Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: beauty, change, darkness, dreams, job loss, joy, light, moving, pain, rosie thomas, sam beam, struggle, sufjan stevens, summer, sunrise
i can explain … i think all i need is one word, actually …
life.
that sums up the extent of my absence, and thus, my lack of involvement here.
apologies all around.
i miss the hot, lazy summer days as a child … the day would pass slowly into evening, lilting along with an easy current, mimicking the soft, warm breeze july in oklahoma. i look back now and imagine myself as an oft-seen tumbleweed … blowing along the dusty earth, carried toward every wind with nary a care … as a child, the worries of being caught in the wind and scattered about were groundless … obligations were few, fun was abundant. as years have passed since i enjoyed carefree days of warmth and joy, many things have changed. obligations are many … there are important, life-altering decisions to be made … fun can still be abundant, though the time one has to have such fun, has been greatly diminished. life is a struggle … ever-constant … push/pull, light/dark, joy/pain, happiness/sorrow, life/death … but at the center of this struggle is where beauty is most defined … i hope to find myself centered more often than not in this struggle in the coming days, as i finalize plans to uproot myself from my home of more than 18 years … leaving friends, family, and most things familiar and comfortable to me. there is still much work to be done, and some things still need to fall into place, but i am trying to take in these scary and exciting days with the mindset of the child i once was … being able to enjoy the ride, more than stress about it … being able to see the beauty that is at the heart of struggle.
i was informed last week that my position at work is being cut at the end of the month. reading this, many of you (all two or three of you) would normally assume that this is an awful thing, though, not at all surprising, given all of the bad news fed to us about the economy and lessthanstellar job market. i can tell you that this news reached my ears and was met with excitement. i have felt pretty trapped at this job … dependant upon it for income, yet being completely bored with and uninspired by it. unfortunately, with many financial obligations, the money out-dueled my boredom and dreams, and so i kept on in it. every day was the same … nothing new … exciting things were coming up over the horizon, but looked dim, like the sunrise on a cloudy day … the job was the cloud-cover, teasing me … i could see the faint hints of light, but it was obstructed just enough to keep me discouraged. now that the clouds have cleared, my dreams are once again coming into focus. these are exciting times, indeed.
and to add to the excitement …
RELEVANT MAG: Let’s talk about the future for a moment. I hear you’re working on a project with Sam Beam. That sounds like a match made in heaven. Can you tell us any more about what’s to come?
ROSIE THOMAS: Sam and I are great friends. He sang at my wedding and is just such a sweet man who has his heart in the right place. I like him a lot and I like his work. For years he’s been pushing me to do a record with him and I finally took him up on it. We’re starting in February. I’m not really sure where it will go, but we have high hopes for it. It will be great just to be around him. He keeps making jokes saying, “Rosie, I really want you to just belt something out. I want to hear some real R&B from you.” It’s funny. … I didn’t set out to only do records with friends. But this stuff just keeps coming up and it’s too fun. I can’t turn it down. It’s where I’m supposed to be right now.
now that she’s been married off, maybe rosie will keep the joking about being pregnant to a minimum for this collaboration.
cheers.
Filed under: music, photography | Tags: a farewell to arms, authentic, beauty, celestial, clouds, hemingway, jammin' java, jupiter, moon, photography, rainbows, rosie thomas, starbucks, storms, the sky, venus, vienna
but i only have photographic proof of one of these …
i was trying to finish up “a farewell to arms” before returning it to the library, and actually planned an extended reading session over some christmas blend at my local starbucks, as i had a free drink coupon. my best laid plans, however, were thrown off track by the mesmerizing sky.
i sat outside to enjoy my coffee and book (along with a clove) and began reading. shortly thereafter, a blustery wind kicked up and the sky suddenly was a sweeping swath of gray clouds. big, heavy drops of rain began to fall and i gathered my things and headed inside, but not before stealing the photo from above on my cameraphone. the clouds quickly overcame the sun [as it tried to assert its light and warmth] and dumped a quick downpour across the area … as the clouds exited stage east, leaving mere showers behind, the sun once again broke through the gray and shone brilliantly through. the sky was painted in hues of gray, pink, and yellow and the sun’s light reflected its blinding light off of the wet blacktop of the parking lot. i walked out the door and was greeted with a vividly intense rainbow. being colorblind, rainbows can sometimes be difficult for me to spot, but this particular one … announced its presence quite adamantly. using the very useful ROY G BIV mnemonic device, i deduced that the yellow and green rays of the spectrum were the most prominent, and gradually increased in intensity as they neared the horizon. it was just the beginning of my encounters with beauty …
while at starbucks, after giving up on getting some good reading done, i hopped online and was convinced by a dear friend to see rosie thomas (and her friends) at jammin’ java in vienna, va. the show started at 8pm, so we drove down around 6:45. night had already come, and with it, darkness and his celestial friends. those who happened to notice, were given a glimpse of a bright, crescent moon, jupiter, and a ridiculously bright venus. these celestial bodies were all bunched together for a portion of the night, forming a smile in the sky.
rosie thomas did not disappoint, playing a mix of songs from her new Christmas CD, as well as a good mix of older and newer originals. she is spectacular and has an uncanny ability to command your attention. though her songs can be melancholy and quiet, her voice is one that grabs you and pulls you in. and one would never think that a singing voice so full and dynamic, would come from someone whose speaking voice is so mousy and childlike. in addition her musical talents being on display, rosie cracked jokes the whole night, and just the sound of her giggle would elicit audience smiles and laughter. in short, she is adorable. another thing that sets rosie apart is how real she is. once she develops a rapport with the audience (which happens almost immediately), anything she says is heard … she doesn’t take that for granted, as everything she said, even if it was something silly, held authenticity and hope. this was particularly evident when she would preface a song or two with a story of how the song came to be. she, on more than one occasion, reminded her captivated audience, that, yes, things can be bad, but that there is reason for hope in the midst of the storms. it may sound cheeseball coming from a lot of other artists, but not so with rosie. she was more than just entertaining … she was a source of beauty and means of grace.
maybe your day today has not been a good one … though i would not recommend living in the past, i would implore you to look to the beauty of yesterday. now that you’re a day removed from it, look back on it, and recognize the beauty you may have missed.
[ the yesterday i am referring to in this post was monday, dec. 1 ]
cheers.
