two mothers meet the ultimate mother

While in LA we took the family to a retreat with Amma.  We met up with a fellow blogger, Elizabeth and her beautiful children, and they were able to meet Amma as well.  You can read Elizabeth's posts about her experience here and here.

When I go see Amma I like to watch her interact with people and with my children.  She is such an example of good mothering - patience, compassion, calm demeanor, a sense of humor, a passion for life, and most of all, love -- all qualities that help me with my kids.  She seems to be so caring and interested in every minute detail people want to share with her. 

When we are seeing Amma, she and the swamis give talks.  Gary loves to attend the talks and he takes great notes.  Below is one of many wonderful stories from the retreat, told by one of Amma's swamis. 

. . . .One day a famous heart surgeon took his Mercedes Benz to a car mechanic. He decided to watch while the mechanic fixed the engine -- a craft which the surgeon knew nothing about. All the engine parts lay on he ground amongst the mechanic’s various tools as he slowly put it all back together.
After the mechanic fixed the engine he said, “Doctor, may I ask you a question? Why is it that I can fix this engine and you can’t, but I only make thirty grand a year while you make over a million?”
The heart surgeon replied, "Try fixing that engine with the motor running."
The same holds true in meditation.  It is relatively easy to meditate in a quiet room and take apart the tricks of the mind one by one, completely still and self absorbed.  But try meditating in the midst of life, while life is happening to you.  Then you will understand the difference between meditation practice, and living a meditative, compassionate life.
Make sure your actions originate from the heart instead of the mind, with your family, in your marriage, with your children and friends, neighbors and strangers. Then you will be the heart surgeon!
Like Amma, you will constantly be repairing hearts all over the world.

corner view~daily

photos by Gary Marks

Sorry this is late.  We are still on vacation in Los Angeles.  I have had limited access to my computer until today :)
In my world daily continues to be riddled with spontaneity, which the Santa Monica Pier was teeming with last Sunday.  I am also posting this to remind me to get my daily exercise... That day I did.  Yes, that's me in the bottom shot.

corner view~bliss~on the road in los angeles

photo by Skylar Marks

When we were on the road last summer things were so planned out.  This time things are happening at the spur of the moment.  For me, bliss can be found in the improvisational play with the unplanned.  It's such a joy to live in this open state of mind...

city of angels part 1

 

The girls prepare for acting camp...reading actual scenes from Hannah Montana.  They had a great time on the first day.

san ramon

 

corner view~from where i'm sitting

From where I sit...

...packing for a trip away from home.

...And remembering a sweet, peaceful moment with my husband, when we had dinner out a couple of weeks ago, with this view.  He is gone already, on biz, we meet him in a few days.  I am appreciating him.  I was so stressed getting ready for this big trip tonight and he called and made me laugh.  He's the best.

Now, back to packing...

P.S. If anyone is interested in meeting me and Amma in northern California or Los Angeles, we will be at her programs in both of those places.  Let me know.  

For more views of people around the world see the sidebar here.

walking with the wind

This is another song Sky wrote when she was younger.  One of my favorites as well.  Now on Youtube...

It's called Walking With the Wind."  Click to listen.

Walking with the Wind
Skylar Marks 2008

I can feel the sun, rising 'bove the sea.
I can feel the sea, washing below my feet
and I feel myself while I'm walking with the wind.

I can feel the sound, moving up from the floor.
I can feel the stars, falling into my soul
and I feel the music as I'm walking with the wind.

Solo

And I feel the music as I'm walking with the wind.
As I'm walking with the wind.

corner view~the end of my street

I live on a circle, so depending of which way you look, the end of my street is either the mountains...

or the end of the world.

school's almost out...

 

The kids have two days left next week.  I am running around like a chicken with my head cut off.  In twelve days we leave town for two months.

We are redoing Gary's music website, Sky is now going to have her own music website, I am working with a marketing guy to get Gary's music "out there," like on Amazon.com, he is making YouTube music videos, creating a cool facebook fan page.  Once these are finished I will share some of the new songs here. 

Writing it all down here I remember that this is fun work!

Going out for dinner tonight.  Was going to cook but my dear husband insisted that Mom get treated to a night out.  I told you he rocks. 

corner view~collections

 Trans-fiction by Dario Campanile

We have a collection of art by a famous Italian painter, and also our very good friend, Dario Campanile. Check out his work, he is phenomenal.  He was chosen to be part of a show of 50 artists who painted portraits of the Dalai Lama, and Dario actually got to meet with him and interview him.  Footage from that interview is also on the website.

The above image is a painting that Dario made and gave to us.  Our painting is actually a giclee print on canvas, and it hangs in our foyer.  The original sold almost instantly to a collector.

Dario used our daughter Sky as the child model (on the left), and our friend Annie (below), a real violinist, for inspiration, and modeling the correct finger placement on the violin.  Remember Annie, my coffee companion?  

In this shot Sky is almost four, Annabel is one! 

This is an original oil painting by Dario.  He made it for us years ago.  He brought it over to our home, it was still a little wet.  Dario asked us if we liked it.  He told us it was for a client, and wanted to see if we would hang it in the house to dry, as he had no room in his studio.  Gary was jealous, he loved it and wished it was for us.  And he told Dario this.  When Dario saw how much we both loved it, he told us it was actually for us, and he had just made up the story.  He just didn't want to put us on the spot, in case we didn't like it.  Can you imagine???

Dario was the first friend of Gary that I met.  He is such a sweetheart.

I have started collecting birds.  The birds below are perched on another smaller Dario painting.  I like how it looks they they are getting ready for a drink.  This image reminds me of my three kids.  Gary says I collect kids.  Sometimes I feel like I do :)  wink wink... 

To view more collections around the world, visit the sidebar at Jane's blog.  Thanks Francesca, for the idea of collections.  Go check out Francesca's blog, she is sure to have something interesting to show.  Have a wonderful week everyone!

a long time

YouTube is a household word/experience over here now.  It's an amazing resource to view old television comedy shows I loved, star search shows,  and singers and musicians old and new, children and adults, all at the touch of a button.  It's so fun to show the kids Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra, Etta James, Stevie Wonder, Elton John, Bruce Springsteen, Whitney Houston, Aretha Franklin -- all live.  YouTube holds so much history.

Recently Sky posted several of the songs she wrote as a young girl. 

This song is called "It's a Long Time."  Click here to view.  It is about Sky's dream of world peace.  One of my favorites of hers.


It's A Long Time
Skylar Marks 2007


When the time quiets down a long time from now
and a scream becomes a whisper
no one knows when it'll be
but people will see, that it's

a long time from now.
that it's a long time from now.

When the time is always late like in the summer days,
It seems the day will never end.
But the winters never change and the rainy nights will stay.

But that's a long time from now.
That's a long time from now.

When the tears await the eyes of the people that are about to cry
The time will be too late, and you just had to wait.
It shouldn't have been so long from now,
It's a long time from now.

It was up to you.

a good change

Shawn has his own room now.  Three weeks of construction and we are finished.  I'm soooo glad.

smooth criminal

Sky's newest Youtube video.  Since this she has posted 7 of her original songs...kind of a roll.  Annabel is recording something new today, stay tuned...

Have a great week everyone.  A busy time for us right now.  We are getting ready for a 2 month trip to the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, Florida and upstate New York.

corner view~fountains and statues

These photos were taken from our trip through France and Italy last summer.  We have nothing like this where I live.  Having been an art student in college, I loved the European experience, especially how low key much of the art is there, on every street corner.

By the way, anyone who wants to see a link to my young son's Youtube debut blasting away on the drums, go here.

Thanks Joyce for handling corner view while Jane was galavanting through Mexico.  :)  For more corner views go to the sidebar here to welcome Jane home.

introducing shawn

 

This is Shawn's Youtube debut...our boy drumming.  He did this during a recent house concert.  Two friends filmed and Skylar did the editing and created this video.  Shawn loves being in the spotlight!

And he is always drumming.

corner view~garden

I am most at home in a garden.

Whenever I visit my parents and sister in the New York countryside, soon after I have said my hellos to everyone, I find my way to their gardens to see what they have growing that I can smell and sample.  I try to be subtle, but I think they know I love the plants almost as much as I love them, like they are part of the family for me.

Last summer I began eating herbs and flowers as snacks.  And I swear my husband thought I had become a rabbit.  These days at home, every day I eat tulsi leaves and seeds, Thai basil flowers, and arugula.  My mom has a flowering sage and lavender, my sister has arugula that is different than mine.  I love it.

If I ever come to your home and you show me your garden, I will probably consume something you didn't know was edible.  Sorry in advance. 

Today I talked to my gardener.  He loves growing things as much as I do and I am happy to report that he is going to look after my veggies and fruit trees while we are gone this summer for two months.  You have to love plants to take care of plants well.

I planted ten more tulsi plants yesterday, mulched some of our flower beds with wood chips, and bought three bags of chicken manure today.  That will fertilize my plants until I can get chickens of my own... Just kidding, Gary.

I am also happy to say that I am seeing more and more honeybees in the garden, as I let my herbs go to seed and they are all flowering.  So pretty.  I am worried about the decline in honeybees.

It is hot here now and I water the plants everyday.  They are happy when I come with the hose. 

I love the miracle of gardens.

 

For more gardens around the world go the sidebar at Jane's blog.

my new job

I love my new job.

I am officially the head of artist management of our family company, Marksland Entertainment.

Music is uplifting, and can change people -- change their moods, make them think, help them relax.  I feel that music is our family's gift.  All of us want to make a difference through music.

I am actively trying to get Gary's music in television and movies, and placed with other performers who don't write their own material.  I began this job on March 1st.  I have already gotten Gary a record deal with a company in Europe, Kindred Spirits.  They are going to re-release a CD of Gary's older jazz rock music. And seven of his songs will soon be played in 15,000 retail outlets throughout Europe from a deal I landed with iTunes!

The best part of this job is that I wake up happy and inspired and feeling like singing and dancing.

I am taking formal singing lessons too from Gary.  Gary says I could be a great singer. I decided to believe him.

The first photo is from the girls' first concert in 2006.

Rock on!