Authors Electric

Mindfulness is the basic human ability to be fully present, aware of where we are and what we’re doing, and not overly reactive or overwhelmed by what’s going on around us. Thus intones the website mindfulness.org . Google the word mindfulness and you’ll find a world of coaches and retreats, a series of TED Talks and even The Mindfulness App . It all sounds pretty goofy to me. I’m here, aren’t I? What more do you want from me? But lately I’ve been thinking about how much my life has changed over the past 7 years. How much I’ve changed. Was it quitting my law practice or starting to write that did the trick? Somewhere, somehow, along the line, mindfulness entered my life. hibernation Marcel Proust. Image source: https://www.poetrychangeslives.com/ways-of-writing/ In the winter, I spend most of my time in bed. Some of that is sleep but most of it is reading and writing. I like to write with my papers and books and photographs spread out around me, the cat curled ...

Lili Kraus Right now (taking advantage of the alternative time lines allowed by cyberspace), I'm enraptured by a  1965 recording of the great Lili Kraus performing Mozart's sublime "Jenamy" Piano Concerto No. 9, in E-flat major, K. 271. I should be writing this post, which I have let languish as I dithered over ideas until barely ten hours before post time. Now, I don't mean letting Wolfie's magic soothe me as I go about my work. I have a specific, compelling reason for playing Mozart concertos at the moment, about which I will explain shortly. In any event, however, I can never do Mozart as background. Too much undertow for me; besides, coming from a musical family, lack of attentiveness feels vaguely disrespectful. If the elevator plays so much as  Rondo Alla Turca ,  I may not be able to get off until it's finished. That's why I despise all piped-in music, but that too is another story. Let's distract from my distractions for a while an...