Voltaire ended his novel, 'Candide' with the admonition, "Il faut cultiver notre jardin."-We must tend to our gardens, suggesting that taking care of our immediate needs is good enough. This notion seems to parallel the act of "mindfulness' which is defined in Psychology Today as an active, open attention on the present. When our family buys food at the grocery store, it is eaten, or not; saved, or not. When it comes from our garden or has been canned in our kitchen, it assum

One of my favorite pieces of music is Clair de Lune (Moonlight), by Claude Debussy. Below is a link to an audio file. Until recently, I didn't know that Debussy’s Clair de Lune was inspired by a Paul Verlaine poem. Here's the text in the original French and an English translation: Clair de Lune by Paul Verlaine Votre âme est un paysage choisi Que vont charmants masques et bergamasques Jouant de luth et dansant et quasi Triste sous leurs déguisements fantasques. tout en chant

Exercise 1: Find a friend and a piano. Using the photographs below, play two chords. Depress the right foot pedal for a sustained tone to connect the two. Discuss. Did those chords spark an emotion? Is that emotion shared? Can you describe it in words? It's possible that the emotion elicited is the same one that Eric Satie wanted you to feel when he inserted them into his piece, Gymnopédie No. 1. (at 1:37) Describing the emotion to another is next to meaningless, it's more t