Hey friends,
Blessings on you and yours in these strange and turbulent times. Like everyone, I’m navigating day by day, trying to figure out where I’m needed and what I can do from here. My friend Gareth Higgins gave me a mantra for these times (and others, for that matter): “Bring what you have. Ask for what you need.”
Part of what I have is music, so I’ve been bringing that digitally from time to time, including this live online concert, and this one, from my dining room, and a children’s show, where I was joined (virtually) by legendary kids’ performers Roger Day and Billy Jonas, at an event sponsored by Buncombe Partnership for Children, a great non-profit in Asheville (where my wife happens to work). There’s another live show from my dining room coming up this Sunday evening at 7PM Eastern (click through to register for it).
Another thing I can bring is my amazing friends. I am fortunate to have an incredible wealth of artists in my life, and it is the work of artists to help us feel things we need to feel, give us new ways to think about things, and nourish our spirits for the journey. With that in mind, I started an interview series where folks share a bit of their art and then we talk for a while about various things, always including the topic of resilience and surviving hard times. I call it Sustaining Our Spirits, or SOS.
The folks interviewed so far include poets and painters, photographers, and, of course, a whole bunch of musicians. All of the interviews are archived here, if you’d like to check them out: www.davidlamotte.com/sos
Hang in there, friends. Find things that nourish you, and be gentle with the folks around you, and yourself. These are stressful and difficult times for so many people. I hope these songs and conversations will help a little bit.
And by the way, I’m kind of considering this my day job, now that I am unexpectedly off the road with all gigs canceled. This is all free, but there are some folks who are helping me do it — as of this writing, 188 people are chipping in between $1/month and $125/month, and it’s really keeping me going, both in terms of pragmatic concerns and in terms of feeling affirmed in the value of this work. And I send those folks some special stuff every month, too. It’s called Patreon, and we would love to have you in that inner circle if you want to join us! Here’s more about that (be sure to scroll down to watch the little video).
Bring what you have. Ask for what you need. And take care of yourselves and each other.
David
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