A Sense of Place

Years ago I read words by Wendell Berry to the effect of of:
We can't really know WHO we are unless or until we know WHERE we are.

He seemed to be referring to the power of specific geographic location to influence how we function — how we develop as a community, what we eat, what we wear, the inspiration for poetry and music— based on the soil, the climate, the species present and a multitude of other factors outlined by the natural world.  Similarly, Michigan nature writer Stephanie Mills advises us, "Know thyself—and thy wildflowers!"  Good advice.

In the three years I've been working on this CD, I struggled to find a title, until I remembered the power of Place. It is a thread that runs through the songs from the first tune advocating for choosing Love, Peace, Compassion, and a Smile instead of the opposite, or you'll be on a "Detour Road."

One track on the project moves me deeply each time I hear it.  It is sung by the phenomenal late Keith Palmer, (1957-1996) who sang this as a demo for me in 1992. He later recorded for Epic Records.
(See and hear more about Keith here:http://www.mkoc.com/hidden/KeithPalmer/keith.htm)

 I always felt like the song was not quite finished until his family gave me permission to include it with new added lyrics which we wove into the old recording.   This song, now with a new name, "Only One" finally feels right.  Rob Matson, The World's Best Sound Engineer, in my book, did skilled job of weaving new harmonies and depth into a beautiful old recording.  I hope that I can keep a bit of the legacy of Keith's beautiful voice alive by including it on this project. Profound thanks to his family for allowing me to share it with you.

(samples of all the songs at CDBaby Earth Mama  and up on my website soon)
Please check back soon for more insider stories of A Sense of Place. I'll feature some of the other players, inspiration for the songs, humor in the studio, etc.  Please feel free to ask questions and leave comments.

Coming next:  Why a Christmas song for the bonus track?
Who is Edgar Fawcett?  What harmonica player is making his recording debut on this CD?

Food Groups and Musical Variety

June Raspberries

YUM! Mixed variety of raspberries

I've been listening to a big variety of music lately.
It started me thinking about how important a variety of music might be to make sure to get a balanced diet of the arts.

Seriously, I can only listen to a few songs of certain kinds of music (Bluegrass, Hard Rock, serious Jazz) before I NEED to hear something else.  Then I go back to my standard courses of salad, favorite cheese, chicken, garden veggies kind of music.


But it is really good for me to try a little kimchee, chili rellenos, Thai tea and others that I don't have much of in my diet.  Pizza is a nice change, but I wouldn't want to eat it every day.  Same with music.

I got a package in the mail recently of a new children's CD called Gratitude Attitude    They included one my songs "Only Take What You Need" which I wrote and recorded a few (quite a few) years back on Around the World with Earth Mama.  It is a Dixieland Jazz song that is another version of Reduce, Reuse and Recycle concept.  I still love to sing it in concert and get folks, young and old to sing along.  And I was tickled pink that several reviews of Gratitude Attitude mentioned my song as one of their family favorites.

But I may never write or record another DixieLand tune.  It's not really at the core of what I do, so I really enjoyed the variety of doing it once.

There is a world of tasty music out there!! What do you listen to when you want to hear something different?    

Groovy!

Last weekend, after Spiritual Directors Intl conference, in Minneapolis/St Paul airport I encountered an airport employee who has reminded me all week to see beauty and joy wherever we find it.  In his twenties, with a slight Asian accent, he looked at my bright purple and turquoise zigzag patterned bag and exclaimed, "Groovy!"  

 Then he looked and me and said, "I can't believe your bag made me say "Groovy! I never say Groovy.  It just makes me so happy to look at its colors and patterns."   

I bought it at TJMaxx because NO ONE could ever confuse it on the conveyor with another.  I did not even realize it was Groovy until he pointed it out.  (My husband called it Loud.)

Amid all the sorrow, bad news and unkindness in the world, may you continue to find something Groovy each day and share it with fellow Earthlings.

This coming weekend is Earth Day.  We are reminded to widen our circle of compassion to all living things and systems we share the energy of the universe with.  Some of them are pretty Groovy,

NAAEE Crowd Inspiring and Supportive Community

This week, I have had the pleasure to spend time with some of the most innovative and determined individuals, who are responsible for the future of our Earth. They are the educators who work tirelessly to provide knowledge and instill responsibility in our future generations. I'm attending the North American Association for Environmental Education 41st Annual Conference, Gaining Perspective: Seeing EE Through Different Lenses.

My presentations to this group have been focused on music in education. This is where Earth Mama began, working in my son's classrooms, with his peers and his teachers, advocating an understanding of our human impact on the Planet Earth. This week I've met many teachers who are continuing that work, creating programs and curriculum in diverse environments, covering a multitude of issues, facing the challenges of budget cuts, apathy and outright opposition to the realities of climate change.

For all those teachers who are working to connect with young minds and raise awareness in those communities, here are some tools that use today's media of choice, video.

YouTube Teachers is a collection of videos and tools created just for teachers by the developers at YouTube along with a global network of contributors. There are over 700,000 videos collected on a wide variety of topics, along with instructional videos on how to create a YouTube channel of your own.

And that brings me back to music, which has been my teaching tool of choice. I'm involved in the efforts of Musicians United to Sustain the Environment (M.U.S.E.) to create and continually expand a database of environmental music. This is a daunting project and we need volunteers for all aspects of this effort! Recently, Stan Slaughter covered our efforts in a Mother Earth News article, detailing how the collection of eco-audio is available 24/7 on EarthDayFM, an online radio station. Encouraging today's youth to learn through music, listening to the songs telling stories of history and science, sharing life experience in a memorable context, this is how I use music as an education tool.

As I return home to the mountains of Virginia after this week in California, it is my intention to share what I've experienced here with this energized group of educators. Thank you, for your ideas, your determination, your creativity and your enthusiasm to honor our Planet Earth.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 

Joyce Rouse AKA Earth Mama creates blog posts on timely topics in collaboration with her communications manager, Bonnie Cranmer. Please refer any questions or requests for permission to use any material contained on this blog to earthmamaoffice@gmail.com.

Falling into Fall Rhythms

This year, the Fall Equinox falls on Saturday, September 22 at 10:49a.m. in my part of the world. It's a time of harvest, seeing the fruits of our labors, both in the garden and in our kitchen. It's been a good growing season for us, yet in other parts of the US as well as across the globe, drought has brought devastation. As I was placing the colorful display of our luscious tomatoes around the fountain this morning, I became even more grateful for the wealth of food we have grown this year. The drought in other regions have made this kind of harvest impossible.

Which has me thinking more about our Earth Mama than usual... asking questions with no easy answers. When will more people begin to take responsibility for their individual and collective roles in caring for our planet, simply pay attention? What could be an inspiration that will move people from apathy to action? How can I be more visible with the work I do to show and teach how simple steps lead to big results?

My traditional rhythm during the fall is to clean up outdoors and create space for winter's chill. The lush gardens of summer and fall are fading, transforming the beauty of flowers and succulent tastes of fruits and vegetables into the stripped and mulched beds of soil, ready for the quiet rest of winter. The songs of sunshine and dances of the wind through the string bean poles are silent now. I may continue to dance through the rows, as the garden has always been a place of refuge for me, a place to touch the soil and become truly connected to the living and breathing Earth Mama on which we live.

I'm grateful to have full shelves of colorful bounty, ready to share with family and friends at our dining table. I'm also grateful to have time to be still in the knowing that another season has past, providing an abundance of earthly goodies, demonstrating the cycle of life continues. Which got me wondering, what goodies have grown in your gardens this summer? Did you have a bountiful harvest? Was there any new varieties of vegetables or fruits that were above the rest in volume or flavor? We usually try a few new selections each growing season, but must admit this year none of the new ones really stood out...

So, now I have spent massive hours in the kitchen, and I still have work to do, but the jars are filling the shelves and the freezer is getting packed. We're better prepared to face the cold winds of winter, knowing our harvest will carry us through.

Enough is good as a feast...

Keep Your Friends Close and Your Anemones Closer

White Anemones in Fall Garden

Five or six years ago I planted anemones in a little corner garden called the Moon Garden.  I planted all white flowers there, so in a full moon the white blossoms shine magically.  I became impatient (a little pun) with the anemones after about four years, when they dawdled along looking pretty puny and not blooming at all.

So I had a little talk with them, telling them how I looked forward to seeing them shine with the rest of the white blooms. I was actually clenching my jaw and thinking, “One more year of you taking up space with no parade of pretty flowers and you will be replaced.”  

I’m glad I held my tongue and spoke to them nicely.  See what they did this year?

And didn’t Jesus say:  Love your anemones.  ?

Sometimes Making-Do Makes Something Wonderful

and sometimes our failures turn out to be
Blessings of the Universe.

During this busy season of garden, jam-making, freezing, canning, and endless weeding, (alongside the regular jobs) the only entertaining of friends and family that happens at our house is the kind where everyone brings something to share.

Call it Pot Luck, Covered Dish Dinner, BAS (Bring Along Something)—I call it wonderful.  Much like the story of Stone Soup, a little bit of this and that usually end up making a feast.  And like the story of the Loaves and Fishes, we often end up taking away more leftovers than it seemed we started with.

To such a dinner recently, my buddy Deb brought THE MOST WONDERFUL squash dish.  It was mighty tasty and intriguingly unusual.  It turns out that the secret ingredient was derived from a failed batch of strawberry jam made that week.

Ain’t that just like life? Some of the most interesting delicious stuff comes out of what first appeared to be failures.  The world of science and inventions is rich with such stories.  Why should I be surprised when a song I wrote that never seemed to fit or be finished turns out to be the perfect song for a project 20 years later.

So, let’s all celebrate those failures! Perhaps we should just pronounce it with a French accent, emphasis on the second syllable, to make it sound prettier and remind us to look for a new, better use.

May your next failure become a fail-YUR! If you'd care to share, we're open for comments, ideas, questions and celebrations from your life...