The new photograph of the most important musical moment in my life was also my first attempt at using photoshop. The amazing wedding in the photo took place in India, and apparently the sound guys were not accustomed to situations requiring mic stands, so there were actually two people holding microphones while I played. One of them was in this picture, between me and the bride and groom. He was in the room when I took him out of the picture, with the help of the groom, who taught me to use photoshop during the superbowl, but only during comercials. I think it turned out alright, and the poor guy who was removed from the picture admits that it is a better picture without him in the middle, though he was a little saddened at his removal.

Anyway, yay for love and music! I'll put the song I wrote for the wedding up here some day, but I want the bride and groom to hear the new recording first, before I share it with y'all.

I just changed my picture--because I never do that and other people make it look fun--and now my page it excessively orange. I just wanted to note that I am not normally quite so orange. My apartment has a green dining room and a blue wall in the living room. Currently, I am wearing a green sweater. I like pomegranates, which are red, and pie, which is pie-colored. Today I did go for a hike near Grand Junction Colorado, and the dirt on the path was fairly orange...at least where the snow had melted, so maybe that's influencing my page today. In case you were concerned.

For years I have used Nazim Hikmet's "Things I Didn't Know I Loved" as inspiration for gratitude poems, which my students write at this thankful time of year. But my sixth graders have now heard the poem many times, and, although I think I would be happy to read that poem every year for my whole lifetime, I decided I needed a new one for the kids today. Sometimes I have to trick myself into writing...

It isn't a question of finding gratitude--
the trouble is always finding space
between bus fares and falling soufflés
and naming previously undiscovered species of fish--

To make room for gratitude
we may have to sacrifice a moment
of sipping apple juice or riding bicycles,
we may have to pause
in the middle of a chapter, the middle
of a sentence, even mid-word,

to hear the yellow leaves
crackle under our feet
to take a tiny hand
in our own warm hands
to look with reverence at a face
that didn..t have to smile but smiled anyway.

Gratitude will not fill our stomachs
or shelter our heads,
it will never
reveal the mysterious location of our car keys
or help us up from the concrete
that scraped us down to the blood,

but it may compel us to see the route home
at a walking pace
and to look up
from the sidewalk where we lay
to the vast, blue wonder we call sky.

My dad has a blog and has made fun of me for failing to live up to his technological example. So here it is. My blog.

The most important result of my myspace page so far is that I have rediscovered many wonderful people I had lost. But from here on out, the purpose of this space shall be the imparting of my wisdom to all readers.

When I really evaluate the subjects on which I could expound, I realize this: I can talk about scientific notation and sentence diagramming and the pattern of the periodic table like it's my job. But somehow, I don't think that's what y'all are here for. So tell me, what should I write about in this guilt-induced blog of mine?