New Thought Songwriters Workshop & Peace and Justice Department Fundraiser, 4/30/07

What a lovely weekend! I spent Friday and Saturday at the New Thought Songwriters Workshop in San Marcos, Texas, where around 25 artists participated. We spent much time presenting our music in the round, supporting one another, and getting aquainted. In the evening, we held a concert for the local community.

The musicians of the New Thought (or True Thought we decided to call ourselves) movement are artists creating positive music to make a better world. There was so much love, support and acceptance from this group, not to mention all of the positive vibrations created from the music. Most of the musicians were quite accomplished in their field. It was a treat for me to sing with such celestial music makers. I made several new friends and hope to perform with them over time.


Saturday afternoon, I drove back to Houston, where I performed at the Peace and Justice Department Fundraiser. There I met a fellow Portuguese American woman who is helping war struck children from Iraq. She was instrumental in helping to get new limbs for a child whose arms had been destroyed by bombs. Marie is also raising her grand daughter at age 67. What an amazing and inspiring woman!

There, I also met and spoke at length to a Russian immigrant who fled the country during the communist regime. Her husband was protesting against the government, when they had to leave to avoid being jailed. She lost both her husband and son over the last few years to cancer. In honor of her family, she sells artifacts from a Tibetan temple to support the Tibetan monks. (Her husband and son were Buddhists).

These are the things that leave deep impressions on my mind. The human heart is such a mysterious thing. My new Russian friend lives a life of service in honor of her family. This way, she doesn't think so much about her loss. The human heart....

Spring Travels, 4/10/07

Ah, Spring... time to breath in deeply the prana of outdoors and the sweet fragrance of flowers. Everything just feels different, no? Dolyatra has come and gone, and now we look forward to Ananda Purnima, the birthday of Shrii Shrii Ananda Murtiji. His auspicious birthday falls on May 2nd, one day before my precious jewel, Prashanta - turning six on May 3rd. Each year at Ananda Purnima, my overgrown gardenias bloom out in full! It is a blissful phenomenum.

We took a wonderful trip to northern Missourri, back down again through Tennessee all the way to Asheville, NC. I sang songs that I had learned as a youth along the way. We stopped in Joplin MO overnight, and I just couldn't believe it! I'd been singing Route 66 for years before, "Well you go through St. Louis, Joplin Missourri..." And while in Kansas City, like a mantra the song just would not stop, "Going to Kansas City, Kansas City here I come...". Well, we did go through St. Louis - what a beautiful town. And down we headed to the Blue Ridge Mountains, "Almost heaven, West Virginia, Blue Ridge Mountains...". It just made perfect sense to me why they wrote these songs. Asheville was heaven on earth, surrounded by mountains and rivers, and progressives, oh my!

I am overwhelmingly graced by people downloading my songs from MySpace and putting them on their pages. I thank you all humbly for allowing the sweet vibration of kiirtan to flow from your pages, or the images of strong and spiritual women in the world; and the feeling and knowing that "Love is All There Is." I am so happy to be able to serve in this way. Please go to http://www.anandamarga.org/ to find out more about the spirit behind the music; the practices that create a subtle body and mind, compassion in our hearts and infinite love for all....