Protect your Mind
It’s been a rush and tumble of so much muchness, I find myself asking – What in heck am I doing with my life? What is the meaning of it all anyway? Last week, and the last couple of months, I put my head in my hands and yelled – STOP! And so I did. I needed a reset, badly.
I had a bunch of plans, just for the week, and they changed. I was gonna visit a friend in Colorado, didn’t happen. I could have gone to band rehearsal, but instead, I rode my mountain bike 30 miles up the mountain and through the golden aspen with two of my best, lifetime friends. Saturday, I cleaned my art studio and went for a walk, started writing a song. Practiced my guitar.
Yesterday, I went for a five hour walk in the forest through an aspen grove with another lifetime friend. We’ve seen and been through dangerous crazy things together. We are older now, no longer kids trying to be safe in situations that were anything but safe. Walking in the woods, we were women of a certain age talking about some heavy shit. Today, my friend is a school teacher and a Buddhist. She said:
“It’s good you took a break. Think about it. Your brother died of a drug overdose last year while hanging out with your sister. Your aunt had a heart attack a month ago and can’t take care of your mom anymore. Your sister almost gave your mother, aunt, and other sister Covid. You got clarity on sexual abuse in your family. Duke died this summer. It’s a lot to process. Get some more EMDR. And now – do what you love. Your job is a musician, keep making those videos with Paul. That’s your job, and people can’t go out to music right now. And keep doing the reiki videos, too. It helps people and they need it.”
The time, the ride, the walk, and the company helped. My old (punk) friends are good for acknowledging and mingling the present moment with personal history, and for pointing out the potentials for the future. I’m feeling awake, guided, and inspired today.
Music Monday
This is from a facebook post by my friend Holly Ramos: “i was into hardcore as a kid, we were a specific group of outcasts who found each other. this was the medicine we took. this is how we channeled the bottomless anger of very fucked up homes (many of us, anyway.) the bad brains did it better than anyone, they were power, not rage, a line that many others didn’t know how to navigate. the rage was real but not as healing. this was how we celebrated joyously. this is how we stayed alive. this saved my life.”
I couldn’t have said it better.
Bad Brains!
And this message from Dave Grohl:
Have a great week!
Peace ~
Above Image of HR of the Bad Brains at Hard Art Gallery, September 15, 1979 (Akashic Books, 2013). Photos by Lucian Perkins/Akashic Books. from Mother Jones: A Pulitzer Prize Winner’s Photos of the early DC Punk Scene.
holly troy ~ sacred folly 
🙂 “Soul Craft” Was my 1st exposure to Bad Brains in the 90s. I quickly wrapped right into them, and they set the bar in all music I listened to, whether it be metal, grunge, classical, new wave, folk… there had to be the core intensity of punk, the honesty of movement of Bad Brains — full contrast between HR ravaging the air and Earl at the drums just sitting there killing it like wasn’t even doing anything (Dave Grohl said that so well) — and then that there be feeling, a reason or That reasons were unreasonable and to just experience the music/song… Bad Brains dialed into those 3 areas for me before I knew about those 3 areas, and it stuck… it stuck like a piece of The Divine got stuck in my Place of Creation at the beginning. I see no reason whatsoever to unstick it. I think it actually took over the garden because I can’t find it anymore. Time for me to circle back and listen to Soul Craft again.
Thank you, Holly!
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Hurray! I remember the first time I heard Bad Brains I said – What is this?? This is so – primal. Perfect. I just wanna get lost in it, be consumed by it. Yes!
I’m so glad you feel inspired to dive in once again.
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Oh, you said it. Soooo primal. It had everything it needed, naturally, and Nature’ll kill ya. I used to listen to it the night before a 14er after I almost died one year just to get the Nature reminder back in. Funny, I never used the word primarily… and that’s what I meant. Shaking head. Well, I have the word now to go with the feeling. Was blind it seems. 😉
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and now you see!
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