WILD RICE - THE BLOG

Takin' a break

2009-12-18T09:51:00.001-08:00

Friends of the blogosphere~

I am taking a break from blogging for a spell-- be back soon!

~J

Learning to love the fool

2009-12-17T14:37:00.000-08:00

“I must learn to love the fool in me-- the one who feels too much, talks too much, takes too many chances, wins sometimes and loses often, lacks self-control, loves and hates, hurts and gets hurt, promises and breaks promises, laughs and cries.”

~Theodore Isaac Rubin

Another good one from Cheri

2009-12-16T08:08:00.000-08:00

"What we do about our feelings determines the quality of our relationship with ourselves."

~Cheri Huber

Stress

2009-12-15T08:22:00.000-08:00

"The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another."

~William James

Dirty pain

2009-12-14T09:43:00.001-08:00

The belief that dirty pain is intelligent is itself the fundamental lie we keep mashed against our poor sad faces. We can free ourselves from this the instant we choose to believe in our felt experiences over our self-created stories.

—Martha Beck, Steering by Starlight

Stop Being A Pleaser

2009-12-13T18:21:00.000-08:00

"You have to let your father and father figures go. You must stop seeing yourself through their eyes and trying to make them proud of you.

For as long as you can remember, you have been a pleaser, depending on others to give you an identity. You need not look at that only in a negative way. You wanted to give your heart to others, and you did so quickly and easily. But now you are being asked to let go of all these self-made props and trust that God is enough for you. You must stop being a pleaser and reclaim your identity as a free self."

~Henri Nouwen, "The Inner Voice of Love"

Guilty as charged?

2009-12-09T17:37:00.000-08:00

"The workaholic maintains a frantic schedule. He is consistently preoccupied with performance. He finds it difficult to refuse additional responsibilities. He is unable to relax. If someone you know exhibits these characteristics, he or she is probably a workaholic."

~ Bill Hybels

(Not hating, just inquiring/reflecting...)

Bullfighting

2009-12-08T16:07:00.000-08:00

"To fight a bull when you are not scared is nothing. And to not fight a bull when you are scared is nothing. But to fight a bull when you are scared is something." ~unknown

Sweet Darkness

2009-12-07T07:53:00.000-08:00

Sweet Darkness

When your eyes are tired
the world is tired also.

When your vision has gone
no part of the world can find you.

Time to go into the dark
where the night has eyes
to recognize its own.

There you can be sure
you are not beyond love.

The dark will be your womb
tonight.

The night will give you a horizon
further than you can see.

You must learn one thing:
the world was made to be free in.

Give up all the other worlds
except the one to which you belong.

Sometimes it takes darkness and the sweet
confinement of your aloneness
to learn

anything or anyone
that does not bring you alive

is too small for you.

~ David Whyte ~

(House of Belonging)

A real posting! On the value of a co-producer

2009-12-06T10:43:00.001-08:00

This is a straight-up blog posting. Shocking, I know! I spent the day yesterday working on lead vocals for "Eating the Menu", "Sometimes", and "River" with my co-producer Don Turney at his home studio in Hayward. I was feeling *terrible* going in. I had had a root canal procedure on Wednesday and been going back & forth between the devil & the deep blue sea-- incapacitating headache or high & nauseous on Vicodin. I wanted to cancel yesterday's session, but that really puts Don out because he could have used that time to be clocking hours with someone else. I took the Vicodin & showed up.

It was awful! Listening to your singing voice through an expensive, highly-sensitive microphone through expensive, highly-sensitive earphones when you are in a somewhat high, delirious, and nauseous state is a bizarre experience. Like talking underwater, or some sort of audio hall-of-mirrors. I ended up doing 3-4 takes of each song from front to back and we patched final vocals from those. Also weird! Like taking 3-4 photos of yourself and sitting down with a photoshop guy and saying, "Yeah, take the nose from that one, and the booty from that one..." Maybe that's how they do it in Hollywood, but if you're coming out of the folk music tradition like me, the ol' chip-chop is slightly distasteful and pretty much considered cheating.

Oh well. Turns out, the ol' chip-chop is a saving grace when you show up to an uncancellable session slightly chemically distraught & disoriented. Don was able to really steer the ship into the harbor, so to speak, and we finished the day having nearly finished 3 lead vocal tracks.

Can't wait for you to hear them!

Small Things

2009-12-05T20:53:00.000-08:00

"Small things with great love... It is not how much we do, but how much love we put in the doing."

~Mother Theresa

Self-Care

2009-12-04T21:27:00.000-08:00

"Approach any and all obstacles in your path not as problems, but as opportunities to learn to stay the course with your self-care." ~Geneen Roth

...

2009-12-03T13:44:00.000-08:00

"I was a treasure and I longed to be known..."

~J. Mapes

duties

2009-12-02T16:25:00.000-08:00

“Duties are not performed for duties' sake, but because their neglect would make the man uncomfortable. A man performs but one duty- the duty of contenting his spirit, the duty of making himself agreeable to himself.”

– Mark Twain

On Time

2009-12-01T21:43:00.000-08:00

“Clocks slay time… time is dead as long as it is being clicked off by little wheels; only when the clock stops does time come to life.”

- William Faulkner

Let us give thanks

2009-11-30T18:46:00.000-08:00

Let us give thanks for a bounty of people.

For children who are our second planting, and though they grow like weeds and the wind too soon blows them away, may they forgive us our cultivation and fondly remember where their roots are.

Let us give thanks:

For generous friends with hearts as big as hubbards and smiles as bright as their blossoms.

For feisty friends as tart as apples;

For continuous friends, who, like scallions and cucumbers, keep reminding us that we've had them;

For crotchety friends, as sour as rhubarb and indestructible;

For handsome friends, who are as gorgeous as eggplants and as elegant as a row of corn, and the others, as plain as potatoes and as good for you;

For funny friends, who are as silly as Brussels sprouts and as amusing as Jerusalem artichokes, and serious friends, as complex as cauliflower and as intricate as onions;

For friends as unpretentious as cabbage, as subtle as summer squash, as persistent as parsley, as delightful as dill, as endless as zucchini, and who, like parsnips, can be counted on to see you through the winter;

For old friends, nodding like sunflowers in the evening-time, and young friends coming on as fast as radishes;

For loving friends, who wind us around like tendrils and hold us, despite our blights, wilts and witherings;

And, finally, for those friends now gone, like gardens past that have been harvested, and who fed us in their times that we might have life thereafter;

For all these we give thanks.

When the situation is desperate

2009-11-27T22:30:00.000-08:00

"When the situation is desperate, it is too late to be serious. Be playful."

~Edward Abbey, A Voice Crying in the Wilderness

Completely naked

2009-11-26T09:24:00.000-08:00

Those who don't feel this Love

pulling them like a river,

those who don't drink dawn

like a cup of spring water

or take in sunset like supper,

those who don't want to change,

let them sleep.

This Love is beyond the study of theology,

that old trickery and hypocrisy.

If you want to improve your mind that way,

sleep on.

I've given up on my brain.

I've torn the cloth to shreds

and thrown it away.

If you're not completely naked,

wrap your beautiful robe of words

around you,

and sleep.

- Rumi

Shop

2009-11-25T20:17:00.000-08:00

from Instant Enlightenment by David Deida

"Feel all the garments in your favorite clothing store. Imbibe the many colors. Let your fingertips graze the textures of dobby, satin, and fur. Try on whatever you like. Bask in wearing first one glorious outfit, then another.

Continue to do this, while feeling all the people in the world who are at war, diseased, or in lonely despair-- while you enjoy your shopping trip. Start close to home, with your family and friends, knowing their private suffering or secret pain.

Then expand to feel everyone on earth who may be starving, sick, or dying. From your heart, radiate to them the happiness of trying on such beautiful clothing. Offer the feeling of the fabrics and the color of the clothing as gifts. Imagine beaming your wonderful experience of shopping to all those who are suffering.

To be free as love, give your joy away.

Give all your wonderful experiences away to others, as gifts, keeping nothing, not even a memory, for yourself. Guilt and tension result from hoarding your happy moments. Instant enlightenment is to give all your happiness away to others."

Father figures

2009-11-24T21:03:00.000-08:00

"It no longer bothers me that I may be constantly searching for father figures; by this time, I have found several and dearly enjoyed knowing them all."

~Alice Walker

proof for the existence of god

2009-11-22T14:56:00.001-08:00

"Let this be my epitaph: The only proof he needed for the existence of God was music."

-Kurt Vonnegut

To savor or to save?

2009-11-22T13:00:00.000-08:00

"I arise every morning torn between the desire to save the world and the desire to savor the world. It makes it hard to plan my day."

--E.B. White

*kudos to Danny Grobani for helping me locate this quote!

The Peace of Wild Things

2009-11-21T22:24:00.001-08:00

The Peace of Wild Things

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

— Wendell Berry

Kindness

2009-11-20T11:47:00.001-08:00

Kindness in words creates confidence.
Kindness in thinking creates profoundness.
Kindness in giving creates love.
Therefore, the highest form of wisdom is kindness.

~Anonymous

That which comes to me as seed

2009-11-18T15:10:00.000-08:00

"I choose to risk my significance; to live so that which comes to me as seed goes to the next as blossom and that which comes to me as blossom, goes on as fruit."

Dawna Markova
Author of Open Mind.

About people

2009-11-16T21:05:00.001-08:00

No person is your friend who demands your silence, or denies your right to grow.

~Alice Walker

Relive the thrill of your own conception

2009-11-16T21:00:00.001-08:00

"Helped are those who create anything at all, for they shall relive the thrill of their own conception and realize a partnership in the creation of the Universe that keeps them responsible and cheerful."

~Alice Walker

Cheri Huber is rock solid!

2009-11-16T20:06:00.000-08:00

That is, if rocks actually *are* solid... (quantum physics, you know...)

Experienced this powerhouse of a Zen teacher at a Berkeley forum last night. She's-a one-a spicy meatball-a! In a good way.

I highly recommend her book "There Is Nothing Wrong With You - Going Beyond Self-Hate". Title says it all. Really good stuff.

"Live to be in the present. Safety, security, knowing and being right are all synonyms for death."

–Cheri Huber

The Soul of Money

2009-11-16T08:22:00.000-08:00

I was with some friends at a fundraiser/end-of-year dinner for the Ella Baker Center of Oakland, CA last Thursday night. There were 3 great keynote speakers. I was especially struck by veteran fundraiser & activist, Lynne Twist of Pachamama Alliance & The Hunger Project fame.

If you've experienced Lynne Twist, you know what I mean. She does *not* play around when it comes to asking for money! You just want to donate because the way she speaks about money dignifies it somehow-- instead of this dirty, scarce resource, it transforms into this plentiful, abundant resource that flows through our lives like water or air.

I know that sounds idealistic, but check out an excerpt from her book, "The Soul of Money" or google around 'til you find a podcast. She is the real article!

You have the right to disconnect

2009-11-13T09:40:00.000-08:00

Ok. So I've been putting out a lot of light & heat lately. Between working full-time at SunPower Corp, working on my album, "Wild Rice", and Project Coordinating "Sing for Your Life", I feel like my plate is full! Not complaining-- definitely not. I have what Bay Area singer Zoe Ellis calls, "gold-plated problems". But even gold-plated problems need gold-plated solutions-- like unplugging from the world for a minute.

I found this article on CNN.com by Googling around. It seems to hit the nail on the head. (I even snitched their graphic!)

Story Highlights

Life coach: It's OK to disconnect technology and hide from some people
Avoid squids -- people with sucking tentacles of emotional needs
Have several rehearsed exit lines to disengage from relationships
You can be abrupt and compassionate with problem-sharing people

Read the full article here

I think I'm going to put my e-mail on auto-reply, turn off my cell phone, and head North to visit my cousins in the peaceful woods of Santa Rosa for the weekend. How's that? ;)

Ladies, let's be powerful

2009-11-12T10:36:00.001-08:00

This post goes out to the creative women in my life especially. And especially the creative women who are still learning to skillfully wield the creativity that is money. (And I hope it goes without saying, that it also goes out to me, since we usually teach what we most need to learn!)

First of all ladies, don't be embarrassed or ashamed. Whatever your history with money, whatever your checking account balance, whatever your credit score. Money is a certain flavor of power that it takes most people a lifetime to master.

Secondly, consider that your troubles with money are tied up with your troubles with power. Many of us have mixed feelings about being powerful, and that spills over into our feelings about money. Why do we have mixed feelings about being powerful? Here are some ideas:

1) Because it's unfamiliar. Many of us participate in "learned helplessness" or "internalized oppression". There is nothing holding us down from the outside anymore, but we've already absorbed this outside influence and are keeping ourselves down, letting ourselves believe that we are helpless. Being powerful involves letting go of those beliefs and going through the discomfort of learning to live new beliefs.

2) We're afraid of hurting others. Some of us are afraid of being powerful because we're worried that we'll hurt other people with it. This is a concern, especially to people that have been on the receiving end of badly-used power. While this is a genuine concern, consider that it's 90% excuse, used to justify our unwillingness to move into unfamiliar & sometimes uncomfortable territory.

3) We don't want to be lonely. There is a free-floating belief in the culture, that powerful women are lonely women. Nothing could be further from the truth. When you are safe & secure in yourself, have the courage to ask for what you want, and the strength to take care of yourself when you don't get what you want-- people want to be around you. It takes personal power to be authentically intimate, to connect with others from a place of desire & vulnerability & equality, rather than need, game-playing, and manipulation. So, actually ladies, the more powerful you are, the more intimacy you are capable of experiencing.

Just some thoughts. Investigate your beliefs about power to clear up some of your karma around money. Let me know what you find!

~J

Life Lesson 101

2009-11-11T21:03:00.000-08:00

Don't rescue people. Don't fix people. Don't be a martyr.

Be a friend, buddy, playmate, peer, a fellow seeker, and another imperfect person dancing with your loved ones and friends on the path.

~Charlotte Kasl

The Chickpea Poem

2009-11-10T21:31:00.000-08:00

by Rumi (who else?)

A chickpea leaps almost over the rim of the pot
where it's being boiled.
"Why are you doing this to me?"
The cook knocks him down with the ladle.

"Don't you try to jump out.
You think I'm torturing you.
I'm giving you flavor,
so you can mix with spices and rice
and be the lovely vitality of a human being.
Remember when you drank rain in the garden.
That was for this."

Grace first. Sexual pleasure,
then a boiling new life begins,
and the Friend has something good to eat.

Eventually the chickpea
will say to the cook,
"Boil me some more.
Hit me with the skimming spoon.
I can't do this by myself.
I'm like an elephant that dreams of gardens
back in Hindustan and doesn't pay attention
to his driver. You're my cook, my driver,
my way into existence. I love your cooking."

The cook says,
"I was once like you,
fresh from the ground. Then I boiled in time,
and boiled in the body, two fierce boilings.
My animal soul grew powerful.
I controlled it with practices,
and boiled some more, and boiled
once beyond that,
and became your teacher."

Life unfurls one day at a time

2009-11-10T07:19:00.000-08:00

"Life unfurls one day at a time. It is full of situations that will resolve themselves if we give them enough time and give God a chance to get his hand in. The trick is not to panic. The trick is not to overreact. Life unfolds one day at a time, and we must let it. This is the discipline I have set for myself."

~Julia Cameron

Find intimacy through creativity and nature

2009-11-09T07:39:00.000-08:00

"Intimacy is not just something we have with other people, it's something we have with art, music, dance, writing, athletics, and nature. We we draw, play, write, engage in sports, make music, sing, drum, or dance we relinquish control and allow the muses to guide us. It's like both getting out of ourselves and getting into ourselves more deeply. It take discipline, yet it cracks our ego boundaries, allowing us to fly into the spontaneous world of be-ing-- living in the moment, feeling creation bubbling through us. It's a form of both making love and meditating because we merge heart and mind and exist in pure connection to the present. The challenge for many is to bring creativity into relationships-- to allow spontaneity, playfulness, and originality to change old, hackneyed patterns so the connection stays alive and moving."

~Charlotte Kasl, from "Home for the Heart: A Practical Guide to Intimate and Social Relationships"

Of cabbages & kings

2009-11-08T23:33:00.000-08:00

"The time has come," the Walrus said,
"To talk of many things:
Of shoes--and ships--and sealing-wax--
Of cabbages--and kings--
And why the sea is boiling hot--
And whether pigs have wings."

~Lewis Carroll,
(from Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, 1872)

(just felt like posting this-- I get a kick out of it! ;)

The sticky wicket

2009-11-07T12:41:00.000-08:00

"You are afraid of your own empowerment

as much as those around you are afraid of you becoming empowered."

~ Caroline Myss

Soul purpose

2009-11-06T09:18:00.000-08:00

"You can have all the money, you can have all the fame, you can have all the "power", but if you lack purpose, you lack the power to live."

~my friend Pancho

On the value of "outing" oneself

2009-11-05T21:12:00.000-08:00

A friend & I stayed up late last night, "outing" ourselves on things that made us feel embarrassed or ashamed. It was sometimes uncomfortable, sometimes awkward, always interesting, and ultimately? Liberating & soul-connecting.

I am trying to do this more often in my life, especially as the release of my album approaches & I am in the public spotlight more & more. So, I'm going to keep practicing & do it right now!

This poem that I wrote 5 or so years ago is incredibly embarrassing to me. I wrote it after seeing the documentary-film, "Winged Migration" with my mom, Marty, in San Rafael, CA. (Will tell you why I find it embarrassing after.)

BIRDS

A thousand sand-hill cranes
Can find a feeding ground in the the Arctic
Without a world-class tour guide,
Without first-class seats.

A tern with a broken wing
Is swarmed by orange desert-crabs,
Clicking and without mercy.

God gets off in the strangest ways~
the heaving of crushing waves,
a thunderous avalanche,
the spinning & swirling of a locust-cloud of crows.

The meaning is lost on me.

All I sense in an urgent intelligence,
groping forward to who-knows-where.
All I feel is the wild, impersonality of it all~
the blank stare, the breath-taking dispassion.

What is left when you strip away the sentiment?
Is love as austere as all that?
Is violence a primordial reality
that we must accept with a laugh?

Courage floods my heart like a tidepool
as the fact of blind necessity reveals itself
and makes its demands of me.
Is it the voice of chaos, a mocking cacaphony?
Or is the music of the spheres,
the haunting strains of an angel choir?

~

I find this embarrassing for lots of reasons, but mostly because it doesn't sound happy. At the time, I was romantically involved with a way of looking at the world called Nihilism ("Life is meaningless... and not in a good way.") -- which, looking back, was really just a mental way of getting high. This poem reminds me of that time & what a melancholy pain-in-the-ass I was to be around.

SO, now that I've outed myself about that, I don't feel like such a schmuck! In fact, I think there are some pretty beautiful lines in that poem after all!

See? It works! Now you try... :)

Dia del los Muertoes ecstatic dancing

2009-11-03T07:18:00.000-08:00

Hallelujah, what can I say?

Dancing in the streets in a Day of the Dead parade has to be one of my all-time favorite life experiences! Can't explain why exactly... but mostly has to do with the drumming... deafening troupe-drumming, interspersed with let's-give-them-a-chance-to-catch-their-breath, conga-style, hand-drum interludes... shakers & bells & noise-makers... drum troupes colliding at street intersections and having "drum conversations/battles"... dancing in the streets in a culturally-rich, historically-rich, colorful neighborhood/community... dancing in the streets *at all*... dancing in the open air under a full moon... smells of wood smoke & rotting leaves & autumn-chill...

Then there's the whole "masquerade ball" aspect of it... hundreds/thousands of people milling about in costumes, faces painted like skeletons... people dressed up as colorful birds with fantastic plumage...

Then there's the whole "Eternal Now"/"Everything-Nothing" cosmic wow of it all... dancing in the heart of death, as one poet put it... letting your ego float away & feeling your spirit merge with all the spirits of all the worlds, the Great Spirit...

Hard to put it in words, but does that sound like a good time or what??? ;o)

More Prufrock

2009-11-02T07:33:00.001-08:00

"In the room the women come and go,
Talking of Michaelangelo.

The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the windowpanes
The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle upon the windowpanes
Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening,
Let fall upon its back the soot that falls from chimneys,
Slipped by the terrace, made a sudden leap,
And seeing that it was a soft October night,
Curled once about the house and fell asleep.

And indeed there will be time
For the yellow smoke that slides along the street,
Rubbing its back upon the windowpanes;
There will be time, there will be time
To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet;
There will be time to murder and create,
And time for all the works and days of hands
That lift and drop a question on your plate;
Time for you and time for me,
And time yet for a hundred visions and revisions,
Before the taking of toast and tea.

In the room the women come and go,
Talking of Michaelangelo."

from The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

2009-11-01T18:27:00.000-08:00

"Let us go then, you and I,
When the evening is spread out against the sky,
Like a patient etherized upon a table;
Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets,
The muttering retreats,
Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels
And sawdust restaurants with oyster shells:
Streets that follow like a tedious argument
Of insidious intent
To lead you to an overwhelming question...
Oh, do not ask, "What is it?"
Let us go and make our visit."

~T.S. Eliot

complete poem here

The eternal now

2009-10-30T08:52:00.000-07:00

"It is eternity now; I am in the midst of it. It is about me in the sunshine; I am in it, as the butterfly in the light-laden air. Nothing has to come; it is now. Now is eternity; now is immortal life."

- Richard Jefferies

How much is not true

2009-10-29T10:24:00.000-07:00

No matter what our thoughts, if they obscure our sense of joy and purpose, they're always inaccurate.

—Martha Beck, Steering by Starlight

To be truly radical

2009-10-27T07:52:00.000-07:00

"To be truly radical is to make hope possible, rather than despair convincing." ~Raymond Williams, AdBusters Magazine

Reward yourself

2009-10-26T09:48:00.000-07:00

If you're trying to adopt healthier habits in any way, ix-nay on the unishments-pay. Positive reinforcement is about 50 times as effective as punishment in sustaining patterns of behavior.

—Martha Beck

Be fresh and daring, and go on your way

2009-10-26T00:22:00.000-07:00

My amazing cousin Roz is performing a German classical song in New York City in a month at a recital. She posted the German lyrics & their translation on her blog the other day. They are amazing!:

Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel (1805-1847)

Bleibe nicht am Boden heften,
Frisch gewagt und frisch hinaus!
Kopf und Arm mit heitern Kräften,
Überall sind wir zu Haus;
Wo wir uns der Sonne freuen,
Sind wir jede Sorge los,
Daß wir uns in ihr zerstreuen,
Darum ist die Welt so groß.

Do not stay pinned to the floor -
be fresh and daring, and go on your way,
head and arm full of cheerful strength;
everywhere we are at home!
Wherever the sun delights us,
we are free of every care;
that we may scatter within it
is the reason the world is so huge.

Translation: Emily Ezust

What's Your Tree? update!

2009-10-23T07:24:00.000-07:00

Y'all. This is a fresh-off-the-press Sharpie painting that came through last night! I'm thrilled! :)

I'm calling it "Spirit Fax" for now. ;)

Needed something to calm me down & weave me together after a hectic day at work so I started doodling on this sheet of 2'x3' paper... and and hour or two later... voila! (I got help for the fist by using Google Images... )

I've never fancied myself much of a visual artist, but I really enjoy it. And after 4 weeks of "What's Your Tree?" Group purpose-statement-honing, I've come up with something that is opening some cool doors for me:

"My purpose is the be creative and to inspire & equip creativity in others!"

I love it! All of us in the group have to struggle with the mind's need to get it "right"... there's a frantic grasping that came up for me... but this phrase above popped into my head pretty much out of nowhere while driving to the Berkeley Public Library. Cool stuff! I'm really excited & having a lot of fun... :)

Love is everything it's cracked up to be...

2009-10-23T00:53:00.000-07:00

“Do you want me to tell you something really subversive? Love is everything it's cracked up to be. That's why people are so cynical about it. It really is worth fighting for, being brave for, risking everything for.”

~Erica Jong

It is never too late...

2009-10-21T12:43:00.000-07:00

"It is never too late to be what you might have been."

~George Eliot

Two words to live by

2009-10-19T20:41:00.000-07:00

RECIPROCATE INSPIRATION.

the risk to blossom

2009-10-19T20:32:00.000-07:00

"And then came the day, when the risk to remain in a tight bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom." ~Anais Nin

Empty your dish drainer

2009-10-18T20:54:00.000-07:00

"Creativity shows up where there is space." ~David Allen

I noticed something this weekend. When my dish drainer on my countertop is full, I have to psych myself up to do the dishes-- like trying to get a kid to eat their vegetables. If my dish drainer is *empty*, I just automatically do the dishes, in order to fill the dish drainer. "Nature abhors a vaccum", I guess.

But it's curious. When it comes to creating, writing songs, how do I keep my "dish drainer" empty? Well, I figure it's like this: I put the "clean songs" away in the "cabinet" and get to work on the "dirty" ones. This usually involves keeping my written songs typed up and in a labeled binder. And it involves my guitar being out on its stand, with a fairly recent set of strings on it, and fairly in tune.

If I keep my "musical dish drainer" empty, filling it is just impulse & instinct. I like this thought. :)

Not an entertainer

2009-10-17T17:20:00.000-07:00

“I’m not an entertainer; I’m a lot closer to a paramedic, a firefighter, a rescue worker.“

~pianist, Karl Paulnack

The green-eyed monster

2009-10-16T18:03:00.000-07:00

"Jealousy is always a mask for fear: fear that we aren't able to get what we want; frustration that somebody else seems to be getting what is rightfully ours even if we are too frightened to reach for it. At its root, jealousy is a stingy emotion. It doesn't allow for the abundance and multiplicity of the universe. Jealousy tells us that there is room for only one-- one poet, one painter, one whatever you dream of being.

The truth, revealed by action in the direction of our dreams, is that there is always room for all of us. But jealousy produces tunnel vision. It narrows our ability to see things in perspective. It strips us of our ability to see other options. The biggest lie that jealousy tells us is that we have no choice but to be jealous. Perversely, jealousy strips us of our will to act when action holds the key to our freedom." ~Julia Cameron

2009-10-15T11:52:00.000-07:00

"When you feel under the gun, burdened by life, a failure... find some small success that you can focus on and build from there. It will create a ripple effect, like a drop of ink in a glass of water." ~Jessica Rice ;)

Get a grip

2009-10-14T21:02:00.000-07:00

“Forget the future, just get a grip.” –David Allen

(I figure this is just a good thing to hear from time to time. :)

Faith

2009-10-13T20:44:00.001-07:00

"The opposite of faith is not doubt... it's certainty." ~Anne Lamott

Doing something you love

2009-10-12T03:15:00.001-07:00

If you're doing something you love with people you love in a place you love, you are going to create something of value to the world. —Martha Beck

~

This is the SunPower facility in Pt. Richmond, CA. This is where I do something I love with people I love in a place that I love. I am a fortunate musician in that I have a spectacular day job!

After the ecstasy, the laundry

2009-10-11T17:53:00.000-07:00

"After the ecstasy, the laundry." ~Jack Kornfield

My cousin & I were talking on the phone today. She has a big school project going in New York City & I'm trying to finish a big work project here in Oakland. We are both musicians and full of zesty inspiration, noble intentions, and spectacular ideas. After talking about some of life's deep mysteries & riddles for a while, we both realized that the best thing we could do for our grand projects today was to rest & do our laundry.

This is deeper than it might sound.

Flight of the Conchords!

2009-10-10T09:49:00.000-07:00

Brett & Jemaine, the New Zealeanders from the cult TV hit "Flight of the Conchords", kept me laughing for most of 2008. Just wanted to give them a shout out here & "out myself" as an ecstatic fan. Find out more about them here: http://whatthefolk.net/

You can make the whole trip

2009-10-10T01:12:00.000-07:00

"Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way."

~E.L. Doctorow

What can I say? I *relate*. :)

Feeling Good

2009-10-08T15:51:00.000-07:00

~from Jerry & Esther Hicks' book "Manifest Your Desires"

Having "heart"

2009-10-07T22:56:00.000-07:00

"When we say a person has HEART, it doesn't mean they are weak and sentimental. We mean they are willing to be exposed, willing to be touched nakedly by the world. They are strong enough not to wear a suit of armor. They are not afraid of their own experience. In this sense heart is the one hundred percentness of experience. It is a strength and fullness in you that come from putting your awareness in the actual experience you are experiencing. This is true even of negative experiences. With a strong heart you are able to be gentle and sympathetic to all your experiences, not only the pleasant ones."

~from Spirit Taking Form by Sue Patton Thoele

Good ol' Rumi

2009-10-07T00:06:00.000-07:00

MAKE PEACE WITH THE UNIVERSE

The whole world
is a form for truth.
When someone does not feel grateful
to that, the forms appear to be as he feels.
They mirror his anger, his greed, and his fear.
Make peace with the universe. Take joy in it.

It will turn to gold. Resurrection
will be now. Every moment,
a new beauty.

And never any boredom!
Instead this abundant, pouring
noise of many springs in your ears.

~Rumi

A tip of the hat to the Mahatma

2009-10-06T00:57:00.000-07:00

“There is nothing that wastes the body like worry, and one who has any faith in God should be ashamed to worry about anything whatsoever” ~Ghandi

I *love* this quote... I'm not sure why! It's so freeing, I guess. Even if you don't "believe in God" it's freeing. A great reminder of how toxic worrying is...

Containing Ourselves

2009-10-04T21:08:00.000-07:00

“Without sufficient containment for our own temperaments to thrive, without physical & psychic walls to shield us from the demands and dramas of others, we become overstressed.”

~Julia Cameron, from "Walking in this World"

Did a big Fall clean-up & furniture re-arrange in my studio apartment this weekend. Started with the idea that we "program" our environments, and they, in turn, "program" us. I programmed for maximum socializing, resting, and music-making. Feels good so far!

A Little Ramble About Autumn

2009-10-04T00:26:00.000-07:00

"Everyone goes home in October."

~Jack Kerouac

It's October in Oakland. The moon is full, the night air is gusty & chilly. It smells like Autumn. I keep getting the urge to watch football, but I haven't given in yet because it feels more like a reflex than something I actually *want* to do this year. But still, there's a draw. I guess "feats of strength" are comforting to us as we feel Winter coming on. And so is live music for that matter. My friend Adrienne & I spoke about this yesterday & agreed-- live acoustic music is especially wonderful in the Fall because it is so comforting as we feel the world around us starting to retreat, to hibernate.

Trusting "the wine of your own poetry"

2009-10-03T00:31:00.000-07:00

“I didn’t trust it for a moment, but I drank it anyway, the wine of my own poetry. It gave me the daring to take hold of the darkness and tear it down and cut it into little pieces.” ~Lalla

This is hard for me to do sometimes. But the more I do it, the stronger I get & the more amazing things happen. For me "the wine" of our creativity is the place where Spirit moves through us and makes magical things happen that we could never have even come close to orchestrating ourselves. Hard to talk about, but unmistakable when you experience it.

Getting enough sleep/rest

2009-10-01T21:42:00.000-07:00

This posting poses a simple question:

“What would you do if you knew that every good thing in your life depended on your getting enough rest? Because it does.” ~Martha Beck

For Martha's entire, deep & hilarious posting on sleep, click here: http://marthabeck.com/blog/?p=283

Floating

2009-09-30T11:10:00.000-07:00

I just like this picture. A co-worker of mine is a hot-airballoonist and took this picture in the N. African desert while ballooning with King Hussein of Jordan (!).

On Happiness

2009-09-29T11:13:00.001-07:00

“There is no duty we so much underrate as the duty of being happy.”

~Robert Louis Stevenson

2009-09-28T12:22:00.000-07:00

"A healthy woman is much like a wolf: robust, chock-full, strong life force, life-giving, territorially aware, inventive, loyal, roving. Yet separation from the wildish nature causes a woman's personality to become meager, thin, ghosty, spectral. We are not meant to be puny with frail hair and inability to leap up, inability to give chase, to birth, to create a life. When women's lives are in stasis, ennui, it is always time for the wildish woman to emerge; it is time for the creating function of the psyche to flood the delta...It means to establish territory, to find one's pack, to be in one's body with certainty and pride regardless of the body's gifts and limitations, to speak and act on one's behalf, to be aware, alert, to draw on the innate feminine powers of intuition and sensing, to come into one's cycles, to find what one belongs to, to rise with dignity, to retain as much consciousness as we can." ~Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Women Who Run With the Wolves
~

Another good reflection on "wildness" and on health & staying healthy. I met Ms. Estes about 7 years ago. At the time she was living in Columbine, CO. She had been instrumental in doing trauma therapy with the survivors of the Columbine shootings, and then later with survivors of the September 11th attacks. She is a very no-nonsense lady. I remember liking that about her. She really embodies her words.

Another quote on enthusiasm/wholeheartedness

2009-09-27T16:19:00.000-07:00

"Enthusiasm is the best protection in any situation. Wholeheartedness is contagious. Give yourself, if you wish to get others." ~David Seabury

The House of Belonging

2009-09-26T17:12:00.000-07:00

The House of Belonging

~by David Whyte

This is the bright home
in which I live,
this is where I ask
my friends to come,
this is where I want
to love all the things
it has taken me so long
to learn to love.

This is the temple
Of my adult aloneness
and I belong to that aloneness
as I belong to my life.

There is no house
like the house of belonging.

~
I've always liked this poem. And it has special meaning when I am forced to slow down because of illness. I've been bed-ridden for a few days with a virus. Life has gotten very quiet. I'm smack-dab in the center of "the temple of my adult aloneness" and for the most part, I have to say I like it! The still, small voice has a chance to get a word in edgewise...

A quote about enthusiasm

2009-09-25T17:24:00.000-07:00

"With enthusiasm you will find that you don’t have to do it all by yourself. In fact, there is nothing of significance that you can do by yourself. Sustained enthusiasm brings into existence a wave of creative energy, and all you have to do then is ‘ride the wave.’"

~Eckhart Tolle

What's Your Tree?

2009-09-24T21:14:00.000-07:00

I went to my first "What's Your Tree?" meeting on Tuesday night in Oakland. It was a wonderful group of shining faces who had showed up for the sole purpose of having... a sole purpose!

The "tree" metaphor comes from the main founder of the program, Julia "Butterfly" Hill-- a young woman that drew international attention when she spent 2 years up in an old growth redwood to keep it from being cut down by a logging company. The program basically asks, "What's *your* tree?" -- "What can you devote yourself to wholeheartedly?"

This question is very "up" for me these days. I work a full-time job that I love, at a solar energy company. I also am passionate about expressing myself & serving others through music-- I have been working on an album of original material for almost 2 years now and I also provide leadership for a local singing community called CircleSing. On top of that, it is crucial for me to stay connected to friends & family, and to love & to serve them.

There always seems to be enough time in the day & strength in the body when you are working with a sense of purpose. I will definitely report back about new insights & inspirations that come out of this "What's Your Tree?" group.

"Unless you live it..."

2009-09-23T11:49:00.000-07:00

"...it won't come out your horn." ~Miles Davis

Welcome to my blog. My name's Jessica Rice and I am a singer, songwriter, acoustic guitar player, and performer. I have an album coming out soon, that I have co-produced, and self- funded. It's been a thrilling, life-changing experience.

But the thrills & life-changes aren't over-- I can tell! The biggest transformations are just in front of me-- I can smell them. :)

This blog is my "message in a bottle". A way to share little corners of my soul that sometimes get lost in the hub-bub, and also to connect with other people living The Creative Life. Even if I haven't met you, I am grateful for you! There is so much Creativity just floating around out there-- in the dirt, in the water, in the air, on the subway-- we soak it up just by going about our daily lives.

Thank you, whoever you are, for sharing your gifts with me-- freely & naturally & sometimes without promise of praise or compensation. It's my hope & commitment to return the favor.