Summer Greetings

Hi everyone...summer greetings! Hard to believe August is right around the corner. Now, I do know the measurement of the days is exactly the same as it has always been – as far as time goes, that is to say. But the older one gets, the quicker she flies, or so it seems to me. Scrambling to keep up with the chores, horses, traveling, and all that occupies my summer...little by little, I get things done, but always there are things left over, left behind, left undone. Ah, well...still there is only so much a girl can do!

I was bucked off by my mustang mare, but it was so not her fault! The axiom dictates that one should get right back up, but that's not always how she goes. The mare and I are learning new things about fear and patience and trust and instinct...it's so hard for all most all of us creatures not to just run for our lives, run blindly, run hard. She'll come back to Center by-and-by, and I'll gladly let her come to it all on her own. It's just what I require for myself, goodness knows! Sometimes you have to go after a thing another way.

Summer is always Festival time...all over the world there are festivals going on – celebrations of food and wine and fish and beer and lobsters and berries and garlic (Oh my!), and also music...yeah, music...perhaps the best food there is in this world, if you ask me. I heard the great Etta James this summer and was privileged to meet her, and to be able to watch her work was so inspiring! Such a legend...over 60, still working so hard, so sexy and one of the best and clearly unique voices around. I'll be heading to the Michigan Womyn's Festival mid-August where I'll be performing with Holly Near, celebrating the release of our duo-CD, which we recorded in June at Skywalker, George Lucas' amazingly beautiful studio in N. California. It was so great to work again with engineer Leslie Ann Jones, and the always amazing John Bucchino. Holly and I wanted a CD to accompany the shows we are continuing to do this Fall and into the Spring of next year. I hope you will come and see this show and take the music home.

I'm just back from DC, from a 3-day teaching spree with 8 incredible people. It was a privilege to be with them, one-on-one, to try all sorts of writing exercises, some old, some new, some tried and true. It was truly akin to gathering around a watering hole in a clearing where we all could gather and quench our thirsty souls. By the way, I've been beckoned back to Omega to teach at their new digs in Austin, Texas...yahoo! So, watch right here for news of that.

Meanwhile, there are baseball games to watch, horse sense to gain, books to read, birds to admire, new songs to write, and the rest of the summer stretching out ahead like a promise yet to be.