Every few months, I try to choose a handful of greeting cards and send them to a family member or a friend with whom I’ve fallen out of touch. And I love putting together occasional “care packages.” When I contemplate sending a card or package, the individual tasks involved seem onerous. But I really do enjoy shopping for greeting cards or the contents of a package. (It’s much more fun than clothes shopping!) And I like fitting the card into an envelope, or items into a box and taping it shut as I imagine the pleasure of the recipient.

I remember looking forward to packages at summer camp. My mom always came through with at least one a week. So last week I sent a care package to Joe, a colleague who is staff director of Camp Amazing Grace, which is in its third year serving children who have an incarcerated parent. It’s a challenge to find just the right balance of small toys, magazines, useful items and edible treats and keep within a care package budget. Among other things, Joe got a “improve your brain” puzzle book, some water balloons, Charlie Brown stickers, Life savers, pretzels, M&Ms and gummy bears.

I could hear the joyful smile in his voice in the phone message I got the day Joe received the package. It made waiting in line at the post office worth it.

You can always order pre-made care packages from the Internet. I think the recipients would be just as happy with one of those. There are sites that specialize in packages for soldiers, college students, and everyday occasions.

Next week, my daughter Alice is who working for Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth in Palo Alto will get a package. I wonder what I’ll find to put inside?

“I feel fantastic
And I never felt as good as how I do right now
Except for maybe when I think of how I felt that day
When I felt the way that I do right now, right now, right now.” -- Jonathan Coulton

It may seem strange to hear that I grew up in a household where we did not listen to much music. My mom often sang to us when we were children and my sister and I took piano lessons for a couple of years, but there was rarely music playing on the stereo (OK, I date myself) at our house. Apparently recorded music gets on my mom’s nerves.

My son JP listens to music a lot. And since he is home with us this summer, I am hearing stuff I would never find on my own. Right now I am getting so much joy from listening to songs from Jonathan Coulton, one of the musicians JP recently found. To give you an idea of what he sounds like, Jonathan Couton’s music is a bit like They Might Be Giants and Barenaked Ladies. You know, catchy tunes and understandable, witty, and intelligent lyrics. Couton writes songs about IKEA and satires about brain-eating corporate zombies. He also writes about loneliness and love.

Couton worked as a computer software writer until he quit his job in 2005 to make music full time. An early project of Couton’s was called “A Thing a Week,” where he wrote one new song a week and made it available as a free podcast. You can hear them on his website.

One Couton song I particularly like celebrates the effectiveness regulating moods with prescription medicines. That may sound like “iffy” subject matter to some, but anti-depressant and anti-anxiety meds have - at one time or another- really helped several close family members - myself included. Besides, the song is so fast-moving and joyful it just makes me laugh. In fact, I feel fantastic when I listen to it.

My friend Mark, whom I’ve know since third grade, taught me to love Broadway musicals. We spent hours in high school listening to and singing along with albums from famous Broadway shows like Hello Dolly, Carousel, Oklahoma , and South Pacific – and more obscure shows like A Little Night Music and Dear World.

One of my all-time favorite songs from a Broadway musical comes from Guys and Dolls. “If I Were a Bell ” is such a joyful song about that first rush of being in love.

Well, if I were a bell, I’d be a singing bowl, which resonates in such a curious and enticing way that it calls everyone who hears it to stop and listen. The sound of a singing bowl produces a centering effect in almost everyone. Though it is bowl shaped, a singing bowl is a type of standing bell that has been used throughout Asia for personal wellness, meditation, and religious practice.

I use the singing bowl in almost every gathering where I need to mark the passage of time or signal a change in activity. It works with people of all ages – from two years old to eighty. I ask people to raise their hands when they can no longer hear the sound of the bowl. Depending on the way the bowl is struck, the ringing tone can last for twenty seconds or longer.

The tones of singing bowls are dependent on the diameter of the bowl. Smaller bowls, though less expensive, make higher-pitched sounds which to me are not as alluring as the sounds that emanate from the larger bowls. If you’d like to see and hear different sizes of singing bowls, Emile de Leon of Temple Sounds is featured on a U Tube video. Type in Gong and Tibetan Singing Bowl Meditation.

To find a singing bowl you like, it is best to test them out in person. But I have not heard a singing bowl that was without charms of its own. You can mail-order a singing bowl from the following places:

House of Musical Traditions, now in Tacoma Park , MD , has specialized in instruments from the U.S. and around the world since 1972. They have a blog -musicaltradtions.blogspot.com - and you can find them on My Space under houseofmusicaltradtions.

Ten Thousand Villages is one of the world’s first and largest fair trade organizations. They work with artisans in more than 30 countries in Africa , Asia and Latin America to offer jewelry, home décor items, gifts, and some musical instruments. Their web site lists locations of stores all over the United States and Canada .

Lark in the Morning has been selling international musical instruments since 1974. Stores in San Francisco , Seattle , WA , and Medocino, CA. On the website, you can take a virtual tour of the stores.

To say when serving the food...

In this food

I see clearly

the presence of the entire universe.

To say when looking at the plate filled with food...

All living things are struggling for life.

May they all have

Enough to eat today.

To say just before eating...

The plate is filled with food.

I am aware that each morsel is

the fruit of much hard work

by those who produced it.

To say when finishing the meal...

The plate is empty.

My hunger is satisfied.

I vow to live

for the benefit of all beings.

                                                       Thich Nhat Hanh

When packing for the trip, one of the first things I thought to bring along to enjoy on this brief vacation was some deep, dark, chocolate. My friend doesn't know it yet, but we’re going to have a chocolate sampling party. Single origin dark chocolate is trendy right now. We’ll see if we can detect the differences between Madagascar, Tanzania, Palmira Plantation, and Costa Rican chocolates. A few years ago, I would never have known that dark chocolate can be fruity or floral or spicy or smoky! I can detect some differences already, but I’m working to refine my chocolate palate. (It’s a tough job, but someone’s got to do it!) I’m told you should listen for the snap, then savor the smell before you let the chocolate melt on your tongue to see what kind of flavors linger longest.

Check out John and Kira’s web site for some outstanding chocolate. These folks from the Philadelphia area use organic ingredients from local farmers to make distinctively flavored chocolates. They even sponsored a project in which urban elementary school children learned about gardening and nutrition while growing the mint used in John and Kira’s chocolates.

In the summer, my own yard (I can't justify calling it a garden!) sometimes provides the blooms for free. Other times, I only need to spend five dollars at the farmer's market or grocery store to have a stem of lilies or Gerbera daisies that can last a whole week. But like Rosemary, I have decided not to wait for friends or family to buy me flowers.

For those who don’t remember, the Iditarod is the annual dog sled race in Alaska. It covers over 1150 miles and requires the mushers – or dog sled drivers – to take their team of 12-16 dogs through rivers, forest, mountain ranges and tundras, often in strong winds and temperatures far below zero. The race takes competitors 10-17 days to finish.

The Iditarod web site explains: “It’s not just a dog sled race, it’s a race in which unique men and woman compete. Mushers enter from all walks of life. Fishermen, lawyers, doctors, miners, artists, natives, Canadians, Swiss, French and others; men and women each with their own story, each with their own reasons for going the distance. It’s a race organized and run primarily by volunteers, thousands of volunteers, men and women, students and village residents.”

Every musher has his or her own procedures for when to run, how long to run, and when to feed and care for the animals. But Susan Butcher attributed much of her success to her emphasis on tending to the needs of her dogs first. "You have to be very selfless in your dedication to your dogs," she once told the Los Angeles Times. "When you come into a checkpoint, although there may be a wood stove to warm your feet by, you stay outside; you take care of your dogs, get them bedded down and fed." Other mushers sometimes felt taking extra care of the dog sled team was a waste of precious time in the race, but Susan felt her attention to the dogs was a key element of her success.

So, when I work in a leadership role, and schedule a meeting or event, I try to offer people who have given up their time to attend something to eat or drink -- even if it is not a mealtime. And if a meal is served, I try to stay away from ordering a pizza for the volunteers. First of all, ordering pizza is a common fall back plan for all of us who occasionally find ourselves too busy or too worn out to cook at home. And I want to nurture those who give time to support programs I plan by feeding them something that makes them feel special and cared for. Good coffee, bottled water, salad or fresh fruit cost a little more than pizza and soda, but are healthy and show that I am willing to go the extra mile to support the people who, in the end, may make a difference in whether or not the project we are working on is a winner.

"It's your birthday, you can throw the party," she said. Mom suggested that she could make Chinese food and I could go back to school and invite my friends for dinner that evening. It turned out to be a wonderful party, even though my friend Tony's impromptu gift idea was to sprinkle ketchup on his index finger, stick it through a hole in a jewelry box , and invite me to lift the lid of the box as he held it in his hand.

Even now my mother makes her own birthday celebrations. She stretches the festivities out over a week -- inviting the people she likes to various breakfast and lunch gatherings. Sometimes it's Dutch treat; sometimes it's Mom's treat.  The important thing is that she marks the time as special by having a celebration rather than waiting for others to plan something. It's a lesson in being responsible for your own happiness that I will never forget.

P.S. The photo above is my family at my Dad's 75th birthday brunch.

from Wikipedia .. “ According to Berry, the good life includes sustainable agriculture, appropriate technologies , healthy rural communities , connection to place, the pleasures of good food, husbandry , good work, local economics , the miracle of life, fidelity, frugality , reverence , and the interconnectedness of life.”

For today, this verse from Wendell Berry...

“ So, friends, every day do something
that won't compute. Love the Lord.
Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love someone who does not deserve it.
Denounce the government and embrace
the flag. Hope to live in that free
republic for which it stands.
Give your approval to all you cannot
understand. “

Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front" from The Country of Marriage, copyright © 1973 by Wendell Berry, reprinted by permission of Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc.