KAREN BRAILSFORD
  • Home
  • I am
  • Praise
  • Inspire
    • Sacred Landscapes (excerpts) >
      • Spiraling
      • Sacred Landscapes of the Soul
      • Go Directly to Jubilee
      • Bring the Party
      • A Life Is God Writ Large
      • Soot into Soil
      • In the Here and Now
      • Creation Story
      • In This Skin
    • Dalai Lama Global Vision Summit (talk + guided meditation)
    • Omega Institute Workshop
    • Inner Visions >
      • Burnished Love
      • An Appreciation
      • Forward
      • Life As We Know It And See It
      • Precipice and Presence
      • Sentient and Prescient
      • The I Am of Resonance
      • The Glass Is Always Full
      • You Will Know
    • Talks >
      • Still I Rise by Maya Angelou (recitation)
      • Knowing the Soul (conversation)
      • God's Love Keeps Lifting Us Higher and Higher (talk)
      • Go Directly to Jubilee! (talk)
    • Paintings
  • Agent
    • Aevitas Creative Management
    • Writer's Digest
    • His Name Is George Floyd
    • Kamala's Way
  • Write Volumes
    • Short Stories >
      • In the Eye of the Beholder
      • It's Time
      • It Takes All Kinds
      • All is Nothing
      • Ever After
      • Dinner Parties
      • Shades of Love
    • Essays >
      • Mommy, Still
      • Floating Like Butterflies
      • Feast
    • Poems >
      • Initiation of the Disembodied
      • Covid: Covert No More
      • Harriet and Me
  • Unity
    • Daily Word Magazine >
      • My Journey to Yes
    • Spirituality & Health Magazine >
      • Amandla Stenberg Channels The Force
      • Marianne Williamson: Evolving Out of Darkness
      • Lee Harris: Channeling As a Transformational Tool
      • Deva Premal & Miten: How Mantras Heal
      • Sharon Salzberg Cultivates Loving-Kindness
      • Kate Bowler Shows Grace in Gravity
    • Unity Magazine >
      • Smells Like Teen Spirit
      • From Grief to Grace
      • Rising in Joy
      • Blessed by a Dress
      • This Is How You Pray
      • For A Reason, for a Season, or for a Lifetime
  • Media
    • Download Kit
    • Articles and books
    • Podcasts, radio and video >
      • The Peace Studio Summit 2021
      • The Jenny McCarthy Show
      • In the Flow With Rev. Skip
      • Waking Up in Daily Life
      • The Only One in the Room
      • Bridges & Blessings with Rev. Julie
    • Press
  • Blog
  • Connect

​




                              ​          

Shelter in the storm.

5/12/2020

0 Comments

 
"There goes summer!"

My brother sent this text to me and our two siblings when it was announced a few days ago that Los Angeles would be sheltering in place through July. Or maybe it's August. Since then, the city or perhaps the Los Angeles Times—has walked back this declaration. It's hard to keep track. 

As for me, summer was cancelled, or rather, became a non-starter, when the following email arrived in my in-box late yesterday afternoon.


Picture
Dear Hollywood Bowl family,

I am sad to share that, for the first time in its almost century-long history, the Hollywood Bowl will be silent this summer.


I didn't need to read any further. 

As anyone who has visited me in Los Angeles since I moved here from my native New York twenty-six years ago, I believe you haven't truly experienced L.A. until you've gone to the Bowl. It represents all of the wonder of the City of Angels.

I happened to be attending the Playboy Jazz Festival a few hours after Ella Fitzgerald died and went backstage to  interview celebrity attendees about the tremendous loss. My daughter and I sang along to The Sound of Music. Even when an  inebriated man nearly vomited on me, I continued to feel the glow of the Bowl. Last October, a friend and I snagged tickets fabulous tickets to see Vampire Weekend a few days before the highly anticipated concert. (The video clip and photo accompanying this post are from that evening.) I have watched countless fireworks with Tchaikovsky blaring. On one of the most memorable nights ever, as Paul Simon crooned from the stage, I became transfixed by the antics of the woman and family  in the box seat in front of mine. There was a lot of seat-switching and conversing and back rubbing. Half-way through the show, I caught a glimpse of her profile. It was Meryl Streep. 

I felt a twinge upon opening that email. Even as I write these words, my eyes well up ever so slightly with tears. This surprises me. For the most part, I've been able to flow with the pandemic. I need to wear a mask? Check. I need to stay inside? Check. I need to let in a bit of OCD? I'm there, wipes and disinfectant in hand. Zoom birthday parties and reunions? How fun. This way everyone can attend, no matter where they live.

I stay quite busy. I am writing and creating. Mostly, I am watching and listening. To my friends and family. To the individuals I greet as they enter my spiritual center's Crisis Support Clinic. Again, praise be to Zoom, where those who are seeming at their wit's and soul's end can receive sessions with a spiritual practitioner. Above all, I am praying and affirming: This, too, shall pass. 

Even as I adapt and flow, the waves of grief rise and fall unexpectedly during these unprecedented times. Unprecedented. This word is used so often, I generally try to avoid it. It was beginning to sound hackneyed to my ears. But how else to describe these interesting times? There I go again. Another adjective that doesn't begin to describe what we are experiencing.

Someday the most apt of words will come. In between the waves, we will define these times. We will survive and we will create something new. And once again, I will sit on a wooden bench and let the soft glow of a violet sky wash over me. ​
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    Intuitive creator.

    I like to make stuff...and think about stuff. 

    Archives

    February 2025
    October 2021
    July 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    January 2021
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020

    Categories

    All
    Agape International Spiritual Center
    Art
    Books
    Celebrities
    Channeling
    Contemplation
    Coping
    Coronavirus
    Covid
    Crisis
    Dalai Lama
    Death
    Education
    Family
    Film
    God
    Grief
    Inner Awareness
    Inner Guidance
    Inner Visions
    Jesus
    Joy
    Loss
    Love
    Memoir
    Metaphysics
    Mothers
    Muhammad
    Music
    Painting
    Pandemic
    Politics
    Race
    Religion
    Self-help
    Self Love
    Self-love
    Shades-of-transition-and-transformation
    Spiritual Guidance
    Spirituality
    Spiritual Principles
    Stress
    Synchronicity
    Television
    Transformation
    Transition
    Write Volumes

Picture
© ​Karen Brailsford 2020-2025
​
  • Home
  • I am
  • Praise
  • Inspire
    • Sacred Landscapes (excerpts) >
      • Spiraling
      • Sacred Landscapes of the Soul
      • Go Directly to Jubilee
      • Bring the Party
      • A Life Is God Writ Large
      • Soot into Soil
      • In the Here and Now
      • Creation Story
      • In This Skin
    • Dalai Lama Global Vision Summit (talk + guided meditation)
    • Omega Institute Workshop
    • Inner Visions >
      • Burnished Love
      • An Appreciation
      • Forward
      • Life As We Know It And See It
      • Precipice and Presence
      • Sentient and Prescient
      • The I Am of Resonance
      • The Glass Is Always Full
      • You Will Know
    • Talks >
      • Still I Rise by Maya Angelou (recitation)
      • Knowing the Soul (conversation)
      • God's Love Keeps Lifting Us Higher and Higher (talk)
      • Go Directly to Jubilee! (talk)
    • Paintings
  • Agent
    • Aevitas Creative Management
    • Writer's Digest
    • His Name Is George Floyd
    • Kamala's Way
  • Write Volumes
    • Short Stories >
      • In the Eye of the Beholder
      • It's Time
      • It Takes All Kinds
      • All is Nothing
      • Ever After
      • Dinner Parties
      • Shades of Love
    • Essays >
      • Mommy, Still
      • Floating Like Butterflies
      • Feast
    • Poems >
      • Initiation of the Disembodied
      • Covid: Covert No More
      • Harriet and Me
  • Unity
    • Daily Word Magazine >
      • My Journey to Yes
    • Spirituality & Health Magazine >
      • Amandla Stenberg Channels The Force
      • Marianne Williamson: Evolving Out of Darkness
      • Lee Harris: Channeling As a Transformational Tool
      • Deva Premal & Miten: How Mantras Heal
      • Sharon Salzberg Cultivates Loving-Kindness
      • Kate Bowler Shows Grace in Gravity
    • Unity Magazine >
      • Smells Like Teen Spirit
      • From Grief to Grace
      • Rising in Joy
      • Blessed by a Dress
      • This Is How You Pray
      • For A Reason, for a Season, or for a Lifetime
  • Media
    • Download Kit
    • Articles and books
    • Podcasts, radio and video >
      • The Peace Studio Summit 2021
      • The Jenny McCarthy Show
      • In the Flow With Rev. Skip
      • Waking Up in Daily Life
      • The Only One in the Room
      • Bridges & Blessings with Rev. Julie
    • Press
  • Blog
  • Connect