Saturday, 2-5pm, the Inn at St. Peters Village, our favorite place to be in the summer, on the deck over the rocks and rushing water and trees; the waterfalls, the scantily clad diving teenagers, the goats on leashes, Horseshoe Trail hiking, yep - that St. Peters. Worth the drive from anywhere, feels like you went far away to reach a unique vacation spot. There is word of a three-day-long party next door at the Culture Den - the owner is turning the ripe old age of 30, so be prepared for lots of young hipsters hanging on the rocks and many kinds of healers and musicians wandering around. The bakery is tops, there is an antique pinball parlor, as well as a winery. The inn is a bed and breakfast - so you can stay overnight if you are having too much fun to leave, and if you don't mind ghosts, or especially if you LIKE ghosts.
If all that isn't enough fun - we are debuting some new songs. I have been working on Shiny Happy People for FOUR YEARS, and we think it is ready for prime time! It isn't the easiest song for Dave either, but it is ready! More or less. We are also definitely ready with Dave's newest blues original - Sweet Water - plus a DaveLovesDonna version of Louise, and we have a couple more almosts - like Fleetwood Mac's Dreams, Karla Bonoff's Home, Me and Bobby McGee. Thanks to all who made last Friday @ The Ship Inn fulfill all of the hopes and dreams we hold for our shows. It is hard to express the joy we feel as we watch strangers become friends before our eyes, as we see connections being made, people singing, people hugging. Magic. Shiny Happy People! For anyone following our saga, I wrote last time about our struggle to recover from over-busyness and get back to the business of creativity. In the past week, we have written and rewritten our Mission Statement, prioritized our daily tasks, and instituted morning band meetings - fashioned after the ones on Flight of the Concorde (yes, we take roll call) - as we feel our way through this life on Planet Earth. The outcome feels really good. Healthy Lifestyle remains Priority #1, and we are scoring high marks here - lots of aerobics (running for me & the dogs and mowing for Dave), lots of yoga, great nutrition straight out of the garden, meditation, sleep and mindful alcohol consumption. The rest of the priorities got rearranged - thankfully, as our priority list last week reflected how we were actually spending time, not how we want to be spending time, with business and chores on top and creativity at the bottom. With clear vision, we yanked creativity out of Spot #7 and put it in its rightful place - #2, and we now are consciously spending time and energy on writing, recording, and video BEFORE we do chores. A close #3, kind of 2a, is skill development, because if we don't constantly improve our musical, writing, recording and video skills, the stuff we create will just stay in our heads and not create peace on earth - our ultimate goal. The mundane has been dragged down to the bottom - farm and business chores. This was a big letting go for us - because we love our farm stuff, but by putting creativity ahead, if we don't have time for a chore, we either have to let it go (smaller gardens?) or hire someone else to do it. Most importantly, by consciously lifting creativity to the top of our priority list, we are giving our muse notice that we are ready, willing and able to receive and work on whatever projects are out there for us (this makes more sense if you have read Elizabeth Gilbert's Big Magic). We have focused our attention in a happy place. What ensued from all this introspection was a STELLAR week. Several new cover songs are in the works, our songlist has been revamped, but more importantly, work has been done on our newest originals and towards the recording of the new CD and even on our screenplay. We are back on track! Thanks for following along! See you on Saturday! Love&Peace, Donna&Dave
0 Comments
This Friday, The Ship Inn, 7:30-10:30pm, Exton/Malvern Cozy and friendly, great food and drink, lots of folks singing along - we play inside, so it is nice and cool. A little quieter here in the summer, but we still recommend that you call ahead to reserve a table where you can hear the music. Close to everywhere, near the intersections of Rts. 202, 30, 100(& just S of the turnpike).
And that is the only gig this week, folks! Summer is a wonderful time in a performer's world - lots of opportunities to perform. Too late, as our summer bobsled was careening out of control downhill, we noticed that performing a few times a week had COMPLETELY stopped our creative process. No time at all for writing or recording, or even for learning new cover songs, as all available energy stores were used on preparing for our shows and performing. We both grabbed the brake handle and pulled back, and now our ship has righted itself, and our mission is to put a goodly measure of our energy into the creative process, as well as back into health and well-being. Balance - sometimes you have to fight for it. We live in a world with so very many enticing options - choosing is the tough part. This morning, to guide us in making those difficult choices about time and energy expenditures, we made a chart of our stuff-of-life priorities. Our only goal is to add to Universal love, peace and happiness. To accomplish this at all effectively, we decided to rank our daily activities in order of necessity and importance. We put health at the top of the list, with the subcategories of yoga, aerobic exercise, weights, nutrition, meditation, sleep, and mindful alcohol consumption. Second is business - caring for and growing the business and our finances; third is farm management. Those things gotta get done. Fourth on our list is caring for the environment, both through my job with the land trust and through managing our woods and meadow and developing educational programs here. Fifth is skill development: practicing and learning new things in music and video. Keep in mind, our main goal was to make creativity a priority, and now here it is - coming in ranked at a lowly #6. It seems impossible, since it feels like our main priority, our calling, but the reality is, these other things HAVE to be done. We are hoping the trick is managing these other areas in such an efficient way that we get to #6 quickly each day. Ending up the list at #7 is fun & social events (these got a huge demotion), and we forgot to add in rest, which I guess will come in at #8. If any of you have a better plan, we would appreciate the advice! We are trying to feel our way through this life the best we can. It sure is fun, though, all the time, in all of our activities, to share love*music*happiness with all you dear, shining souls. We often feel like our hearts will burst, but they don't, they just grow. Peace&Love, Donna&Dave |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
September 2019
Categories |