Blessing of the Animals
Outside the window, the sun still shines. The leaves on the red maples are beginning to turn, and some to fall. The joggers are wearing more layers, and oatmeal feels just about right for breakfast. It's Autumn. In a day or two, I head to Provincetown, MA for my annual 10-day run at the Post Office Cabaret. It's Women's Week in Provincetown...always busy, the never-ending tribe of comediennes roaming the town, a few musicians here and there, some drama of some sort (of course), either on stage or in the theater of relationships. With the economy in choke-hold mode, it's hard to say if women will choose to come at all. Here's hoping! It so will help the local women survive through the winter-to-come, and I venture to say that the various performances around town will help all of us survive yet another season. We need to support our artists, our culture, our sisters.
As you may know, I have not been writing in this journal much at all because I have been writing pages and pages of memoirs, all to go into my book, eventually. As I mentioned last entry, many of you have asked time and again, " When will you write a book?" So the answer is: "Now!" I figured I'd best strike while the iron was hot, and while my memory is still fairly intact. It's amazing what I don't remember, but the stuff I do is still good material. It is an amazing thing to write a book, and no easy task at all, but also, it is a wondrous thing to undertake such an archeological dig as this. I would recommend it to anyone. I maintain that all of our stories are equally interesting. It's just that not all of us know how to tell our stories well. But we can learn to do it, and I think it's important to do even if you only share it with friends or your family. After all, it's your life. There is no other You.
I've also lots of new songs including one I've been working on for two years called "Juarez". It's a song about the murders of over 400 women in Juarez, Mexico... one by one, and nothing done, and mainly women protesting this violence against women. It's a tough subject and I circled it for two years, as I said. So, it feels a relief of sorts to have it done. It, among others, will go on a new cd which I will record as soon as I return from the Cape. I am raising money for it now by offering a 5-song cd as a fund-raiser. Information will be available with me in Provincetown and here in Seattle at my office as well. Every project, every year, we artists have to raise money or it won't get done. So, I thank you in advance for any help you might extend.
Driving back from lunch today, I noticed how all the churches are having a Blessing of the Animals as part of their service. How wonderful is that! I am sending out additional blessing upon the wild horses of the Pryor Mountains in Montana who are under siege, as well as the wolves in all the western states whose families are in jeopardy. Would that folks would come to their senses, and see that these creatures are family groups, strong and loving, and that they would be so inevitably disturbed by shooting, by taking, by breaking up the families. We wouldn't stand for our families to be disturbed in such a violent way. Why do we tolerate it when it happens to our relatives, the creatures of the wild and beautiful world? So blessings I send all the way round on this our blue, blue planet. Take care of yourselves and each other, and I'll talk with you soon.