We've come home from our CA, UT, and CO tour just in time to see our Cherry Tree blooming. It's the beginning of Spring and I find this time of year incredibly exciting. Spring is Life. This simple fact is what makes Spring so awesome, so visceral. I know they are just plants, but when I see a plant in my garden springing into life, I feel a sense of pride at what amazing little beings they are- my heart actually speeds up and I am filled with joy to see them growing into a full plant. When I was thinking of words to describe the scene in my garden, I was first thinking of the words "the little plants are forcing their way into the world" but I realized that actually they are not struggling do this. Spring is Graceful. Plants grow and Trees bud with the greatest of ease into their fullest potential. Spring is an example for how Life is supposed to be.

On a different note... when we are on tour, we are obviously riding in the car a lot and between the discussions on politics and religion, the mind wanders onto random and trivial thoughts and I wanted to share some of the weird questions that popped up this last tour:

1. Is buffalo mozzarella cheese actually made from buffalo's milk?

Answer on Wikipedia

2. What is a Quarter Horse? (yes, we actually saw a building labeled "the quarter horse society of america")

Answer on Wikipedia

3. If you can shrink your stomach by not eating a lot, what happens if you drink a ton of water? Can you stretch it out?

4. I've seen Chicken eggs, Quail eggs, and even Ostrich eggs on menus. What about Turkey eggs? I've never seen that, but why not?

Answer on the Straight Dope

This is hilarious and, yes, we're guilty too...

Some pics and videos from this tour. Random impressions.











Click here to see the full set

I just celebrated my birthday and I'm not going to tell you my age. I think this is definitely an indicator that I must be feeling older! I've been wondering about what makes a person young or old a lot recently with the impending turning another year older. Jon and I get to meet so many different people that I've observed the amazing differences that one 55 year old to the next has in their apparent youngness or oldness.
It seems to me that energy is key. Energy not only in having it to 'do' things, but also this fire we have inside of ourselves. We can never let that burn out or we definitely become old in an instant. People that might be way up there there age but have this fire and energy seem so young. I love that! I wonder how a person achieves this?
One thing my grandmother always said is that "the day you stop learning is the day you die". I don't think she meant it literally, of course, but more that the fire will die and you might as well be in the ground. I think this is one way to keep the fire kindled. What other ways are there? Seriously, I want to know.

Okay here is what I've come up with:
I think sex/sexuality must be up there. That's self-explanatory.
This idea leads to the need to keep the physical body in line through our aging. This is definitely an obvious one (and one of the hardest to keep up with, ugh!) Diet (salads, veggies, etc.), exercise, balance. Well, I think we all know to keep these up.
The idea of keeping the physical body in check leads to the need to keep the spiritual self in balance and nurtured as well. This is essential too. How we each can achieve our best spiritual self is difficult to know because of the so many different paths one could take. It seems to me that we are all in a constant flux of searching in our spirituality. Sometimes we feel really solid in our spiritual being, and other times we are searching. Regardless of our religious background or faiths. Maybe this is kind of like to never stop learning. If we stop seeking our fullest potential as spiritual beings, then we might as well be dead.
That's all I can think of for staying 'young'. Of course, that is besides the Hope in a Jar I smear all over my face nightly.

On the night before my birthday, I had the wildest dream about reaching my full spiritual potential. In the dream, I discovered that on my birthday I found out I had powers that allowed me to basically work tiny 'miracles'. I could change the color of someone's shoes and make them shiny. I could make someone ill to their stomach or make them feel good and healthy. I could do a lot of wild things. I found out that this was what had been eating me up inside my whole life and that was why I always had felt off. It was that I hadn't reached my potential and now that I knew about my 'powers' I could finally do it. The other part of the dream that was clear to me was that we all had these powers but we just didn't know it and didn't know how to use them. My mother was elated in the dream and congratulating me on my achievements, the way she used to congratulate me on winning a swimming race or making an A+. It was was so weird! Then at the end of the dream, I was like " oh, I think I can levitate..." then I woke up. Happy Birthday, Jenn.
Somehow, I don't think I'm going to levitate anytime soon, but I'm certainly going to try to stay 'young' and all that comes with it.

It's been a busy week. We've been learning...or re-learning some of our tunes for this run of shows. It's as much for ourselves as anything. It's is to fall into playing the same tunes, they're comfortable..like old shoes. There comes a time though when it's time for something new, in order to keep the passion alive for each performance. This has a been a good week of music making, but the hardest thing of being an independent musician is juggling it all. I just finished getting our DVD/CD ready for send to itunes. Organizing metadata..metadata!! WTF!! ..yes "metadata", that's the official nerd term for "information" (about the release). Then there's ISRC codes, like social security codes for every track. Meanwhile, Jenn's organizing details with the venues and press, hotel rooms etc etc.. etc... Anyway, I'm glad to get those things done and then getting ready for our California run next week. It's always nice to get back on the road and focus solely on your music, at least for two hours every night. That makes it worth it. We've been in touch with some friends and look forward to making some new connections while we're there. Tomorrow we're getting some new photos (in Athens).

Here are Jenn's notes about the song Canyon Breeze. It's also this quarter's free download. I remember hearing Jenn playing the main melody a few years ago. We were waiting backstage in Sutter Creek, CA. I said what's that? ..thinking that it must have been a melody from a classsical piece or something. It was so beautiful! I added the first chords to it there. It has always stayed a very simple and meditative piece (only two chords...). It's one of my favorites.

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Jenn's description:

Jon and I had a trip planned to the Grand Canyon w/ his parents. It was their first time and our second time visiting the canyon and so, we wanted it to be very special for them. We planned the trip the same time of year that Jon and I had gone the year before (the 1st week of May), and we expected to have beautiful sunny weather. Well, it snowed!
Now, snow is not such a bad thing (in fact, it can be quite lovely) but what happened this time was that mist from the snow came in and filled up the whole Grand Canyon! You could stand on the edge and peer out and not even see that there was the Grand Canyon there at all. We were disappointed to say the least, but determined to have the Grand Canyon experience.
So, of course, we went to the IMAX movie- ha! The IMAX doesn't hold a candle to the actual canyon, but it did touch on some interesting things that got us thinking. The movie went through the history of the people of the canyon w/ the ancient cultures that had lived there, then explorers, and up to us as visitors and tourists. From this we started thinking about all these people, through all these different times coming to the canyon and standing in the same spot peering into the canyon. By having this shared experience, we are all connected by this place through time. Who knows how many people have come to the canyon before us and who knows how many more after us? In a romantic sense, visiting the Grand Canyon is like visiting a little piece of eternity right here on earth.

The melody for Canyon Breeze had been floating around in my head after our first trip to the canyon, and after that second snowy visit, we were inspired to make this song. It reminds me of the ebb & flow of the wind and water that carved out the canyon and of the people that have passed through it.
We always start w/ the original melody, but then let the spirit move us and we play it differently every time.

Here is the download: Download Canyon Breeze - http://tinyurl.com/an9dsf

This post is about self-doubt. That is reason that I don't blog more often (btw, this is Jenn not Jon. he's very good at blogging!) I concern myself too much with what all the far superior bloggers and blog readers will think about my entry. Is it possible that anything I could write is going to interest someone enough to read it? Well, I guess that is the beautiful thing about blogs they are personal and the blogger can abandon those negative thoughts...go for it. I'm going to try at least.
Now, to my real thoughts recently about self-doubt and even to the extreme of self-loathing: I think that this must be the way that we strive to become better human beings (or at least I hope it leads there). I really have been going through some serious self-examination of my weaknesses and trying to come to grips with the repeated mistakes they create in my life. If we don't ever realize how flawed we are, then how can we ever lead a fulfilled life with hope for a more enlightened way of being? Maybe this is fuel for the argument of reincarnation. I can't seem to stop being flawed and sometimes it seems that I will certainly need a few more lifetimes to fix it. I'm really troubled by my inability to behave with more love and kindness- this is my main weakness. Why am I realizing these things about myself so late in my life? Maybe people that realize their weaknesses earlier are the people like Jimmy Carter, Mother Teresa, and President Obama. Extremely successful and impactful people. One of my greatest fears is that I will die before my life counts for something and that this whole thing will be a waste. I hope that by trying to overcome my weaknesses, I can lead a more impactful life. I know for sure that I am not alone in this battle and my request to everyone that reads this is to forgive others for their mistakes and to forgive yourself for your own.
Good luck and good thoughts to you for your personal journey and please wish me well for mine!
-Jenn