Five Years
I’m so glad we don’t really write our own stories. Even as a giddy young bride, my imagination could have never conceived the fullness and the joy the past five years have brought. Two children. One album. A house and a new album underway. Gallons of homemade ice cream. Much laughter. A few tears. The undercurrent of abiding joy ever present in it all. My cup overflows. Tonight, when my love gets home from a solo gig, we’ll eat pizza on our wedding china, and clink our glasses in celebration. Here’s to Five.
Simple Joys
A few things I’m feeling grateful for this morning:
- These long, full days of almost-summer. From morning to evening, time moves slow. Until, of course, I turn around and find an entire week, and then a month, and so on, have somehow disappeared in a blur. But the days, the moments, are there to savor when I remember to slow down and do so. I try to remember, and when I forget (as I too often d0), these little ones of mine are master teachers.
- Homemade strawberry ice cream made by my dear one last night.
- The abundance of wildflowers that seem to find their way into every Mason jar I own. My sweet flower picking girl; our resident florist.
- The tumbling of “words” from the mouth of a little boy who has a lot to say, and is now trying in earnest to figure out how exactly to do it. We watch and listen in wonder.
- Beautiful potato plants that survived the mighty thunder/hail storm yesterday evening. The onions, cabbages, and broccoli were not so lucky and we’re unsure about some of the seeds my parents planted day before yesterday when Mark and I were in Kingsport. Also feeling grateful that we had not yet set out tomato and pepper plants.
- Progress made at Windstone. Slowly, surely, we move forward.
- The long car rides lately that have given Mark and I the opportunity to write a few new songs. And the fact that we’ve managed to do so without ending up hiring a divorce lawyer…..although there were a few close calls.
- The soft, gray light of this early morning. I find my days go so much more smoothly when I get up to capture a few moments of quiet solitude before diving into the fray.
- Oh, but I am grateful for that joyful fray most of all…..
High Chair Graduation
Happy Mother’s Day
To my own mama, whose kind spirit and gentle guidance have never failed me. They say you never really know the extent of your mother’s love until you have children yourself. I think that is true. I know now, and I love you Mama.
To Loretta, my mother-in-law, who did a darn good job raising that sweet, handsome fellow of mine. Not only does he (almost always) leave the toilet seat down, he also makes up a bed with nice, neat hospital corners, and when there is ironing to be done in this house, he rushes to the rescue. That dashing smile and enviable head of hair gave him a head start, but you really made him a prize.
And to all the mothers I know and love, both my friends and my mentors, who daily inspire and encourage me. Happy Mother’s Day.
Pickin’ and Grinnin’
Matters of Faith
This morning, I’m hearing a lot of folks express disappointment and even shame regarding the Old North State. I’m not particularly proud of North Carolina at the moment either. However, while my expectations of my state (or any form of government….local, state, or national) were never all that high to begin with, what really troubles me this morning is the damage this debacle has done to my faith, or more accurately, an outsiders’ perception of the Christian faith. When I see the name of Jesus Christ dragged through the muck and mire of hatred, judgment, and hypocrisy, it absolutely breaks my heart.
What a tragedy, that the beautiful, divine message and life of Christ should be reduced to hateful politics in the guise of morality. Gandhi said it best, “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”
One of my favorite verses of the Bible is 1 John 4:8: “He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.” God is love. I love simplicity. I love that we don’t need big, fancy, lawyer-ish words to define right and wrong. God is love. That’s it. Let the rest sort itself out. Most mornings, Kate greets me with a sweet smile and then a flood of theological questions that continue throughout the day. Whenever I am at a loss to answer them (which is most of the time), I keep going back to that phrase. What is God? God is love. There’s a lot I don’t know about God. My faith is full of questions. Far more questions than answers. But underlying all those questions, doubts, and uncertainties is the simple truth that God is love. He doesn’t ask me to pass judgment on my fellow human beings. He doesn’t ask me to legislate their lifestyle. He just asks me to love them. I certainly don’t always do it, but a human law, one way or the other, is irrelevant and unnecessarily divisive.
I think the trouble starts when we try to impose a human understanding, and thus human limitations, on the divine. We think we need laws to prop up God’s will. We try to bind him up in the cloak of human understanding, and the results only serve to sully the perception of our faith. When people think of Christians, is the first thing that comes to mind, love? Do we truly love our neighbors, the way Christ loves us? Or are we too busy spending our time, energy, and money legislating our faith? Oh friends, we have a big God. Bigger than government. Bigger than time. Bigger than the cosmos. Infinitely bigger than our understanding. Let’s not try to shrink him down to fit our paltry notions of right and wrong.
I want to close with a quote from Madeleine L’Engle that I copied down in my journal a few weeks ago, when I was reading The Irrational Season. It seems especially fitting:
The only God who seems to me to be worth believing in is impossible for mortal man to understand, and therefore he teaches us through this impossible. But we rebel against the impossible. I sense a wish in some professional religion-mongers to make God possible, to make him comprehensible to the naked intellect, domesticate him so that he is easy to believe in. Every century the Church makes a fresh attempt to make Christianity acceptable. But an acceptable Christianity is not Christian; a comprehensible God is no more than an idol. I don’t want that kind of God.”
Neither do I.
Buttercups
The Song of the Buttercup Fairy
‘Tis I whom children love the best;
My wealth is all for them;
For them is set each glossy cup
Upon each sturdy stem.
O little playmates whom I love!
The sky is summer-blue,
And meadows full of buttercups
Are spread abroad for you.
This sweet little poem comes from The Complete Book of Flower Fairies by Cicely Mary Barker. We got Kate a copy for Easter and it is an absolute treasure. The illustrations are beautiful.
Musical Miscellany and Such
It’s been a chilly, rainy week around these parts, and I’ve been fighting off a yucky cold for the better part of it. I’m doing much better now, but not worth shooting a few days ago. Things are looking up. I can breathe again, and tomorrow is supposed to be much warmer.
I wanted to pop in and share this video with you, taken by the good folks at Plottfest last weekend. Mark and I had such a good time that day, playing music, visiting with old friends and making new ones too. Our pal Milan Miller played with us that day, and wow! I could get used to that. Such an amazing talent. Not to mention, a rockin’ collection of gig shirts.
All you Andy Griffith show fans will recognize this song from the Darlings (The Dillards). Just call me Charlene. It’s one of our favorites, and we were honored to also have Mr. Darren Nicholson of Balsam Range join us on mandolin.
Check out Plottfest’s YouTube channel for more performances from the day. I especially love this song, “Travelin’ Teardrop Blues” from Darren’s Band. And so many great performances from Balsam Range! Mark and Milan wrote this song together, “The Other Side,” and those boys do an absolutely smokin’ version of it.
In the likelihood that I won’t get around to posting tomorrow, I’ll go ahead and let you local folks know that tomorrow night (Friday, April 27th) Mark and I will be playing the Lobster Trap, downtown Asheville, 7 – 9. Saturday night, April 28th, we’re looking forward to the Hunter’s Dinner at the Big Ivy Community Center, where we’ll be eating wild game and playing some tunes with our dear friend Mr. Emmet Carney on fiddle and mandolin. What with Plottfest last week and the Hunter’s Dinner this week, I’m starting to think I might need to invest in a camouflage gig dress. Thoughts? Anyway, dinner starts around 6:00, and we’ll start playing around 6:30. Love to see you!
Listening To…..The Louvin Brothers
Mark just finished reading this book: Satan is Real: The Ballad of the Louvin Brothers. How do you like that cover? That’s the sort of book one should never read on a Kindle or iPad. No sir. That’s a book to be read brazenly out in public, in a coffeshop or perched on a park bench; the curious, startled second glances of passers-by making up more than half the fun. Mark very much enjoyed the book (read mostly at home on the couch, I’m sorry to say), and although I haven’t read it yet, he’s told me so many of the colorful stories (to put it mildly) contained in those pages, that I’m deeply regretting taking it back to the library before reading it myself. That’s something I intend to remedy soon.
The Louvin Brothers revolutionized two-part harmony singing in country music, but the story behind their music is much more dark and disturbing than one might think. Ira, in particular, was what can only be called a tortured soul. Apparently there was quite a contrast between the two brothers’ personalities, and like many brother bands, Charlie and Ira had more than their fair share of squabbles and all out brawls offstage.
Onstage, however, they were able to put all that aside and create one of the most dynamic, iconic sounds country music has ever known. Mark and I have been listening to the greatest hits album in awe and wonder. It’s absolutely breathtaking. If you aren’t listening carefully, and sometimes even if you are, it’s hard to tell where one voice leaves off and the other begins. Ira’s wailing tenor is always immediately recognizable, but the way they flip the parts around is amazing. They make it sound so easy, so effortless, but I can tell you, in my experience at least, it’s anything but. Mark said the book talked about how much of the basis of their technique was learned at one of the shape note singing schools that were so popular throughout the south in the 20s and 30s. I remember my grandmother once telling me that her parents had gone to one of those and afterward, would go around the house singing the notes instead of the words, in a silly sort of way that made all the (seven!) children double over with laughter. I’d like to know more about those shape note schools….they seem interesting from both a musical and historical perspective. So often I find myself longing for a time when people had to come up with their own entertainment. We lose so much through the passivity of a screen based world.
At the same time, it is a shame there aren’t more live video performances of the Louvin Brothers. Such a remarkable thing to watch. There are of course several albums. We also really like this compilation cd by Carl Jackson featuring contemporary performers rendering Louvin Brother songs. I think my favorite is James Taylor and Allison Krauss singing, “How’s the World Treating You.”
Needless to say, Mark and I working on a few Louvin Brother songs to add to our set list.
Speaking of our music, if you live in the WNC area, Mark and I will be playing Plott Fest tomorrow in Waynesville, NC. We’ve been really looking forward to this event. Our good buddy Milan Miller is joining us for this show, and we’re super excited about that. Milan will also be playing with us at the Bristol Rhythm and Roots festival in September (and really whenever we can talk him into making the trip out from Nashville!). At Plott Fest tomorrow, we’re excited to be opening up for bluegrass rock stars Balsam Range. Many of you local folks will know that Buddy Melton, lead singer of the band (and a former band mate of Mark’s from the Jubal Foster days), recently underwent a serious farming accident that required an extended hospital stay and several surgeries, but we are so happy that he is doing much, much better and we look forward to seeing him and the rest of the Balsam Range boys at Plott Fest this weekend. Hope you local folks can make it out!
And So It Begins
We’re staggering the garden planting a bit this year. Monday night, we planted a row of green beans (state half runners), some broccoli and cabbage, and a few yellow squash, zucchini squash, and cucumber plants. We also planted a nice little hill of carrots, despite the fact that we’ve never ever managed to coax a carrot to grow into anything edible. Dreams never die. Here’s hoping the rain that’s been falling all night and still coming down this morning will give it all a much-needed soak.
