Swimming, but with no camera

Things continue to happen, I'm still in the swim of things, but I can't seem to remember to bring my iPhone or iPod to take pictures! Right now, it is snowing pretty hard, River Singers rehearsal tonight has been cancelled, and Ellen and I are cozily holed up in our bed! Later today I'll work on taxes.

Yesterday, I had a PT session. Amy Emery put me through a series of exercises designed to challenge my balance. The idea is to fire up brain synapses and muscle memory that control balance. So, e.g., I had to walk heel to toe with my eyes closed ( try it!), throw a ball at a trampoline and catch the rebound while standing on squishy, unstable foam; then sit on a ball with my feet on an unstable disc, and raise my right foot and left arm simultaneously without using the other hand to steady myself. All very difficult! She was close by to keep me from falling, of course. Which she had to do frequently! My session tomorrow will be in the pool where falling is not a risk. 

     I also spent time yesterday reading in two books John brought me on environmental ethics. One by Holmes Ralston, III, one of the pioneers in the field (he is my age), and the other a FAT anthology of many writers which pretty much covers the waterfront of what goes under the rubric of "environmental ethics." I was particularity interested to read about "deep ecology," which has quite a bit in common with John's thinking, though there are differences also. This is background reading for the session we are offering on April 22 on "Eco-Spirituality." We are billing it as a "Father-Son dialogue." More on that in a separate post (when I can transfer things on my computer to this blog).

Yesterday, I also learned that our friend, Arleene Sweet, who lives in St. Paul, has gone into Hospice Care. Her daughter, Karen, had put out that word on Facebook. I immediately emailed her, and then created a voice memo on the phone which included a couple of Hallowell songs, which I emailed to Karen, who later responded saying that she had played it for her mom and that it had meant a lot to her to hear it. 

Sunday, I led the choir in Dummerston in the morning. We had a good little choir, and we did something we had not done before - we chanted a Psalm, with an Antiphon (a repeated choral response in 4- part harmony). It went well. 

Then in the afternoon we had a very special Hallowell event at the Guilford Church. Eight of us, including Ellen and myself, read aloud portions of Kathy Leo's new book about Hallowell, "0n the Breath of Song," interspersed with singing. It was a very moving experience, and we had a very engaged audience. That was followed by supper at Panda North for 26 of us - to celebrate Kathy's birthday. Ellen made a huge, 3-layer hazelnut birthday cake which was a big hit. But I didn't bring my camera! Waaa! 

But this is what it looks like right now outside our bedroom window: