On my Lake District adventure, I visited a small church that boasts a beautiful stained glass window designed by Edward Burne-Jones and executed by William Morris. I was so moved by the experience and so grateful to the parishioners that I wrote this poem and sent it to them. I got word this week that [...]
This is a story of how life conspires with us to fulfill our dearest dreams - especially when we are willing to follow good feeling and trust our hearts. For years, I dreamed of visiting the Lake District in the north of England - home of English-language Romantic poetry and a hotbed of artistic creativity [...]
I'm talking here to my fellow musicians, singers, poets, storytellers, and performers of all kinds. By "stink," I mean: ask questions, state your needs, request and require clarification. Delay assent until you receive it. Be gracious, be respectful - but make a stink. That graciousness is what makes it a "gentle stink." It's not really [...]
Culture gives women a number of problems to solve, often with no true or satisfying solution. Here’s one. I am thinking today of two occasions during the last ten years when I was manhandled by cheerful, “nice,” married men. In each case, I was a guest in their home, invited there to share music and [...]
There are many kinds. One example: Just after Christmas, I saw a person in ripped sweatpants and a stained jacket shambling along a main road in Biddeford, Maine. It was the quality of motion that caught my eye – a trudging, struggling forwards movement that conveyed resentment and defeat. And held out at a purposeful, [...]
It's so lovely to give yourself what you need. And - to quote my big brother Dan - to do it up big. Last night I treated myself to something I've drooled over for a long time: a subscription to "Slightly Foxed: the real reader's quarterly." I first spied a copy in the amazing book-town [...]
This little poem was inspired when my friend's beloved daughter graduated from a three-quarter-sized instrument and into a full-size instrument and a full-size life. The two are, I think, intricately entwined. In Her Hands for Sophie The three-quarter cello, breast-height and smiled-upon, a maker of child-music in clumsy quavers and slurs in pieces adapted [...]
Change the course and momentum of your energy! What I mean when I talk about "natural magic." No need to purchase a broom or a black cat, I promise. Click HERE to see the video. Uplifting and practical, I also promise!
Can we take a moment to hand it to brothers - and others - who ensure we keep going? Reading Lloyd Goodrich's short, wonderful bio of Winslow Homer, I came across this warming little ancecdote: "His first paintings, begun when he was 26, were of the war. One of the earliest showed a soldier being [...]
When you have been pursuing your passion for a long time - decades, perhaps - the present moment becomes more and more like a piece of intricate music. The more you keep going, the more colors, motifs, layers, associations, allusions, echoes, and harmonies get woven into the song. Let me give you an example of [...]
