It's Back

A few years ago, someone built a dirt track across the river and through the woods from us.

Every Saturday night, our peaceful bit of heaven on earth turned into sounds from hell.

Finally, who knows what happened, but one Saturday night a couple of summers ago, the rages of testosterone driven, gas guzzling, wasting vehicles stopped.

Tonight, when we came home from spending a wonderful afternoon with our friend Fred, we got out of the truck and heard the screams of speeding cars blowing gas out of their exhaust like it was confetti. I am just so sorry that the folks driving these cars don't live here so they could experience first hand how much noise pollution they create on what use to be peaceful Saturday

nights.

So its back. The beast that was created by folks unmoved by the recent oil spill in the gulf, or by the deaths of thousands who have died in the middle east to keep the supply of oil coming so it can be wasted by someone driving in circles on a dirt track.

Coming of Age

I have finally come into the twenty first century........well sorta. My cd player that I use in my yoga classes died Monday. I go through a couple a year, it just seemed like such a waste to keep buying disposable cd players. One of my students suggested I use my I-phone, Rick had also suggested it, the light bulb finally flashed over my head and I came home and asked for help. So Rick went to Best Buy, got me my own docking station, helped me load my cds to my IPod app, and I now have music o'plenty! It's all right there at my finger tips, I am so excited!

And yes, I am ready to acknowledge that technological advances can be a good thing. It's just that I don't want to give up paper books. I love to write cards and letters. And I still love my albums.

In my own time I am coming of age. It has been a slow process, and I still kick and scream about it sometimes, but I am getting there.

I keep reading stories about teen/tweens who text so much that they are losing social skills.

I think that even though the world seems to be shrinking, we spend so much time with our lap tops, and cell phones that we are evolving into some sort of mutant communicative challenged

species who will forget about books, news papers, and phonograph records and just be content

to sit around and stare at those glowing screens.

Ok, now that that is off my chest! I am loving IPod for music, and yes it is simpler, so now I am eating crow, and it's pretty tasty.

Joy

I have a photo on my desk by my computer, a friend made it for me. It is a collage of things that reminded her of me. There is a lotus blossom(of course), ohm sign, lavender flowers, and musical references, and a large JOY. It holds a photograph of she and I and another good friend. I look at this photo every time I sit at my desk and I always smile. There are the three of us smiling, with this huge JOY right by our faces.

The past couple of days I have centered my yoga classes around joy. It is so easy to be distracted by life, that we forget to have joy. I love the hand mudra for joy and I taught that to my classes this week too. Just a way to remind ourselves to look for the joy in our lives.

Joy is such a simple thing. It can be cold creamy ice cream cone on a hot summer day or a mug of steaming hot chocolate on a cold wintry day. It can be the smile of some one you love as they come into the room, or a hug from a friend when they see you. Joy happens in moments, just fleeting seconds , those ah ha moments when it is all good.

No matter how bad it gets, no matter how beaten and sad you feel, if you give yourself the chance you can find joy........how you may ask? Think of someone, of some place or some thing

that has given you joy. That sensation is so strong, so ingrained in our hearts that once we are reminded , you feel joy!

The wonderful thing about joy, it goes hand in hand with gratitude. If some thing, some one gives you joy, you just have to be grateful, and once you are grateful, there is joy. It becomes

a circle.

I read a story recently about a young girl who lived in a war torn country. Food was scarce, fear was every where, but there was a cherry tree growing near her. She watched as spring brought

blossoms to the tree, and then as green fruit appeared, and then finally one day, Ripe Cherries!!!! She said that she and her friends and families ate themselves silly, it had been so long since they had had fresh fruit. Those cherries brought joy into her life, and I can promise you, for the rest of her life, whenever she sees or thinks about cherries, she will experience that moment of joy.

It is so easy to dwell on the bad, and even easier sometimes to forget the good. If we could all just once a day, find joy. Take a few seconds to think about something/someone who give us joy. It's there just waiting for us to rediscover it...........find joy.

Road Warrior

I love to drive. There is something so soothing, with the scenery passing by, the white lines moving, racking up those miles. I have an old Volvo, and her name is Ingrid. She is a 1996 with 223,000miles and still going strong. She is a deep forest green with British tan interior and a great stereo system. My plan is to put at least another 100,000 miles on her.

Ingrid is the first automatic transmission that I had driven in years. I learned to drive on an automatic, but after Rick and I got married, there was not much money for a car. I had driven ancient ones, until we finally decided we could afford a Honda Civic.....with no extras. No air conditioner, no auto trans. We went to Jasper to the Honda dealership and there was a little red Civic, with no extras. We signed the papers and Rick left for work. As the salesman was getting everything together for me, keys, etc. I told him I had a couple of questions, so he said sure, ask away. So, I said, let me get this straight, first gear is really slow, the second is a little faster,

then third, and fourth is highway and each time I shift I push the clutch in, right? He looked at me with panic in his eyes, and asked if I was kidding. No, I said, I read about straight shifts, and I am sure I can drive one. He freaked, he kept saying that he would get someone to drive me home. I told him, I had to learn sometime, that I had to get to work and I would be fine. I am sure when I left the car lot that day, he was sweating bullets.

I loved shifting gears, it is such a fun way to drive. After the Civic, I had a Grand Am and then a

Ford Explorer, they were all straight shifts and I loved driving them all! But I kept looking at old Volvos and when a friend of mine wanted to sell Ingrid I jumped at the chance to get her! She would be perfect if she were a straight shift!

My friend Jackie and I go to yoga teacher trainings together all the time. At first, Jackie would always offer to drive or help me with the driving. I finally convinced her that I just love to drive.

It is almost meditative for me. When I am driving, any worries that I have seem to just fade away. Traffic seldom bothers me. I turn on the stereo and just sing.

Once, several years ago, Rick and I and a friend of ours, drove to Norfolk,Va.. We left one afternoon after work. The plan was I would drive and then on down the road they would help.

I drove all night. I woke them when we got to Virginia.

Maybe in a parallel universe I am driving a big rig cross country, or a covered wagon east to west. I just know, I am a road warrior. I love the road, the feel of the steering wheel in my hands, and the passing of towns and road signs. The road offers possibilities, there are turns, and curves,hills and valleys, you can make the choice to turn left or right or stay straight.

The highway takes you to cities and deserts, through the mountains and plains, you are out there, yet isolated with in the confines of your car. It is a modern day marvel, this ability to set out on the open road and go where ever your heart leads.

Memories of Heat

This heat wave that we have experienced the past few days........well it is surely stirring up memories. I have always said that it is the heat and humidity that makes southern writers go to the edge and if my theory is correct, there should be some amazing writing taking place in the south about right now!

Today thoughts of 1980, Rick had been sent to Mobile to help restore telephone service to the area after Hurricane Fredrick struck in 79. He and the crew were at the Howard Johnson's when he called and told me it was going to be a long stay, several months. So, I packed up some clothes and drove to Mobile.

It was a long hot dry summer. The guys would work 10 to 12 hours a day, I would just hang out at the pool. After awhile that got to be boring, so I came home, got a grill, a crock pot and a cooler.

Went back to Mobile, and started cooking dinner every night for 5 or 6 guys.

I cooked every thing from venison roast to chili in our room, and served home cooking to Rick and his friends.

As the heat became more oppressive, we began to drive to the beaches in the evenings. Sometimes to Pensacola, sometimes to Biloxi. When the nights no longer grew cooler(as it is doing here now) we found even better ways to amuse ourselves and stay cool. There was a Krispy Kreme donut shop down the street from the hotel, at 11:30 every night hot donuts rolled down a conveyor belt. We were there around 11:25, we'd pick up a couple of dozen, add a couple of six packs of cold beer, and drive out to the causeway. We would watch shooting stars, drink those cold beers, eat hot donuts and dangle our feet in warm gulf water.

One evening we decided to drive over to Fairhope and hang out. Fairhope was a quaint little town, with a small city park and beach area. We had just driven up, and started to walk down to the water, when people from all directions came running, yelling Jubilee, Jubilee!!!!!

Turns out some sort of strange tide, moon/stars thing(there is a scientific explanation) and the fish all swim to the beach.......not just a few, but every fish, shrimp. crab in the area comes inland and all you have to do is reach down and grab handfuls of them! People came with garbage cans, bags, buckets, anything they could grab to land themselves a seafood feast. I had never seen anything like it before or since!

We also drove down to New Orleans and had quite a few adventures, but I will tell those some other time . As a teaser, one story involves red cowboy boots, another our German Shepherd and well, like I said, I will share those on down the road.

So tonight, hot donuts, cold beer and feet dangling in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, maybe not your idea of cool, but don't knock it til you've tried it.

Homesick

I looked at my photos from Ireland a few days ago. I have had such a longing to go back and visit and play music. Looking at the photographs, brought back so many memories. Every Christmas I paint Dominic and Tony Christmas cards and I keep promising that we are coming back.

They are the duo, that we played several pubs with, met their families, spent time in their homes. I miss the green. I miss people who love music, a good chat, can spin a good story, and make you feel so much at home, that even after 10 years, you still feel homesick.

The day we got on the plane, as we were leaving Shannon airport, the tears began to stream down my face. I was homesick for a place that I had not even left yet. I have always felt that I left a part of me there. I love the crisp cool air, the rough seas, the rocky coasts, the simple way of life.

I love the fact that music, is as much a part of life there as tv is here. I love the honesty of the Irish, their toughness, and their kindness, and their work ethic.

As the temperature has hovered near 100 for the past few days, I really miss the climate of Ireland. I am one of those strange ducks, that doesn't mind the rain, the grey skies or the cool days. 80 degrees for a high in mid summer is good for me!

As I looked through those photographs, memories of the grand times we had , came rushing back. One of the funniest, we had played with Tony and Dominic at a pub called Characters in Tullamore, and as we were doing the last set, a group of very rowdy Irish undertakers on convention came in to listen and have a pint. As I finished the last song and we left the stage,

the largest one in the group, came over, hoisted me over his shoulder and yelled to the others

that he wanted me to birth his children! Well, Rick, Tony and Dominic just stood there and laughed, when he finally put me down, I said something to the guys about no one came to my rescue, they looked at me like I was crazy and finally Dominic said, "he was twice the size of any of us" and we all had a good laugh!

Music is so important there, everywhere we went, we were treated like rock stars. People followed us from pub to pub. To show their appreciation, they would buy us pints of Guinness. One night I looked down at the stage and there were 24 pints! We got to a pub another night and had not had a chance to eat. The woman who owned the pub, went to her house and brought us back part of her own family's supper. It was though acts of kindness that followed us from town to town.

So tonight, it is 90 degrees here in Empire, Al. and I am homesick. Homesick, for the kindness of strangers, and the joy of playing those incredible pubs where no one ever wanted me to stop singing. Homesick,for a walk on a sandy, rocky beach where the waves crash against the rocks and the air is cool and fresh.

Beat the Heat

Rick mentioned this morning that my last few entries had been "heavy". I think that was a just a nice way of saying lighten up, it's 100 degrees outside!

So, I thought I'd share with you all a way to beat the heat. My great nephew, Jordan came over yesterday evening and asked if he could play in the sprinkler. So we hooked up the sprinkler out back, turned it on and WOW.......instant fun, instant cool! Jordan's mom, Samantha and I were blowing bubbles while he ran through the streams of water. Jordan is a very smart two year old and he soon figured out how to control the pressure and directions of the streams, after about three minutes he was shooting water at Sam and I and all three of us got soaked! There were lots of giggles, a couple of slips on the wet grass, and the heat no longer existed.

If the heat at your house is unbearable today, just go hook up the sprinkler, invite a couple of kids over, nibble on Popsicles, and I promise the heat will disappear at your house too!