Reincarnation

As you can tell, writing this blog has not been a priority for quite some time. I started it simply as a new mode of expression. It was not intended for a large audience. In fact, I was surprised that I found an audience at all. I was mainly interested in exercising my few remaining brain cells – writing is good exercise. I was also interested in the process of publishing with no particular concern as to who might read my ramblings. I suppose that is the foundation of blogging, just stepping up on a soapbox.

My previous excuse for not posting was lack of time. I felt guilty about letting the blog go untouched, and kept thinking about things to write about. But in January, my youngest daughter died in a sledding accident and my motivation just evaporated. She was 21, ready to graduate from UCLA with many hopes and dreams. She was independent, self-assured, very goal oriented, straight-A student, such a lovely person. It hurts so much to lose a child right when they are all ready to go out into the world. One second you are feeling this sense of accomplishment and pride, then it’s like you are set adrift,

It’s been six months now and the pain has subsided for the most part. It still comes to the surface in a rush occasionally, usually triggered by music. They say music has the power to soothe the savage beast, but it also has the power to evoke intensely painful memories. It’s amazing really. Just a few bars of a certain song can turn you inside out.

A few weeks ago I pulled Amy’s iPod Nano out of a drawer. We got it for her for Christmas but she hadn’t got around to putting any music in it. So I started exploring how it works, how to load music into it. I figured out how to load CDs into iTunes and then how to sync all that music into the iPod. I find iTunes to be very frustrating; slow and not very intuitive.

Although I’m sure no one is interested, I enjoy Andrei Bocelli, Bill Douglas, Sara McLachlan, Norah Jones, Enya, Loreena McKennitt, Diana Krall, R. Carlos Nakai, James Taylor, Carly Simon, Jimmy Buffett, and various country artists when they sing upbeat songs with a good beat.

That’s about it for now. If you were expecting some wry comment about some new technology that may come later. I’m not apologizing for being away for a while, but it does feel good to be writing again.

As far as the title of this post, there are experiences that change you dramatically. It's fascinating really.