Nothing Then Something

I considered not posting today. It has been a bit of an emotional week and I can't quite put my finger on it, but to be sure there were no exciting EUROVISON moments or GREAT BIG party stories that I had to share, no new recipes, no crazy pertinent, profound, monumental occasions and therefore not too much to share. Kind of a dull (and dark) week so I thought maybe I wouldn't write at all. But then I thought, what about my readers? Maybe they (you,) like me, look forward to something on a Wednesday. I look forward to reading FREE WILL ASTROLOGY Horoscopes on Wednesday's. I read them all, and if I see something that works for a friend, I will share it with them. My husband is NOT into Horoscopes at all, and part of me understands why (he feels that if you read something someone else writes about your fortune, is will sway you into making decisions -you might not make- because of it) but I like it. Some form of guidance that I can either take, or leave.

So what does ours say about we Scorpios for the week??

“Scorpio (October 23-November 21)
Author Rebecca Solnit offers some tough advice that I think you could use. “Pain serves a purpose,” she says. “Without it you are in danger. What you cannot feel you cannot take care of.” With that in mind, Scorpio, I urge you to take full advantage of the suffering you’re experiencing. Treat it as a gift that will motivate you to transform the situation that’s causing you to hurt. Honor it as a blessing you can use to rise above the mediocre or abusive circumstances you have been tolerating. ”

Wow. There you go. Funny timing for such words, and this is why I look forward to reading these things, as superficial as some might think they are, sometimes they really are spot on. These words remind me of when I was at a Healing Ceremony a few months ago, drinking plant-based medicine with a Shaman, medicine that would make me barf over and over and over again. I was feeling sorry for myself and could not quiet my mind nor my stomach. One of the 'helpers' looked at me in the eyes and asked me the morning after, (after I had shared with her that I must leave and can not participate in another evening of torture) she asked me why I have to eradicate the pain, and suffering but instead welcome it and feel it and accept that it is an okay part to life, to go through it, to feel it, to experience it, why the need to hate it, to disregard it, to repel it? I never questioned it before, always trying to ignore pain and/or sweep it under the rug, as if it has no place in my life. But since she spoke those words to me, I have looked at it differently, for sure. It is true, without darkness how can you know light?

Anyway, now that I think of it, I DID do something different this week. I painted a painting for the second time in my life. The first time, I was living in Ireland working at Renvyle House Hotel, on the shores of West Coast Ireland, when a painter came to teach a painting workshop. There were not enough attendees to the course, so he invited me to go along with them, to an old haunted shipyard, with all the necessary materials for painting these old rusty, history-filled boats. I spent most of my time working on one ships hull and it was looking alright, until he told us we had forty minutes left.. I scrambled, trying to find ways to fill up 3/4 of my canvas in forty minutes. Needless to say, I left the painting in Ireland. This past weekend I spent some time with a friend who decided to pull out her paint supplies, and we sat at her little wooden kitchen table under a skylight beside the River Aare in Bern and took to creating. Here is what I came up with!

A_painting_by_Lindsay_called_GLOBITOS

I guess, when looking back on the week nothing obviously BAD happened, thankfully, and I am also reminded that I did an interview with Sean Kelly from MIX 97 as part of "Weekend Magazine" which you can listen to right now by clicking on this link. I am also updating my TOUR section, for some anticipated Canadian shows!!!! Canada; I am coming home soon.

Dream on Dandelion

One_Spring_Wish

As a child, I used to think the only thing a dandelion was good for was for picking and wishing on. I dreamed a lot on dandelions. Now I know those weeds full of wishes are not at all just for dreaming on. A dandelion is one of the first flowers to pop up in the Spring time, one of the first food for the bees. SAVE THE BEES and let those flowers grow! I always wondered how they shape-shifted from their bright yellow petals into those fluffy wishes. It all seems a bit like magic...perhaps the act of nature being nature is a bit magical in and of itself? Here is a time lapse video to show you HOW this wonderful feat happens! 

There is this super Lovely gravel road that weaves through the forest, where I like to do some thinking. Yesterday I was trying to come up with an idea for today's Blog Post. I got to thinking about who reads my posts, and where they are when they are reading. I thought about my podcasts (which you can listen to here) and tried to picture the various places that people are listening from; kitchens, cars, living rooms, offices, headphones, speakers, stereos, lap tops..... I tried to envision you and my mind went into over-drive, thinking about all that! It was an eye-opening moment for me, thinking about you, out there. Recently, I have been realizing more and more the connection we have to one another. It is a delicate idea, one with many nooks, rivets, streams, routes and roads, similarities and differences, nuances, dreams, ideologies, moods and more....but here we are. Somehow, through these words and/or music, we feel and we imagine, together, but a thousand miles away.

So, I will paint you a picture from yesterdays 'outside moment' in the forest. Spring, 2016 in Switzerland...

The air is fresh. Once in awhile a waft of perfume floats by. I stop to smell the flowers. The ground beneath me crunches and a stone flips into the back of my boot. I walk for a little while longer before the rock wedges itself in a place that I can not ignore. I take off my boot and try to balance myself on the uneven country floor, I free the stone. The sunlight spangles through the tree branches, up at their tops you can hear birdsong serenading each other. The trees sway in the slight wind and blossoms sail down to the ground. I catch one and think of someone I can no longer see in real life. Love in memories. In the distance there is a chorus of bells, low notes sway from the cows and high notes swing from the sheep. A farmer, plowing the field has caught my attention. I peek at him through the trees, he does not know I am there, he is far away and looks about the size of my finger. He slices the long grasses and places them in a way for easy drying, to be fed to his animals, later. As I walk further, I notice much of the grass needs to be hayed for the animals, but not before I get in there and pluck a few of the wild flowers. As I am picking, I am thinking about my child hood and how I would stop on my bike ride home from school to pick some lilacs for my Mother. The scent of lilacs takes me right back to that corner where the dark purple blossoms meets the white and I am thrilled at the thought of my Mama's smile. A car drives by me, as I am waist high in tall grasses and I wonder what they are thinking and if they are thinking about their childhood as they see me holding wild flowers. Perhaps I have inspired them to decorate THEIR kitchen table with these flowers soon to be gone (eaten.) I catch myself thinking too much and start to focus on what I see around me. Something to help me calm the noise inside. I hear the bells again, and I see an apple tree up ahead with three types of blossoms. This apple tree will have three kinds of apples growing from it, and I think of my husband, showing me how to tie (and eventually grow) different breeds of apples together (on the same tree.) The world surprises me more often than not. 

Spring_field_of_flowers

I am thankful.

The Beast That Is Eurovision

I sit here, listening to Brendan Adams, (from South Africa) a new artist I met while at a music conference (M4Music) in Zurich a few weekends ago. Ahh the sweet sound of a songwriter. For a while there, I was getting caught up in the lights, computer-stage-screens, fancy hair, elaborate dresses, dances, make-up, thousands and thousands of people, flourescent necklaces, waving flags, lanyards, cameras, lasers, teams, screams and everything else! Welcome to Eurovision. For we North Americans, it isn't something we are entirely familiar with. This song contest has been on the go since 1956, featuring winners like ABBA & Cèline Dion. This is an epic display of wild television. One of my European friends reminisces of her childhood; being allowed to stay up late on New Year's Eve and on Eurovision night, junk food and cola allowed! Well this was all new to me!  I was invited to attend this major event because one of my closest friends (who I also met at a music conference in Canada about eight years ago) Christina, who was representing Switzerland (she is half Canadian half Swiss) as RYKKA with her song "The Last of Our Kind. Unfortunately, Switzerland did not make the finals, but I went to the Grand Finale anyway. I mean, I had the tickets. It was day three spent at the Ericsson Globe Arena in Stockholm, Sweden, the largest hemispherical building on earth. So by the end, I was all lasered and Eurovisioned out! I barely slept at night, I had no idea that all that "action" would overwhelm my senses to the point of sleeplessness, but there ya go. And I wouldn't change a thing. To see how it was all put together, was a real eye-opener and surely a once in a lifetime event to be a part of.

The_great_arena_filled_with_people_colours_sounds_and_songs

Walking around Stockholm for a few days was also something new for me. I had never been before and I have to say, the shopping was great! The sense of fashion there, totally suits to me! Everything seems to be flowy and over-sized, where size small actually fits! Haa!! I found the best second hand retro store ever "Beyond Retro." I spent two hours in there and found a couple of awesome dresses! (yes, two dresses after all that time!) Hello Ottawa Bluesfest this Summer... Which, by the way, I am playing!! Friday the 15th of July on the MONSTER ENERGY STAGE, 6:30pm, opening for Coleman Hell... who I THOUGHT I had never heard of, but it turns out I have heard his music and I totally dig it, check out "2 Heads." He is from 'lil 'ole Thunder Bay, Ontario. I am playing FULL BAND STYLE (same as my CD release ONE YEAR AGO tomorrow!) time certainly flies! 

Back to Sweden and Eurovision...

We would take a subway to the main arena each night, even the semi-final nights were PACKED! When I heard the song "1944" from Ukrainian singer "JAMALA" it was the one that spoke the loudest to me, but I truly NEVER in my wildest dreams thought that it would win the entire competition. Too good, too soulful and mostly, too political. In a sense, justice prevailed!! This song stood out from the rest, to me, a singer-song-writer, so I thought no way it can win!! I had shivers from my head to my toes.. How could something so emotional and non-Pop win the Beast that is Eurovision??? Watch the WINNING SONG HERE. Seriously. Wowza!!! I really MUST listen to my gut instinct more. Which, by the way, is one of the big lessons I will take away from this great Eurovision experience; always go with your gut!

So, I will say good bye now, I really must get back to my guitar. I didn't play it for a week and I have a gig tomorrow in Luzern. One of the most beautiful cities in the WORLD!! Thanks, as always, for reading... Love and LIGHT xoxox

Photo_by_the_very_talented_Steve_Gerecke

Oi! Sweden!

I am in the bistro section of the train en route to the Zurich airport. It's a bit shaky in here, not sure how long I will last typing! Not long, it turns out. I get a little motion sickness, a little queasy sometimes, which sometimes works for me (ahem... SHOTGUN!) but mostly it's not ideal! I was going to tell you (pre-dizziness) that I enjoy the 'Bistro' section in the train, because I can sit at a table and (depending on where I am going and what time it is) I can enjoy a coffee or a glass of wine and on the rare occasion I have met some very interesting people though mostly people tend to keep to themselves so there's a lot of daydreaming out the windows. At this very moment, however, the train is only a memory and now I am 37000 feet up above the world, flying in direction Sweden! We will be landing in less than an hour and I will make my way to Stockholm city centre for the first time. It's not often that I take a trip without my guitar and equipment, not often that I travel without the goal to play/share my music. It feels pretty good to be traveling light, I gotta say! This trip is all in the name of my dear girl and fellow singer songwriter, Christina a.k.a RYKKA. Rykka is representing Switzerland in the Eurovision Song Contest. And boy oh boy this whole thing has been a wild ride indeed! I wrote about her a few posts ago, a small interview if you recall?? I was there when she won for Switzerland and hopefully when she wins for the world!! Haha. You have to dream big, right?? Her song "The Last of Our Kind" has been with me for days!! Can you say EARWORM???? Fingers crossed!!!

Lindsay_arrives_safely_to_Sweden