Monday Meditation II

Hello and welcome

Welcome and hello..

Can we find JOY in our RESPONSIBILITIES?

Hello and welcome  to a world of RESPONSIBILITIES...

If we're not careful we can loose OURSELVES  in our RESPONSIBILITIES and let them  solely define who we are. Yes we work, but is our LIFE work?

Yes we have to work at Life, constantly evolving and devolving even at the same time.

We can forget who we are.

And when we are lost we can REMEMBER

WE ARE ALIVE,

which means we are CHANGING...

If we are CHANGING, are we GROWING or DYING?

And if we are GROWING, we are CONTINUING.

ADDING ON to what we've already built.

And yes we can also GROW in NEW WAYS.

If we are DYING, it may not necessarily mean DEATH...

We may be DYING to an old way making room for SOMETHING NEW

Either way WE are CHANGING.

GROWING or DYING

REGARDLESS OF WHICH EVER CHANGE IS TAKING PLACE,

I like to always ask

ARE WE HAVING FUN?

ARE WE LIVING A LIFE THAT IS JOYFUL?

I know I have a big mouth. I try and use it for GOOD and TRUTH. To FEEL the 

LIGHT and LOVE . I try and remind people WE are not alone.  Remind people that WE are LOVED UNCONDITIONAL. And TOGETHER WE ARE STRONGER.

We ALL have work to do. We ALL have responsibilities.  We are ALL alive, growing or dying.

The Creator, the Family, the Friends, the work, the choices, this very LIFE, is available to be lived in JOY.

Last week we talked about spreadin' LOVE all over the BREAD that is this LIFE.

Let's take another slice out of the loaf of LIFE and spread some JOY all over this one. Be generous with it. Don't be shy. It's organic. ;) 

Let's let our JOY be overflowing, so it can only be SHARED.

speaking of sharing we are very excited to say we are in the last leg of recording MAKE HOPE

and can not wait to share it with YOU.

We have a bunch of new summer dates as well, so stay tuned

PEACE and MANY MANY THANKS

MAKE A JOYFUL SOUND

Meditation Monday

Hello and welcome to Monday...
Happy Belated Mother's Day to ALL the MoMs out there, including our MOTHER EARTH.
Because of you we have LIFE.

And LIFE was meant to be LIVED

so I pose a few questions I ask myself quite often;

a daily examine of SELF if you will...

IS THIS LIVING?

DO YOU DEFINE YOURSELF BY YOUR WORK, OR IS IT ONLY A PIECE OF THE WHOLE YOU?

WHO IS IT FOR?

WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS?

Here's one of my favorites...

ARE YOU HAPPY?

ARE YOU DOING WHAT YOU CAME HERE TO DO?

I came HERE to spread LOVE all over the BREAD that is this LIFE. I LOVE YOU and ALWAYS HAVE. As other WARRIORS of the HEART know, LOVE is VULNERABLE and has no problem looking out FOR OTHERS. Time spent LOOKING out for OTHERS, WORRYING about OTHERS, especially for the LOVERS who want to GIVE and SHARE their gaze can grow OUTWARD. EMERGENT and GIVING EVERYTHING to EVERYONE. And if ALL you want to DO is GIVE to OTHERS, you BETTER be GIVING from a SOLIDLY STRONG FOUNDATION so you HAVE SOMETHING to GIVE. So LOVE yourself; FREELY GIVING YOURSELF TO BE THE LOVE THIS WORLD NEEDS.

Life has always been changing, these last two years have been "very eventful" to say the least.

Dreams mix with reality, blessings of touring the country sharing the gifts of music, meeting people that have helped write the STORY of ROCK N ROLL. MUSIC and LIFE. 

And when there's LIGHT there has to be DARK

HOW WOULD WE KNOW THE DIFFERENCE?

As AMAZING as EVERYTHING has been there's been some hard parts. Trust has been tested, the strength of communication have proven valuable and FORGIVENESS IS PRICELESS.

I'm not just talking about forgiving other people, what I'm talking about is FORGIVING YOURSELF. 

When things are changing at a rapid rate it's easy to FORGET WE ARE MORE THAN ONE THING.

SO SIMPLIFY

BRING IT BACK TO THE ROOTS

WE ARE

MOTHER,  FATHER, SON, DAUGHTER, HOLY SPIRIT

AND WE HAVE MANY GIFTS TO SHARE

I'M GOING TO WRAP MINE IN LOVE

PEACE PEACE PEACE

The Catch Up

Monday finds us here that made it through the night. Good day and welcome to LIFE.
Some do it wrong and some do it right, but people's rights could be wrong, and yes wrongs can be made right.

Wrong and Right, Black and White, This or That

Peppered throughout and in between and right in the middle of ALL OF IT is TRUTH.

and TRUTH BE TOLD is BOLD and is in the eyes of EVERYONE. 

We last left off on Thursday morning in St. Louis at FOX2, later that day we headed to 

THE PAGEANT, and what a glorious garden of wood, concrete and sound equipment. 

We walked in, walked through a room and walked through another door and the next room opened up into a HUGE room,where the vibration lingered of night after night of magic and sound. Here's a pic from soundcheck to help give light to the visual recantation. 

 The evening was a light bulb to turn the light on and bring awareness to what VARIETY   does for so many families and their children. Even during soundcheck we had visitors, and the joy they brought like earlier in the day was holding hands with truth and you could honestly FEEL it. To sit in the same room, "a HUGE room" with TRUTH and GENUINE PURE JOY we were very lucky, honored and privileged to share in the MOMENT. There was also some radio winners that got to chill and watch us check the sound. We met them as well. And as we were wrapping up, there was a couple reporters that had some questions. 

One of the more eventful soundcheck/being of service/interviews/meet and greets before the show. But to be HONEST with you, ALL of IT was AWESOME and TOTALLY GENUINE. An exchange of energy. Super cool.

After all was said and done we went to prepare for the SHOW and make way for the evening to BEGIN.

Families from the charity began to speak about their life and what it's like to have children with physical disabilities and also what it's like to have a place that helps with that. It's very cool to share the evening with folks who HELP PEOPLE THROUGH THEIR STRUGGLES WITH POSITIVE SOLUTIONS. So with the REASON and PURPOSE stated of why we were HERE, the music commenced. OLD SALT UNION, took to the stage with some St. Louis Bluegrass...some cool harmonies and lots of pickin. A very warm and organic way to start the evening.

 BLESSED and ABLE we took to the stage to sing our SONGS OF HOPE and THE STRUGGLE, LOVE and LOSS. FALLING but GETTING BACK UP. 

SEARCHING

SEEKING

The songs were sung, we played from our ideas of SOURCE.

From our MINDS, From our HEARTS, and From our SPIRITS

And we gave it to the people

The SHOW was over and again what was 90 minutes seemed to vanish in the PASSION and HEART of MUSIC AND SONG. It was wonderful to meet the kind folks of St. Louis and to some that traveled from around the area THANK YOU for your LOVE and SUPPORT. It touches my HEART and makes it SMILE. Thank you Thank you Thank you..

And as fast as we came down to St. Louis we left and were on our way back HOME, that same night of MAGIC and SOUND. We made it half way there, slept and woke up late morning and kept heading north. We made it back to the great state of MINNESOTA, got the van unloaded, said goodbye to the band, showered, changed and headed to the next gig to see some friends who I played with last year. They were playing a gig for  ROTARY 5950, again another group of folks trying to make a positive impact in their COMMUNITY and the  WORLD. So when they asked me to come play a couple of songs, with them I could not say no. They are a ST. PAUL band that started playing music together in 1978, they are FREE and EASY . The keyboardist Scott and I met last year at another community function. We found a commonality in trying to use music with arrangements, parts, depth, skill and a message to inspire people. Especially people that are in positions to influence POSITIVE CHANGE in THEIR COMMUNITIES and in THE SAME BREATH THE WORLD. Plus it was at the RADISON BLU and that place is AWESOME. They always have such a cool vibe, amazingly inspiring art, the design is sleek and pretty far-out. I always getting pretty fired up when I'm there. And the FireLake Grill House is equally as inspiring.  Another VH1 Behind the music, is that's where my WIFE and I stayed the night we got married. Yet another reason this place is special. Here's the guys and one of the ballrooms at the Blu.

From our HEARTS and HOMES to the streets. In coffee houses and restaurants and bars.

In churches and temples and theaters and performing art centers. In old halls and ballrooms. To amphitheaters and arenas. To television and motion pictures. From our birth to our death beds music provides the soundtrack of our lives. It helps paint a bigger picture of where and what and who and how  and why we are. We become part of the song that's been playing since the dawn of time. Probably even before the whole thing started. 

What's your soundtrack sound like?

As always in PEACE

and many many THANKS

The Morning LIGHT

Good filled with the most good morning or late morning, early afternoon folks n folks.

I always blog after the fact and this is an attempt to do what I FEEL and FEEL like saying THANK YOU. Thank for  the ability to allow us to practice what we preach, to walk and be what we pray and hope for, and to turn the light on and be a reminder that we are ALL lights. We sure found some LIGHTS in St Louy folks.  This morning found us at  FOX 2, to help share the news of what we're doing here in St. Louy.

We are playing at THE  PAGEANT TONIGHT as part of their Night of the Rising Stars which brings music and charity together. The charity we are "dancing" with tonight is VARIETY ,the children's charity. Variety has been helping children with physical and mental disabilities since 1932. Some of the kids got to come to the news station this morning, and their PURE TRUE JOY was contagious. The cup of my heart is full. Thank you Brian and the rest of the folks at VARIETY for making a positive difference in the lives of many families. Thank you for helping them and allowing them to be KIDS. 

So excited to play and be part of something so sweet and positive. Something so genuine...Doors open at 7pm tonight the show is 8pm. Old Salt Union will be kickin the night off.

IN LOVE N LIGHT

PEACE and MANY MANY MANY THANKS

HEY NOW and HOLY BUCKETS

AMEN

See you on the road....