Happy Anniversary @2:50
We turn five on 12 Mar 2025
And we’re celebrating all month.
Hope everyone is well. Thanks for being part of @2:50. We each bring some of our selves, so thanks. On Wednesday 12 March @2:50 turns five!
We’ve come through a lot, and we’re ready for more. Thanks Partha, V.K., and Billy for continuing to host additional meetups daily! Cheers to Len for your steadfast support across time zones. And grateful to you Karen for maintaining our MIT connections. To everyone who’s joined online or in person. So great! Thank you.
Read on for all the goodies (images at the end).
Claudia’s beautiful meringue created for the 250th day of @2:50!
Celebratory stuff so far
- Wed 12 March, join live at MIT! Karen, thank you for hosting a special anniversary session at the birthplace of @2:50, MIT E40.
- Thu 13 March, Aashish Maskey takes us on a guided meditation during EDT@2:50. Read more about him here.
- Sat 15 March, Live and online! We have a classical listening party after EST@2:50. Tenor Taka Komagata, Soprano Luisamaria Hernandez, Composer John-William Gambrell and Cellist Jean Gambrell.
See 15 Mar Recap Below
- TBD, Aco Yamagata will lead Pacific@2:50. Maybe with a special language treat!
- TBD, More guest hosts and speakers in the works.
- Mon 24 Mar is Europa@2:50 day 1500. We’ll start the week out right with Partha! Get a reminder here. https://lu.ma/mtm2cwj5
- Thu 3 Apr is Pacifica@2:50 day 600. We’ll join Billy on pacific time to celebrate.
Time zones
The US and Canada spring forward on 9 Mar. Europe springs forward on 30 Mar. Please plan accordingly.
DIY
During all of March, here are some ideas to celebrate and always open for more.
- We’ll play different background videos from the past all month.
- Join with someone you know on one or more days.
- Join with a group of friends or colleagues we’re with in-person.
- Join from a rare place. Let’s inspire by each other.
- Join multiple time zones to normalize silence all during your day.
Share @2:50
Post @2:50 on your local listings calendar.
- Here is what it looks like from the MIT Calendar.
- Here’s another posting on a public calendar.
- You can use the materials here to share via calendar, flyer, or email.
15 Mar in-person celebration recap
Arthur reads,
A Meditation
John reads,
A sonnet
Yes. I do love you. These tears of admission
Salt my cheeks and yours, as heart gates open,
Here in the luxury of your golden arms.
We edge along this scary precipice
Of aspiration, a furnace of hope,
Feeding on coals of cautionary fear,
And stoked by passions that pick me up and
Drop me, hissing loud, in the quenching pool,
Where I don’t control how the soul anneals,
Yielding untested alloys that I need
To handle, hammer and reforge again,
To assure myself not that all’s just so,
But finally to know that transcendent love
Is not calculus but wings of a dove.
–John Avery, 2025
Luisamaria reads,
Some Definite Service
God knows me and calls me by my name.
God has created me to do Him some definite service;
He has committed some work to me
which He has not committed to another.
I have my mission—I never may know it in this life,
but I shall be told it in the next.
Somehow I am necessary for His purposes…
I have a part in this great work;
I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection
between persons.
He has not created me for naught. I shall do good,
I shall do His work;
I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth
in my own place, while not intending it,
if I do but keep His commandments
and serve Him in my calling.
Therefore, I will trust Him.
Whatever, wherever I am,
I can never be thrown away.
If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve Him;
In perplexity, my perplexity may serve Him;
If I am in sorrow, my sorrow may serve Him.
My sickness, or perplexity, or sorrow may be
necessary causes of some great end,
which is quite beyond us.
He does nothing in vain; He may prolong my life,
He may shorten it;
He knows what He is about.
He may take away my friends,
He may throw me among strangers,
He may make me feel desolate,
make my spirits sink, hide the future from me—
still, He knows what He is about.…
Let me be Thy blind instrument. I ask not to see—
I ask not to know—I ask simply to be used.
–John Henry Cardinal Newman, 1848
Some fun stuff from @2:50s past
Heather’s sunset from V.K.’s collection (thank you for those slides!). Early on, it was a marvel to be attending silence with so many people from everywhere.
Beautiful drone footage Partha put together for Europa@2:50 (V.K.’s collection)
When we joined from the Hollywood Farmers Market and got a serenade from the Fair Market Band. (V.K.’s collection)
Atlantica@2:50 day 1000
Our friend Lisa from V.K.’s video production day 1000!
Celebrating one year with Billy! Thanks Mika for the lovely music and Aco for the guidance!
Here’s to many more minutes normalizing silence together!
As we reflect on the many ways we can integrate mindfulness into our daily lives, whether online or in-person, we offer this poem. Ms. Flavour curated it from many single line contributions offered by participants during @250’s first anniversary. She unified our voices into a whole. It reflects on the experience after one year of daily meetings. Perhaps we may do another now, after five.
Thanks to Lizarett Flavour for curating the chaos into a beautiful verse. Find the original on her site.
At The Hour’s Top (Garden of Quiet)
Collab #1
In the Garden of Quiet, Garden of Thoughts,
There is no once and no when, only sloths.
The moment is here, the moment will rise:
Ten minutes no one here has to be wise.
First glance into silence, eternity lap,
A Moon in the swanlight – one way of the craft.
A flower of sunshine, a cloudless night,
Contagious soft glimmer we share inside.
Cool stars in the gyre, sky holds the breath,
Horizon’s so near, as close as thou let:
Immersing a guest in tranquility feast
That mind and body compose as we speak.
Earth’s flickering beauty in ball of realms, –
Embrace and descend into room when time comes.
Hats, jewels prepared, now set up your clock, –
At top of the hour, meet friends and your hopes.
March 2021