“My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.” — Maya Angelou
Blog
On Daddy and Country Music
My father weighs heavy on my heart this time of year. He would have turned 85 years old this week, except he died suddenly the day after Thanksgiving in 1997 at the tender age of 68. And last week, as I stood in Nashville’s Johnny Cash Museum attending a creative conference, I thought how much Daddy would love to be there. Daddy loved country music. The voices of Merle Haggard, Charlie Pride, and Eddy Arnold filled Daddy’s car (the chorus of Arnold’s “Singing His Cattle Call” will forever be etched in my memory) and I can remember Daddy’s worn out 8-track tape of Willie Nelson’s “Red Headed Stranger,” which he played over and over singing “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain.”
Quote of the Week for November 18
“Laughter is carbonated holiness.” — Anne Lamott
Following Orders
It’s not everyday you get the chance to meet history, but last week at The Moth Mainstage in Boston, I shared a stage with Rick Carrier, a 90-year-old WWII veteran. Selected to close the show, he stood at the microphone in his uniform, now decorated with endless medals, and started to tell his story.
Quote of the week for October 20
“To live content with small means, to seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion…In a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common. This is to be my symphony.” — William Henry Channing