Happy New July! Today is the first day of the month of your life!

On Old Friends, Birthdays, Slowness, and Maybe More! Maybe? Maybe! Find Out!

Dear friends,

It’s a new month!
And you know what that means (or you’re about to!):
It’s time for me to wish you a happy new month! So, happy new month!

1) OLD FRIENDS

Sondheim musicals
Are like the Dalai Lama:
Full of ancient joy.

Over the weekend I saw this Sondheim revue on Broadway, “Old Friends.” I loved it.

I was first introduced to Sondheim in college.
Listening to his music, I was like a baby tasting new food for the first time.
I was like WHAT IS THIS FLAVOR.

At first I wasn't sure if I liked it.
Most of the musicals I had seen thus far had tasted different.
But then the second musical I saw of his, also at my college, was Merrily We Roll Along.

They acting was great.
The songs were beautiful.
The story was moving.
The structure was cool.
I loved and continue to love it so much.

That was about 25 years ago.
More than half my life.

I was lucky enough to get to see the revival just before it left Broadway.
Daniel Radcliffe and the whole cast were amazing.
At LEAST as good as my college friends’ production.

Seeing it, I felt like Sondheim is an old friend.
Or at least that musical is.
In fact, music is basically one of my oldest friends.

My parents were music teachers.
I've been playing music since I was 4 years old.
I music in some form every day.
Our bodies are made of vibrating atoms, which basically means we ARE music.

I watched this musical revue this weekend and I was transported back and forward and to right where I was.

The Dalai Lama says he greets everyone he meets as if they are an old friend, which makes sense scientifically almost, if you take into account that we were all together in the same place at the time of the Big Bang.

And in a Buddhist paradigm, they say that we have had infinite lives since beginningless time (how is it beginningless if there was a big bang? they say it just wasn't necessarily the first big bang), and because of that, it means that we have had every relationship with every sentient being.

We have all been each other's parents and children, lovers and enemies, strangers and of course, old friends. BOOM. (The sound of another Big Bang.)

So, it's nice to greet you, my old friends.
Thank you for being here.
Welcome to this month.

Happy new month.

2) HAPPY BIRTHDAY EVERYONE (PLEASE APPLY AT THE APPROPRIATE TIME)

Happy birthday, month!
Ev’ry day’s the birthday of
The day being born.

I have one specific old friend whose birthday is today.
I'm in a bit of a bind because he specifically doesn't like to celebrate his birthday, but I DO like to celebrate the birthdays of my friends.
(Heck, I like to celebrate the birthdays of each MONTH.)

So out of respect for this friend's birthday non-birthday wishes, so I won't name him.
I won't even mention his gender.
Okay you got me, it's a guy.

But that only narrows it down to about 4 billion people.
I mean, if he's human.
Could be a cat!
That adds like another several hundred billion, I think.

Anyway, here's a cool thing about this friend:

One time I heard some juicy gossip about someone we both knew.
This person had behaved poorly, and at the time it felt like the kind of thing I wanted to share with a friend and I so I told him "I have a story about this person behaving badly, would you like to hear it?" and I'll never forget what he said:

"No."

He didn't want to hear it!
And I respect that a lot.
For the future, we came up with a broad new policy in the spirit of this famous quote:

”Great minds discuss ideas.
Average minds discuss events.
Small minds discuss people”
— Eleanor Roosevelt

Moving forward, we could share about situations like that if we kept it anonymous.
That way we weren't talking badly about a PERSON, we were just sharing an EVENT.
Maybe even an IDEA.

Converting our minds from small to great with one policy!

And so, in the same spirit, I celebrate my friend by not identifying him.
And by not identifying him, it could be any of us!
Maybe his birthday isn't even actually today!
Maybe it's YOU.

Happy birthday to all of you!

Side note: if you ENJOY people celebrating your birthday, feel free to email me back here or comment on this post and leave your birthday and your email and I'll do my best to send you a nice note on your birthday, because I like celebrating people the way they like being celebrated.

Happy birthtime alltimes everyone!

3) HIGHS AND SLOWS

In this fast-paced world,
There is a kind of power
In slowing down…………………. eh?

One more friend I’d like to share about today is my friend Cory Allen.
I’m currently reading a book he wrote called “Brave New You” and I love it.
Here’s one line from it that I love:

"Appreciating that what we say has a more powerful effect on other people than we realize will help us choose our words wisely and instill goodwill, harmony, and kindness in everyone we speak with.”

Inspiring words!
HIS words have a positive effect on ME.
I hope that this also transfers to YOU.

I messaged him recently to let him know that he’s great, and he wrote this back:

”Sending love and slowness your way!”

I love love!
AND I don’t know that I had ever even heard the word “slowness” before.
I’m a FAST guy.
There’s even a video of my stand-up online called “The Fastest Talking Comedian You’ve Ever Heard.”

Also, our society encourages speed.
There’s even multiple words for it.
Quickness, for example.
Quickness and speed, that’s two!

But slowness?
Less heralded, but maybe of even greater value because of that.

Even just reading the word “slowness” led me to slow down.
And continues to, the more I think about it and feel it.
It helps me.

We don’t all need to hear the same things, of course.
Maybe you have plenty of slowness in your life.
But if you’re like me at all in this way, I gladly pass along the concept.

It’s the perfect time for it too, calenderically.
It’s summer in the northern hemisphere.
It’s hot, and moving quickly might make you sweaty.

So, ask your doctor* if slowness could be right for you.

* self

Regardless, I offer you these words in the spirit of goodwill, harmony, and kindness.
And if there are any specific words you’d like to hear that I didn’t say, let me know and I’ll do my best!

Here are a few more to tide you over until next time: copacetic, gratitude, buoyancy.

Happy New July, everyone!
Thank you for receiving!
Much love to you and yours and all!