Before I forget, I want to pass on two things that have given me great pleasure.

One of them I had planned on blogging about over the holiday season. My husband is a piano teacher extraordinaire and one of his students gave him a CD of the original soundtrack from A Charlie Brown Christmas. Even if you are one of these people who hates the holidays, this is the type of music that lights up a room with joy. There was an article in the paper last month about the composer, Vince Guaraldi. He died at 47, nearly forty years ago, and left a distinctive upbeat jazz sound that we now associate with Snoopy dancing on Schroeder’s piano. The CD was selling at Starbucks so you just might find it on sale this month…

The other thing that has been giving me a great sense of satisfaction is cleaning out my email inbox. I’ve been unsubscribing to newsletters as part of this clearing out, even ones written by people I like. I’ve written personal notes to alot of the authors, as opposed to hitting the unsubscribe button, explaining my need to clear space. I still get more newsletters than I would like but this initial round has given me the experience of trusting that I will get what I need, with fewer subscriptions and less time. It has also given me a critical eye for where my creative juices need to focus.