----------------------------------------------------------- ACQUAINTED WITH THE NIGHT
I have been one acquainted with the night.
I have walked out in rain - and back in rain.
I have out walked the furthest city light.
I have looked down the saddest city lane.
I have passed by the watchman on his beat
And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain.
I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet.
When far away an interrupted cry
Came over houses from another street.
But not to call me back or say good-bye;
And further still at an unearthly height,
One luminary clock against the sky
Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right
I have been one acquainted with the night.
Robert Frost
Acquainted With The Night
Holt, Rinehart & Winston
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Hi, I'm Greg, a professional musician and private music instructor living in central New Jersey directly between New York City and Philadelphia.
I am blessed to be able to center my professional life solely around music from the time I wake up in the morning until the time I turn in at night. I am a composer, songwriter, performing drummer, and recording artist. I also play piano, vibraphone, and myriad percussion instruments. I edit sound, and I am an accomplished music transcriptionist as well (available for hire if anyone reading this, by chance, has need). My financial "bread and butter", however, is my music instruction practice. During a given school year I teach an average of 35-40 piano and drum students per week. I have a loving and ever supportive wife by the name of Karen, and she is an absolutely wonderful person with a beautiful soul. It is not easy to live with a musician for a variety of reasons, and because of this I feel she is the epitome of courage and commitment, and I consider myself blessed and very lucky to have her sharing this journey of life with me.
-----------------------------------------------------------Karen has been suffering for over three years now with multiple illnesses, among them most notably both Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. The following video (below) outlines some of the aspects of ME/CFS [Myalgic Encephalomyelitis / Chronic Fatigue Syndrome / Post Viral Fatigue Syndrome] ~ we have told many of our good friends about Karen’s various health circumstances, but I would like to encourage all of my wonderful friends (and even those of you who have yet to become my friends) to please kindly take a few minutes and view the following video as we are trying to help educate more people about these illnesses so that everyone has a better understanding of them, and this offering sheds some informative light on this one condition. Thank you all so much for your warm support. . .
----------------------------------------------------------- THE VOICE OF HER EYES
SOMEWHERE I HAVE NEVER TRAVELLED
somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond
any experience, your eyes have their silence:
in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,
or which i cannot touch because they are too near
your slightest look easily will unclose me
though i have closed myself as fingers,
you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens
(touching skillfully, mysteriously) her first rose
or if your wish be to close me, i and
my life will shut very beautifully, suddenly,
as when the heart of this flower imagines
the snow carefully everywhere descending;
nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals
the power of your intense fragility: whose texture
compels me with the color of its countries,
rendering death and forever with each breathing
(i do not know what it is about you that closes
and opens; only something in me understands
the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)
nobody, not even the rain, has such small hands
E. E. Cummings
Viva, Poems by E. E. Cummings
W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.
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As for the story of how I arrived where I am and as I am musically today, here it is:
I was born in the southern U.S. (Alabama) but raised in the northeast (Maryland, and then New Jersey). Music has been in my blood for as long as I can remember. I caught the "jazz bug" when I was 16 years old and have never been "cured". I heard my first Pat Metheny, Al DiMeola, and Chick Corea records at 17, and attended my first Pat Metheny Group concert at 19 and that was pretty much the end of it for me. My vocation was set in stone. Oh sure, I denied music as my calling for another 4 years or so, opting the cerebral route, first as a Chemistry major before switching disciplines and subsequently obtaining my Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from Villanova University (western suburban Philadelphia). I even told myself that I wanted to teach philosophy at the collegiate level, so I moved on into the Masters program at Villanova for a short time with a heavy interest in the Greek philosophers (particularly Aristotle).
Finally, at 23, I woke up. . .mind you: I maintain my high regard and am still enamored with Aristotle's "Nicomachean Ethics", his viewpoints in the "Politics" on the "polis" (the city) as well as his theory that man (in his heart of hearts) basically desires to do good, and in the "Metaphysics" his idea of the "unmoved mover" (the first cause - that which moves other things, but which is itself not moved by anything else in the universe - basically, through much deliberation {which is what philosophers do best} Aristotle likens the "unmoved mover" to a divine being, a substance termed "ouisa" {primary entity}, or "God"). "Never forget where you came from" is one mantra of mine. I have no regrets. We are all doing whatever it is we are supposed to be doing at any given moment (besides, I largely credit my studies in philosophy with making me a halfway decent wordsmith. . .or so I've been told). Nonetheless, armed with inspiration and a newly found focus, I finally gave myself over to my true passion, my true calling which is music, and via quite the circuitous route, 15 years later here I am amongst all of you fine and wonderful folks.
If you would like to listen to and learn more about my music, please visit my website, www.gregfederico.com .
Also, I would like to invite all of you to look and listen in on my Greg Federico MySpace music page . ----------------------------------------------------------- An excerpt from one of my favorite books, WINNING THROUGH ENLIGHTENMENT, by Ron Smothermon:"You can only generate enlightenment by doing nothing. I mean nothing. By "nothing" I don’t mean that you get a lemonade and go swing in a hammock. "Doing nothing" is possible while doing hard labor. In fact, it is easier to do nothing while doing hard labor. What I mean by "doing nothing" is to suspend your "stuff"; that is, your judgments, opinions, positions, beliefs, even your faith. Going through your stuff is doing something, not going through your stuff is doing nothing. Then do what you do in life because you are doing it, not because you believe in it, have a high opinion of it, or have faith in it. Doing what you do out of belief, opinion, or faith takes you out of the picture and makes your stuff the source of what you do. You land in a condition called no responsibility, no enlightenment.
What you do in life is not "heavy" until you add stuff to it. What you do in life is certainly not important from the standpoint of ultimate truth. Not important. If you think it is important, you are not the cause of it, your stuff is. Be light about your life. Live it moment to moment and in such a way that we could either ignore it or print it in tomorrow’s newspaper, and it wouldn’t matter.
You don’t need to be proud or ashamed of your life. It just is. Nor do you need to be in control. If you are in pride, shame, or control, you are not the master of your life; pride, shame, or control is master. You can’t be right, make others wrong, be proud and controlling and consider your condition important, and be enlightened.
Naturally, most of the description of enlightenment is a telling of what it is not. Enlightenment is the natural condition of life that has no name after all the unnatural conditions that have names are stripped away. I am now going to describe the condition of enlightenment for what it is rather than what it isn’t. As I do, I want you to know that you conceivably could be in any or all of these circumstances and still be endarkened.
First of all, you will not experience needs beyond those that you naturally need: air, food, and love. You will know that your mind condition, whatever it is, is perfect even when you have judgments to the contrary. You will not depend on others to pronounce your life worthy. Criticism will be of no concern to you. You will not be criticizing others and you will not be attached to their criticism of you. You will be in the experience of loving others. You will know that life is not serious and that it is profoundly significant. You will know that others contribute to your life and you will acknowledge them for it. You will truly have what you own in life through a willingness to not have it and a willingness to share it with others. You will live in the present moment and not be attached to your memories of the past or your schemes for the future."