The Point, Sydenham, OntarioSpent Canada Day in beautiful Sydenham, played on a flatbed truck out in the field by the Point, the purdiest little swimming spot you ever did see. Gorgeous day. Julia on Bass, Brad on slide, Tony on drums. The night sky would later explode with dazzling fireworks. Between the daytime concerts and the night-time display, our hosts Kristin and Vanessa taught us Barbershop harmony tags and fed us like royalty with saffron infused rice, grilled portabellos and hand-made tortillas.
Sydenham Feast
A couple nights before I played Kinston at the Sandra Whitton Gallery, great acoustics, awesome paintings. They put me up on a haunted boat, which was fascinating. Had a lovely walk along the water in the morning.
Mullein by the Water, Kingston, Ontario
What’s the point of creative action? What am I trying to do? I ask myself often, as life tosses up its challenges. Recently this is what came as an answer: To find broad swaths of truth within a momentary space/time. I think that's kind of it, and to do so as best as I can within this crazy gift of a life. It's about love, isn't it? That's the motivation, and the answer to all the big ol' problems. But you know, it's not easy to love, so how does one do it in a world that seems so bent on cultivating more suffering and destroying itself? Where fear tells us to climb, and knock down and grasp for our lives.
We could run the cars and planes on sea water, easily. We even know how. Water to hydrogen to water. Why are we at war? We could delight in each other instead of fear each other. We could live conscious of our interdependence and enjoy it.
It seems that at the core of every religion, every gnostic practice, every magical state of union, every scientific innovation, there is this: a contemplative practice. That's how you get to the love state apparently. That's how one uncorks the massive well of compassionate action that can move things around, shake things up, dispel the fear, uncover the mystery and the delight in being, find foundation to get the work done towards a massive shift to the positive. But how to find a way to that practice... I guess that's the big challenge. Seeing it, knowing it, doing it.
In the video for resilience we’re jamming off of a grounding technique. You can try it at home! You just stand there and breathe, send your consciousness streaming down through the floor , through the infrastructure of the city if that’s where you are, down into the dirt, through the rocks and many colored stones, down to the centre of the earth to connect to the pulsing red core of this fantastic planet, to draw that deep magnetic well of pure energy right back up into you and your own core. Draw it into every part of you. You are powerful and full of light. Calm and ready to delight in life!
It might seem funny, but the song Resilience came in a moment of feeling absolutely joyfully connected to my extended neighborhood, and all the innovative, active people who make up the community I live in. I can’t always stay connected to an awareness of such grace, but it sure is good when it happens.