Music reaches into my soul...

Music soothes the savage beast. It evokes emotion, makes you think, helps you stop thinking, brings out creative juices, helps you relax, or get jazzed up, and drives my kids to jump around the livingroom with air guitars and sunglasses shaking their heads up and down in reverent worship to Miley Sirus. Rythym, notes, beats, harmonies, tones, harmonics, melodies, instruments, vocals, booming percussion, gentle chimes, big strings, little strings, brass, woodwinds, wired or not...it's the world we live in, it's the world we hope to live in, it's art.
I'm so excited for a number of music things that are happening in the twin cities this week. First of all - we signed up for the U2 fanclub and will get a chance to purchase presale tickets for the Mpls concert that was just announced for a date next summer. This is a band with a HUGE following, some rockin rythms, and lyrics with a message of being something other than who they are in this life. Okay, not your typical review...but if you're a fan, you just get it.
I've found my coworkers divided on just how important this concert is for them. Some of them say "I'm going to this concert no matter what it takes," and others wouldn't pay money to stand in a crowded staduim with several thousand screaming fans all singing the same tune. So...why am I so intrigued by this group? What is it about them that calls forth such a global following? Is it their publicity, their content, their outreach and desire to bring awareness of the poor and hungry in this world? Is it just about the music? Bono, the Edge, Larry & Adam have become icons as the Beatles and the Rolling Stones did in the Brittish invasion in the 1960's. Is it they are just "cool." Is it that simple? What makes someone cool?
Rolling Stone magazine has had them on the front cover several times in the past year - not just once. What kind of power does this group get, have, and who or what has granted them this status and strength in the rock-n-roll world? Why do people flock to them in droves and sell out giganto venues all in the name of music? I just love them. Not sure exactly why - but am really facinated by the whole thing of getting caught up in the buzz, the happening, the need to connect to others with similar facination.What's that about?

Second - my favorite radio station in the Twin Cities (Cities 97) is putting out their 21st Cities Sampler with limited live in-studio performances of equally amazing musicians (not as much fan fare) but just as deserving. They only release a limited number of CDs to protect the performers and copyrights - and ALL the money goes to local charities. We've been getting up early one Thursday every November for the past several years and getting in line at Target to get at least one copy, if not the full limit of 2. When I say we, I really mean my husband. I have to get the kids to daycare and school, so since he is more free of distractions that early in the morning, I usually request he get in line at the Target in downtown Mpls at least and hour before they open. The suburban stores sell out in a couple of hours, but the downtown store usually has less of a crowd right away. Last year's 2 CD 20th anniversary set is still one of my favorite compilations of rock that I can hang onto for a long time. I'm excited to plug that CD into my iTunes and wear it out.

Third, Billy McLaughlin - who has become a friend, if I can be so bold to say - is playing solo in Excelsior at one of our favorite venues on Friday night. A tiny little coffee shop by day, and wine bar by night - the 318 Cafe becomes an amazing acoustical room with good creative food (rustic pizzas and savory spring green salads) and amazing desserts (like the best carrot cake I've ever had in my life.) We actually went out there for the first time to specifically see Billy play. We've gone from old time Billy Mac fans to regular groupies at his shows in the Twin Cities, seeing him at least once a month for the past 2 years. Wow - even 3 times in Sept this year as he played at the MN State Fair and a free concert with his band at the Whitebear Lake Township celebration, as well as a formal concert at the Maplewood Community Center Performing Arts Theater - the same place he filmed his DVD Into the Light, the first major concert after his return to the stage.

We've been planning date nights around Billy's acoustic guitar concerts for the last couple of years since his return to performing live. His music never sounds just like the recordings - so a live version is always a treat. The vibration of the reverb in the room as he taps out a synchopated tune on any one of his left-handed strung guitars is a deep soul moving experience for me. It's also a treat when he has enough strength in his right handed playing to give us some older songs. He is gracious to his fans, and very kind to remember names of those who love his music and come to see him. He has many fans, not as many as U2, but many. And, he is humble, and lives from a grateful heart for the gift of his music he knows may be cut short at any time that his dystonia begins to affect his other hand.. As I said to him a while ago - we've been friends with his music since the mid 80's. It only makes sense that we become friends with him...if he lets us. Which, we were able to spend a little back stage time with him in Sept and check out his bus. Becoming friends with some of his friends is also fun, as they are amazing people and show extreme character and talent. Not a combination that comes around often in the music business.
Not many musicians actually respond to email, but on occasion, he'll check back with us. I'm crazy about this guy, and his amazing story of overcoming and pushing through physical distress to find a way to not only enjoy the passion he has for his music, but thrive in it - which is thouroughly who he was created to be. I can't wait to hear some new writing he's working on. I've posted here about Billy before, and I can't say enough good things about this everyday dad of 2 teen boys who travels the country promoting his music passion - and plans to tour to China and India in 2010. We'll miss him here for that time. So...we go again this week to see him perform, get to chat a bit, spend some time with old friends, and sip some wine.

As this rock-n-roll and acoustic guitar fan closes this post...take a moment to think about how music has affected your life. I'm reflecting back to lullabyes as a child, junior high guitar & piano lessons, high school and college choir, and singing in church. I sing to my kids as they drift off in the evening, and I sing loudly in the car to my favorites. I even get up in front of coworkers to shout out Nancy Sinatra songs on Karaoke night.
Lord God, if you are speaking to me in all of this...may I just say "Thank you." I'm really enjoying the gift of loving music that you have given me. I don't take it for granted...and that brings me closer to You. I want to listen more.

Knitted Prayer Shawl

Today a dear friend of mine gave me a hand knitted prayer shawl. It was about a month ago that I mentioned to her that I didn't have one. I was giving one to a friend of mine on the occasion of her mother's memorial service. It's something we've been able to do as a church, simply because we have a lovely group of women who knit and crochet on the second Tuesday of every month in a prayerful setting and donate their handiwork to the church to give away as gifts of love to those who need or want a tangible reminder of God's warm embrace and unending love for them.

What a blessing several weeks ago as she brought in two different colors of blue yarn for me to choose from, and even last week as she asked what kind of edges I wanted on it. I left it up to her, as I really have simply felt honored that she would even do this for me. To pray for me and put her amazing handiwork to this soft (and warm) shawl, that is wrapped around me as I type this now.

The color is a deep royal blue with shades of teal mixed in. I don't remember what color she said was on the package of yarn, but to me it's the color of the sky as I look up to see clouds that remind me of a photographer friend who died last year. Or, the color of the ocean - as I have always loved the way that water speaks to me. I was born in CA which I seem to think has something to do with my love for the ocean and all marine life. Like being imersed in deep water, this shawl takes me deep within my soul to remember the One who gives me life, and breath, and blessings and all things.

I'm blessed by my friend who made this shawl, for her heart to think so much of me and work so hard on something so dear. I am blessed by the way she worked through a tough time in her own family - with parental health issues and travels to be near them, only to come home to officiate a funeral. She stands in the gap of honor by choice. I'm reminded of our choices we make that make differences in the lives of others. What courage to be a person of character, of honor, of love. She did this out of her desire to bless me in a place to recognize who I am in the larger picture of God's Kingdom. Although I work at a church, she chose to give this to me outside of working hours, so I am reminded that it's not about my job...but about who I am.

Why is it so hard for me, sometimes, to remember that God is loving me in the midst of my own failings and my own high expectations of myself? My family doesn't seem to notice the things I do to help them function on a daily basis. I struggle with not hollering at my kids or my husband as they do something that irritates me or nags at my self-righteousness. I don't love them as well as I think I should. I don't love them half as well as I know I can. It's easier to love my friends who blog and leave Facebook status updates...so I can comment to them by electronic words. It's hard to love by washing clothes, cleaning toilets, and raking leaves. It's hard to love by playing catch with my 4 yr old, and reading out loud to my 10 year old. That takes too much energy.
I'm exhausted, emotionally, physically, mentally...and I find that I don't know how to really rest.

And so...once again I find myself grateful for a sweet blue prayer shawl. For tonight, I pray not only for strangers in some brotherhood of military personnel...but I pray for my own family. I pray for my children, and their hearts to know Jesus. I pray for my husband, to find meaning and notice God's amazing love for him, as well. And, I sit peacefully in prayer - in the arms of my Heavenly Father - as He reminds me that it's not about what I do, but about who I am in Him that is love.