Schumann Fantasy Op.17, played with such emotional direction and color that it warms you like sunlight.

I'm so thankful for her music.  I hope her family is doing well, and can be comforted knowing that she brought beauty to so many people.

Overcoming inertia

Greg Wood/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Mr. Obama and Mr. Hu on Warming

Of more than 100 world leaders who gathered Tuesday at the United Nations for a summit meeting on climate change, two mattered most: Barack Obama and China’s president, Hu Jintao. Together their countries produce 40 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. Together they can lead the way to an effective global response to this clear global threat. Or together they can mess things up royally.

Yes, and while world leaders meet in New York's perfect fall air, Australia is covered in the worst dust storms of the last 70 years.

Glorious, Beautiful, Awesome

From the 2009 Astronomy Photographer of the Year contest:

Thomas Davis (USA): Eta Carina Nebula (Highly Commended)

Nik Szymanek (UK): Milky Way (Highly Commended) 

You can see more award-winning, glorious and awesome photos here.

Oh, the yearnin

Man, this whole health and lack-of-health has magnified my usual sense of "what am i doing???"
I yearn, I crave, I search for a greater sense of purpose.  Isn't that familiar to almost everyone?  Is it human to want to know why you're here and what you're supposed to be doing?

I'm always drawn to people who project this quality, this ability to articulate and pursue purpose with great passion.  Maybe it'll rub off!  Maybe I'll learn by example.

I do learn, to some extent.  Most people who pursue their passions are driven by an ongoing sense of yearning -- they're not content with just success today, but want to know the what and why of it all tomorrow and far into the future.

What do I want?  What is my true path?

The Koran opens with a call to God, Lord of all Worlds, asking that God Show us the straight way.


The Lord's Prayer asks that God lead us not into temptation.

And so I appeal: Let my eyes and my heart be open, let me follow my path, Your path, love others and become more fully my truest self.  Let me be who I truly want to be!


On India's Railways, Women Find New Peace in Commute

Health and Illness

It's been a week since I got very, very sick.  Illness strips so much normal away and leaves you bare and fragile.  Now I'm finding my health returning, and I learn again that normal is utterly amazing.

Through all the drama and pain and fear, my family and friends buoyed me up and gave me strength.  They were generous and loving and simply there for me when I needed them desperately.
I'm so thankful for their help and love.  My family and friends are extraordinary, and my life is rich because I share life with them.

Thank God for them, and for good health!  May those in sickness be surrounded by love and strength and hope.