Meet on the Ledge (Richard Thompson)

Whew!  I seem to be totally off my game/schedule/agenda.  What had been an every Tuesday and Friday posting plan has morphed into Whatever.  It's obviously okay (First World Problems, right?) but I always do better with structure... so here's an attempt to get back on track, beginning with updates of the South Florida Folk and Acoustic Music Festival (what a mouthful!) as well as the road trip to Key West to see Dar Williams (both absolutely amazing, as you can well imagine!).

2/2-4/24 - SFFAMF (copied-and-pasted from Facebook):

The South Florida Folk and Acoustic Music Festival 2024. What a weekend (major understatement). Highlights, knowing I'm bound to inadvertently leave someone/something out (sorry in advance):

One-on-one special time with friends pre- as well as post-fest. Amy Carol Webb Friday night. Herding cats for a Friends of Pam photo. Staffing an informational table with Claire for The Caring Community (so many teas, so little time!), right next to Cynthia's Flurban Paradise freeze-dried cookies and fruit, fire cider, energy balls. So Many Hugs! Jennings & Keller. Wearing the necklace Melanie gave me at last year's festival (which meant she was here in spirit *this* year). Honored to be a songwriter competition judge; so many great songs that it was truly challenging to narrow it down to a top three. Multiple meals from The Garden Diva; those pizza empanadas were scrumptious. The reunion continues, until I end up with bar voice. Dragonfly earrings from SusanP. Brian's song circles, complete with my Circle of Friends "campfire".

Returning Sunday a.m., barely able to speak above a croak. More Hugs! Songwriter winners in-the-round (Sarah McCulloch, Jane Fallon, Lynn Biddick); hearing their additional songs validated our choices even more. New discoveries as well as long-time favorites. Friction Farm! Sharing butterfly pea flower tea at our TCC table. Never managed to make it over for a chair massage... 😢

Boundless thanks and love to Bill, Lisa, Laurie, Elyse, Peter, Grace, Bruce, and all the volunteers who made this festival happen. And gratitude that, when it started pouring down rain early-afternoon yesterday, we were under cover... 💖

2/6-7/24 - DAR IN KEY WEST (copied-and-pasted from Facebook):  

When last we left our SheRa, she was packing snacks and heading out the door to pick up Nancy to head to Key West for a concert.  If you're all about the 45-words-or-less version, you can stop here.  Otherwise, keep reading... 🤣

Driving down the Overseas Highway, you soon realize there is a huge differential between miles and minutes; time goes very slowly in the Keys, basically one way in and one way out, a solo lane in each direction, with two lanes appearing every once in a while to allow for a few minutes of passing.  It.  Just.  Is.  You are forced to be peaceful and relaxed, until you become so, due to the stunning views both east and west the further south you go.  Water as far as the eye can see, varied striations of cobalt/turquoise/sky blue, sometimes choppy, sometimes smooth, sporting silver tips when the sun is shining just right.

The Dar Williams show at the Studios of Key West started at 7 p.m. and we arrived at the very cool Ibis Bay Resort (with a coral rock wall *in* our room!) about 5:15, and knew we wanted to eat dinner near the venue beforehand.  Nance and I quickly got ready and, convinced by the front desk that traffic is horrible and parking is limited, we called a cab, which arrived immediately.  One of Nancy's co-workers used to live in Key West and, when Nancy asked for her recommendations for vegan-vegetarian food, she recommended The Cafe.  Yes, The Cafe!  It was a superb menu, and we split the spinach gyoza dumplings and the stuffed butternut squash, both amazingly delish.  I wanted a piece of vegan key lime pie too, but we were cutting it close.  Made it to the show with 5 minutes to spare, ended up on the second row... 💥

Dar continues to amaze me!  Having heard her dozens of times, she *never* tells the same story twice (maybe a kernel of thought interjects but, mostly, nope.  All new, out of her quirky-yet-brilliant brain).  Her voice was perfect, as was the setlist, a handful of songs from her newest CD, many long-time favorites, and even an as-yet-unrecorded song (Hummingbird Highway - beautiful!).  I thank-her-very-sweetly for dedicating Over the Rainbow to me, the Pete Seeger version where, instead of "why oh why can't I?" he substitutes "why can't you and I?", always looking for the inclusivity angle... 💗

Dar toggled between two encores and, after we all begged, she did them both (When I Was a Boy and Iowa), the second of which Nance and I whipped out our phones to access the flashlight app (Dar:  "oh, fireflies!); the tradition got its start at the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival, and a few others in the room joined us.  I never get tired of singing/yelling out the "And I'd do it again!" lyric, and Dar actually got quiet for those of us who knew it was coming... 🥰

Dar came out into the lobby after the show, so we could all hug, chat, and get this fab photo (thanks to Fred, the sound guy!).  The fourth is Patty Romanoff, Dar's manager/tour companion who I've also known a very long time.

Nancy and I may have gone back to the room to eat sweet-and-spicy popcorn and drink sparkling wine.  We definitely enjoyed the free continental breakfast the next morning, before heading south on the island to a public beach with a pier where some of Eric's ashes may have been spread.  We may have also stopped at a Mexican restaurant halfway home because I was craving refried beans.

No doubt Nance (Road Buddy Extraordinaire) and I shared another adventure "that couldn't be beat", just like old times (Lucy and Ethel?  Thelma and Louise?), arriving home about 5 p.m., 36 hours of non-stop conversation of the hilarious as well as heartfelt variety, shenanigans, and soul-refilling music.  There is a hot bath and an early bedtime in my future... 🕉

P.S.  credit to Dar for my song title... 🤗

SONG:  Meet on the Ledge by Richard Thompson

BOOK:  The Cure for Sorrow: A Book of Blessings for Times of Grief by Jan Richardson

POEM:  Don’t Hesitate by Mary Oliver

If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy,

don’t hesitate. Give in to it. There are plenty

of lives and whole towns destroyed or about

to be. We are not wise, and not very often

kind. And much can never be redeemed.

Still, life has some possibility left. Perhaps this

is its way of fighting back, that sometimes

something happens better than all the riches

or power in the world. It could be anything,

but very likely you notice it in the instant

when love begins. Anyway, that’s often the

case. Anyway, whatever it is, don’t be afraid

of its plenty. Joy is not made to be a crumb.

Blessing for the Brokenhearted by Jan Richardson

"There is no remedy for love but to love more."

—Henry David Thoreau

Let us agree

for now

that we will not say

the breaking

makes us stronger

or that it is better

to have this pain

than to have done

without this love.

Let us promise

we will not

tell ourselves

time will heal

the wound,

when every day

our waking

opens it anew.

Perhaps for now

it can be enough

to simply marvel

at the mystery

of how a heart

so broken

can go on beating,

as if it were made

for precisely this—

as if it knows

the only cure for love

is more of it,

as if it sees

the heart’s sole remedy

for breaking

is to love still,

as if it trusts

that its own

persistent pulse

is the rhythm

of a blessing

we cannot

begin to fathom

but will save us

nonetheless.

QUOTE(S):  “What is the meaning of life? That was all — a simple question; one that tended to close in on one with years. The great revelation had never come. The great revelation perhaps never did come. Instead there were little daily miracles, illuminations, matches struck unexpectedly in the dark; here was one." ~ Virginia Woolf

“Be yourself. Try to matter. Be a good friend. Love freely, even if you are likely--almost guaranteed--to be hurt, betrayed. Do what you were created to do. You'll know what this is, because it is what you keep creeping up to, peering at, dreaming of. Do it…” ~ Tennessee Williams 

“Life exists only at this very moment, and in this moment it is infinite and eternal, for the present moment is infinitely small; before we can measure it, it has gone, and yet it exists forever.” ~ Alan Watts

Light Is Returning (Charlie Murphy & Jami Sieber)

"Traditionally, the Winter Solstice, December 21, was considered the birth day of the sun, that magnificent point in time when the sun begins its return to the Earth again. In the midst of the longest darkest night, deep in the earth, even the seeds begin to stir with hope.

In times past and present, people gathered around bonfires, lit candles, sang songs of holiness and joy, and danced together to welcome the return of the light and the promise of new life. Homes were decorated with evergreen boughs, the symbol of life everlasting, and great feasts were prepared. We can still do much of this!

Now, more than ever, when so many people are suffering, isolated and alone, and the Earth herself seems in crisis, it is important to honor and celebrate these great shiftings of Earthly cycles. 

✨ We are the light, living stars on Earth reflecting our light back into the darkness. Our task is to remember to turn that light on in our hearts and souls. Let it reflect in who we are and what we do in the world and the possibilities are infinite.✨

This Solstice, join your energies with the thousands of others around the world who are lighting their fires and singing their songs into the darkness. Dance freely, set your intentions, let go, and release all that no longer serves you or humanity. Order your seeds, plan your gardens, dream your future, and never fear, the sun is returning again and a new dawn is on its way.

With love from Vermont,

Rosemary 🌿"

Happy Yule!  I have always appreciated and been in awe of the Winter Solstice, but, unlike many dear friends (M!), I have never actively celebrated it.  With my recent affinity for gardening leading me to Herbalism (what I like to call Kitchen Witchery), I am finding myself drawn to earth-centered beliefs and Pagan rituals.

Do you have a Solstice ritual?  I actually started one this year.  I of course had candles, sage, and the Internet to find blessings and words of wisdom, all accompanied by a mug of Cinnamon Apple Spice Tea, a recent gift from a dear friend... 🍵  As good a time as any to chase away the darkness and to conjure light in these troubled/trying/tragic times, right?

P.S.  If you're paying attention... yes, my blogging routine is Tuesdays and Fridays but, since today is the Winter Solstice, it only made sense to post on the actual day.. 🔥🕯🔥🕯🔥

SONG:  Light Is Returning by Charlie Murphy & Jami Sieber

BOOK:  Winter Solstice: An Essay by Nina MacLaughlin

POEM(S):  

I cannot tell you

how the light comes.

What I know

is that it is more ancient

than imagining.

That it travels

across an astounding expanse

to reach us.

That it loves

searching out

what is hidden

what is lost

what is forgotten

or in peril

or in pain.

That it has a fondness

for the body

for finding its way

toward flesh

for tracing the edges

of form

for shining forth

through the eye,

the hand,

the heart.

I cannot tell you

how the light comes,

but that it does.

That it will.

That it works its way

into the deepest dark

that enfolds you,

though it may seem

long ages in coming

or arrive in a shape

you did not foresee.

And so

may we this day

turn ourselves toward it.

May we lift our faces

to let it find us.

May we bend our bodies

to follow the arc it makes.

May we open

and open more

and open still

to the blessed light

that comes.

   - Jan Richardson 

Spell of the Christmas Cactus by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

Something magic

about knowing

it’s the darkest days

that bring on the buds,

the extravagant bloom,

because oh, friend,

how dark it is.

To Know the Dark by Wendell Berry

To go in the dark with a light is to know the light.

To know the dark, go dark. Go without sight,

and find that the dark, too, blooms and sings,

and is traveled by dark feet and dark wings.

Love the Dark by James Crews

Sometimes it is only the darkness

that can free us. Sunlight might be

streaming in from all sides, yet you

crave the safety of drawn shades,

locked doors, the silenced phone.

Give yourself permission to rest

like the orchid whose bud must stay

shut tight as a chrysalis for days,

curled up and waiting for that final

moment of unfurling, when it opens

pink-veined, white wings of petals

wide to the sky, embracing the light

that comes only after the longest night.

QUOTE(S):  "Darkness deserves gratitude. It is the alleluia point at which we learn to understand that all growth does not take place in the sunlight." ~ Joan Chittister and Rowan Williams

"Reclaim what has been forgotten.  Dance the fire of your longing under the waxing moon of your full presence.  Carry the seeds of your dreams awhile longer in the womb of Nature’s being.  Let the Earth incubate your wild if-onlys in its embryonic embrace as you re-member the self you were so many eons ago when you were forest and moonlight." ~ Edveeje Fairchild

"I danced with my shadows until they became part of my light." ~ Jodi Livon