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Miles To Go Before I Sleep…

10.16.23

Hello, friends of the Big Front Porch! It’s been awhile, so I thought it was a good time to catch up on some news and adventures (see the post date? I got sidetracked for about a week with the ol’ Delta crud….all better now).

Even though I grew up in Mississippi, I don’t ever remember a summer that was so hot for so long….brutal. And even though the temperature has finally started to cool down, we still need some rain…the ‘Father of Waters’ is mighty low.

A couple of summers ago, as we were all crawling out of the ‘Covid Cave,’ I tried a couple of SUV camping trips and had a blast! But this year, with the summer temps being so high, I delayed my car camping trip until a couple of weeks ago. Here’s a recap (feel free to skim or skip if you don’t have time…I got a little wordy):

I was once again delighted to join my friend and musical buddy, Dr. John Mulder, to perform at this year’s National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO) conference, held this year in Little Rock, Arkansas. Dr. John and I had the privilege of producing a studio album (in early 2020 right before the Covid shutdown) of songs  that came out of the hospice community called The World Around the Bed, so we sometimes have the opportunity to perform at related conferences. If you’d like to listen to the project, click here. There are also some wonderful videos on YouTube associated with the project.

Two summers ago, I headed north to a gig in Michigan. Last summer, I headed southeast to a gig in Florida. So this year, since I was already headed west, I took some time to enjoy the downtown Little Rock riverfront area and the Clinton Presidential Library and Museum before continuing towards Texas to visit a couple of cousins I hadn’t seen in over 20 years. 

I made my way through the blue highways of Arkansas, stopping for lunch in Hope before landing at my first camping stop near Mt. Vernon, TX. It was a relatively new RV site, and shall we say, not exactly ‘finished,’ but the manager was kind and offered me a spot near the bathhouse. However, it was not on level ground, so in order to avoid blood rushing to my head all night, I flipped my normal sleeping position 180 degrees and tucked in to start reading an actual BOOK (wifi not always great at RV sites and campgrounds) that was recommended by an old friend and that had been sitting on my bedside table for over a year. Little did I know how much I would enjoy it…it’s based on a true story and it has a specific connection to my old farmhouse in Tennessee. As the chapters advanced, I felt connected to the protagonist and her adventure and sensed that I was finding a bit of myself reflected in the story. I finished the book during the noon hour of the last day of my trip, sitting under a shade tree in a park in downtown El Dorado, AR. Good thing I had a clean bandana to wipe back the tears. I reached out to the author a few days later to make the personal connection to the place mentioned above, and she graciously sent a reply. Small world, indeed. Here’s one  link to The Ride of Her Life…a unique story about courage and kindness and belief in the goodness in others:’ 

 

A Texas thunderstorm woke me the next morning, precipitating a change in my normal breakfast camping routine. Good thing a big truck stop was only a mile or so away. Grabbed some hot coffee, washed the mud off my sandals and continued west into Sulphur Springs, TX where I found the local joint with the most pickup trucks parked outside…guaranteeing the best breakfast in town. The goal was to make it to the Dallas suburb of Southlake to join the aforementioned cousins for lunch. It’s been a few years since I’ve driven in Dallas traffic…nope, no sir, not for me anymore. I’m fine with a Delta traffic jam [driving painstakingly slow behind large farm tractors and implements. Needless to say, I was a bit underdressed for the restaurant where we gathered, but no one seemed to mind. We swapped places more than once at the table, so we could spend the two hours we had together catching up on two decades of news about children, grandchildren, work, health issues (Sidebar: if any of you out there have a real need for speed, check out the https://www.motorsportranch.com/ and my cousin Jack might take you for a ride you won’t forget!).

I spent the night with my cousin Lisa, her husband and their four-legged menagerie at their place on top of some rolling hills outside of Maypearl, Texas. She has the kind and gentle heart of her grandmother, my mother’s older sister, whom she loved and cared for. Time well spent, cuz, even if it was short…

The next leg of the trip had me headed on the backroads east, through the Texas towns of Corsicana, Ennis, Tyler, and Kilgore before crossing into Louisiana to find my spot for the night. I had reserved a spot through the Corps of Engineers website for campgrounds, Recreation.gov, but couldn’t get a real sense of the place online. It was a late afternoon drive around Shreveport to the road that led to the campground. Although my map showed me to be correct, I began to get a little concerned for the miles I was traveling on a two-lane road and then along a raised levee, but at last, a small, clean, well-kept campground came into sight inside the levee of Bodcau Creek. I pulled up to my assigned site and asked a gentleman seated outside of his nice RV for some info. Turns out he, a native Cajun and his wife, from Michigan, downsized everything a few years ago, bought their RV, and now travel. We swapped some stories, talked about music, and I gave them a copy of my Gospel CD, Farther Along. After cooking some hot soup for supper, I tucked in to continue The Ride of Her Life, this time with my head pointed in the regular position. A heavy fog had settled by morning when I woke, and as I crawled out of my cocoon, my campsite neighbor asked, “You’re not leaving yet, are you?” “Nope…just answering nature’s call first at the bathhouse.” “You made me cry last night.” Seems the wifi was strong enough for his wife to do a little research on my website and he had listened to “The Heart of Dixie.” The power of a song…that made me smile. After the fog burned off, I packed up and headed out on the home stretch, taking two lanes in north Louisiana and southern Arkansas into my last stop in El Dorado. On the way back, there was still cotton standing in the fields of the Arkansas Delta, but the combines and pickers were steady busy and it won’t be long before all the fields in Arkansas and Mississippi are put to bed. 

When I pulled into my driveway, I had travelled almost 1,200 miles…a number that is just a little under the word count of this story:) Write on!

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A ‘significant’ birthday;)

 

 

 

Hello, friends!

It’s been a minute since my last blog post…last November, I believe…before the ‘Deep Freeze of 2022’ closed out the year, before the glorious Christmas season, before the start of this new year…2023. 

“They say it’s your birthday!” (Cue Beatles music here…)

This year will mark a ‘significant’ St. Patrick’s Day birthday for me (at least on
the chronological calendar…really, they are ALL significant), and I continue to enjoy this season of taking a look back and reflecting, with joy and gratitude, on the countless blessings I have received throughout my life. To that end, I’m starting on a project this year to share the story of my musical journey, using words, images, audio, and video in a multi-media format (probably YouTube) collected from the past 40 years or so…should be interesting…stay tuned for that.

But to mark this upcoming birthday, I wanted to find a way to continue some work that means a lot to me and offer you friends and fans of the Big Front Porch an opportunity to share in that work.

Some of the most impactful programs I’ve ever been a part of have used songwriting as a means of honest and powerful self-expression, from kids to cancer survivors to social workers to veterans.

It’s no secret that I’m very proud of what was developed and accomplished at the Delta Music Institute at Delta State University during my tenure…state-of-the-art recording studios, a robust entertainment industry curriculum, a diverse faculty and staff, and engaged students. 

In addition to that academic work, DMI was blessed with a decade of grant funding to engage youth in a program that used songwriting as a means to
develop positive self-identity, address community and cultural issues, and provide a popular medium for participants to find and share their ‘voice.’ The program, started in 2013, was called Healing With A Groove, and I saw first hand the impact it made on young people as well as the DSU students who mentored young writers. The grant ended after I retired from DSU, but one of the final goals of the grant was to develop a ‘tool kit’ that would be available for use by groups and organizations interested in carrying on the work.

So to mark this ‘significant’ birthday, I created a Big Front Porch Giving Fund, administered by the Community Foundation of Northwest Mississippi, to receive donations towards the continuation of the Healing With A Groove work in our local community, using the ‘tool kit’  developed by the grant. 

If you’d like a little ‘backstory’ on the program, here’s a link from the grant’s primary funder: https://www.wkkf.org/what-we-do/featured-work/healing-with-a-groove-uses-music-to-promote-racial-healing-in-the-mississippi-delta

Focusing on local participation this time around, the program will be smaller in scale, and therefore, not too costly. Funds would be used primarily to reproduce the program’s resources for participants and for production and recording services after songs are completed.

Here’s a CFNM link to donate online along with a nice graphic with a QR code that will also take you to the CFNM donation page online. The name of the fund is Big Front Porch.

cfnm.org/donate

 

 

 

 

Friends and fans, YOU are the best birthday gift to me…I am blessed.

With a grateful heart, Tricia

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Paying It Forward…

11/18/22

Seed
and shoot,
Leaves and roots,
Flower and fruits,
and Seeds

This poem came from this morning’s audio devotional from an online community I’ve been listening to called The Seedbed, led by J.D. Walt. I’ve really been enjoying it…check it out.  That one phrase, to me, encapsulates that ‘full circle’ promise of surrender and hope. It’s one of the beautiful things I love about the Delta…the tangible manifestation of that primary lesson in the yearly planting and cultivating and harvesting of the crops. The Mystery of the Farm. And we’re all farmers…planting seeds…right?

Many of you know that I grew up outside the small town of Fayette, Mississippi (pop. 1600 ish). My daddy worked in politics and state government and would be involved with conventions and events that often had a ‘celebrity’ on the program…usually a star from the world of stage, screen, or television. When my musical dreams were starting to form in my teens, I sometimes had the chance to meet some of these ‘stars,’ and I remember the excitement of many of those moments. Most of them were kind and thoughtful and didn’t seem to mind taking a moment to speak to a young fan…and that wasn’t lost on me. Having spent the majority of my professional career in the music ‘biz,’ I came to learn that interacting with one’s fans may be the singular most important part of the job of an artist or performer. One of my favorite quotes, attributed to the great poet Maya Angelou, is: “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

So many teachers, townsfolk, pastors, friends, and of course, Mama and Daddy, made me ‘feel’ like I could do anything…they ‘planted seeds’ in me that gave me the needed encouragement to be brave in taking creative risks as I grew up and became an adult. Even now, as I am stepping into the role of ‘elder,’ the good folks and dear hearts of this community continue to encourage the creative, educational, and community building work in which I’m involved, and I am grateful.

One of things I enjoy most in this work is ‘planting seeds’ and ‘connecting dots.’

Last spring, after seeing a short iPhone video (sent by a friend) of a young man from a very small town in southwest Mississippi who could play like Jerry Lee Lewis, I think I saw a little of myself back in my small town, trying to figure out what chords I had to learn to play “House of the Rising Sun.” This self taught young man clearly had talent, so connections were made, and he attended the Delta Music Institute Summer Camp a few months ago and stole the show at the camp showcase. So when GRAMMY Museum® Mississippi announced that this year’s Crossroads of American Music award would go to Jerry Lee Lewis, ‘seeds were planted’ to see if this young man might have an opportunity to perform at the gala event. Sadly, Jerry Lee passed away before this young fan could meet him in person, but the young man, wearing a borrowed suit, was invited to say a few words at Jerry Lee’s Celebration of Life in Ferriday, Louisiana, and Jerry Lee’s widow made 17 year old Thomas Sanders feel special. 

Another example of one of the many kindnesses of this community was one of our favorite haberdashers in town, Danny Abraham, arranging for some proper stage clothes for the young performer so that Thomas was made to feel like a star! He was introduced to the stage last night as “Little Killer” Sanders and he tore it up! So many of you there made him feel special and celebrated, recognizing that gifts and talents can sometimes come from the most obscure places, and like seeds, they need to be tended to and nurtured. Here’s hoping that this young man will have more ‘farmers’ around him as he grows.

Sometimes a seed bears fruit and the planter is still around to witness it. What a gift that is. This week, a former student of mine who graduated from the DMI program at Delta State, called to share the news that she was part of a GRAMMY nominated album this year as an audio engineer! I am so excited for her, but it made my day that she took the time to call and say ‘thank you’ for the lessons she had learned from me as a teacher and mentor while at Delta State…and THAT made me feel like I can go a thousand more miles…thank you, Audri, and good luck! You’ll be paying it forward in a few years…

I hope you all are staying safe and warm and finding some quiet time amid the chaos as Advent approaches and again we wait in wondrous anticipation for the Hope of the world.

 

+peace+

Tricia

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Beauty and Kindness

One of my favorite spiritual writers, Joan Chittister, does not believe in writer’s block. She says, “You must jump into the middle of a line and trust that God will take you to the end of it.”

Good advice…that being said…I’m jumping in:)

I’m a little late with what was to be an Eastertide post, and the official start of summer is only a little over a month away, so I wanted to check in from the Big Front Porch with a few small stories about beauty and kindness…two things we can always use more of…

It has been a particularly beautiful spring around the Porch in the Delta…with the exception of the F1 tornado that skipped through town, dropping one of the old oak trees in the street two houses up from me. Thankfully, no one was hurt.

But in the days after the storm, spring really starting showing out! The chinaberry and sweet olive blooms (transported from home), the huge purple Dutch irises (originally from a housemate’s yard in Dallas 30+ years ago), wisteria (purple AND white), a banana shrub, and the sweet smell of Confederate jasmine drifting through an open window. All stunning examples of the beauty and artistry of God…

Along my driveway fence, I have one flaming orange rose bush (see above)…planted by another’s hands long ago…perhaps it was planted by our resident rose master, Ms. Jane Dunlap. ‘Miss Jane’ was recently awarded the Louise Godwin Award from the Keep Mississippi Beautiful organization. The Louise Godwin Award recognizes individuals who are exceptional when it comes to helping keep their communities cleaner, greener and more beautiful, and believe me, Cleveland is one of those especially beautiful communities thanks, in no small part, to our public rose gardens, lovingly nurtured by ‘Miss Jane’ for over 50 years.  I only hope that if I make to 90, I can still play a G/C/D chord on my guitar or a simple scale on the piano!

‘Miss Jane’ Dunlap

“There is a built-in danger in old age which, if we give in to it, makes aging one of the most difficult periods of life, rather than one of the most satisfying – which it should be. The danger of old age is that we may start acting old.” ______Joan Chittister 

A few weeks ago, an online post/picture of a scruffy, battle-scarred old orange tabby cat popped up on a local social network, asking if anyone knew the owner. Within hours, a half dozen folks from the neighborhood responded, identifying the old warrior by various names__Big Daddy, Rudy, Frank, Scar, Buddy. Seems he traveled a large territory on a regular basis, receiving food and attention at every stop. Recently, one neighbor noticed that he seemed weaker and perhaps ill. She was able to catch him, and through her generosity and kindness, had the ol’ fella neutered, wormed, and treated at a local vet. The online group monitored his progress and shared good wishes for recovery and a better life for Big Daddy/Scar/Rudy/Frank/Buddy__and it seemed he was doing well. But a week or so later, he took a turn for the worse and went away. Online, we all promised to keep watch for him, but we never saw him again. Our neighbor that had provided the most care for him found his body under her back steps, and gave him a proper burial in her backyard. We’ve all been sad about it, but grateful that his last few weeks of life were filled with more comfort and love than perhaps he had known earlier.

Buddy/Rudy/Scar/Frank/Big Daddy

“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”_____Gandhi

Veterinary services for an old tomcat—homemade pimento cheese from a neighbor to say thanks for the music—A favorite hymn sung by request at the graveside of a stranger___Fresh cookies for grieving family members and friends of a beloved coworker___these are the things that make us into a community. Kindness.

Wars continue to rage on the other side of the world; gun violence is on the increase; social media pulls us towards ‘doomscrolling’ and the idea that ‘we are not enough’…

But take a look around at what we have____roses and music and old cats and good neighbors___it is enough.

“The service that the whole world needs from the elders is not the service of hours spent and time put in and documents finished and machines fixed. There are untold numbers of people who can do all of those things. No, the service of the elders is not a service of labor, it is a service of enlightenment, of wisdom, of discernment of spirits. Only the carriers of generations past can give us those things, because wisdom is what lasts after an experience ends.”
― Joan Chittister, The Gift of Years: Growing Older Gracefully

Look up___beauty is everywhere.

Look out___kindness abounds.

Peace be with you:)

Tricia 

P. S. Get ready for live local music…starting in June!

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There Is A Season…

Hello, friends…hope you are doing well as we head into a long-awaited Delta spring:)

As we begin this season of Lent, I thought I’d share a few things in this post that have been meaningful to me recently…I hope you find meaning in them, too.

First things first… the good folks at Thacker Mountain Radio in Oxford visited the Delta for a remote show at DMI last week, and the broadcast is set to air this Saturday, March 12 at 7:00 pm CST on Mississippi Public Radio. As the ‘guest author’ I sang a few tunes and had a conversation with their wonderful host, Jim Dees, and then sat back to enjoy the performances of my former student Keith Johnson, “Prince of the Delta Blues,” the Bobalows, DeltaRoX, and the Yalobushwhackers with guest musicians Fish Michie sitting in…a great afternoon!

I subscribe to a daily reading from Frederick Buechner and found this piece particularly inspiring…enjoy!

Creation

TO MAKE SUGGESTS MAKING SOMETHING out of something the way a carpenter makes wooden boxes out of wood. To create suggests making something out of nothing the way an artist makes paintings or poems. It is true that artists, like carpenters, have to use something else—paint, words—but the beauty or meaning they make is different from the material they make it out of. To create is to make something essentially new.

When God created the creation, God made something where before there had been nothing, and as the author of the book of Job puts it, “the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy” (38:7) at the sheer and shimmering novelty of the thing. “New every morning is the love / Our wakening and uprising prove” says the hymn. Using the same old materials of earth, air, fire, and water, every twenty-four hours God creates something new out of them. If you think you’re seeing the same show all over again seven times a week, you’re crazy. Every morning you wake up to something that in all eternity never was before and never will be again. And the you that wakes up was never the same before and will never be the same again either.

-Originally published in Wishful Thinking and later in Beyond Words

Carolyn Arends is a fellow singer/songwriter and friend of mine…she and her family live in Canada, and I’m a big fan of her writing and thinking…here’s a post she shared called I Was An Ash Wednesday Rookie along with a prayer for Ukraine she had posted on her site:

Prayer for Ukraine

Sovereign Lord, you observe all those who dwell on earth. Have mercy we pray on those who now suffer the miseries of a war not of their own making. Have compassion on the wounded and dying; comfort the broken-hearted; confound the hatred and madness of those who make war; guide our rulers, bring war to an end, bring peace across the world.  Unite us all under the reign of your Son, the Prince of Peace, before whose judgement seat the rulers of the world will give account, and in whose name we pray. Amen.

Archbishop Kanishka Raffel,
Sydney, February 24, 2022

Also, here’s a video of her wonderful song written during the pandemic, “After This:”

Lastly, I was invited to submit a piece for Delta Magazine this month…the piece is called “Seasons”…I hope you enjoy it….+peace+…Tricia

SEASONS 

Eccl. 3:1 (KJV) To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven…

The first seasons I remember were as a kid growing up in a beautiful old pre-civil war home built in a clearing among ancient hardwoods. My mother was the editor of our small town newspaper, so my love affair with words and writing began early. She always said she had ink in her blood, and I suppose she passed some of that ink along to me.

I was 27 years old when I heard ‘the call’ in my heart to go try and see if I could ‘make it’ in music. This was before the advent of the digital age we know today, so to answer that call meant packing a U-Haul truck and driving 500 miles away from my hometown of Fayette, Mississippi (pop. 1600) into the mysterious, unknown world of the entertainment business in Nashville, Tennessee (closer to home than New York or Los Angeles). A one-bedroom second floor apartment (no elevator) for $235 a month was where I began my quest, having made the move with no steady employment and no personal or business connections…and remember, no cell phones or computers. It was a scary and exciting season, but it was also a great time to be in Music City. I was afforded amazing opportunities over the years to meet and work with both legends and wannabes, crafting songs with pen in hand, standing behind a microphone in a studio or on a stage, and traveling to places near and far with some of the most gifted musicians on the planet.

Eccl. 3:4 (KJV) A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance…

A quarter century went by and, after Hurricane Katrina, I began to hear the call in my heart to come home to Mississippi. No big lightning bolt, but rather a slow revelatory ‘parting of the curtains’ over time which, with confirmation from trusted friends and counselors, was undeniable. The opportunity of this season was in the form of a new entertainment industry studies program at Delta State University into which I could sow all that I had gleaned from my time in Nashville. As I drove that U-Haul south down Highway 61 through those fertile flatlands, headed to my new position, I remember experiencing an immediate familiarity in the natural beauty of the land and sky along with what seemed to be an invitation coming from the sheer expansiveness of the Delta.

Eccl. 3:2b (KJV) A time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted…

The Delta carries a constant reminder of the seasons in the Law of the Farm…the necessary process of planting, watering, fertilizing and cultivating in order to be able to produce a crop of any kind…no short cuts. After working the ‘field’ of the DMI for a season of 13 years, I went through a yearlong discernment process and came to see that, for me, another season was on the horizon, so I announced my retirement from Delta State, with plans to spend more time engaging in creative pursuits related to community building through music. And what better place to do that than right here in the Delta? The roots of music and community run deep in the dear hearts of the good people who live here and who took me in, and even in this age of uncertainty I find that one of my greatest sources of comfort continues to be found in the faithful and relentless repetition of the seasons.

And for all the seasons away from the beautiful Delta and my beloved Mississippi, given the circular nature of seasons, in many ways I feel like I was never even gone.

Eccl. 3:1 (KJV) To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven…

Tricia Walker — singer/songwriter, Director Emerita, DMI Entertainment Industry Studies, Delta State University, Music Ambassador, Cleveland, MS.www.bigfrontporch.com

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All the trees in the fields will clap their hands…

11/24/21

Hello, friends…

It’s been a busy fall here on the Big Front Porch presenting local Deep Roots music shows, doing community and church work, and prepping home and hearth for the winter season ahead. I hope this post finds you well with your finest place settings ready at the table and delicious smells coming from your kitchen…and a strong WiFi connection in case some of your loved ones can’t actually BE at your table. 

I’ve been concerned that the ‘push’ for Christmas consumption seems to be so much earlier and more ‘in your face’ this year…feels like Thanksgiving is almost being overlooked altogether….anyone else? I hope this holiday of ‘gathering with grateful and thankful hearts’ is not diminished…

I was pondering this on a walk one afternoon, when I looked up and saw….the trees…(Isaiah 55:12)

I had such a good experience with my inaugural car camping trip back in the summer that I planned to block a few days off for another road trip to see some fall foliage over in Arkansas. But lo and behold, as the days passed, I could see that the trees on my own street and in our own little town were prettier than they had been in years, so I decided to stay put and enjoy what was right outside my own front door. The golds and reds of the crepe myrtles, ginkgos, sweet gums, oaks, and maples have been rich and deep this fall, along with the rust color of the Leland cypress trees which complimented the entire palette beautifully.

Staying put and observing the lessons of the natural world around me reminds me of one of the three primary monastic vows of the Benedictines…stability. Stability refers to the importance of community and commitment in life. When I came back to Mississippi in 2006, I believe it was a calling, and when I retired from Delta State in 2019, I believe I had a call to stay in this community….To  Be. Now. Here. And so here I am…

Part of my ‘staying put’ over the past decade has been to share whatever gifts I have been given in considering visions, sharing ideas, dreaming dreams, and then working towards the realization of those things. It has been my honor to serve on the board of the Cleveland Music Foundation, Inc., the governing body for GRAMMY Museum® Mississippi, since 2011 as a founding member.

My “sermon,” if you will, was and continues to be, “Music can bring us together and make us better,” and trying to insert that idea has been my primary contribution while serving on this board. Others who have way more ‘left brain’ that I, have done the ‘heavy lifting’ of procuring funds, making political connections, overseeing construction, and developing staff in order to make the museum the reality it is today. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of such a magnificent project.

 

Advent begins this Sunday…one of my favorite seasons, and the beginning of the new year for the Church. No argument from me that Easter is the great Alleluia! to the Gospel story, but to consider the Incarnation…that God would ever come to be with us at all…Emmanuel…wow. One of my Advent/Christmas/Epiphany readings will be For The Time Being: A Christmas Oratorio by W.H. Auden. I was not familiar with it until recently, but it is said to be perhaps one of his greatest works. I’m looking forward to some reading time spent with a well-written book and a cup of strong Community coffee.

+peace+ to you and those you love…I am thankful for each of you:)

 

Come, thou long-expected Jesus, born to set thy people free,
From our fears and sins release us, let us find our rest in thee.

 

Tricia

 

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Random Acts of Kindness…

July 6, 2021

When I was a teenager, the Jesus Movement was in full swing, invigorating young believers like me. My chosen Bible translation at the time was the Living Bible, and my mama sewed a cool cover for my copy out of a pair of old blue jeans, complete with a pocket for assorted inspirational materials. I often refer to that sacred ‘conversational’ text still today. I began to soak up how the ancient stories sounded to my ear in a more ‘common tongue’ rather than the regal King James version. I have a distinct memory of being sixteen years old and coming across a partial verse spoken by Saint Peter in the tenth chapter of the Book of Acts, explaining to the Gentiles that “…Jesus went around doing good….”

Somewhere…somehow…that stuck.

At random times over the course of my life from age 16 until now, when that fragment of a verse surfaced (and it continues to surface) in my conscious mind, I would think, “Wouldn’t it be great to just go around and do good?”

Many years ago, I took a test to identify what my spiritual gifts were based on the list of gifts in the New Testament book to the Romans. The results pointed to two gifts in particular…teaching and encouragement. Is it any wonder then, in the Divine scheme of things, that over the course of all my years working in the music biz to developing the DMI entertainment industry program at Delta State to now being in ‘retirement’ and working on behalf of the community….that putting those two gifts into practice along the way offers me the best opportunity of standing in the ‘crosshairs of my giftings’ from time to time? How sweet it is…

To that end, I am humbled by a recent honor I received from the Cleveland Exchange Club when they selected me to receive the 2021 Golden Deeds Award, one of their highest honors, given in recognition of service and volunteerism in the community. Three of my friends were given the task of getting me to the luncheon, and they successfully pulled off the ruse by inviting me to the club’s monthly meeting to be the guest speaker about the Deep Roots music project…I had no clue what was coming. If you look at the names on the list of previous recipients you will see men and women who have been and continue to be foundational to the success of this wonderful Delta community that has embraced and supported me so generously over the last 15 years. I am truly grateful.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Random acts of kindness…that’s something we can all do…helping a respected elder with some mobile technology, assisting a young pastor in serving communion, singing softly to a friend in her last days on this earth, feeding the neighborhood tom cat that hangs around the back door, sharing home grown tomatoes with a neighbor…sometimes seemingly insignificant things, but each of which resonates like ripples in a pond. Just like Scout explained in To Kill A Mockingbird…”neighbors bring flowers in sickness and food in death and little kindnesses in between”…..I believe this is how the kingdom of God comes to us.

And because baseball is often like life…congrats to the Mississippi State University Diamond Dawgs for bringing home the D1 NCAA National Baseball Championship! Whether you regularly side with MSU or another team in the Magnolia state, you gotta admit…it was so much fun feeling the growing momentum of the entire state behind this Bulldog team. Once again, here’s a tribute to the first Mississippi State scholarship baseball star, Boo Ferriss, who knew a thing or two about random acts of kindness…just ask the hundreds and hundreds of young men who played for him.

See you down the road…pax,

Tricia

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Crossing Over…

CROSSING OVER

The coronavirus pandemic continues and one day seems to melt into another without much distinction, but this week marked, for me, with significant passings…on the local, state and national level.

One of our sweet St. Luke church community members, Ann, passed away yesterday. She sat on the second pew near the front of the sanctuary, smiled when I sang, and she always had a kind word to say as folks were leaving the service. I was reminded of and saddened by how difficult it must be in these trying time for our elders and their family members to not be able to be with each other during that sacred time of crossing over at the end of life.

I had the opportunity a little over a week ago, at the invitation of Ann’s daughter, to stand outside the courtyard of the nursing home where she was living and sing her a few songs. As I was waiting for Ann to be brought outside, another family was gathered by the courtyard fence and was shouting words of love, through tears, to a frail man who appeared to be the patriarch of the family. As I got my guitar out of its case to prepare for Ann, I felt a tap on my shoulder and one of the younger boys of the family asked, “Would you sing my papaw a song?” Expecting a hymn request or other church song, I said, “Sure…what would you like for me to sing?” He said, “Do you know ‘He Stopped Loving Her Today?’”  It may seem strange, but in that moment I gave thanks for every night I sang that sad song in a bar in Nashville. “I’d be happy to.” As his sister held the phone up with the lyrics, I gave it my best shot. Turns out the old man had sung that song to his wife as she crossed over…there wasn’t a dry eye in the courtyard, including mine. I regrouped, turned my attention to Ann,  and sang some of her favorite songs as our pastor connected us in prayer. Rest in peace, Ann…I’ll miss seeing you on the second row.

Strange how lives connect over time and space, sometimes in ways we could have never imagined…

Last week also marked the passing of Charles Evers, former Mayor of my hometown of Fayette. The ‘soundbite’ (that term wasn’t around in the 60s) that was always attached to him was, “the first black mayor of a biracial town since Reconstruction.” I never learned the reasons why he chose Fayette to establish his political career, but the years that he was in office while my mother was the local newspaper editor is a story worth telling (I’m hopeful that a couple of my writer pals, more skilled in the screenplay format than I, will put pen to paper and flesh out the story). When my daddy’s body was brought through the community of Fayette for his funeral service, Mr. Evers lowered the flags in town to half-staff. When my mother died, Mr. Evers was one of her pallbearers and eulogized her, saying, “She was my worst enemy and my best friend.” I’m hoping that Mama and Daddy and Mr. Evers are sharing a toddy and catching up on some lively conversation about all things Mississippi. Rest in peace, Mr. Evers…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And finally, Congressman John R. Lewis…I had the chance to meet him in 2014 in Philadelphia, Mississippi, and was immediately struck, like so many others, with his calm demeanor and the dignity he displayed. From the son of an Alabama sharecropper to the ‘conscience of the Congress’…he was always working, as a child of God, towards the beloved community. The picture of his final crossing the over Pettus bridge yesterday is worth a thousand words…rest in peace.

 

Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?

Jesus replied:˜Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ˜Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”   Matthew 22:36-40

Until next time, take care of yourself and be kind to your neighbor:)

+Peace from the Porch+

Tricia

P. S.  If you’d like to see/hear a replay of me and the Harmony Junkies singing some oldies in support of restocking the library at Parks Elementary, here’s a link…enjoy!

https://www.facebook.com/756510202/videos/10163799577370203/

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Signs and Wonders…

I had written a blog post about 3 weeks ago after I returned from a trip to Nashville, but I’ll shelve that one for another time…

Today there seems to be an extra layer of ‘quiet’ not only here on the Big Front Porch, but all over the world as humans everywhere try to make sense of the word ‘pandemic’ while trying to make sensible choices regarding how we stay in community with our neighbors.

Here’s a beautiful post by Chris Wheeler titled, “Wash The Next Dish,” that was posted this week in The Rabbit Room. It’s a lovely reminder to tend to the little things with intention and gratitude.

God is still in control and offers love, mercy, and grace to us in hundreds of little reminders each new day along this broken road. I opened this morning’s Gospel reading to the eighth chapter of St. Matthew to see Jesus healing others in multiple scenarios…the person with the skin disease, the centurion’s servant, Peter’s mother-in-law…”He healed everyone who was sick.” I continued, and today’s reading in the Rule of Benedict was Chapter 36: The Care of the Sick. Coincidence? I think not.

Stained glass window in the Cathedral of St. Francis of Assisi

Benedict’s rule tells us that “Care of the sick must rank above and before all else so that they may truly be served as Christ who said: ‘I was sick and you visited me.’ “ (Matt. 25:36) Even if that means visiting each other virtually as many did this morning for worship services.  I figure one of my jobs during this time is to continue to write and sing and pray, so that’s what I will try and do…use the extra time to read and ponder and look for ways to be a good neighbor.

There are many biblical verses that refer to ‘signs and wonders,’ but today I landed on the one in the second chapter of the book of Hebrews that says, “While God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.” As communication and education and business and more move to an online environment during these times of ‘social distancing,’ perhaps we can consider the miracle of modern technology as one of the ‘signs and wonders’ of today. What as amazing fact that, having received a gift of music, I can record that music in a digital format and share it on platforms that can be accessed within minutes around the world truly seems like one of the ‘signs and wonders’ of this age. So with that in mind, I hope this old hymn will be an encouragement to you all as we move forward through the days ahead. 

Be well…pax,

Tricia

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Grateful and thankful…

I’ve just returned from my second year of attending the annual conference for the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHCPO) where I was again invited by my friend, Dr. John Mulder, to help lead a songwriting workshop for a group of hospice professionals. These angels of mercy willingly write deep thoughts about the sacred work that they do, share those thoughts with each other, and then entrust those thoughts to us to ‘knit them together’ into a cohesive song. It is such an honor and privilege to have a part in this kind of work because these folks are passionate about what they do. John and I huddled in a hotel room and came up with this year’s offering which is titled, “We All Know How This Ends.” We debuted the song for the group at a coffeehouse concert the following afternoon, and it was met with positive reviews, so it will become part of a larger recording project in early 2020 that will result in an album of songs of hope, healing, hospice care, and love. Worlds collided again in the connection with former hospice nurse and now bluegrass singer/songwriter, Ali Shumate, who writes for a publishing company in Nashville run by my songwriter buddy, Jerry Salley….you just never know how the dots will connect! Stay tuned….

In witnessing the care and passion that the hospice workers shared with us, I was reminded of how Jesus calls us to compassionately serve the poor and sick and marginalized in our communities, for that is where He is most often found…(there’s a song on my new Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter Eye CD called “Parable [Sheeps & Goats]” that I hope captures this idea). Recently, I have been listening to a podcast by theologian Richard Rohr which is based on his recent book, “The Universal Christ.” It’s called Another Name For Everything, and I haven’t made it through all the episodes, but one that particularly struck me talked about the idea that with all the vitriol, rancor, and chaos in our state/country/world right now, perhaps there is a ‘resetting’ going on…his thoughts explore the concept of ‘ordering-disordering-reordering,” and in looking at various ‘dark’ periods of the world’s history, it seems to me to make some sense. Without that possibility, then what could be the reason for this ‘shift?’ And right about now, it makes my brain hurt to think about that, so I’ll move on…would love to know your thoughts/comments on that…

But I am hopeful….and one of the things that encourages that hope in me is the upcoming season of Advent and Christmas, when once again, God brings to us the hope of the season…the ‘coming’ of Himself….the Incarnation…the Light…hard to fathom, but so beautiful to believe.

Our little community of Cleveland is about to ‘light up’ in a big way for another “50 Nights of Lights,” and I hope some of you will be able to take time and find your way to the Mississippi Delta to spend some time with the good folks here. There are SO many wonderful events going  on (scroll down on this link for a listing of events), but here’s one I’m really looking forward to – Have Yourself A Delta Little Christmas on Monday, December 2, at GRAMMY Museum® Mississippi. My friends, Buddy Greene and Jeff Taylor, will be the special guests on this holiday show featuring ‘homegrown’ talent…click HERE for all the info…don’t miss it!

And speaking of GRAMMY Museum Mississippi, the museum just opened a new exhibit called “Stronger Together: The Power of Women in Country Music.” For those of you who know my story, you know that I didn’t grow up listening to country music, but when I got to Nashville, I had a complete and thorough education in that wonderful genre because of all the opportunities I was afforded during my time there. When I would visit the Country Music Hall of Fame (and other music museums), my favorite exhibit would always be the display of lyrics of hit songs written in the hand of the songwriter. So let me try and express what an honor it is for me to have been asked to contribute two sets of my handwritten lyrics to this new exhibit….I chose “The Heart of Dixie” and “Looking In The Eyes Of Love”…But WAIT…there’s more….my lyrics are displayed as a pairing with the work of the incomparable songwriter, Cindy Walker, who wrote hits like “You Don’t Know Me,” “Dream Baby,” and “Blue Canadian Rockers.” Her acceptance speech at the 1997 Country Music Hall of Fame ceremony still brings me to tears…check it out….

Lots of things going on on the Big Front Porch, so I do hope you’ll sign up on my email list, if you haven’t already. I promise…NO SPAM…just a monthly gathering of news and some occasional blog posts.

Hope to see you on the porch soon…as Thanksgiving approaches, know that I am thankful for each of you….pax,

Tricia