Show #224

Hello Friends of the Garden!

I woke up this morning at 4:00. I tried to force myself to go back to sleep but I could tell it was going to be a fruitless effort so I gave in and made myself a cup of coffee and waited for the newspaper to hit my driveway.

While I waited in the early, early morning darkness I sat down in my thinking spot in my garage committed to my wakened state fortified by my cup of coffee. I turned on the radio to NPR and set the volume almost imperceptibly low. Sipping my coffee, I waited for my brain to catch up to my body that had involuntarily set my schedule for the day!

As I have gotten older I've come to realize that I've gradually been becoming a morning person. I love the morning, especially the early morning. Everything seems so quiet, slow and calm as world around me awakens from it's slumber. For me it's an easier time to think. My mind feels like it's free from the litany of things that will encumber it as each following minute adds to the clutter that will eventually fill the void. It makes me think of a being on a bus that has no riders other than myself and with each successive stop riders climb aboard. Without realizing it, the bus has become packed in a short time and chaos replaces order.

On my radio show, I always end it the same way, with a plea for harmony in the world! Believe me I'm sincere in my request! I feel certain that the world would be a better place if we all worked towards finding ways to get along with each other. I'm discovering that harmony is a difficult thing to achieve because there are some prerequisites that are integral to even begin the quest for tranquility. Upon some self examination, I realized that patience is an element necessary for harmony to proliferate!

Stuff happens huh?

Patience is the gasoline that fuels harmony! They live together in a symbiotic relation. I looked at myself and I knew that I lacked patience as much or more than anyone. If you think about the phrase, "to exercise patience", you may or may not catch the inference that patience is an exercise akin to physical exercise. Patience has to practiced to become an integrated personality trait. Who has time for that?

Our lack of patience has been insidiously diminished by our modern demanding lifestyles. Instant gratification is the antagonist to patience and it is inculcated, exploited and exacerbated by our weakness. E-mail replaces mail, pay at the pump, express lanes in traffic and grocery stores, self check out, pre-boarding passes, microwaves, frozen food, "go to the head of the line passes" at amusement parks, on-demand television, same day shipping, it's an endless list of ways that we naturally become less and less tolerant of waiting.

Weeds, day 3! Thriving!

I can't help but think of spraying weeds! The very next day I anxiously look out at the weeds I've sprayed and I'm involuntarily disappointed that the weeds haven't disappeared! I realize how unrealistic that is yet, still the feeling is there! I'll switch lines in a store if I feel like I'm not going fast enough. Changing lines is usually followed by someone ahead of me needing a price check and the exasperating sighing and shrugging of my shoulders! When I'm driving (the worst for my wife) and I'm stuck behind a slow driver (usually doing the speed limit, how unthinkable !) I find myself trying to understand their thinking, as if I could telepathically will them to speed up! I'm terrible!

Lines at the Costco in Korea?
Of course!

I think I'll continue to ask for harmony on my show and personally work on my own patience issues! That should keep me busy! I won't have time to be impatient with such a huge task ahead! Great! Instant gratification, ahh!

Loving my "deck time" in Cambria!

Here's Show #224! Since I've been doing this a while, I've discovered that I find myself picking out a friend and playing stuff I know they'll like. This show has little nuggets spread all through for many of you out there! It's a way to reconnect with those songs that hooked you in the first place. Personal highlights for me include first timer Gove Scrivenor (I'm going stumble on pronouncing that one!), the Delbert McClinton tune, the "numbers" Gardenerism and the Beatles covers at the end. There's so much more than that all throughout the whole show! Enjoy!

 Thanks Robin and Jerry for all your support!

KFSR is truthfully a Jazz station. That's our niche! Thankfully the evening and weekend programming allows for a variety of music and community programs. Last week, during my show, a listener called in and immediately told me he was a Jazz listener. He continued and said that he caught the beginning of my show and before he knew it the first hour had passed! He told me to keep it up, so cool!  Thanks to all of you out there that reach out to me! Like a donation to our radio station, a little love goes a long way! You listeners are amazing in your support!

Peace and love!

Mike