Jazz and Poetry a little spot for notes & words to dance

Shift happens…

After a three day transition from the end of summer, this morning I woke for the first time to a bright clear morning too cold too sit out and watch the birds for more than a few moments and felt the fall. There's also a sense of panic as the work of the harvest comes in (or in the case of artists, those summer checks arrive later than expected in the mail) and the year tallies whether the seeds planted in the spring produced enough through the summer to keep the family fed and sheltered through the winter.

It feels like a cold one coming in these bones hybrid from the DNA of farmers who trekked across the continent for generations surviving 100 year floods and dust bowl droughts. My gardening skills undeveloped are in need of several more years of practice before I could ever hope to feed myself, let alone a family. However, before I could walk I figured out how to turn my mom's entire cabinet of pots into a drum kit. I learned to read notes and words before I started school, but had never planted a seed.

I was the product of a generation of industry involving these new fangled computers where instead of heading out to the barn or the mill, young eager minds entered boxes of cubicles to calculate numbers and create code to speed the productivity happening on the plant floor. What gets lost in the boxes is the idea that there is a quality of life that can't be bought or sold when you take the time to breath the morning air and listen to the birds at sunrise rather that leaving before dawn to commute to a box where there are no windows and look at a glowing screen until leaving after the sun has set.

There are plenty of types of humans. Some are suited to these boxes the same way some are suited to live in Alaska or Miami and would be miserable in the other environment. We're adaptable too, most of us learn by doing what is available for us to learn that gives us what we need. For some people that means devoting every spare moment in charity work for the church, and others throw temper tantrums in the office and demand all employees work over time to make up for losing payroll in a poker game the night before. You see how the shift happens?

Cycles of behavior within certain circles are accepted and normal but feared and judged by other groups. There is no way to make all humans want to live the same way and any government that tries will eventually force a rebellion upon themselves. That's what history tells us. The shift in consciousness comes when the majority of humans can teach the minority of those we call politicians (because they're good at traveling all over sharing information between social circles to build links between resources and cultures) what "We the People" need in order for this planet "to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to" all. The trick is not to get caught in the smoke & mirrors of the national media covering the "Romney vs. Obama" race. The real change starts from within the PTA where the children in your neighborhood go to school, the school board, the city council, the county board of commissioners, the judges, the state legislature, and finally trickles from there to D.C. where the senators and representatives from each state meet with lobbyists who to try to buy their votes on issues to fulfill corporate needs. Please take the next month as an American to take responsibility for your freedom and find out who the candidates are who will get in the trenches and fight for the people of this country who's blood, sweat and tears already feed corporations too much of our lives every day.

We can make a difference, it just means taking responsibility for our own pursuit of happiness rather than waiting for it to be handed over on a silver platter.

Leap

It's not only Leap day, but it's been a month since I've posted to this blog and the last chance to post something before the new month begins. I've been brooding over it a bit and thought I'd share at least something before the clock strikes midnight.

Perhaps this whole month should have been called Febroodwary. It seems I've listened to many people brooding over loss, pain, and the need for change. Let me tell you guys, while I may have a sympathetic ear, bemoaning your woes and sharing your suicidal thoughts are not very attractive ways to flirt with me. That said, know that I love you all anyway. I just could really use a good man in my life that takes a moment to stop and ask about me. In short, while other's may find February romantic, I found it emotionally draining.

I skirted the attempts of universities to channel me down the path of psychologist/psychiatrist rather than performance for a reason. I truly believe that the performing arts provide the catharsis that most of us need to transform pain into beauty to allow us to let go and move forward with our lives. I also know that I can reach many more lives through performances than I ever could listening to each individual's story. Also, as draining as a performing can be, it's not nearly as draining as one individual using me as their lifeline at a moment of crisis.

Jack of Hearts

Someone did ask me what I did for fun anymore, and I realized I had no answer to that. I used to say dance, but now that I've given up music as a hobby and am working at it as a profession even dancing at a club to my favorite musicians has become more work than fun. Okay, this is the point where I realize that writing after driving 14 hours of the past 48 and doing 3 poetry shows, a teacher workshop, while still catching 3 bands in order to follow up on business and sit in with them has taken it's toll. I am officially exhausted on all fronts.

So, as we March forward into the new year I invite you to join me in making a leap of faith. Together we can make a difference and live the life we dream up. I'm not necessarily talking about broad sweeping miracles, but belief in the power of each individual moment. Today I found a jack of hearts and a magic wand. I chose to let them remind me that with love and a few magic words anything can happen.