Staying Warm

"All at once, the weight has lifted
Forgotten the weeping all last night
She's wearing a frown borrowed from her father
Her head is tilted a little to the right.."
~ Peter Mulvey
Tender Blindspot,
The Trouble with Poets, 2000

Years ago when I first moved to Bellingham WA, I went to a concert that was held in an ungodly hot office up four flights or so in a commercial building in town. I had heard Peter Mulvey on Whole Wheat Radio and found his music great and that is what set me to attend. He was playing with David Goodrich that evening along with a local upstart, Korby Lenker. I recall this concert not only because it was insanely hot in there but because the force of the talent in the room was unrelenting. Peter Mulvey is a musician's musician and, I think, an awe inspiring songwriter and poet. I hear his influences in others music all the time and when I do, I'm always returning in my mind to that steamy little House Concert in back in 2004. When Mulvey plays time stops, period. The relationship that he has forged with his craft is that strong and apparent when he plays. Any chance to see or hear him perform should be sought out and savored.

Fortunately for all of us we can get a taste of this talent without even leaving our comfort zone tonight a 9 pm (PST) because he is playing at Whole Wheat Radio tonight and it is being simulcast for everyone's enjoyment. Just click on this link and you are there and ready to listen in. Information about Peter, his opening act Anais Mitchell, and a chat room to discuss the concert or leave messages for Peter and Anais will appear. I hope you allow yourself the experience of Peter Mulvey. As for me, I'm going to pour myself a glass of wine, listen in and maybe turn up the heat...you know, just for old times sake.

A stitch in time...

I don't think, since I started it, I have ever neglected this blog for quite as long as I have this fall. I feel an explanation is in order if for no other reason than to bring myself up to date. Today is Thanksgiving and I have been posting daily to Facebook with things that I am grateful for for the past 17 days. This idea, arriving on the wings of my daughter-in-law Meredith, allowed me to get comfortable once again with the virtual part of my life.

Two things happened in September that rocked me. I lost my longtime feline companion, Saturday. This really shook me to my center. It must have cracked the force field that holds the agreements with my world around me too because my computer completely failed at the power source a few days afterward. I was set adrift solo in my grief and forced to rely on old skill sets for comfort.

There was no taking a bag of money to a tech for a fix on the computer because of my choice to downsize my income to spare my health and happiness. There was much gnashing of teeth and having to rely on "the kindness of strangers" - something I have happily distanced myself from over my years of gainful employment. It turned out that I have lost some "street smarts" over the course of my time as a civil servant. I recalled them only after I had lost two weeks of grocery money and an entire decade of email information...including all my files with sensitive information to people who by all appearances would be at ease in the sale of their Grandmother. To say that I was a Rube and completely out of my element in this situation would be an understatement. I ended up with a CPU that does little but get the internet and work as a word processor. Frankly, just looking at the computer brought me to tears for a long time, such was the upset the whole series of events created in me.

Likewise, I was ill prepared for what my life would be like daily without Saturday. I thought I was ready as I had to put him down because of cancer but I was not even close to being prepared for the actual shock of it. I don't care if your best friend is a box turtle, if you interact with something everyday for 13 years, it takes everything out of one to loose so much. Anyway, there was something in the combination of these two events that set my heart to ice. The arrival of my granddaughter Madeline Kaiya Mayer-Cook on November 15th and my daily accounting on-line functioned as if climbing, rung by rung, from a great depth and it brings me to the threshold of this day.

It was not a fun couple of months. I worked my feelings out and found comfort in creating something in real time that could be shared with real people: A simple sewing project primarily using materials I had at hand. In short, I sewed my way back into the fabric of my everyday life and reached out just enough everyday through Facebook to remember to care. The stitching and this small daily interchange with my on-line friends and family facilitated the healing in me and for this I am very grateful to everyone involved. I'm fairly certain I will not ever be a regular poster on this blog but you can also be assured I wont be Facebooking everyday like I have been! I haven't the discipline for such an enterprise. I did realize that I missed my blog as I tried to list my blessings everyday and I'm leaving that light on again for myself should I feel I have something to say.

Thank you everyone who didn't "hide" me in Facebook...I think I would have hid me, had I the option! There is something pontifical and unsuitable to my overall temperament in that assignment and I sympathize with anyone becoming frustrated with it. I like spouting off occasionally and I meant every word. Even though it seemed a bit much, I needed to do it and I'm better for having done it. I only hope it made sense.

So it is in this spirit of gratitude that I hope this long winded post finds you happily in the fray of a very joyful and abundant Thanksgiving Day 2009. Long may we love!

Esther Golton and News from the Northern Lights

I received my CD of Esther Golton's "Aurora Borealis: Conversations with Alaska's Northern Lights" just as I was arriving home from a music festival. I slapped it into the player as I was unpacking the truck. I didn't get very far with the unpacking before I found myself sitting in front of the speaker mesmerized by the music that she was producing. The first thing I thought of was "How in the name of God did she capture so much of that atmosphere so clearly?" How, indeed.

Esther is a fabulously gifted musician but even more, that she can actually translate a natural phenomena like the Aurora Borealis in such an accessible and fantastic way musically is awe-inspiring. She shares here what is essential of a natural occurrence that leaves many of us doomed to observe slack-jawed, wordless and in awe. She just keeps going deeper and deeper into the layers of music and brings us closer and closer to the radiance of that phenomenal experience.

I hear so many different influences in each cut that they rise above mere tunes. They truly are conversations with the Aurora itself, just as the title suggests. She has achieved her goal in this. This is subtly different from what you hear as a ambient music in the bookstore or yoga class. She has listened, observed, received the information and translated it in her very individual way for us to enjoy. I've listened to the CD several times (my favorite mode being intimately on my iPod) and I'm convinced I hear an invitation from the Aurora herself. Aurora, the goddess of dawn and new beginnings, speaks here and this CD clearly invites us to open our eyes and see the natural world with all the spectacular gifts this earth displays every moment, as if it is our first morning and our beginning, too.

Esther is having a special CD release party that anyone can attend on-line on Saturday, September 12th at Whole Wheat Radio. These live concerts can be attended on-line and are as easy to access as clicking a link to listen which can be done here. The party starts at 7 pm Alaska time [fashionably later Eastern - you can do the math here]. These concerts are a lot of fun and they are interactive, if you wish. It is Esther's birthday on that day, too. Judging by listening to this CD and her conversations, she has much to be proud of in the company she has kept this year.

Health Care Reform - Is there a Doctor in the House?

I didn't really know what to write about to my Congresswoman in regards to Health Care Reform. I choose Maria Cantwell because she did not have as much on her website regarding the issue. Unlike Patty Murray,who is actively culling stories to support her case for reform as top billing on her site , or Rick Larsen, who is currently on the ever critical House Budget Committee; he clearly has a strong grasp on this important issue on his site. I felt Cantwell needed the most encouragement.

I decide a pep talk was in order. I mean if I had this tremendous battle playing out in front of ME, I'd want to here the roar of support from the troops behind me as I stepped up. I went with what I feel most comfortable with in an unfamiliar terrain. I can only hope I haven't made too big of a fool of myself by dabbling in politics.

Good luck to Ronni Bennett at Time Goes By with her online campaign and Good Cheer to all of us on this one.

My submission, forthwith:

The Honorable Maria Cantwell

511 Dirksen Senate Office Building

Washington DC 20510

August 18, 2009

Regarding H.R. 3200

Hello Senator Cantwell,

I am writing to you regarding H.R.3200: America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009. I suspect that I am preaching to the choir here but you are my representative for a success in this endeavor and I want to make sure you don’t throw in the towel before every last hope for the best Health Care reform possible has been utilized and provided. This bill must be strong and lasting for generations to come. I count on your keeping this vision intact.

I am an elder who lives and works in Bellingham WA. I have worked for the better part of forty years doing one thing or another to keep mine and my family’s head above water. I have two grown children. One of my children is just starting a family. I hear it through the news that it is a common belief amongst those in political circles that seniors are not supporting Health Care reform. I hear, as well, that there’s a great deal of fact [link} being sullied in the name of special interests. I don’t watch a lot of television myself so I had to do a little digging to look at what the general population is viewing. I then took a look around me and realized that no one that I see in my circle of working seniors thinks the current Health Care System is sustainable nor is (save for possibly the health care provided by the Veterans Affairs Administration) there currently a foundation sturdy enough to build upon. As for concerns of losing Medicare, I understand that reforming a cumbersome bureaucratic mess does not necessarily mean that improvements will not be made. This monopoly by the health insurance industry must end to avoid the suffering of many Americans.

I do not write or call politicians often so you will have to excuse my lack of familiarity with this type of discourse. I simply want to say I am aware that these are critically important times for the fate of our country and this is a very complicated issue. I do not envy your job. I need to tell you, too, that I am hoping that you persevere in trying to keep H.R. 3200 as intact and protected from private interests as is humanly possible. I recognize that we all have a unique opportunity at this time to make a tremendous improvement on scores of lives across this country by setting a policy in place that provides for fair and equitable health care for all. Please do not loose heart or think that elders do not care and that we are not doing what we can in our own way to support these changes. We are online, we are paying attention and we are not afraid of change. We are right here with you in thought and spirit when you are required to go that extra distance to secure this very important improvement to the American Health Care System.

I thank you for all your work and service and I thank you for taking the time to read my letter.

Respectfully,

It would feel good to be a part of moving this improvement of our Health Care System into law. May we all live long healthy lives and prosper in the knowledge our children have the care they need and deserve....

Do you remember November?

This is it. It happened this month, August 2009.

*Please make a note of it.*

All of us who were ecstatic about the election of Barack Obama – all of us who solemnly nodded to ourselves in thanks to the Powers-That-Be that we were given an opportunity for a second chance – all of us who readily admitted that we became too complacent in letting our leaders do all the heavy lifting in maintaining a democracy – all of us who cheerfully said, “Oh YES! We know we are going to have to help Obama! We know the election is just the beginning…” Well, recess is nearly over, literally. If we do not make a strong presence when class reassembles on health care reform, we are going to be witness to a great deal more suffering and disappointment than is necessary.

This Thursday, August 20^th is the day set aside for elders to rise in a clear cry of unity to, at the very least, break the stronghold the spinning media has on projecting the belief that seniors are against health care reform. From TGB:

“…not all of us want to keep our single-payer system – Medicare – and deny everyone else similar benefits, which is how it appears…in widespread media coverage of town hall meetings and interviews with elders.”

Thursday there will be blogging, there will be dust raised as conservative and liberal elders have it out. Don’t send us to the front lines alone. This fight is an important one and will be resonating for decades and effecting generations – to put finer point on it: this one’s for you and those you love.

If you are unsure where you stand, go here for the debate. If you are not sure who to write, go here to get the correct cage to rattle. If you don’t know what to write, consider what not writing anything could ensue - then open a notepad on your computer and look here for a simple outline.

Be polite. Be heard. Be a part of history in clarifying your support for the Unites States as a responsible, caring and compassionate government for its citizens. Let’s show ourselves, our children and the world that we can follow through with what we swooned and swore over last fall. I am going to post what I have written to my Congress on this matter on Thursday, August 20^th and send the link to As Time Goes By . Ronni Bennett of TGB wants to try a show of force on the internet that one day. I don’t suspect what I write will be the most the eloquent thing I’ve ever written because I’m a bit shy about politics, frankly, but I’m passionate about freedom and liberty for all and I suspect that counts. If you blog, you can share your letter there, too.

Also, in truth, I’m about ready for another wave of that heady feeling of our November win. How about you? Well, it did not happen because it was left to gravity. It happened because we collectively held up the sky.

This Too Shall Pass

...and you will miss it if you don't get yourself down to the Green Frog Acoustic Tavern Monday night, July 20 by 9 pm. I have written about my love of Danny Schmidt's work in my blog before here. Perhaps you missed it and perhaps you did not but I assure you that you will not be disappointed in being in the audience when Danny performs.

Danny has something to say and to play he delivers it in a manner that simply blows the mind. If you go early, save me a seat because I don't get off work until 9:15 and I will be arriving fashionably late. [call me!]



Danny is also playing a house concert on Tuesday night where someone has had the incredible insight to book him. The info for that concert is here:

Tuesday 7/21 - Bellingham, WA
House Concert
Doors at 7pm. Show starts at 8pm.

Meanwhile, please join me and do yourself a favor in enjoying a memorable evening at the best watering hole in Bellingham! Warning. You will want very much to go to the house concert the following night.

There will be no whining! It's not like I have not warned you here.

Thank you gimmegimmemomo for making this video.

Michael Jackson on the street

God I love this town when it forgets to be subdued. Sadly, I missed this performance but it was captured and presented by shaecafe who I thank for doing so. Enjoy.



Michael Jackson may have been one tormented individual but he gave us some of the most fantastic music for the soundtracks of our lives. Music that not only stands but dances... and not only dances but ROCKS the test of time.


Thanks Elizabeth for posting this on Facebook!