Baltic Cruise
The Scandinavian trip was truly a wonderful journey, the highlight of which, certainly, was seeing Meg Shambhavi Christian and singing together after such a long, long time. My girl, Judy, and I flew over the top of the world to the Copenhagen airport where I gladly paid way too much for a press-pot of Jamaican Blue Mt. coffee. Jet-lagged, we ambled around the airport, heading for our gate and next flight to Stockholm to meet up with the ship and fellow passengers.
When we heard our names paged in Danish with the English warning - "Your flight is about to leave " - tagged on the end, we jolted into wakefulness, realized we were in the wrong place..and began running to the exact opposite part of the airport. We were waved in like errant birds and walked into a full plane of people staring at us, and looking at their watches, and at us, two horribly sweaty people, breathing hard and feeling foolish, but equally glad to have made the flight. We arrived in Stockholm, 9 hours ahead of PST, and were driven to our hotel. We found a nearby sushi bar for dinner, sitting outside in the lingering twilight, then back to the hotel and asleep by 8pm. We awakened, of course, way too early, and so we lay there in the dark, in a city neither of us had ever visited, talking quietly until we fell back beneath the mantle of sleep to awaken at a more decent hour for coffee and croissants. We walked with friends around Old Town...lots of cobbled, twisty streets with touristy shops and continental cafes...a perfect day for it, great weather, and a cab for hailing to the Port where we boarded the ship.
We were sitting in the ship's reception area when in walked Meg. Laying eyes upon her after all this time, I felt suddenly shy. I think we both were. She looked wonderful! We hugged and held each other at arm's length, looking at the changes wrought by the years. What hasn't changed is the easy laughter, and the love at the heart of it all. And, of course, the music. As we rehearsed together later that afternoon, it all fell into place...it was right where we left it -- only more so. And so, to the excellent music of Zrazy, we sailed out upon the Baltic Sea, heading for St Petersburg with stops at Helsinki, Finland on the way, and Talinn, Estonia on the return. Outside of Helsinki, we visited a 3-generation family farm, served still by all three generations, including Grandma who served us coffee and cake with fresh, tart berries. There were horses -- warm-bloods, Hanoverians, and free access for us to the stables and the sweet smell of the barns.
Meg's shows that night were wondrous, taking us back and moving us deeply in our Present. She is better than ever in so many ways...such an accomplished guitarist and songwriter, self-composed, calm at the Center, accepting, able to stand in silence, delivering a powerful Samurai poem from the 14th C. which made me weep openly. We sang Margie's "Beautiful Soul", my "Joanna", and "If I Could Only Win Your Love" which brought back the night at Carnegie Hall for me, and for so many there, I'm sure. So, so nice! She stretched way out and did this amazing spiritual rap, replete with drum track, sideways baseball hat, and groovy moves. It slayed us all. We had so much fun and were so moved -- all of us, remembering the dream of women's music made so long ago and still so vital, still food and medicine for that which ails us.
St. Petersburg was amazing, and full of many changes since I was there last in '92. There are more choices and more access to the rest of the world, but still, amidst such golden splendor of the churches and royal palaces, there remains poverty, women sweeping the streets, soldiers with no legs begging in the middle of busy traffic... What a pleasure it was to have a long, laughter-filled luncheon at a hotel pectopah with the original Olives, the original collective and their partners. I felt privileged to be among them. It was good to be together and enlightening to hear, among other things, the reading of the original mission statement of Olivia Records. Bless them all for making it happen for all of us, for taking my idea and making it fly...
We loved Talinn -- a beautiful, medieval city with stone walls, castle towers and ramparts, small streets lined with interesting shops, and the language not Cyrillic, so I could read! The ice cream -- as promised -- was delicious.
Ending the journey in Copenhagen, out of the bus for a minute for coffee, resting our feet after many visits to the royal rooms of the Palace, sitting in a sidewalk cafe with so many friends -- old and new-- tipping our faces up to the warmth of the sun, far from America, but so close to the heartbeat of the world. It was a peaceful moment, deep and true and may it be so in these days to come.