Shel Graves' Sensorium

This year, I am listening a song a day as past of my morning meditative practices which often include reading and writing. I am picking one song to listen to intentionally (in addition to any listening I do throughout the day). I find myself often seeking silence or deep in my own thoughts.  The question I am contemplating: Could we not all do with more music in our lives? I am listening for beauty and connection.  I’ve been gathering some listening lists to make it easier to pick a song each morning and asking friends for recommendations.  For January, here are some of my favorite lists:  My friend Daniel Carr is a composer. https://danielcarrcomposer.com/  The Compassion Consortium shares a song at their services.  My local Pacifica Chamber Orchestra. My friends are big fans of KEXP . I have revisited some of my favorite artists and songs:  IAMX Everything is Burning   - They are amazing in concert. MILCK This Skin   - I listened...

Taste: potato mushroom soup, hearty, gravy, savory  Sound: a din of friends  Smell: pine  Sight: a room full of friends  Touch: a large soft bed  Intellect, ideas, and dreams: playing games, learning games  Grateful for: friends, togetherness, a get away

Taste:  garam marsala, savory cinnamon Sound: her childlike exclamations  Smell:  rosewater Sight: Mom sitting by her lamp reading Prince Harry and listening to classical music which she describes as an anti-anxiety medication like-effect  Touch: swimming on New Year’s Eve Intellect, ideas, and dreams: tearing up because a moment is so beautiful  Grateful for: a table full of friends

Taste:  cinnamon Sound: her childlike exclamations Waloyo Yamoni, “ We Overcome the Wind ” — Christopher Tin Smell:  chlorine Sight: Mom sitting by her lamp reading Prince Harry and listening to classical music which she describes as an anti-anxiety medication like-effect; rising steam  Touch: swimming on New Year’s Eve  Intellect, ideas, and dreams: tearing up because a moment is so beautiful  Grateful for: the new year, living in the future, friends

Taste: Dark Walnut  Sound: woof!, spinning, whirr, click; Song of Compassion is: I heard an Owl by Carrie Newcomer ,  Smell: dog’s ear  Sight: wainscotting  Touch: fidget spinner  Intellect, ideas, and dreams: vegetarian message in a Muppet Family Christmas Carol  Grateful for: Sam, walks along the Everett waterfront

In 2024 my word of the year was "Launch!" This totally happened. Done!  For 2025, I am going with "Publish!" and "Listen" (with a goal to listen to a song every day). This year, I was busy launching my new business and I didn’t record so much of the senses around me. So, determining this year’s best and worst was quick business —and there was not so much “worsts," which I tend to bury.  Best of the Year 2024 Me, plotting for the New Year “The Lady and the spaniels” 1842, by Edwin Henry Landseer (British, 1802-1873 ) Taste: apples, hot ciders, and hard ciders — cosmic crisp, hot lavender apple cider, pumpkin amaretto cider. I loved apples in so many ways, as usual. And switched more expensive wine for pints, or perhaps a schooner, of hard cider. Soundbite has so many interesting flavors.  Sound: cat purring, humans saying, “Meow!”  From Chopin’s nocturnes to Rotersand (concert of the year!)  Touch: the weight of the small animals — in laps, being c...