Third full week of Summer Break...This week I’d like to spend time thinking about some connections I’m seeing in some of my daily writing specifically...-the impact of music on me-spiritual connections through experimentation and readingComing off the amazing Dead & Company show I saw with my friend Bert I’m listening to more Grateful Dead and Dead & Company. I’m actually listening to the Grateful Dead right now as I write/edit this post. This music has always served as a bit of a spiritual experience for me which leads me to wonder why I have not listened to it as often lately? It’s calming, it puts me in a happy, relaxed place and I am going to work on including it more into my life again...like I’m doing right now!Speaking of music and its impact, have you ever heard a song and it immediately took you back to a place? Earlier this week I was listening to one of my favorite Paul McCartney songs: Band on the Run...on The Beatles Channel on Sirius/XM. As I listened, I couldn’t help but think of Desert Trip where I got to see McCartney literally perform this song in the desert! Steph took me there as my 50th birthday present! I am such a lucky person to have Steph as my wife! Not many people in the world can say they were there that night. I wonder what percentage 85,000 people (the number of people attending this concert) is of the world's 7.55 billion people? I’m sure it’s an insane number and the night I saw him with Steph Neil Young, my favorite singer songwriter played before McCartney. I think that night is going to go down in my history as the closet I will ever get (in this human form) to a true spiritual experience! Bonus points for being able to share it with Steph!I have continued to focus my mediation practice on my chakra system. I'm really liking the routine of meditating that I'm engaged in. It has been contributing to a whole lot of calm. I might be adding something else to my routine and it comes in part from the Mind Valley podcast I have been listening to for the last 3 weeks. In this particular episode I started to learn about a practice known as EFT/Tapping. The person being interviewed was Jennifer Partridge. I urge anyone reading this to follow the Jennifer Partridge link to check it out as I am not sure words (mine at least) would really do it justice. I actually tried the tapping out while the podcast was playing and my immediate thinking is that this seems like something I could use during the school year on really stressful days.A few days off from reading finds me in need of a cerebral fix. The book I finished last week from Michael Pollan: How to Change Your MInd left me still wanting to explore the mind, consciousness, mediation and its connection to spirituality. That's when I realized I had a book that I'd put down for others titled: Zen and the Brain by James H. Austin. I've read a nice chunk of the 800+ pages but wanted to drop down into it in a place that felt right for my current curiosities. I decided on Part IV: Exploring States of Consciousness. A good decision. Four chapters in and Pollan's book is already having an effect on how I interpret what I'm now reading in Austin's work. Pretty cool how that works!Rounding out this week’s thinking I accidentally dropped in to a show on the Grateful Dead channel that Bert told me about, something called the Big Steve Hour. Big Steve of course being Steve Parish, roadie for the Grateful Dead. This is the first time I've caught the show and I am in love with it already. He is so "at one" with his life. He's so kind to each caller, willing to share precious knowledge and stories from the road yet restrained if and when he knows the knowledge and stories won't be received kindly by the general population. I'm trying to think about what can be learned by listening to him talk to others. "Keep your courage...find a common denominator." He dropped that quote just before the end of the show...when dealing with people that are not kind. I look forward to tuning back in to his show for more golden lines like that one!