“There are some activities that keep you alive. They feed you, because first of all you are a wreck. A creative, half insane piece of work, that must align itself with the earth: a chicken coop, a goat pen, a wood shed, a muddy, rutted door yard; anything that trips you up with the beautiful chaos of life on this planet. Watch your step, there are field stones left by the mason, dirt piles left by the dozer, and various piles of manure, according to which animal. When the water line freezes, a pick axe may have left a trench you have to jump over for a few months. Sometimes messes stay open in Vermont, for a while. Unfinished business. We know how to live with uncertainty and things being half done. Some of us are actually under attack because we like our freedom to do things according to mother nature. You don’t just start that kind of relationship in a day. You might have to raise a bunch of children, see them through all the childhood illnesses, while learning the efficacy of mustard plasters, oatstraw infusions and comfrey root, dug during a snow squall. I clearly remember the day mullein, which is a plant, made itself known to me. And if you pay attention, you’ll find that plants, birds and mammals are constantly trying to tell you stuff. I wish I could live another hundred years, because there is so much vital intel growing in our backyards and pastures, it could be a life’s work for any of us, to unpack. As it should be. Maybe you thought you moved here for one reason but now you’re discovering a whole new level. Maybe you grew up here, sort of provincially identified with your family and now that’s not quite enough. In the end, we’re all here together, hot-ticketed to our extraordinary locations and phenomenal blessings. Have you driven the back roads near your farm recently? Ready to be blown away? Holy Batman, as my friend Heidi says. She taught my son throughout his elementary school years. She led those kids into wayward places, clomped around streams and bushwacked a few thickets. What does that do to a person? It teaches them to think for themselves. To know when they are healthy. To look for issues, if and when it is prudent to do so. To go deeply into self wisdom to resolve a challenge. So ... back to the real subject of this post. I spent my day listening to a song, and listening for where I could bring myself into it, to make the message that much stronger. Music production shouldn’t be about ego, but about resonance. You aim to make it more of what it is. Pull out truth. Cry if you have to like I did. Because powerful communicators only want to make you love beyond your capacity. Oh, guess what. We have so much more to give than you are thinking.”
