Loving my day job as usual. Thinking about Starr Bray and how grateful I am that she didn't want this job anymore. I stepped in as a manager here at a lovely Air B'nB in my home town. I've been working and running this place since 2015.  Starr died over a year ago. She witnessed the beginning of this international virus may-lay from her hospice existence after facing brain and lung cancer that became apparent in the summer of 2019. Within eleven months she had died peacefully. I feel comforted by her on many occasions. We became friends in 1998. Her daughter was four or five and her son was not yet born at the time. She did some really powerful spiritual things as she prepared to depart. Her brain cancer really changed her awareness of life and she was deeply affected by the spirit world even before she began grappling with a shortened lifespan. As we near the Samhain holiday, also known as All Hallows Eve I think of the song I wrote on the last day I saw her and said farewell. I asked her to please be on the spirit side when I pass. Meet me there. Greet me there.  I will post the song lyrics when I get home today from work.  I love you Starr Starr.

So I have to confess I've been hanging out with a Russian. And the reason I feel compelled to call it a confession is that my last post was all up in the communism mentality. Having compassion and empathy both for historical details from a Russian born person has not been easy.  I am stunned by how the history of Russian has affected generations of beautiful people from a rich Christian culture. There are things I just don't want to know about what people have survived in countries that have been taken over by the value systems that drive communist ideals. I once had a young music student who's mother was born and raised in Russian.  She would drop her talented daughter off to study guitar and voice with me and we would engage in simple conversations about life and all that she was doing.  I was impressed deeply by the moral integrity she showed in relation to her husband.  The Russian people are incredibly loyal, especially the women. Marx and Stalin.  I am just beginning to learn about how and why so many people died in a genocide.  Anyway, Russian violin is amazing.

There are many things to notice about the slow, precise destruction of culture as it is absorbed into Marxist communism - namely that the people begin to lose their will to live. They envy the dead for not having to witness decline. Little by little the vestiges of a reckoning reality begin to dramatically shift as business's close and people's rights to pursue life decline. The dust of many established societies have come, flourished and failed before the people of the world. History repeating its self before our dying eyes. The people begin to lose the will to live as in quiet moments of subdued disbelief they get their strength up to try to hope that all will be well just to see more failure. The people begin to lose the will to live (that is part of the plan as people don't fight) as it gets harder and harder to survive. Until one day broken and battered by the system they succumb almost willingly as they are corralled, broken from their family and friends.  Maybe they extend a hand of ancient hope to someone nearby but in the end they are buried in a mass grave of flesh and bones. Their freedoms but a memory that no one can recall.

Traveling around with amazing musicians these days has really improved my experience of life. Forever at Last was staged at this local Burning Man event last weekend on the grounds of Camp Wilani.  When I was eight years old or so my mother dropped me off for summer at Camp Wilani.  It was my first camp experience with horse back riding, archery, song circles around the fire pit and being alone socially with other girls and boys my own age in a bunk cabin with group meals in a big mess hall.  Anyway, I had not anticipated that I would have memories as I had no idea that the event was located on this property but it was wild psychologically for me.  Turns out the guy running sound also went to camp there when he was young and we talked about locations around the property. Havenroot Reverbia Camp was pretty cool. It is what they call: The Oregon Burn. I am going to post some links on Youtube and I'll put those here soon.  I am singing with a world class guitarist from Lost at Last named Priyo and a famous Russian violinist named Natasha Popova.  I just sang with them publicly for the first time this past Saturday.  We embark on a tour South for two weeks at the end of October with four dates booked so far.  If you want to hook us up with venue stages please be in touch. I am feeling blessed and also it is a strange time to invest in concepts of the future because truly we are just right here right now.  My ambitions are morphing as I let go of who I thought I was.  God bless us all.