Category: community

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Another Trip Around The Sun…

(Originally written 3/17/21; meant to be posted that day…oops!)

Yesterday I celebrated St. Patrick’s Day and another ‘trip around the sun’ for me…plans for some time in quiet contemplation, but severe weather and a series of tornadoes in the area disrupted that idea a bit (although I did have some prayerful moments in my storm ‘closet’)…

I am blessed and so grateful for all the wonderful birthday wishes on social media, texts, emails, and in person gatherings…who could ask for more? Thank you ALL…

I am amazed, but not really surprised, that there are actually flowers in bloom and buds on the trees after that really DEEP freeze we went through a couple of weeks ago. How wonderful to be reminded of the promise of new life, even after the coldest and darkest of days. I’ve said before that’s one of the things I love most about being in the Delta…seeing the Gospel lessons manifested in the ‘seed’ and the ‘farm’ and all related agricultural activities…year after year after year…the faithfulness of God.

I hope you and all you love are safe and well and enjoying the beginning signs of spring as vaccines for the COVID virus continue to roll out to the public. I’m grateful that I’ve received both my doses…that in itself lifted my spirit and increased my hope that we are indeed seeing light at the end of this long, dark tunnel. I’m continuing to pray that the collective ‘we’ rises with courage and strength to meet the enormous challenge of vaccinations for all in the coming weeks and months.

Have you seen the Music From The Ground Up episodes yet? The episodes are looking GREAT! A new episode is released each Friday at 1 pm CST on the Deep Roots website and also on our YouTube channel. Please subscribe and hit that notification bell so you’ll be reminded when a new episode goes online! Yours truly was featured last Friday, and in case you missed it, here it is:)

If you’re in the Cleveland area, get ready to grab your folding chair, a friend, and a cool beverage as the Deep Roots: Live Downtown! outdoor music series begins on April 23 at 6 pm at the Delta Arts Alliance awning. Live music for eight Fridays in a row, featuring local artists on the Deep Roots roster. I hope you’ll support these efforts of Cleveland becoming a MUSIC CITY…plenty of room to safely spread out with friends and neighbors and enjoy our talented local musicians! Schedule of dates and artists will be announced soon and will be on our website events page HERE.

Another little bit of good news…and a reminder of how songs have a ‘life of their own’…my friend and co-writer, Karen Staley, shared with me that singer Kelly Clarkson performed our song, “Keep Walkin’ On,” on her TV show earlier this week…how fun is that? Faith Hill recorded this song over 20 years ago…hope it makes you dance around the kitchen!

https://youtu.be/b4MkmJc4_Wk

Until next time…wear your mask…wash your hands…get the vaccine…say your prayers…and be kind to one another…

+peace+

Tricia

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A Thrill of Hope…

12/24/20

Hello, friends…and Merry Christmas to you…it’s almost time…out of the longest night of the year, the Light is about to appear…the Promise is about to be kept…

“O Come, O Come, Emmanuel…”

This past Monday night, a little after sunset, I drove out to the edge of town to see if I could see the ‘Christmas Star’…the great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in the southwestern sky. Since I live in the flatlands, I wasn’t concerned that there would be visual obstructions to the night sky, but while driving to my destination, I found myself ‘surprised by joy,’ as C. S. Lewis wrote, as I felt “a thrill of hope” in my heart and a moment of anticipation that was fresh and new this Christmas season. Is this what the Magi felt when seeing the great star as they journeyed? Did their excitement increase as they neared Bethlehem? In these final pandemic days of 2020, I was grateful to feel a measure of joy as I stared up into the dark Delta night...”O Come, Emmanuel…”

Another ‘surprised by joy’ moment I wanted to share….during this 2020 year of pandemic, I’ve been working through the United Methodist Hymnal again, a couple of songs each morning…good for keeping up my sight singing skills and pleasant on the ear to sing the ‘old’ hymns while learning some ‘new’ ones. I always glance at the bottom of the page to see who the writers are (that’s what songwriters do), and lo, and behold, there it was….hymn #728…”Come Sunday”….by…wait for it…

DUKE ELLINGTON.

Yep, ‘the Duke’ has a song in the Methodist hymnal! How did I miss this? I jumped up and headed straight to the piano, reveling in the augmented and diminished chords that you don’t hear in the old ‘standards,’ and I was smiling all day long:)

Well, here’s to 2021….thinking about doing a little YouTube series from the Big Front Porch…nothing fancy…a little encouragement and music…what do you think? Let me hear from you….I hope you and all you love have a blessed and peaceful Christmas (even if it’s on FaceTime or Zoom), with many moments of joy and…

“…A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices for yonder breaks a new and glorious morn…”

+peace+
Tricia

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Indian Summer…

10/12/20

This afternoon I’m sitting on my back porch enjoying the continual breeze of a ceiling fan as the temperature is a balmy 80 degrees. Not terribly unusual for the Delta this time of year, but I’m about ready to break out my favorite sweatshirt, how about you? Skeeter is napping in the chair next to mine, one of the many squirrels in my large oak tree is navigating his/her way down to nibble on some corn I put out, the sweet olive tree is full of fragrant blossoms, and I see two new buds on my knockout roses. All in all, it’s a lovely day…and what a gift that is.

Nice to be able to still find peace even as the pandemic continues and hurricanes blow through our region…even as political ads/texts/emails seem to grow more persistent and invasive (I’ve turned my tv off)…even as things seem out of control…at least from a flawed human perspective. But thanks be to the One who calls us to be. now. here. rather than pushing so hard and so fast that we often tend to be. nowhere. (And yes, I have that finger pointing straight back at me…)

I’ve had a great week of having the good fortune to be in what I call “the crosshairs of my giftings,” which I believe is found, for me, at the junction of music and encouragement. The Deep Roots music project, a community initiative to develop and promote local roots music, had the opportunity to shoot videos of eleven local artists performing at a lovely theatre space at the Delta Arts Alliance. A brief interview with each artist/band revealed a common thread of just how much we have all missed playing music WITH EACH OTHER. And even the film crew and a few select visitors said the same thing…”It’s great to hear live music again!”  So stay tuned for a series of short roots music programs (probably on YouTube), featuring some really talented local musicians, in early 2021…after we put the Year of our Lord 2020 behind us. If you’d like to read about the project and meet the initial roster of musicians, visit www.deltadeeproots.com, and if you sign up for the email list, you’ll receive a link to an exclusive playlist of three hours of local Delta roots musicians (yours truly included)!

In case you’re not familiar with the term, American roots music is described as a combination of musical styles which incorporates early music genres and traditions of indigenous groups with ‘shared roots,’ heavily influenced by both the culture and sound of the blues. American roots music grew from the “folk” music made by whites of European descent in the early 20th century, mostly of meager means and living in the rural, isolated South, then expanded to include the song styles of other cultures, particularly the blues and gospel music of African-American southerners. While it encompasses a broad range of music genres and styles, roots music now includes those genres which were given birth in the Mississippi Delta and the American South: blues, folk, gospel, traditional country, zydeco, R&B/soul, bluegrass, and singer/songwriter styles. Often marginalized on commercial radio, roots music contains a common thread that draws on the lived experience of ordinary men and women and has served as a vehicle for offering the disenfranchised a voice.

I’ve been cleaning out some Dropbox files today, and as I took a few moments to reflect on some photos and movies, I was reminded how I have been blessed over the past several years in seeing plans and hard work bear good fruit. I hope, with intention and focus, that will be the case going forward with new projects and ideas. As Thanksgiving approaches, my hope is that all of us are able to find something good that has come out of the upheaval of the last 8 months …and that we will cultivate a deeper sense of gratitude for each day that we are given.

 

 

 

 

 

…and remember, at least we have SOME football to watch… (And I really like this all-SEC schedule☺)

Thanks for reading…I hope you and all those you love stay safe and well…and that you find some time to enjoy the peace of a few moments on your own Big Front Porch.

____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/