Birthday

Last Sunday Richard, Caroline and I met my parents and my oldest sister, Teresa's and her daughter Rachel, to celebrate Teresa's 60th birthday together. (Teresa is a potter, mosaic tile worker and artist in general. There she is above. She won't mind me telling her age. She's like that.)

You might imagine some gloomy party in a retirement home or a low key afternoon in rocking chairs on the front porch with tea cakes and punch and coffee. Not these folks!

My father will turn 90 this winter. There he is in the picture at left. The cute girl in the photo is my neice, Rachel.

The family met at Dismals Canyon, a park in Northwest Alabama. It is an awesome place. Because of the jurassic look of the local fauna, the area was used as backdrop footage for the documentary, "When Dinosaurs Walked the Earth." The most extraordinary thing about the place are the bizarre little glow worms, the dismalites that give the caves their name, gracing the cave walls. These creatures are found only in China, New Zealand and this one series of caves in Alabama. How cool is that?

This is just the kind of thing that my folks enjoy. Nature excursions were common in my youth and I relished the experiences that my wonderful, down to earth parents exposed me to. Teresa especially enjoys the out doors. It was such a nice way to spend the day with family, out in nature. Mom and Dad skipped their usual Sunday morning trip to church, but if you ask me, the time spent in nature's ethereal magnificance was an excellent way to celebrate spirituality. There is my mom at left climbing down form a rock formation. She rocks!... (no pun intended)

We met about 11 am and started with a hike. This is a well worn path but much of the terrain requires climbing and squeezing through tight spots. Cool air seeps from the caves through cracks in the rock walls making it seem almost as if the outside is air conditioned.

Mom and Dad both seemed so excited and happy. Mother slowed the group down a bit, but not because she couldn't keep up. She likes to stop and check things out and go off on trails. Thankfully she did not dig up anything as she is want to do, often in areas that carry stiff penalties for taking wildlife from the park.

"Well, it needs thinning," has always been her reasoning when we remind her she is breaking the law. Luckily she has not been apprehended yet and so still remains a free woman and at the ready to 'thin' plants wherever needed.

After about an hour and a half we completed the hike and then proceeded to pull out the good food brought from home and had a lovely pot luck kind of picnic. Fresh fruits and vegetables, items ready for sandwhich making and yummy honey sweetened oat cake for Teresa and homemade ice cream for those in the group that can do dairy. Sadly I am not one of them.

After that was complete everyone headed for the creek except Daddy. He heroicly claimed he was going to watch over our belongings but I suspect he was planning some quiet time and a quick nap.

Now, I don't know if you have ever been swimming in a spring fed creek, but I am here to tell you that even in late July the water is quite chilly! My daughter Caroline was the first in. There she is at left. I reluctantly followed.

Teresa and Rachel stepped a toe in and were undecided and leaning toward a no. Then my mother, being as 'Marie' as ever, stands ups and anounces, "well, I learned to swim in a creek and this may be the last chance I have to do it again. I'm getting in!"

(There I am at left shivering and swimming. Not seen is Richard - he's behind the camera! ) Mother eased her way into the frigid water. Once swimming and moving around the overwhelming cold dissipates and the swim becomes quite refreshing... but it takes some guts to make that first plunge.

Teresa and Rachel, I guess feeling a bit called out by this senior woman braving the cold, relented and joined us in the water. All the women in the group took the plunge and we had a blast!

It was fun, the kind of fun that stays with you and bonds family and friend. At right see the gathering of Campbell women warming themselves back up on the rock bed before swimming again.

How lucky I feel to have my folks still with me, so strong and inspiring, so of the earth. Thanks for showing me what is important and how to really enjoy life. And I am determined, Marie Hamner Campbell, that you will yet swim in another creek!

Moonflower

Mindy, a fellow heartwood student, gave me some seeds way back in spring while I was still in yoga training. She described the beautiful night blooming flowers that had produced them and offered seeds to any of us that wanted. I took ten or so seeds and planted them in early summer. It seemed nothing would come of them.

I waited and waited and had all but given up and planned to use the large pot on the front porch for something else. Finally after weeks a little sprout poked its head through the soil. It grew and sent a small, semingly insignificant vine up the the side of the pot, but nothing terribly exciting.

And then two nights ago, right after the slug incident, we noticed this amazing bloom. It lasted just the night. How lucky we noticed. I think we might have missed it if Richard hadn't decided to get real close and personal with his slimey new friend.

I think one will open tonight. I'll be checking. Thanks Mindy!

July 4, 2009

Hell must be covered in ice!

I did what I once swore would never happen. I accepting a playing engagement for playing music in front of actual human beings!

Paul Walters, my music partner, and I have been practicing together for a couple of years. We figured out our singing and playing worked well together over the several months we both attended Bill Ledbetter's weekly living room jams just for fun. Both of us being non-smokers, we would fiddle around with guitar and vocal work waiting on the others to return from frequent smoke breaks. We discovered we harmonized well, liked the same kind of music and both love to be involved with music events whether playing, arranging or attending. Paul has worked City Stages every year since it's inception and is the president of the Magic City Blues Society. I've been involved in music since a child, from piano lessons to the high school marching band. I've explored various guitar styles and have always found playing music something I never seem to tire of.

It all started when Paul called one night, after attending a Gillian Welch show at Zydeco and said he had an idea that we should form a duet. I'd played for the dogs and cats all my life, but getting a taste of playing with others had begun to appeal to me and I was relieved to have another outlet since Bill had canceled the weekly open living room jams.

We had fun as I basically cut my teeth on my resonator with Paul. We were starting to get compfortable with some work. But then the duet had to take a back seat while I worked on my yoga teaching certification at heartwood. I assured him I would be back on, full tilt, once the course was complete. (at right, working with Gilda, my Johnson tricone)

I graduated the last weekend of May of this year and as promised, I started working more with daily practice and making our practice time together a priority. And then the call came. I knew it would come some day and I wondered how I would react.

Paul says, "We have an opportunity," and he told me of the South Side 4th of July Block Party, an event he had actually started in his old neighborhood near Lorino's grocery store some twenty years or so before. The location provides a great place for gathering and watching fireworks. I've attended a couple of them before. I never imagined I'd be playing one day.

I could hear something in his voice. He thinks I'm going to say no, and my first instinct is to say, "I'm not ready," but I didn't. To my own horror, I hear myself say, "Okay." Did I just say that. The event would be in some 5 days and I have just agreed.

We practice twice during the week and I practice morning and night, but my fear grows with each passing day. I can feel waves of nausia when I stop and think about what is coming. It feels like some dreaded surgery and prison conviction awaits me.

I've explored where this comes from. I think I have a couple of ideas, but it is quite profound. For instance, if I had 4 friends at my house and we were sitting around talking, I'd be happy as a clam. If I had to stand up and speak on something to them, and they were all sitting in chairs and watching, I'd stammer and stumble. Maybe lots of folks are this way, but to me it seems I'm the only one. I whine and complain and wring my hands and bore all my friends about this dreaded thing I must do.

And then Wendy, Paul's wife, calls me out. "Aren't you supposed to know how to calm down and get chilled out with all that yoga you've been studying?"

"Well, but, and well... yeah," I admit rather sheepishly.

(At left, before the performance with Wendy. I may look relaxed but it's a bit of an act. I am just about to play and I'm working really hard to keep myself even.)

Saturday I woke early to prepare, but not with study or practice. I would spend about two hours with a yoga practice. I did some vigorous yoga to expel my nervous energy. I performed several vinyasa's, a kind of yoga flow series, that revolved around warrior I and warrior II, good poses for summoning courage, and then I did a long Yoga Nidra meditation, a form of self hypnosis designed to reverse negative beliefs and implant more positive ones into the subconscious. My goal is to try and reprogram whatever is inside me that paralyzes me when asked to perform. It worked, too. I was strangely calm after my practice.

It was a small crowd and I must admit I was kind of relieved. And then a couple of my friends showed up to offer support. Thanks Shawn! And thanks, Lauren, you wonderful yogini! This on advice of my boss, Jon Adamson, who played in the local band, 4AM ten or so years ago. Such a nice guy - he tells me to be sure and have my 'fans' there for backup. He was right. I can hear Richard and Wendy and Lauren all cheering me on and it is so welcome and comforting to my ears.
(left - Paul Walters, and yours truly)

Afterward, I relax and have the time of my life. The night is perfect. The fireworks were lovely and the company was grand.

I did it.

What next?

(at right dancing with Lauren - I am definitely a lot more relaxed now!)