Month: November 2020

Isolation Diary: When I come back for my next life I would like to be able to sing. To sing really well.

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Holly B.
Me too!!

Jay B.
Raise

Paul B.
I wasted my voice this lifetime. I used to have one, now I can’t even OM

Ruth Silveira
I do not have, and have never had, a good vocal instrument. Also my ear is questionable. Maybe it’s my mind that is questionable.

Claudette W.
Dear Ruth, in addition to teaching and performing piano my degree is also in teaching singing. After Covid, when I am next in LA, I’d like to come over and, if you’d like, work with you on your vocal instrument. It can be strengthened, you can be taught to sing. I will, with love, guidance and exercises prove to you that you can.

Ruth Silveira
Claudette W. Thank you but it’s hopeless. My vocal chords are compromised. But how lovely to think of seeing you again in LA!

Susan J.
The shower never tells. Sing in the shower- loud and proud!

Isolation Diary: To go to sleep my practice has been for a long time to set a timer and either play music or an audio book for half an hour. If I wake up in the night, I will often reset the timer and play the audio book again. I usually choose books I have listened to before so there are no surprises and whose narrators are comfortable to my ear. However, last night the book I was listening to, “Reincarnation Blues” narrated by Mark Bramhall, arrived at a brutal section and reminded me of the brutality of the current administration. I know, they, are not physically beating you and me but I feel battered nonetheless. In this section of the book, everyone is out for themselves, and caring for another is a risk. I tried to advance the story but I was only half awake and didn’t succeed. So I woke up this morning with a cloud on my soul. Extremely unpleasant. I tried to remedy this mood by working in my garden but out there I found a problem with an access grate to under the house. In a very awkward place. Left unattached by a cable guy several months ago. It took awhile but I did manage to at least temporarily secure the screen. Tools needed: a set of star screwdrivers (which I have) and a hammer. None of this was any fun at all. My mood still dark. Lunch. Read a book, which also wasn’t at an uplifting part of the story. Stop! What’s a good thing? Began considering Christmas gifts. Found something for Duncan. Ordered it. Yay! Then, after a text exchange with Maggie, I dropped everything else on my daily list and drove out to Pasadena to spend a little time with some of my family whom I hadn’t seen in a week. Spirits lifted. And feeling okay now. Phew.

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Susan J.
You have a beautiful option there; an antidote for the blues and the blahs. Glad you got to exercise it.

Holly B.
I like so much how you actively turn your mood around.

Anna M.
Onward!!

Carl G.
You’re an inspiration. Thanks so much for “Diary,” I look forward to every new entry. Be well and happy in these awful times.

Sandy R.
Way to go!

Isolation Diary: Here I am, alone in my house. Which Richard and I bought in 1978. Yeow! That is so long ago. I have been preparing for a Thanksgiving gathering today and I have been missing Richard even after all this time. He left us in 1999. Don’t think I am being coy by saying ‘he left us’. There was something uncanny about Richard. Anyway, today I have been alternately lonely and joyful. If you know my family, you will know why. They engender joy in me. Joy is different than happiness. To me. Happiness is an earthly experience. Joy is a melding of the individual and the sublime. And I can’t explain it any better in this short post.

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Heatherlynn N.G.

Adam Bitterman
Wishing you and yours all the best this holiday season and beyond!

Janet R.
Happy Thanksgiving Ruth – remembering many joyful times with you – especially this time of year xx

Ruth Silveira
Janet R. I was thinking of you today as I made pie. I hope you attempted one! I tried a new crust and am not confident in the result. I used my old standby for the apple pie and that one is looking okay. Have a warm and wonderful Thanksgiving!

Claudette W.
I get it. I still miss Richard, too.

Mary Hayes Tuttle
Your house and garden will always be one of my favorite places

Joe Jordan
Hugs ‘cause I miss you.

Ruth Silveira
Joe Jordan Yeah, I miss you too.

Joe H.
Well, then make the post longer! I wanna hear what you have to say!
Sending you a big hug!

Joyce H.
Happy Thanksgiving Ruth!

Ruth Silveira
Joyce H. Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family!

Ina Burke
I always love how you are able to express something perfectly. I totally feel this post! Happy thanksgiving. And your house and your garden always fills me with warm memories. Sending you love from NY!

Jeff W.
I miss Richard too, and think of him often.

Paul B.
I wish I had known Richard better, but loved him nevertheless

Betsy B.
Sending a hug to you. To know Richard was to just love him!, and I’m pretty sure we all still miss him as well… I think of all the wonderful gatherings in your home, especially when Maggie and Jesse were little and how glued to Maggie I was when she was a toddler.

Jeff W.
Betsy B. “Betsy Bird”

Ruth Silveira
Betsy B. Yes! That’s right. If you and Maggie encountered each other today you would still love each other.

Terry W.
Never a day goes by, that I don’t think of Richard. What a guy.

Sandy R.
Happy Thanksgiving! Sending love!

Ruth Silveira
Sandy R. Happy Thanksgiving, Sandy! Love back to you. 

Peter E.
Lots and lots of joy to you.

Henrietta C.
Very well explained!

John S.
You are the best.

Anna M.
Miss Richard too!!

Nicholas S.
Wonderful human that Richard.

Christie M.
Richard was, as my great-grandmother used to say, “a tonic.” I wish you a warm Thanksgiving full of love! XOX

Ruth Silveira
Christie M. He was. Haven’t heard that before. States the effect very well.

Nicholas G.
Sending love on this Thanksgiving Ruth. There were many great times with Richard!

Rick C.
I think of Richard often as well…..
he was such a special person and a wonderfully talented ActorI was lucky to work with him!!
……well we all were weren’t we?

Ruth Silveira
Rick C. I always felt safe when working with Richard. Which means I could take risks. Once we got to know each other. During rehearsal of The Seagull, I barely knew him, and I was very focused on trying to understand and develop Nina, and one day he said to me, ‘You can look at me, you know.” So I did.

Susan J.
Well, I sure wish I knew Richard. Enjoy your sweet memories.

Ruth Silveira
Susan J. You and Jeff would have loved him and had a great time playing music together.

Susan J.
Ruth Silveira I just love the thought of that.

Jay B.
Love this. Sending you a virtual hug.

Lee K.
Ruth, I think of Richard often, and the long philosophical talks we had. His talent was extraordinary, and his devotion to you, Jessie, and Maggie was unlimited. We miss him.

Mandi M.H.
I love you so very much.

Laura O.
A truly irreplaceable loss
and I love your distinction between joy and happiness

Benny W.
Great memories in that house and with Richard.

Cydney D.
I understand. You worded it beautifully. I had a lovely Thanksgiving with me, God and my cat Mickey. I put photos of my loved ones who left on the table and allowed the joy to swell up past the tears.

Henry H.
i’d show up at all these topics.

Hope W.
You just made me smile.

Thanksgiving. I am employing and enjoying so many things right now. For example, this computer. Thanks for this. And I like the mouse I am using so thanks for that also, thanks to all you people who designed it and built it. And also I am drinking some wine, so thanks for that. I like the glass I am drinking from, so thanks for that. Oh, and I am sitting on a comfortable chair, sort of an elaborate one with adjustments and such, so thank you for that. Also, my house is at a comfortable temperature and a whole lot of people are responsible for that. Hey, thank you! Then, now that I look, my computer is resting on a table that belonged to my parents and, I think, their parents. So, thanks to my back listed family! My computer table is covered with notes to self all on various pieces of paper. Where did this paper come from? Thank you to all the trees or bamboo and people who created this paper. It is appreciated. I am surrounded by the efforts and products and ideas of other people. I send out an expanding ripple of gratitude.