Dearly Darlings,
I sit here listening to the cold drip-drip of rain drop down the nose-shaped knob of a tree. I'm surrendering to the season and sinking into the grim acceptance that I don't live in a tropical climate.
Facing the fact that a dream career isn't always dreamy. Yet it gives me a grit of meaning that gets lost in the humdrum of everyday drudgeries.
Paying the bills. Running the errands. Reworking relationships. All the dull to-do lists awaited me upon my return from touring.
In a way, dancing on the edge of a knife suited me better than running circles round the shallow spoon of my "normal" life.
But still.
I bow to the stillness of not-moving. Catching my breath.
And while I don't yet have the career of my dreams, I do have collaborators stepping out of the woodwork. A promoter here. A costume designer there. A graphic designer yonder. I guess I'm not the only one with this itch to get good art out there.
So now we're stepping into line. Like colorful patchwork soldiers and princes of peace, aligning to reaffirm a beautiful reality that exists outside of the greater media's hypnotism. Who would have us believe that enemies are necessary. That love is pain. That money is everything.
Deep in our sleep, we're onto them. Deep in our meditations, we remember the Big Love that we Are. Within the blossom of the song something unfolds in and around us and we remember that we have hearts. And they were made for loving, somehow, despite all the reasons not to.
I believe the world doesn't need saving so much as just letting it be the harmony that it is. The woods are whispering with the wind every day a sighing symphony singing "Life."
As an artist, I am moving toward this message of positivity and possibility. Not to fight against a great evil power, but march fearlessly toward the lives of balance and intellect and full creative expression that we were meant to have. As free animals born naked on this blue-green pearl suspended in the dark swirl of the universe.
It's thoughts like these that inspired this little improvised ditty I made with my synth-etic friend Paul Tucker: https://youtu.be/AIgT_0XjLW8
It's more of a behind-the-scenes video than a polished presentation. Keep watching a little past the beginning and I start to transport into the forest !
If you speak French and can understand, just know that I was totally riffing and being nonsensical. If and when I make a recording of this song, I will surely wax poetic in my favorite tongue. French.
So I'll be performing this song live with Paul at the Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar 12/12 at 9pm here in Charlottesville, VA, backed as usual by my lovely Larkspurs.
I'll also be singing a few songs at Rapunzel's Coffee and Books' annual Christmas Party Concert 12/19 at 9pm in Lovingston, VA. This is a packed and heart-warming evening not to be missed if you care for C-ville's local music scene.
Whether you can make it live with me or not, I do hope that you will join me in the daily parade into a fantastic future.
Go forth and create and share and support each other in the forward march, my little mammal friends. (Yes, you.)
xxooAnnabeth
p.s. With great fanfare, I'm proud to announce that professionally-pressed physical copies of my album Surprise are available on Bandcamp. Just click here and find the link titled "Buy Now."
And wouldn't you know it, it's just in time for the holidays ;)
