My parents had a number of Peter, Paul and Mary records from which I learned to sing If I Had a Hammer, Lemon Tree, Where Have All the Flowers Gone? and several more. Outside of kindergarten ditties, I think these were some of the first songs I committed to memory.
The trio got together in 1961, the year I was born. Mary Travers, the female of the group, is the same age as my mother. My parents were fans and in recent years attended the occasional reunion performance. After I became a teenager I lost interest in their music and really never gave them a second thought. Until this morning, when I read that Mary Travers passed away.
I watched them on Youtube this morning, a performance from the early 60's. And now I feel terribly sad.
"When you don't have obsessions, when you don't have hang ups, when you don't have inhibitions, when you are not afraid that you will be breaking certain rules, when you are not afraid that you will not fulfill somebody's expectations - what more enlightenment do you want?" - Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche
Thangka Artist: Ngakma Pema Zangmo
A-yé Khandro
Artist: Anya Langmead
Prajnaparamita
Thangka Artist: Sashi Kumar
Vajrayogini Mandala
About the Author
In search of a new path, a 40-something with no previous art training heads to Kathmandu to study thangka at a Tibetan art school. Along the way he meets people, reads books, meditates, and writes about it here. Started in 2007, this chapter closes in 2009 when the author takes a teaching assignment in the UAE.
My Shikoku Pilgrimage Blog
Beginning is End
The end of building is ruin. The end of meeting is parting. The end of accumulation is dispersal. The end of birth is death. - Ken McLeod
"Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." - Mark Twain
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