51 Nightingales

A Year of Peaceful Activities

Laura Sue's 51 Nightingales Log

April through June 2003

  

Tuesday, April 1, 2003

I participated in a worldwide peace meditation on this day, sitting quietly at home in front of my beautiful altar. I've arranged a little tableau in one area, on a golden star-shaped plate, with a little globe of the Earth, a heart-shaped pin and earring, lots of rose quartz for love, a piece of translucent green fluorite for peace, and the snake earrings I bought on my Sacred Sites trip, to represent change and transforming death into life. All of these together represent and symbolize my prayer for a change of heart in world leaders and all people on Earth towards creating a peaceful world.

It was sort of funny two days later to see a headline in the newspaper reading "U.S., Allies Aim at Regime's Heart." This is what I am doing too, aiming at the heart of the world - with love from my heart.

Friday, April 4, 2003

I played at a memorial this day for Matt Collins, a young man I never met, who was the son of some friends from the folk community. Three years ago when he went missing and then was found mysteriously murdered and set on fire in a dumpster in downtown Fort Lauderdale, my heart went out to his parents. Among other things, I played the song "Knocking on Heaven's Door" and dedicated it to Matt at a benefit concert for my Sacred Sites recording held by my friends in Strych-Nine shortly after Matt's death. Now three years later, there are still no leads on who killed Matt, but I stay in touch with his parents and support them in whatever way I can.

For the memorial service, we all went down to the spot where Matt was found and placed a brass plaque and flowers there. We shared songs and poems and thoughts and memories and photos, and I noticed how many folks shared thoughts and images of flying, birds and angels. I also noticed that, even though the warehouse-filled area by the railroad tracks was pretty deserted aside from those of us there for the memorial, there were lots of birds singing, nesting and keeping watch over this holy ground. It made me feel a little bit comforted to see that.

I wasn't sure what to play at the service, and for some reason the Jimi Hendrix song "Little Wing" jumped out at me from my song list, and after that, I couldn't see anything else on the list. I didn't know why, but when that happens, I always trust my intuition and do what it tells me to do - it's never wrong! So I played "Little Wing," and Matt's mom Joan told me later that while I was playing it, she really felt both of her sons' presence with her.

I believe that those who pass on watch over us from wherever they are. The day Matt was found, April 5, was also the anniversary of the day my friend Keith Johnson died in 1996. He was a sweet angel who I knew on this planet for much too short a time - I miss his friendship a lot, and I always think of him when I play the song "Lakes of Champlain", so I was thinking of him at Matt's service as well.

April 4 is also the day the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed and I was mindful of that great loss on this day.

And I found out on the Sunday of that weekend that April 5 was also the anniversary of the day my friend DeAnne lost her husband very unexpectedly two years ago. DeAnne and I were at a peace organizing meeting that Sunday and we shared a little time together talking about all these things.

So for many reasons this was a very somber time for me, missing and remembering all these dear and beloved ones.

Saturday, April 5, 2003

I played a wedding today, something I love to do, and it felt especially good to be participating in a life- and love-affirming act today. As usual, I was playing quietly before the ceremony started, and people were coming in and greeting each other and chatting. Then, a moment came when everyone got quiet, but they weren't ready to start the processional yet. As usual, I just kept playing.

Yet it felt like an unusual moment to me, it felt like a time that was given to all of us to put aside the stress and sadness and awareness of war which we have all been living with, and to clear our thoughts to fully experience this sacred ceremony that was about to take place. A time to experience peace. So I started improvising, playing peace and love to help and support everyone in that room (and everywhere!) in getting peaceful. I don't know if anyone else experienced those few minutes that way, but it was very powerful for me, and I felt I was fulfilling my Divine Mission by being there and playing at that moment and with that purpose.

Then, the wedding party was ready for the processional, and we had a beautiful wedding! Afterwards, they gave me two lovely pink roses to bring home with me, which are sitting resplendent in a little vase on my coffee table as I write this.

Sunday, April 6, 2003

I've been carrying on an animated e-mail exchange with my new musician friend Sally Townes for a number of weeks now. She has some opinions about making peace that are pretty similar to mine, as well as some that are pretty different. So we've been writing each other these really long e-mails debating various sides of the issue and sharing information and feelings. And as often happens in these kinds of debates, the differences tend to be emphasized more than the similarities, and sometimes it's a challenge to stay friendly in a situation like this. Especially because we haven't known each other very long and are really still just getting acquainted, so it got to be a pretty serious exchange for such a new friendship.

Well, a pretty cool thing happened. On the same day, we both got to feeling that we were doing too much communicating by e-mail, and not enough talking, and that we really wanted to be friends and not let our differences come between us. We each communicated these feelings to each other, and then talked and reaffirmed our intention to be friends. In other words, we made peace between us. And although it was just a little peace between two people, it felt big, it felt important and significant to both of us.

And right around the same time, I read the following passage in the Art of Spiritual Peacemaking course I'm taking with James Twyman:

"A simple loving glance in the direction of another can bring more peace than all the governments in the world. A hand extended to another frees more energy than all the sources of power on this planet."

That just jumped off the page at me, and really confirmed what I was feeling about this small peace Sally and I have made. And it reinforces the beliefs upon which I founded my 51 Nightingales project, that everything we do to create peace in the world helps. One person really can make a difference! When it comes to peace, there is no small peace. There is just peace.

April, 2002

I've been seeing something really bizarre on TV recently. They have started marketing a DVD for the old M.A.S.H. TV show with all kinds of patriotic, flag-waving imagery, and catchy selling points like: "They're soldiers!" and "They're Army all the way!"

Now it doesn't surprise me that the capitalists are capitalizing on the current war fervor to try to make a buck - that's what capitalists do. The hilarious thing about this is that M.A.S.H. is one of the most lucid, subversive, intelligent, anti-authoritarian and anti-war pieces of art ever created - especially in the mass media! So I truly hope all the pro-militarist folks buy it and watch it thoroughly! That would be great!!

Late March - early April, 2003

Over the course of a week or so I watched the amazing American Masters special on the life and work of Joni Mitchell three or four times. I've always been a big fan of Joni's, yet this documentary took me way beyond my previous experience of her work. I watched it over and over again and just soaked up every molecule of this beautiful film! Then discussed it at great length with some of my equally Joni-fanatic friends. After seeing this special, we decided to organize a Joni tribute night at Main St. Cafe to coincide with her 60th birthday in November!

I found this show to be an utterly incredible work of art! Unlike anything I can remember seeing on television before. This was perhaps due in large part to its incredible subject, yet the show itself was so beautifully and artfully put together, such a sublime portrait of Joni and her work. So respectful, and showing so much understanding for her process. The flow and form of the show providing the perfect setting for Joni's evolving work, the ultimate frame in which to showcase her splendor. Honoring her as a creative, brilliant, insecure, independent, emotional, free-thinking, muse-dedicated, free woman!!!

I think this aspect of the show in particular, the honor and respect accorded to her as a woman, as exactly the woman she is, is such a rare thing in mass media, I found it enormously affirming to experience this.

I've seen some of these American Masters specials before, and they are always great, head and shoulders above most TV, yet this piece seemed beyond even those to me....

I found the story of how Joni wrote "Woodstock" - in my opinion one of the enduring compositions on the topic of creating peace - to be particularly interesting. Scheduled to perform at Woodstock, Joni was supposed to travel there with her pals in Crosby, Stills & Nash. But she was also booked the next day on the Dick Cavett show, her first major national exposure, and felt she couldn't risk missing it. So she stayed home, watching the phenomenon of Woodstock unfold on TV. Heartbroken at what she was missing, she channeled her feelings into music, writing the song which more than any other came to represent this iconic event. And she played the song, fully realized, on the Cavett show the next day. This moment was made all the more poignant by the appearance of CSN, who as it turned out, were able to helicopter in and out in time to join her on the show. So maybe Joni could have gone to Woodstock after all... but perhaps then the song would never have been written, the song which carried the message of peace far beyond the boundaries of Yasgur's farm.

Watching this documentary really brought home to me how very dedicated Joni is to her creative work, and made me think about some changes I want to make in my own creative life. As a result, I decided to focus more on expressing my creative vision, as opposed to focusing on looking for gigs, which doesn't always exactly nurture creativity. My first step in that direction was following up on an invitation I had received from Inner Voice to be part of an upcoming show. Read the next entry for the results!

I also decided to grow my bangs out. Seeing how sophisticated Joni looked after she grew her bangs out, I decided to do the same!

Friday, April 11, 2003

I played as part of a wonderful concert with Inner Voice at the C.W.G. (Conversations with God) Center in Miami. Wow! I have so much respect for the passion, creativity and spirituality this wonderful quintet bring to their music, and am so honored that they invited me to perform with them. We had a wonderful time playing together to a very appreciative audience, and look forward to creating more peaceful music together!

Saturday, April 26, 2003

I played at the LifeWorks Grand Re-Opening today and it was a wonderful, energized event! Despite the gloomy, rainy weather, scores of community folks showed up to share the afternoon and celebrate the new ownership at LifeWorks.

There was one moment I want to document that was particularly special. I was playing downstairs, and people were coming and going and flowing around me, chatting and networking and attending the different lectures and enjoying the yummy food. At one point, three particular people sat down on the steps facing me and really focused on the music, and there was the most amazing energy flowing between the four of us! I can't really describe it, but it was one of those special, spiritual times that happens now and then when I'm playing, and people are listening with dedicated attention and an open heart. The music flows through me and feeds them, and their heart-felt attention in turns feeds and supports me, creating a circle of energy that just builds and grows! It was a wonderful thing to experience, for all of us, and at times like this, I experience love and peace in a very deep and profound way.

Monday, May 26, 2003

Like many in and around the peace movement, for the last month or so I've been taking stock and reevaluating what I think I should be doing for peace in light of recent current events. The war has come and sort of gone and been declared won (even though soldiers are still dying in Iraq today) and the occupation and corporate exploitation of Iraq are well under way.

For some thoughtful commentary on the occupation, check out the commencement address New York Times' Pulitzer Prize winning war correspondent Chris Hedges attempted to give at Rockford College last week.

What I've been feeling the last month or so since I last logged is that my acts of peace are evolving from discrete individual acts to an ever-increasing integration of peace into my consciousness at every level - at least that's my goal. Of course I have done some individual things that can be mentioned - playing at Peace in the Park and other places, and the many small things I do in the course of a day to express love and kindness to others. But more and more I feel that the way I'll be carrying out this 51 Nightingales project is by living peace in every moment of my life, so it is not something I choose to do as a specific act, but rather something that becomes my automatic action or response in any situation.

This weekend I had the great pleasure of meeting and sitting in with Maggi, Pierce and EJ, a remarkably diverse, creative and charming Philadelphia-based trio who played several shows in South Florida. One of the wonderful things they're doing next month is conducting a walking tour called Whole Steps Toward Peace, during which they'll be walking with their doggy friend, Pokey (short for Pocahontas Illinois Cloud) from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C., playing shows and creating peace every step of the way! To assist in this inspiring project, I gave them a couple decks of 51 Nightingales Peace Passes to hand out along the way.

One of the most important issues related to creating peace, in my opinion, is the ever-growing corporate contol of mass media in the United States. Over the last couple decades, the Federal Communications Commission, hereinafter referred to as the FCC, has gutted the rules regulating media ownership, resulting, among other things, in the wholesale takeover of radio by Clear Channel Communications - resulting in radio pretty much sucking and good music rarely being heard over the airwaves anymore. As a musician and someone who grew up loving music on the radio, this is a great loss to me personally.

Another result is that the American public gets very little accurate information about what's going on in this country and in the world, and this makes me very worried for our democracy. The bedrock foundation of democracy is access to information, and with the vast majority of news and information being controlled by a few corporations it's difficult to find out what's really going on. Unfortunately, a lot of people don't realize just how inaccurate and misleading much of the news in this country is. This issue is well-documented elsewhere for those who are interested, however my point is that currently the FCC is considering further "relaxation" of the rules governing consolidation of media ownership, so my act of peace for this week is to write the FCC and my legislators expressing my fervent opposition to the rules change currently on the table. This is the kind of relaxation none of us need! I encourage you all to inform yourself about this issue and express your feelings to your legislators. Better yet, let's elect some new reps and a new president who are not committed to selling out our democracy to the highest bidder!

Read on for a perfect example of why it's essential for us to have an independent media, not beholden to government, corporations or any other vested interests: