The Next Best Thing to Being There...

As it sometimes happens, a couple of years ago, I had a fleeting moment in time when I actually grasped the truth of living just for today. I wrote a blog post about it (in a different blog), called “In the Now.”

It seems like we are continually reminded that Life can come in and change everything. No – that’s not right. Life will come in and change everything. That’s a Universal law.

Why is it so hard to remember?

I’ve unearthed the old blog post and have posted a bit of it below.

Except from “In the Now”

Yesterday, I had a mini-epiphany. It happened while I was blow-drying my hair. (I get a fair number of epiphanies this way).

WHY should we ever live our lives AS IF they are incomplete – as if we are waiting, waiting, for change and just coping and dealing with in-the-meantime?

Why waste one second of life – Beautiful Life – by thinking it is the next best thing to being there?

What an injustice to the hour at hand.

The truth is, we are in the now whether we want to acknowledge it or not.

In the now…...I will choose to be happy.

In the now…...I will appreciate the beauty and the balance of nature.

In the now…...I will love.

The Only Reason to Have a Cigarette

One day, when my son was probably 12 or 13, I was driving him and one of his friends somewhere -- they were both riding in the back seat. We were on a fairly busy street when  I happened to glance in the rear-view mirror and saw that they were mashing their faces up against the back windows with looks of what I can only describe as horror/desperation. Exasperated, I said, “what are you DOing!!?” They said, “we’re trying to look desolate.” They were succeeding.

This came back to me as I was thinking about how having the right prop can dramatically effect our ability to communicate a feeling or emotion.  If I  was a smoker, I could portray angst, despair, boredom,  or an air of insouciance when relevant. 

It's all about the props, baby

Ava rules

It is the only reason I ever wish I had a cigarette. You just can't get that effect with say, a carrot or a piece of licorice.

Do You Wanna Blog? Pt 2 - Reasons NOT to Blog

So why would you not want to blog?

Well, maybe you hate blogs. Some people really find them boring. If you don’t feel that you want to contribute to the overall boredom of the world, then maybe blogging is not for you. Me – I hope it’s not boring but I cannot be constrained by such worries!  I will not be silenced! I must write what I write and send it out into cyberspace.

You probably should not blog if you start to feel obligated – you feel like it’s a chore. Why do this to yourself? At this point, there should be no sense of guilt or obligation attached. I’ve never heard anyone say, “Well! She can’t even be bothered to BLOG. I take offense to that!” No. No. No. Nobody is going to take offense if you don’t blog. There may, however, be those who applaud. These are small-minded people who probably don't even know  where to find all of the letters on a keyboard.

Speaking of offending people, you might not want to blog if you are worried about offending people. The best blogs are going to be those that are authentic – they ring true, and the reader can tell.  I say: be brave and keep in mind the old saying, “You can please some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time. But you can’t please all of the people all of the time.”   Accordingly, if you're planning a future in politics, you might not want to blog (Or tweet. Or post crazy pictures of yourself on Facebook).

Blogging, in my opinion, should be something that gives back to you.  There should be a return for you on this effort. That’s got to be the bottom line to any creative endeavor. Otherwise, it kind of defeats the whole purpose.

Do You Wanna Blog?

A friend and I were talking the other day and she said, “I’ve been thinking…maybe I’ll start writing a blog,” to which I promptly responded, ”Yes, you should!”

Should YOU write a blog? Blogging is a great creative outlet and while I’m no authority --the truth is that I currently have no fewer than FOUR blogs lurking out there in cyberspace. I don’t keep them all current, though I’d love to. In fact, I miss writing in them.

I decided to compile a checklist to help you decide if blogging is for you. It is solely based on my opinions. That is the number one beauty of writing your own blog: you control the content so it’s whatever YOU think. Is blogging right for you? It might be!

YOU MIGHT WANT TO START A BLOG IF:

1.   You want a website. It’s probably the cheapest, easiest way to do it. Two services, Blogger and Wordpress, offer most of this to you for free.  

2.   You ENJOY writing. You don’t have to write much. There a tons of blogs out there that are mostly pictures. But the reality is, you have to put content out there on a regular basis for readers/viewers, and this most often requires a bit of writing. Some people LOVE to write. Others hate it and find it a real pain. This is what I’m talking about.

3.   You feel comfortable putting yourself out there. This goes along with # 3. But guess what – you don’t even have to put yourself out there! You can limit who sees your blog. So, for example, only your family might see it. I have a blog like that, where I post family pictures, etc.  

4.   You want to chronicle an important life milestone, or share a skill or passion with others. Maybe you do book reviews, or write about cooking, or sports. A lot of people blog about the birth of a child, or just a particular holiday, etc. .. AND:

5.   You need to find an efficient way to share your words, pictures or other content with a group of people. This is the reason I started my “family” blog. It’s really hard to send a lot of pictures through email.  A lot of them are too big and they take forever to load on some people’s computers. I liked having a website, basically, where my family could go and read and look.

6.   You have some computer skills. Okay, you don’t have to be a programmer or software designer. The free blog sites out there are amazingly easy. But you do need to possess basic computer skills, such as cutting & pasting, formatting fonts (changing the style or size, for example), uploading pictures or other files.



Blogging in Nashville


So, do you think you want to do it? Stay tuned. I’ll have more to say in my next BLOG, when I give some of the reasons you might NOT want to blog.



This picture has nothing to do with blogging, but Toonie asked to be included because he sometimes tries to blog.



Country Stampede Recap: Lots of Skin, Lots of Sun, Lots of Live Music

Have you ever been?

I had not. 

The Country Stampede Music & Camping Festival is held just outside of Manhattan, Kansas at Tuttle Creek Reservoir, in a huge grassy area, sort of like a big pasture. Trees are scarce. Shade is in short supply. Sunshine is plentiful. Clothing is negligible. It is sort of like a big ol’ beach party, without the beach, and with cowboy boots in place of beach sandals. Actually, there were a lot of flip flops. But you know, as the day wore on, and muddy spots got trampled, and grassy areas were worn bare, and the daylight in the porta-potties grew dim, it was kind of nice to have on a pair of boots.  It reckoned me back to my cowgirl days, just a bit.

The NSAI tent was at the opposite end of the Stampede grounds from the Main Stage. Thankfully, it was a tent – so we were in the shade. We spent our time playing our songs, or talking up NSAI to interested people, or just sitting there drinking water, staring into space in a semi-trance, due to the heat. I know that at some point, I ate an order of nachos and an order of deep fried pickles with a side of ranch dressing.  The words “what was I thinking??”  do not even begin to express how that worked out for me.

The best part of the day was getting to say hello and reconnect with old friends who stopped by. It definitely made the heat bearable.

During our last set, the remains of the day were weighing on the Stampeders. I learned later that someone jumped on our stage and mooned the crowed but I missed it. Probably because I was being distracted by the guy in our audience who kept pointing to his shorts and yelling what sounded like, “California!, California!” I don’t really know. But I smiled and kind of nodded. Gave him the ol’ thumbs up.

As strains of Toby Keith’s voice singing “I wanna talk about me…” wafted over the Stampede grounds and into the night, we packed up our things and headed East. Back to the city.

Stampeders

Apalling and yet fascinating

fun couple



more Stampeders

next to our tent

A batallion of porta-potties behind our tent

whether you want to see it or not

standard issue bikini and daisy dukes



Country Stampede, Here I Come!

There are 4 of us......

Jim Thomas, Gerry Monks, Rich O’Brien and I will represent the Kansas City chapter of NSAI (Nashville Songwriters Association International) at the 17^th Annual Country Stampede in Manhattan, Kansas. The Country Stampede is a four-day country music and camping festival held at the end of June. It boasts headliners like Toby Keith, The Band Perry, and Zac Brown Band. Last year’s Stampede had a total attendance of 160,000.

We’re gonna mingle with the countrified masses and we’ll be playing our songs in the NSAI tent at various times throughout the day –  when the major acts are not on stage. You can get the schedule here: http://www.countrystampede.com/Lineup/family_stage.shtml

I’m amazed at how many people have never heard of the Country Stampede. I guess I shouldn’t be – this is KC and I suppose the Country Music faction is smaller here – to the point of almost being non-existent. Back where I come from, everyone knows and almost everyone goes at one time or another. It is for some a rite of passage of sorts.

I must confess I have never been – the stories I heard of people passing out on the ground, peeing in public, and the lobster sunburns on the faces of those who did attend  – that was enough to make me think it just wasn’t worth it. But I was already securely ensconced in adulthood when the first Country Stampede was held. So the thought of 4 days of intense sunshine, humidity, beer, drunks, and being smelly and sweaty just couldn’t sell me, no matter how big the music acts were.

And now, I'm going - not as a reveller, but as a performing songwriter. It’s going to be a great way to get my music out there. Stay tuned…I hope to take pictures.

Nashville Aftermath

In a few mind-boggling turns of the planet, I left Nashville and found myself summarily deposited back into my Old Life without so much as a by-your-leave or a thank-yew-ma’am

You know my Old Life --  the One I lived before I made the Great Journey to the Edge of My Soul and poured my guts out into a microphone, recording my songs for all posterity.

It was like some huge shift in the tectonic plates underlying The Way I Used To View My Life,  resulting in The Way I Now Know It To Be and in the aftermath, I was left dazed and confused, waiting for the dust to settle.

But the dust doesn’t settle, my friends. The dust does not. Dust, once stirred, rises and you are going to take some of it in. Life moves ever forward and doorways - once stepped through - cannot be unstepped. Going beyond the safe waters, pushing yourself when it's scary, making an effort when you're tired, letting go of fear....it will change  you.