Full Moon Inspiration

There is something powerful about a Full Moon. 

(Enough to cause some rambling thoughts that needed to be written.)

The energy, vibes, gravitational magnetic pull, and associated effects.The lore, legends, myths, and romance. 

The feelings that stir while gazing at the Full Moon.

As I am sitting on my patio watching the moon rise in Mexico, it seems like the end of this year has some peace to it. Some calm after the storm of this year. There still may be turbulence under the waters but for the moment there is stillness, and a subtle sense of reflection on life as the Sun's light reflects on the Moon.

On December 30th I will celebrate living in Mexico for three years. It has been quite an adventure. I have a blog that describes the first year or so. 

Expat in Mexico - A Magical, Mystical, Mexico adventure. 

I fell in love with an amazing Mexican woman - Sylvia. 

We were married the next year June 21 on her birthday. 

There were about 100 people, Mexican friends, and family. A Mariachi band and a Marimba band played while we danced Salsa. 

My life on the Gulf coast over the past two years has been enjoyable, in spite of the pandemic and other intensities of the year. I love living in Mexico. 

I love the Full Moon.

As we get ready for this new year, we can take a leap of faith that things will be better for humanity and the world. 

I am grateful for many things, and for the connections that I have with friends on Facebook, and those that chose not to be there. I don't blame them! 

I am grateful that I decided to take the leap of faith to move to Mexico and live here for the rest of my life with the love of my life. 

I have gratitude for meditation and the Divine Spirit with all of its mysteries and blessings. 

May your New Year be blessed, and may all those who have or are suffering or grieving have comfort and a better year in 2021. 

Let's enter the New Year with more hope, love, gratitude, and kick-ass energy to take our life to the next level of consciousness, insights, enjoyment, knowledge, and possibilities.

With inspiration from the Full Moon and everywhere else. 

What about reading and writing? 

I had to write some thoughts. This blog post is more freestyle, stream-of-consciousness. That's why there is the spacing between sentences. Am I spaced out from the Full Moon energy? 

I plan on writing more blogs and books this coming year. 

Possibly a book on 2020. Short books. Short stories. Maybe fiction. 

Maybe a book on why everyone should write (even privately in a journal).

What about reading? 

Recently I was offered three months free of Amazon Kindle Unlimited (until March 15th) After that it is only $9.95 per month. It allows free reading of any books that are in that program (it seems like millions) and here are a few that I have started to read or are planning to. Although I enjoy the look and feel of hardbound books, I can live with ebooks. It is what is inside that counts anyway. Here are a few books that I am reading free from Amazon Kindle Unlimited below.

- Unlimited Memory: How to Use Advanced Learning Strategies to Learn Faster...by Kevin Horsley

I started reading this book today and it is inspiring and excellent. I plan to use it as an important tool for 2021 in all areas of my life.

- Papa Hemingway: A Personal Memoir by A. E. Hotchner

I always wanted to learn more about Hemingway's life.

- On Writing Well, 30th Anniversary Edition: An Informal Guide to Writing...
by William Zinsser

I used to own this book - it was in my library that I sold or gave away before moving to Mexico. I plan to start the new year with more ideas about improving writing skills.

There are only a few in my library in Amazon Kindle.

If you want to explore Kindle Unlimited as a possibility for the New Year, here's some links: Amazon might have an offer that you can't refuse :)

Kindle Unlimited
https://www.amazon.com/kindle-dbs/hz/bookshelf


Kindle Best Sellers
https://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-Kindle-Store/zgbs/digital-text/


Enjoy the adventure of reading, the challenge of writing, and inspiration from the Full Moon.

Carpe Diem in 2021

===========================

Top 100 Inspirational Blogs

One Hundred Years of Solitude - The Inspiration of Gabriel Garcia Marquez

If a part of your life includes reading books, especially stories and novels, as a vicarious adventure, then you may already be familiar with Gabriel Garcia Marquez. If you are not an avid reader or have lost interest for one reason or another, I invite you to explore and share the adventure of experiencing the magic of words and stories. 

You don't even need to buy a book to start enjoying reading. There are many resources including free books being promoted on Amazon, or the Gutenberg Project, which has the full copy of classics that are past the copyright time limit.

(Kindle Best Sellers - Top 100 free - https://tinyurl.com/y38fa947 )

  Life as we know it can be enhanced with stories about other's lives and experiences much different than our own. Reading a great novel, or a good story can take you on a journey. By taking many journeys, we can increase the depth of appreciation of imagination, creativity, and the wide varieties of life's challenges and mysteries, joys and suffering, surprises, and eccentric routines. 

If there is any inspiration to be found in a compelling story it is in the reader's experience of the magic of the flow of words. With the books of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, I have experienced that magic, and he has become one of my favorite authors. Although he passed away in April 2014, his books have inspired millions of readers.

One Hundred Years of Solitude 

I have read this epic novel twice, and it has left a lasting impression on me because of the magical and mystical elements of the story that happen in everyday life. 

A summary from Amazon: 

"Since its publication in 1967, One Hundred Years of Solitude has sold more than 20 million copies and earned its author, Gabriel García Márquez, a host of awards, including the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1982. The novel has prompted comparisons to Miguel de Cervantes, William Faulkner, Virginia Woolf, and even the Bible."

"The story follows 100 years in the life of Macondo, a village founded by José Arcadio Buendía and occupied by descendants all sporting variations on their progenitor's name: his sons, José Arcadio and Aureliano, and grandsons, Aureliano José, Aureliano Segundo, and José Arcadio Segundo. Then there are the omen--the two Úrsulas, a handful of Remedios, Fernanda, and Pilar--who struggle to remain grounded even as their menfolk build castles in the air. If it is possible for a novel to be highly comic and deeply tragic at the same time, then One Hundred Years of Solitude does the trick. Civil war rages throughout, hearts break, dreams shatter, and lives are lost, yet the effect is literary pentimento, with sorrow's outlines bleeding through the vibrant colors of García Márquez's magical realism. Consider, for example, the ghost of Prudencio Aguilar, whom José Arcadio Buendía has killed in a fight. So lonely is the man's shade that it haunts Buendía's house, searching anxiously for water with which to clean its wound. Buendía's wife, Úrsula, is so moved that "the next time she saw the dead man uncovering the pots on the stove she understood what he was looking for, and from then on she placed water jugs all about the house." 

Marquez approached a literary style of writing from the story's perspective. He had said that the story defines the type of style that is used in writing. The style used in One Hundred Year of Solitude is magical realism, a form that is also used by Isabel Allende, who was inspired by Garcia's books. 

Magical realism is described as "painting a realistic view of the modern world while also adding magical elements." It is the manner and imaginative ways in which this is used in 100 Years of Solitude that inspires the adventurous reader. 

The Autumn of the Patriarch

 This is another book by Gabriel Garcia Marquez that has been called "hypnotic and brilliant", "a book of incredible depth, breadth, richness, vitality, intelligence, humor, wisdom, subtlety....like all great fiction it contains an endless layer of experience and meaning." 

This book is amazing in that there are sentences that go on for pages before ending. The descriptions are vivid and chock full of unusual details and unexpected twists and turns relating to the world of an old man who was a president and tyrant of a Caribbean country. It is one of a few books that I brought with me when I moved to Mexico permanently, and lately, I have been reading a few pages at a time for the stream-of-consciousness type of writing and reading experience. 

 

I highly recommend One Hundred Years of Solitude for an escape into an adventure of reading and vicariously experiencing a different world of life, love, loss, and humor. Be prepared for a challenging read. 

"To paraphrase critic Harold Bloom, there is not a single line that does not flood with detail: “It is all story, where everything conceivable and inconceivable is happening at once.” (Why is One Hundred Years of Solitude Eternally Beloved? https://lithub.com/why-is-one-hundred-years-of-solitude-eternally-beloved/ 

“Both described at the same time how it was always March there and always Monday, and then they understood that José Arcadio Buendía was not as crazy as the family said, but that he was the only one who had enough lucidity to sense the truth of the fact that time also stumbled and had accidents and could therefore splinter and leave an eternalized fragment in a room.” 

 ― Gabriel García Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude

Amazon Link :
https://www.amazon.com/Hundred-Solitude-Harper-Perennial-Classics/dp/0060883286/ref=sr_1_1

 

The Inspiration of Charlie Brown Christmas Jazz

We all have our preferences for the season, and they may involve family rituals, important religious dates, and winter solstice with ancient traditions. We are living in crazy times and sometimes we just need to unplug the computer and cell phone and take a pause.

This is supposed to be a season of peace and joy. Maybe we can experience this even if for a few moments with music.

Music can be one of the most inspiring experiences. We choose what music inspires us the most, then listen to it in a way that hopefully opens our hearts and moves our soul. When we listen intently to every note, with headphones (and eyes closed) rather than as background music, we can experience the music and let it take us away on a mini-vacation, an escape from other content that we are bombarded with (or let ourselves be bombarded with). Or maybe we choose to listen and watch at the same time, so we enjoy live or recorded live performances on YouTube.

Christmas is the most celebrated holiday in the world although there are many others. For me, the inspiration for certain music during this season is my preference. One album in particular - the soundtrack for A Charlie Brown Christmas - is one of my favorite jazz and Christmas albums. The pianist captured the intent of inspiration from the Charles Schultz movie, using a trio with bass and percussion to create a traditional jazz structure applied to both original and traditional Christmas songs.

The movie was produced in 1965, and is described in Wikipedia
"In this special, Charlie Brown finds himself depressed despite the onset of the cheerful holiday season. Lucy suggests he direct a neighborhood Christmas play, but his best efforts are ignored and mocked by his peers. After Linus tells Charlie Brown about the true meaning of Christmas, Charlie Brown cheers up, and the Peanuts gang unites to celebrate the Christmas season. "

I plan to watch the movie since I love the soundtrack, and to add more inspiring music to my Christmas season playlist. 

Peace and blessings to you and your family during this season.
More information below
- David Brown
(connect with me on Facebook messenger
https://www.facebook.com/DavidBrownDenver/ )

The Linus and Lucy song is my favorite, and you will recognize it if you use the link below to sample the album on Amazon or stream it elsewhere.

If you have an Amazon account you can listen to excerpts from the album >
https://music.amazon.com/albums/B009GQ2NCC?trackAsin=B009GQ2OPI&ref=dm_sh_2304-a2fe-40ec-bdfa-05ff6

An article published December 2 2020

A LOOK BACK AT VINCE GUARALDI’S A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS

discusses  the history of this album.
"Released in December 1965, Bay Area pianist and composer Vince Guaraldi’s soundtrack to Charles Schulz's iconic Peanuts special A Charlie Brown Christmas is among the most beloved holiday albums of all time, now certified Triple Plantinum with sales of over three million copies. The session was voted into the GRAMMY Hall of Fame in 2007 and was added to the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry’s list of “culturally, historically, or aesthetically important” American recordings."
full article :
https://www.sfjazz.org/onthecorner/look-back-vince-guaraldis-charlie-brown-christmas/