Sending Holiday Cards Dilemma

 Years ago when I first was deciding to be identified as a Druid for my religious affiliation, I had a conversation about what is appropriate when sending holiday cards...if you know a person is Pagan, do you send them 'Happy Solstice' or 'Merry Yule' cards in acknowledgement of their religion, or send a Christmas card to acknowledge your own? 

I, at that point, had actually been sending out 'Happy Solstice' cards to my family in acknowledgement of my own religious belief..but the consensus of that discussion with that group of people was that you send the greetings acknowledging the religion of the receiver of the card, not the religion of the sender, to be socially correct, or compassionate, whichever. 

And of course there is the more neutral 'Seasons Greetings' type card if you don't know or don't wish to assume which religion the person follows. However, that manages to alienate Muslims since Muslims have no religious holiday in December at all, according to my Muslim friend in Algeria. 

Its complex, right?

CYCLES OF LIFE

I had a friend muse about her mixed feelings regarding her last year of college. Feeling the excitement, satisfaction and happiness of achieving a worthy goal of graduation after many months of dedicated effort....yet feeling sadness underlying, the regret of leaving behind this life she has come to treasure, friends she has come to love, and, probably, nervousness about what lies ahead. 

Of course there are, steps or stages of life that will affect each of us that way, to feel both joy and dread, both excitement and nervousness. 

Everyone goes through this; even in one of the books by Tolkien (The Fellowship of the Ring) where Bilbo is having his big celebratory eleventy-first birthday party where all around him is joy but he knows in his heart that he is leaving his beloved Shire right after the party, and likely never to return. 

Other examples I can mention are parents whose children are going off to college, or into the military, and whom they know will return much changed; couples who have made the decision to have a child, knowing it will forever change their lives; even the excitement combined with fear of the young child on their first day of school or preschool, whole hours away from their parent for the first time in their lives. All of these are normal emotions about normal life cycles, and humans will continue to experience them all throughout their lives.

I might even suggest that we will all come to a point eventually where we feel joy, excitement, fear and regret about that doorway, that threshold at the end of life that awaits us all, eventually. Loved ones we must leave behind as we venture forth alone, abandoning all that is familiar, sight, sound, odors; freed from the weight of gravity. We will lose the steady heartbeat that has comforted us all since before our births...curious, whether we fear the unknown destination or are confident we know what lies at the end of our journey, still we each must venture on alone through that misty veil to whatever lies ahead.

Cycles of life. For all beginnings, there must come an ending...yet each ending is, I believe, just another sort of beginning.

Peter Hollens sings 'Into The West' in a cappella, in multiple vocal tracks.

This particular video is the one that helps me most whenever I am mourning a loved one or when I am facing new challenges, this song, this voice, this scenery and these lyrics come together to help me both accept a loss in a peaceful way and to focus, to become aware yet again of a larger reason, a greater purpose: the patterns and cycles of life and death and life again. 

As it always helps me in times of grief or change, I hope this video will help you, dear reader, as well.

Remember To Say 'Thank You'

It is so important to

remember say 'thank you' when you like what people are doing or 

when they are going the extra mile.

When you recognize or acknowledge effort or excellence, everyone benefits.

Tolerance, respect, and compassion for one another

An open post to all my friends online, on all my social networks, from Twitter to Tumblr to Facebook to Google+: 

I know I have many followers/circlers who have beliefs different from my own, and I think that's awesome. I see posts from some of you that are the polar opposite of my own choices & beliefs and I do my best to not reply to those in a combative manner; usually I just let them go uncommented on, because I value and respect the diversity of humanity.

You post what you want to and I will do the same.

Humans are now 7 billion people from all over the world, from different cultures, different religions, different political systems. Of course we will have differing viewpoints! 

I will go ahead and love you all as you are, beautiful in variety, intricate in diversity, noble in the abilities of tolerance, respect, and compassion for one another.

You are awesome just as you are. I will not demonize you for what you are or for your religious beliefs; I hope the same is true of you towards me.


What a boring existence it would be if we were all alike, conforming to a short set of beliefs or ideals, all with similar backgrounds and experiences. Far better to embrace the massive complexity that is the human experience. 

Be who you are, that is best.

My mom was impressive.

My mom was impressive. When I was 11, very late at night (ok 1am) after waiting up for her to get home from her second-shift job, I asked her to fill me in on this birds-and-bees business. 

(No internet to look up such things like nowadays, in the 70s information was much harder to come by, especially if you were younger.) 

So, as tired as she was, she just sighed and pulled a pad of paper over and started to sketch out, from memory, a human uterus, and used that to explain the whole deal. So that's the sort of mother I had: talented enough to be able to sketch a womb properly, from memory; willing to spend time to teach her daughter in the middle of the night after work; intelligent enough to remember the details of human reproduction, with no warning. 

(You might think 11 is a bit young but I was precocious and an avid reader, well into books intended for adults already, such as 'The Good Earth' and 'Forever Amber' to name a couple.) 

Love you mom, I miss you and your laughter often. 

Mary (Molly) Davisson   8/21/1934 - 5/28/2012

Mistress of All Things Awesome

Today someone told me I was 'the mistress of all things awesome'.  

You see, I belong to a fan group for Peter and Evynne Hollens, who are a married couple who are full-time professional musicians, vocalists mostly, who are intentionally independent of recording labels. They successfully produce and sell their own music, marketing it with YouTube videos. They are exceptionally talented. I wouldn't blame you a bit if you, dear reader, chose to Google their names as soon as you finish reading this very blog entry.

Now, this fan group is a full of exceptional and kind people from all over the world whom I feel very close to; the group is a wonderful online 'place' where I always feel welcome and happy, a 'place' full of warm memories and good friends. This group is special to me, I have always, from the day I arrived, felt like I belong there...almost like I was the missing puzzle piece, it just all...came together. 

I am 48 years old, and this is the first time in my life I have felt like I have truly 'found my tribe', that these people, this 'place' online...is the place where I belong. 

Feeling that safe and happy, I post things there often. Probably too frequently, actually, but I haven't heard any complaints yet.  :) 

And today was no different. I posted a post that tied a few loose ideas together. 

"Annnnd then this happened yesterday: Look at the random awesome comment on this G+ post of 'Geek and Sundry' which has to do with Felicia Day, who was the creator of "The Guild" web-series among many other awesome geek, gamer, and acting accomplishments..... Felicia Day was one of the awesome reasons Peter [Hollens] got such a boost from his Skyrim collab with Lindsey [Stirling], too.  Oh, Felicia was in 'Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog' too, THAT is a great, great piece of art, that web-movie."

https://plus.google.com/u/0/+GeekandSundry/posts/KfZcrnKsF3T 

And one of the group members, Brenna J. Sullivan, liked my post so much she let me know:  

"Dr Horrible, Felicia Day, Geek & Sundry, Peter Hollens, Lindsey Stirling and Skyrim all in one post... Robin you're the mistress of all things awesome!! Well done!!"

How cool is that?!  'Mistress of all things awesome'. That could be so many things: an epic book title, a sweet blog title...if I become a superhero, do you think its too long to be my superhero name? I wonder what my husband will think of it...?

Everyone Should Listen To the Hollens' Music At The Dentist!

This afternoon, my dentist had his thumb in my mouth, holding a temporary crown in place as the adhesive set...as he watched the Star Wars Medley playing on my tablet on his counter. I was in the dentist chair for an hour and a half and the entire time, had playing the excellent music videos of Peter Hollens and his wife Evynne Hollens.


It always makes me feel so good to talk about the Hollens'!! I don't know why, but its just the best feeling...gleeful...helping people to find their music, their art, their vlogs...and the Hollens' themselves: adorable young married couple Peter Hollens and Evynne Hollens. They are professional musicians who make their living off of their stellar musical abilities.

I have myself found so much comfort and joy from their music and from getting to know who they are. Of course I want to help others to gain the benefits of knowing about them and their spectacular art, as well. 


Now, my dental visits in the past were a little frustrating; I would talk about the Hollens music, but with piped-in office music, I never used my tablet those other times to actually display their music. And you cannot really verbally talk to the dentist about...much...because your mouth is full of drills, tools and fingers. 

But THIS time, today, I went with a plan: I told them my music helps keep me calm, so they turned down the office speaker so I could have the tablet playing Peter and Evynne Hollens videos, on the counter.


Since I don't own headphones yet, I couldn't hear the music during drilling but each time the drill stopped there were Peter's and Evynne's voices, comforting me.

I was surprised to find I wasn't actually fibbing: I was actually calmer during the procedures (including the Novocaine needles, WAY less painful) and the dentist himself noticed a significant difference in a couple ways: something about me usually requires several tries at making dental impressions before they got a good one, three or four times. But today with Hollens' voices comforting me, two different dental impressions, each perfect the first try. 

The dentist also said my tongue seemed to stay out of the way better today than ever before. [Ok, doc, whatever.]

He not only said he hopes I always bring my music back every time to my dental visits, he and the hygienist both intend to get to know the Hollens music much better on YouTube.

I didn't have to say anything to get them 'hooked' on Hollens' music, you know: their music speaks for itself. I just answer a few questions as they come up. 

Peter Hollens and Evynne Hollens each have their own YouTube channels where they create high quality music videos, and each song cover is available for sale directly from them at Loudr.fm .

Evynne Hollens has both music videos as well as vlogs about their daily normal lives on her channel and she has an awesome three-octave vocal range. I love how low she goes in her cover of 'Let It Go' a song from Disney's 'FROZEN' movie.

Peter Hollens has over 65 music videos on his YouTube channel, including several duets with Evynne as well as collaborations with other YouTube musicians. Peter specializes in doing intricate a cappella: he typically records himself performing the parts of a song 60, 80 or over 120 times then overlaps them together, creating works of depth and complexity.
Peter earned a music degree in college and has just under four octaves in his vocal range.